The Tour Stats

Here we go, tour stats.

Ginny and I covered 6,838km / 4,249 road miles, door to door. The Brindisi ferry to Igoumenitsa journey was 265.6km / 165 miles. Whilst the ferry across the Danube was 160m / 175 yds.

I made 27 fuel stops and Ginny used 307.74 litres of fuel / 67.69 gallons, at an average of 12.79 miles per litre / 58.15 miles per gallon. Bests were, 14.70 miles per litre / 66.81 miles per gallon.

Fuel costs amounted to €496.27 / £418.71

Ginny also used about 300ml of oil and 3-400ml of coolant (topped up after the episode in Karditsa) 

Grizzly and I were away for 23 nights together, staying in 19 different hotels and 1 overnight ferry. We had 3 sightseeing days in Olympia, Athens and Nuremberg.

We stayed in or passed through, 11 different countries, stopped at 4 LIDLs (one for my daughter 😉) and despite being in Italy longer than either Austria or Germany, I had more schnitzel than pizza! The main personal stat that you are more than aware of though, is the 54 (I miscounted) beers I consumed! 🍻 After a long day in the saddle in 30+ degrees, a cold beer is heaven.

My total cost for the tour, including fuel, hotels and meals was €2,520 / £2,003, excluding undocumented lunchtime snacks/drinks, which equates to approximately €110 / £87 per night. Where else can you get a fully guided tour of Europe for that price, eh? I'm sure Grizzly will consider it a bargain.

Before I go, it's Conundrum Time. 

Grizzly ran into an old man in Greece, damaging his bike but didn't fall off. He tripped over my big toe on the way back from dinner in Nuremberg and went arse over tit! 😂  Go figure.

Mmm! Beer Not us!

Note: The 2 pictures above, definitely, almost definitely, probably, have no connection at all, with the preceding statement. That would be silly, eh? 😉

Think that's all the figures I can come up with and probably all you can stomach now, so until the next blog, BYE FOR NOW

Day 24, Trier to Home Sweet Home

No lie in this morning. To save Grizzly getting to his Travelodge too late, I'd booked us on an earlier crossing than normal. As brekkie was served from 6:30, that meant we could both be up, fed and on the road before 7:30. And so it was.

The first part of the ride was fairly sedate, a mixture of motorway and country lanes, to our fuel stop, in Luxembourg. From then on we were pounding the motorways, pretty much the whole way. Today's mileage just shy of 300 miles. There was no specific coffee stop sceduled in for today, so no chance for Garmin to bugger us up, just two fuel stops. By the time we got to the second stop, there was a need to use the facilities and Grizzly refueled with a monster energy drink, which he has done a few times. I had a bit of a dickie tum, the first time all trip, so was content with a few sips of water.

We still had 100 miles to go but we had made good time thus far, so there was ample time to get to the tunnel, get ourselves an earlier crossing and for Grizzly to get some backy for his daughter. It was a breeze. We had ourselves an earlier train and time to kill, for duty free and comfort breaks. Our new crossing then showed up as being 20 minutes behind schedule. No problem, we'd still be 40 minutes ahead of the game. At least that's what we thought.

Passport control was no problem, bonjour, look, scan, stamp, on to UK. Again no problem. No need to remove my helmet and a chat with the chap, who was totally surprised when I answered his "where have you been?" question, with, Athens! "Why Athens?", because we've never ridden there before!

We had the usual wait in queue, before being let through the barrier. Then all the bikes, about a dozen, were stopped. We waited and waited. Cars were lining up but didn't appear to be moving. Then the lady operative told us there was a problem with the train that meant it might be too dangerous for us bikes. I think I heard it may have been a flood from a toilet. So we waited and waited some more. The sun was blazing down, so people asked for water. We were given a little Evian water spray canister, then as the wait continued, some water was produced. There were loads of those really tiny black bug things around and being in my white base layer, I was a prime target. Annoying f*ckers!

