2009.07.31 - 2009.08.15

I try to describe our "Eurotrip" on two wheels which began in Transylvania(Romania).

I've planned this trip for two years, but always some things have occurred and I couldn't do, but this year I said it doesn't matter if it's financial crisis, even if I have to go alone, I will do it.... well so it was, I went alone with my girlfriend and of course on the back of the LC8 (Frank).

During the preparations, I did think about five different routes which would lead me in town of eternity .... okay, but if I do a lot of km’s I want to see a lot of things, not only a city, so I navigated on the net and I ventured into all kinds (maps, 3D views, pictures, videos, etc.). places of interest that could be "on the way to Rome" with a deviation more or less on the map.

I began to make preparations, I made a list of things that should be taken with us , but slowly things in the puzzle gathered and began to take a shape.

The route: ROMANIA-HUNGARY-AUSTRIA-GERMANY-SWITZERLAND-ITALY-SLOVENIA-CROATIA-HUNGARY-ROMANIA


Total km: 5200

Camping and sleeping in tent, ate on the road, in restaurant, fast food practically wherever we could :P

Nr. days: 16


Day I

Woke up at 5 am, put the luggage on the bike and were ready to go. Before departure I told Frank a few good words I promised something in return just to take care of us and to act as a true adventurer and take us home. At 6am I looked back to my home and that is the point when our journey begun. The road to Hungary was ok without too much crowd on the road, we passed the customs and I took the highway to Debrecen where the borrowed GPS wanted to take us on another road, off the highway, fortunately I knew the way and I rolled without the GPS, we arrived in Budapest where a cold beer waited us.



The initial plan was to go out for a walk, but we have visited Budapest several times and decided to have a few beers and we cancelled the walk, meanwhile I managed to set the GPS.

Day II

We woke up at 6 and begun to get out of Budapest before people started to go to work, the GPS charger did not want to continue the journey with us and stopped working. The plan was to go to Wien, where we bought a charger. The only problem I had with the bike was before Wien, where I had to fill with clutch fluid, but that has worsened over time and started to lose increasingly more liquid .. I continued the trip and I solved the problem very simply with a tow strap and without GPS .In Wien as it was Saturday and without a GPS we lost about 2 hours finding a shop to buy a GPS charger.
I searched for the campsite, we unpacked and gone in the heart of the old town, where we paid parking for 2 hours and 50 min 11 euro’s, it hurt a little, but at least Frank had a good time in an underground parking lot with air conditioning, video surveillance.
Wien is a great city I liked so much the buildings and the street systems, traffic and last, but not least nice civilized people.






















Day III

The third day we slept until 8 and left Wien in that morning, with the hope of visiting it again anytime possible .In our way to Salzburg we got in contact with the Alps for the first time.




Here we took a break, admired the landscape, took some pics and at 12:45 we arrived in Salzburg where the camping was cool, tiny plots, order, swimming pool and everything you needed in a camping .



In the afternoon we took a walk to Salzburg's center it was located within 3-4 km from the camping.

As we approach the center begun to rain .We slip through the city streets, visit Mozart's native house on Getreidegasse 9, then we honor with our presence several cathedrals including St. Peter ,the Residenzplatz.Unfortunatelly the rain turns into storm and we are stuck in a small tunnel, because of the bad weather, we couldn’t reach the Hohensalzburg fortress, but managed to take a few shots.







After the storm:



Day IV

On day IV we head to Germany to Kehlsteinhaus (Hitler's Eagle Nest). We arrived quickly in Germany. We started to go up to the "nest" ,but as we got higher and higher it was a damn fog so I wasn’t able to see anything, I understood that the building itself is not a masterpiece, but great location and view from above, we decided that we don’t visit the place, because we can’t see anything and it’s just a waste of time .

We continue our journey through the Alps to Neuschwanstein castle.

In the afternoon started to rain again and did not stop until the next morning, the campsite was situated near a beautiful lake among the Alps, basically our tent was at about 3 meters from the lake.



Day V


Waking up at 9 am,we reach the castle around 11 am, then a surprise, a big queue that reminded of communism...





