14 Countries in 14 Days?

[Kwaka14]

Well not quite, but almost..... we did 10

Day 1 – Prague to Alpbach Austria

Woke up to some fantastic weather, clear blue skies and the kind of start to a ride you mostly dream about in this part of Europe, Spent a bit longer than anticipated cramming as much as we possibly could in to the new luggage, struggled down four flights of stairs in leathers and loaded the bike – already too hot to think about much else than getting going, or at least I was, Lenka had other ideas – a short spot of photography and that was done a quick goodbye to the mother in law and off we go. Straight south of us, about 60km’s of motorway and on to some interesting roads, lots of nice sweeping corners, a great start apart from the odd bike swallowing potholes we needed to avoid. You can tell when you are getting close to the borders of the Czech republic as the numbers of prostitutes increases dramatically (they’re only on this border) – think pale hippo’s in miniskirts, they suddenly disappear and the roads improve, guess we’re in Germany!!!!! Short sprint down the E56 sees us heading in to Austria and a wrong turn takes us bak to Germany to an oversized duck pond called Obersee (Chimsee) where we photographed the swan with ½ a head. Had a quick bite to eat and on towards Salzburg and towards Innsbruck, stopping on the way for the night at Alpbach (stunning little town in the Austrian Alps we had stayed at in Winter). The scenery for this day was pretty good – loads of mountains and little Austrian villiages



Day 2 – Alpbach to Lago Di Garda Italy

Awake and it’s another stunner of a day and a fantastic breakfast in the Penzion – variety of meats and cheeses and other stuff. Load up the bike get in to the gear and another pause for a few shots, then off straight in to the mountain roads for about 40km’s where we again pick up the motorway racing past Innsbruck, through in to Italy, past Bolzano to Lago Di Garda – the motorway for most of the way (Italians are mental drivers, too fast and dodgy by far), but get off just after Bolzano on to some awesome roads, where we start to really feel like we are on holiday, by now the temperature is up to the late 20’s/low 30’s and we are starting to cook at the road legal speeds so we join the rest of the biking community and up the pace to about 15% faster than the law is comfortable with.
Coming down the hill in to Lago Di Garda is amazing, lots of twisties and crazy roads, view is amazing looking down the lake, loads of tunnels and cliffs and awesome stuff. This was a short day so we stop early at the first campground we see and pitch the tent, off for a bit of a walk and see if we can find somewhere to rent some climbing gear - Lenka is keen to show me the “Via Ferrata” or Iron Way which is an old wartime route through the cliffs and hills above the town Riva Di Garda – you have to clip on the iron cables and scale some 80m ladders overhanging the cliff – keen as mustard, but no one rents gear and we’re packed a bit light to have brought our own – will have to benext time.


Day 3 Lago di Garda to Venice Italy

Another awesome start to the day – in to gear, pack the tent and the bike – quick photo shoot (getting used to this routine) and a quick breakfast.
We again mount the bike and head off, plan is to shoot along the bottom and side of the lake and then head towards Venice by some decent roads (not motorways), however another wrong turn again puts us on the motorway heading to Venice and we decide to carry straight on. A pretty uneventful ride all in all. Just prior to Venice we see a small information booth and are directed to an odd campsite in the only rural part of this part of Italy, awesome.
Again pitch the tent and sorting ourselves out and we hear the one of rattleiest V-twins known to man, up rocks this old guy (Bill) on a 1959 HRD Vincent – just springs, no shocks and he’s ridden from the UK on his way to Greece and a bike convention – absolutely awesome. A bit later on he tells us he’s lost his mate somewhere on the motorway (broken down he thinks) in behind him, aaah well – says should make it in sometime and tries to pitch his tent with broken poles, eventually patches it up and gets sorted – and he’s off to have a beer. They’ve been doing 70mph running down the motorway which is pretty good on a 34hp bike made 50 years ago.

[dieseldave]

Yes the Italians are 'mental' drivers somewhat but have/had you been to Paris yet? Totally insane! Had one monsieur ram us to try and get in to the stream. Wanted our insurance company name and of course he was just sitting there waiting to get in. Too many witnesses agin him!