By now, the train we had been booked on originally was starting to board and we still weren't moving, We could see the cars were loading onto our train and shortly after, we got the nod to go from the lady. Hoorah! We finally got moving 16 minutes after the train time we had previously booked, so not a big hit, but could have been 55 minutes earlier, had all gone to plan.

At Folkestone, it was the usual handshake and man hug before we went our separate ways. I was quickly up to speed at 70mph on the M20, Grizzly and the Shadslow disappeared in my mirrors. A familiar sight! 

So, another tour has ended. It's been a rollercoaster as usual, but great at the same time and we ticked off 3 new countries. There are still countries in Europe we've not been to but I'm not sure I want to go to them, so will there be another Wild Hogs tour, or is this the time to disband? There's always the Arctic Circle! 🤔 I've mentioned that to Grizzly but I don't think he's keen. If one of us wins big on the lottery, we'll be off the the USA. Grizzly has Montana on his bucket list and I already have a route mapped out.

Only one pic from today.

Waiting for a train, again!

One thing I forgot to mention, Ginny clicked over 41,000 miles. And talking of figures, as usual there'll be a stats post to follow this one.

That's it for another tour though. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures, the ups, the downs, the food, the beers and some of the interesting places we have visited. If you are getting this via email, you'll be sure to know if the Wild Hogs take to the road again. If you are following the blog online, I'd advise you to sign up for email updates, as that'll make sure you don't miss anything.

Thanks.

Day 23, Nuremberg to Trier

We had a long day in the saddle today, some 260ish miles. Brekkie was taken amongst a load of school kids, none of them apparently with any manners or respect for elders. Hey ho! 

Negotiating our way out of Nuremburg wasn't too bad and before we knew it, we were at our first fuel stop. Next up, was a coffee stop or at least should have been but we never made it there. I was in a lane to turn left, when Grizzly appears at my side and says the road is closed up ahead and Garmin says to take another route. OK I say, you lead, which he did. I followed, Tomtom telling me to take this turn, that turn, none of which matched where we were going for a good few miles. At one point I thought we were on the same page but after about two corners, that was it. As I followed I watched as the time to destination increased, along with the distance. Where is Garmin taking us I asked myself but I trusted Garmin and Grizzly, until we ended up on a motorway slip road! We were excluding motorways at this point! Grizzly pulled over. It was my turn to be cross, especially when he got off the bike and said how did I got us lost! The nerve of the little twonk. He leads the way with his beloved Garmin giving him directions, then when it f*cks up, he still blames me! Just goes to show, neither of these systems is perfect, not that Grizzly will ever admit it.

We decided to skip the coffee stop and go on to the next stop, which was the Technik Museum. This turned out to be fairly close, which made me think, maybe Grizzly had put the wrong route in his Garmin. One of them was to to blame for the situation, that's for sure.

The Tecknic Museum is amazing. We didn't have time to go in but just the outside was enough for us to take loads of photos. The main attractions, probably, are an Air France Concorde AND a Russian TU144 (cheap Concorde copy) on top of a building. It has to be seen to be believed. Yes, two full sized supersonic aircraft, on metal supports over the museum roof! The entire place has aircraft on steel supports, from small fighters, to old airliners and helicopters. It's not restricted to just aircraft either, there's a submarine in the car park! It blows your mind to see it all. Each aircraft is accessible too, so the two supersonics have spiral staircases from the roof of the museum, up into them. I really wished we'd had time to go inside and do a proper visit. On the bucket list! 

There was a McDs just up the road, so we made a pit stop to make up for Garmin's mistake. Then we were on our way again, this time including motorways, as we still had a fair way to go. Initially, there was a huge tailback, we filtered. I'm not sure if it's allowed in Germany but we've done it before, so we did it again. As Grizzly would say, fuck 'em! Once we cleared the cause, some roadworks, we made good time to our second fuel stop. Happily, it was 9c a litre cheaper. Every little helps. Back on the road and back on another motorway, I was cruising at 70mph. Grizzly dropped back and by the time I came to some more roadworks, that was us seperated.I spent the next 50 odd km on mine own bombing along at 70mph again but mindful not to get in anyone's way, as this was autobahn and unrestricted.