Neuschwanstein is a castle in Allgäu, Bavaria built by Louis II of Bavaria, the castle is one of the most famous tourist attractions of Bavaria and Germany .
Unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures inside the castle .In the 15 rooms open to the public, you can find details worked with the greatest care, and Richard Wagner's works is reflected in paintings on the walls. We wasn’t informed that the castle is not finished and we expected to see more, the tour in the castle is finished quite quickly, when you had felt like a character in a fairy tale, then a guide tells you: "I hope you enjoyed and if you have questions ......"





After visiting the castle we look forward to Switzerland through the Austrian Alps, riding through Fernpass (Zugspitze) 1212 m and Fuornpass 2149 m.











This time we arrived quite late in the camping in Sluderno / Schluderns(Italy),I saw a bunch of stars on the sky and I knew that we will sleep at night without thinking of rain and cold.


Day VI

This day I woke up earlier, because of a gorgeous pass, Passo dello Stelvio, I saw a lot of pictures and movies about Stelvio and now finally I could got through, a dream came true, this was the day when I felt like I was in bikerheaven.
The Passo dello Stelvio is located in Italy at 2757 m (9045 ft.) is the highest paved mountain in the Eastern Alps, and the second highest in the Alps, its sixty hairpin turns, 48 of them on the northern side numbered with stones, are a challenge to motorists.You can’t get through here unless you have a big memory card in your camera I didn’t know what to do: take pictures,enjoy the curves or meditate. I almost forgot, this road leads near Ortler at 3,905 m (12,812 ft) above sea level, the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps .
















This was the noth part of Stelvio, but you can see just parts of the road, I couldn't took a picture with the whole mountain, I think that to take a photo with the whole pass you must climb the mountain in front of Stelvio.

So, I’ll continue with the south side…….








After Stelvio we head to Passo di Gavia at 2652 m, another pass, another dreamplace, but I think you will see better in the photos:







On that night we camped in Bercetto not Brescia, I accentuated this, because somehow I made a mistake on the map and didn’t calculate correctly and I had to ride plus 160 km on that evening.

Day VII

From Bercetto we ride along the beach until we reached Viareggio, it was quiet nice, because on the right we saw the Italian Alps and on the left side was the Thyrrenian sea. Here we had time to relax to take a walk on the beach and take some pictures. This time I had no problem sticking the tent nails into the ground, it was a sign that we left the Alps.











Day VIII

From Viareggio we rode to Pisa, took some pictures and than a long ride near the beach to Rome, it was very hot and nothing interesting happened.





Day IX - X

In Rome we stayed in a small, but nice cottage.


We decided to stay 2.5 days in Rome, you can imagine that we visited a lot of historical monuments, buildings, churches, market places...ROME! It's the Eternal City, capital of the world, the city is a mixture of history and modern, you can not come to Rome and not admire the Colosseum, one of the symbols of Rome, which served as a model for future construction of stadiums. Everywhere tourists, here you can hear all the world's languages, here is like everyone wore an uniform, an uniform of tourists, shorts and T-shirts, cameras and camcorders, we are all enchanted by what Rome offers.

Here this famous saying is proven (which is the title of the ride report): All roads lead to Rome!





























Last day in Rome...we visited the Vatican and Castel di San Angelo:










Day XI

On this day we rode about 500 km from Rome to Venice with a few stops, nice places captured our attention mostly when we was riding on a suspended road and we didn’t manage to stop, because of no parking places.


Day XII

Venice, the city that floats on water, here the first thing that draws your attention is the facades of the buildings, grave, fallen, but at the same time proud and beautiful, wearing the time footprints .
We admired the narrow streets that are filled with water, buildings with their balconies, cute reflected in water, of course we fed pigeons in Piazza San Marco, which was full of tourists, I saw the Doges Palace and not least the Grand Canal and Rialto bridge.

Venice, still a marvel of the world:



































Day XIII

We left Venice crossed Slovenia and arrived in Opatija(Croatia) where we wanted to camp, but the beach was full and decided to go Kraljevica. Here it was the time to relax, we enjoyed the beach and had a lot of beer....









Day XIV

On this day we visited Crickvenita, souvenir shops, and then beer, beach, beer again....it was quiet and nice, just what we needed.










Day XV

Destination Budapest, I had a good cruise speed because on this road we went to Croatia last year and stopped a lot of times.

Day XVI

The inevitable day when you don’t know if you are sorry that the dream is over or you're happy to go home to your family and friends.
Now I feel like I got the maximum that could be done in these 16 amazing days and do not regret anything I did, what I saw, what I felt ....


Ride Safe!