[Kwaka14]

Day 4 – Venice Explore

We wake to the sound of Rattely V twin and find that Bills mate has made it in after his Vincent (A much newer model (1961?) which has suspension) had broken down. After dropping the bike on the ground (too soft for the stand) and standing it up again he’s all good to pitch the tent and they’re both keen to come in to Venice so we have a quick bite and we head off to start the day in Venice together. Interesting guys – there after their local club award for the “longest travelled” Vincent for the year and are heading onwards to a rally in Greece- they later admit they will catch the ferry from Venice, regardless pretty awesome to ride UK to Italy for them. Anyway we catch the bus from the Campground and make our way in to Venice – initial impressions are it a fairly busy piece of real estate, and we are there some time before peak season when it apparently doubles or triples in population. We walk with Bill and mate for a while looking at various things and I decide time to get a dodgy tourist T-shirt so we separate and do some serious sightseeing –Venice is an amazing place, I thought Prague was something special (actually Prague is pretty special), but Venice really takes your breath away, loads of marble everywhere and looking pretty stunning all in all. We were keen for the touristy thing of a Gondola ride, but balked at the 150 euro price tag for a 1.5 hour jaunt- no wonder there’s very few occupied Gondola’s. All in all Venice was a great place to visit, but a tad expensive for our tastes and too many tourists for an easy trip, definitely worth the visit. The highlights would be St Marks Square, the Bridge of Sighs, and Ice Cream (awesome stuff – and much cheaper if you walk a couple of streets back from the main ones). Back to the campground and we chow down and hit the hay – A nice relaxing day.

Day 5 – Venice to Otok Krk Croatia

We start the day as normal – wake up about 8am, stretch the cracks out of the back and start to pack the stuff – jamming enough gear in to two cases (incl. a tent and sleeping bags/mats) is quite a feat and the challenge takes more than the 5 minutes it seems I always anticipate, end up loading things up in undies and a t-shirt as it’s already 28 degrees or thereabouts, finally after some swearing we are ready for breakfast, we briefly catch up with the 2 Vincent guys (who’s numbers have swelled to 5 (bikes in a van for the others though), and chow down on some rolls and ham (camp shops are great) , on with the leathers and we are off but as normal routine dictates we need a quick shot before we leave, and discover one of the kids in the camp also has a Hayabusa and he’s keen for a quick photo shoot so we take this at the camp boundary


and we’re off. It’s a bit complex getting on the motorway to Rijeka (Croatia) from where we are and somehow manage to get on the wrong one in the heavy traffic, aah well, rectify that and at about 11am we are actually on our way, next stop should be the border with Slovenia. Did I say Italians are crazy drivers? The average speed on the motorway seems to be about 150km/h with many flying past as we sit at about that speed (Citroen Berlingo’s Clio’s and many more pass us to my embarrassment as I’m paranoid about getting stuck with a traffic infringement in a foreign country. We follow the signs to Slovenia, stop just after the border for a bite of lunch at the first opportunity where we are started at by a bunch of Italians on BMW HP2’s, they seem a strange bunch and have the biggest chicken strips I’ve ever seen which is sad given the beautiful country with fantastic roads and amazing scenery we have ahead of us. I think it’s almost a pity we only go through about 30km’s before we hit Croatia. We cross the borders with no issues- just showing the technical papers and insurance papers and we are there, Next stop Otok (Island) Krk (Neck), however as we go through Rijeka (on some pretty average motorway roads) I take a wrong turn and we end up in the city instead of past it – Rijeka isn’t a great introduction to the area, however it’s the first time I’ve seen the sea (apart from a short trip to Cornwall earlier this year) and I love it for that. It’s a bit harrowing finding our way back up to get back on track and heading the right way– several dodgy little back roads and it all sorts itself out and we hit the Motorway. 30 seconds later we are stopping at our first Croatian Toll booth, all good except they will only take Kuna (the local currency) or a single Euro Coin – so we pay twice as much as we should as we have no Kuna yet. Another hour of motorway and again the scenery starts to become more and more spectacular and the road engineering s amazing with the road cantilevered off the cliff over the sea, incredible stuff, Krk is not far away and we head over the bridge (long way down) and cross to the island where the roads become fantastic, another 70km of fun and we end up at our destination, Glad to be here, not only because of the place, the scenery and the sea, but I’m absolutely shagged, the Heat (32 deg) and probably not enough water has gotten to me, anyway we pitch the tent, buy a drink and climb in to the sea until the evening, what a glorious way to relax, at this point I can’t think of many things better and the holiday finally feels real.