Coming off the motorway towards Trier was fantastic, Down in the valley, a great sight, was the river Mosel. Trier has quite a lot of Roman buildings, from what I have read, an ampihitheatre amongst them, however, our hotel is 2km outside the town, so there wasn't a chance of us getting to see anything of interest. Besides, it had been a long day, and it was nearly 6pm when I pulled up at the hotel. To my surprise, Grizzly was only about 2 minutes behind me. He was buzzing, as he'd been 'giving it some welly', Seems he enjoyed himself. There goes his high mpg figures!

I was told I had to book for dinner and more or less given 7pm, which didn't give much time to freshen up. The hotel is quite full and so there was quite a lot of demand on the staff/kitchen. This seemed exacerbated by the fact there were only 2 people serving and apparently only one chef, a grumpy bastard at that.

We waited quite a while for anyone to come to us to ask about drinks, a woman and a younger chap, just seemed rushed off their feet, so service was slow. Once we were 'in the system' though, things weren't too bad and the food was good. Grizzly rated this his best meal, even if it took ages to pay the bill! With the town of Bitburg a little way up the road, it was no surprise Bitburger was the beer on tap. We had 3, Is that now 55?

After the meal, I gave Grizzly a birthday card and present. He said he'll open them tomorrow, his birthday. He'll be 73. For an old git, he does alright on these tours. They've not always been plain sailing. Will there be another?

Technik pics

 

A helicopter, no idea what

TU144 First Supersonic Passenger Aircraft

A submarine

The best supersonic passenger aircraft, Concorde!

This is the last night of the tour. Tomorrow we'll be on motorway all day and tomorrow night I'll be in my own bed, whilst Grizzly will spend his birthday on his own in a travelodge.  Come back to see how it all ends.

 

Day 22, Nuremberg Sightseeing

Had a bit of a lie in this morning. Even Grizzly set his alarm for later. Never known before in the history of Wild Hogs tours, as far as I can remember.

We went down for brekkie. There's a screen that asks you to sign in, using the QR code. We don't have one. Oh well! We filled our faces, as usual and took to the streets. I had installed an app for the transport system in Nuremberg and thought I had it all sussed. 2 single tickets, lasting 90 minutes. Plenty of time to get us to the Documentation Centre on Tram 8. Grizzly wanted to visit a pharmacy, for a problem we shan't go in to, so we made our way to the main train station. They didn't have what he wanted. I was fiddling about trying to work out how to pay, so we missed one tram. The next wasn't far behind but just before it arrived a swarm of teenage students arrived. I told Grizzly we needed to get on quick. The doors opened and on went the swarm. I managed to grab a seat for Grizzly but not for myself. I spent most of the journey standing and trying to pay for the 2 tickets but kept getting an error, so we had a free ride, saving almost €7.We went into the documentation Centre, a museum in the north wing of the remains of the Congress Hall of the party rallies, at the Nazi Party Rallying Grounds. There is a lot of improvement going on, so the exhibition space is greatly reduced. Still, very interesting. An interesting fact I picked up from an English speaking guide was, the Nazi Brownshirts outnumbered the regular army, restricted in size after WW1 to 100,000 men, by 20/1, a staggering figure!

Having finished inside we were able to look around the Congress Hall's exterior. I have done this before with my brother, 9 or so years ago and boy has it changed. Here again they are doing works building a new centre. The hall is shaped like a horseshoe with an open end, which Paul and I rode into. That's almost gone, being built on.

We continued around the grounds, picking up various sign boards, explaining what used to be there and what still exists, such as the grand road, a 60m wide 1500m long road, made from 60,000 marble slabs. This is all where parades would have come up during the rallies. The Americans used it as a landing strip after they occupied the city. Now it's used as a car park for big events held on the site.

Making our way around a huge lake, we came to the zeppelin field, named apparently, after a zeppelin landed there in 1909. The field became a parade ground under the Nazis and you can still see where the stands for the public were. Fronting this area, is the huge stand, with the podium Hitler used to speak from. You will almost certainly have seen videos of him up there. Unlike my last visit, we couldn't go up there. Shame, a picture of a little short fella with a moustache would have been quite good. They are redeveloping it into a more visitor centre type area, hence it's all fenced off.

The whole 16 sq km area now has been transformed. There are all sorts of sporting activities using the area, including the Nuremberg football stadium and a car racing circuit, that's been in use since 1947. Given the amout of barriers tyres, plus scaffolders building stands, race day can't be far off.

Our final stop on the tour was at Burger King. Yes, we had a snack/drink but there was another reason for going there. It is housed in a former Nazi power station and on the wall outside, you can still see where the symbolic eagle was etched.

The plan was to get the train back to the city centre station, if only I could get the app to work. I jumped on BK's wifi and this time managed to book us tickets. The error before must've been down to a poor signal on my 4G.

The train, as was the tram earlier, was spotlessly clean. No grubby upholstery, no litter. The tram actually looked brand new, the seats were that fresh looking. 4 stops took us to Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof, otherwise known as Central Station. I was expecting to have to scan the tickets here at least, though we'd just walked onto the platform the other end, but it seems the system is based a lot on trust and maybe fear of being inspected. Incredible. Back home the oiks around Kent would have a field day! They're always trying to cheat the system now.

Back in town, we had to visit another pharmacy. This time a purchase was made. We had a quick suss of somewhere to eat later, then returned to our room, where Grizzly took what he calls a benjy hour, an afternoon nap!

Having identified our restaurant earlier, we made our way for dinner. It brews its own beer on site, a light and a red. I tried both, along with pork, 3 sausages, sauerkraut, potato dumplings and horseraddish. The latter just looked like grated cheese. I had expected something akin to our horseraddish back home, creamed in some way. This was jusr grated raddish. It was all very tasty, though the potato dumplings could have done with some seasoning. 

The evening was sort of spoilt when it came to paying the bill, the waiter almost insisting I add a tip to the bill.. In 22 days that's the first time anyone has ask for a tip. Leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth. I caved, he got about €2.50. Beer count +3 to 52.

Back at the hotel we're prepping for tomorrow's ride, to Trier, still in Germany.

Pics from our sightseeing day.

The Historical Tram, not our one

The Grand Road

The Congress Hall from across the lake

My number on the starting grid!

Burger KIng, previously a Nazi power station

It's the last night of the tour for me tomorrow. We come back on Grizzly's birthday, so there might be a surprise for someone tomorrow evening. 😉

Day 21, Ybbs an der Donau to Nuremburg

After a quality breakfast at our quality hotel, overlooking the Danube, we set off for Nuremberg. We spent the majority of the day alongside the great river. Being a Sunday, the roads were pretty quiet, though we were surprised by the numbers of people out on bicycles. Also by the number of Harleys. It was possibly one of the best riding days we've had. As usual we were making steady progress at 80kph and just enjoying the experience. Grizzly was wondering what his mates back in Ireland were up to, whilst he was riding through Austria alongside the Danube.

We had 3 scheduled stops, the first being at the Romerburgus Oberanna, the remains of a  Roman fort. An interesting stop and a free one. They have spent a lot of money on building a building over the remains, in order to protect it and they have done a great job. It's worth a google. 

Next stop was our fuel and  coffee/snack stop. Just before we got there we got stuck behind a convoy of tractors towing various trailer or caravans.  They were old tractors and made a real racket. We'd managed to pass them all but then sat and watched them all sail past, as we had our refreshments. We never saw them again though.

Before those stops though, we were thrown a curved ball when the tunnel/bridge we were supposed to use was closed. Venturing on, on the wrong side of the river, an alternative route took us to a small ferry. Most unexpected and with an unexpected financial outlay. €12 for the pair of us to go across 100m of water! There was us, a family of 4 and 3 others, all on bicycles.

Anyway, when it came time for our coffee stop, we found it closed. It was attached to a Netto supermarket. It hadn't occured to me when planning, that it was a Sunday and wouldn't be open. Without further ado, we pressed on to the hotel. Given the temperature was now 34 degrees, I said to Grizzly that I thought Ginny might not survive without overheating. As it happened, there was very little traffic and she was able to reach the hotel without any problems. Same couldn't be said for me. It was very uncomfortable, yet again. The day had started so much better, a comfy 23 or 24. Checked in, we got the bikes parked up, squeezing them in the corner of the car park and thus saving ourselves €24. That's what it would have cost, if we'd taken a car bay, which the guy seemed reluctant for us to do anyway.

After a freshen up, I gave Grizzly a tour of the sights I had identified as of interest. One included our dinner stop, the Bratwursthäusle. We both had 6 Nuremberg sausages, only small things,, Grizzly with potato salad, me with sauerkraut and a pretzel. Not forgetting the beers of course, 2 more.

Surprisingly the place shut at 8pm and they were turning punters away, so we continued on our sightseeing tour and finished that off with a bar stop. 3 beers for the day, 49 running total.  

Today in pictures.

Romerburgus Oberanna, one of 4 towers

On the ferry

A barometer, dating to 1800s

St. Sebald - Sebalduskirche

The Hangman's Bridge

Tomorrow we are doing more sightseeing, up at the Zeppelinfeld, where AH held his massive rallies. Should be interesting.

Day 20, Szekesfehervar to Ybbs an der Donau

Today we had a 215 mile trek into Austria. We had 2 fuel stops and one planned to some roman caves. As Grizzly said, the best road in Hungary was the one out, the E66. It was a very nice road, dual carriageway for a long period but one of the smoothest we'd encountered. Our first fuel stop was in Hungary, some 6889 florints, about £14.75. The border with Austria was a bit complicated but as with all, we just rode through. The roads continued to be perfectly smooth. If only UK roads were this good.

One thing I'd noticed in Hungary was how clean the verges were. No McDs cups, plastic bottles or other shit. It had all, whatever there was, been collected as every so often there was a sack, awaiting collection. Come to Sittingbourne, it's disgustingly filthy.

We were being spoilt by the road surface. It was so easy to put the bike where you wanted. The sun was shining, not too hot and everything was perfect. Then, we came to a junction and were waved on a diversion. Here we go, back roads up into the hills. We knew what to expect but didn't get it. Even the back roads were billiard table smooth! It's the best diversion I've ever been on. Up into the hills, lovely sweeping bends, fantastically green scenery. It looked a superb place to make a home.

Back on our original road, we made our second fuel stop, then on to what turned out to be nothing, just a waste of time. There are supposed to be some roman caves but all there was were a group houses, nothing signalling any historical site, so we turned around and did the final 15 minutes to our hotel. 

Ybbs an der Donau is a medieval town, very pretty and on the banks of the River Danube. We have a triple room, which in this case means 2 separate bedrooms. Hooray! No snoring and no music playing out. Every night, Grizzly has to have his music on to lull him to sleep. The music plays for 30 minutes if I'm lucky, he's snoring after one!!  

I took a walk along the river path and took some photos of the town, a barge and cruise boat on the river. It's a lovely setting. We ate in the hotel, turkey schnitzel, fries and a potato salad, not like ours would be but very tasty. A couple of local beers washed it all down, count 46 now.

Today's pics.

A barge on the Danube

Marks on the house show flood levels, top 1509

Wolfgang played here, aged 6!

Cruise boat chugging by

Ybbs an der Donau church

Tomorrow we move country again, to Germany and Nuremburg, where we will have a final sightseeing day. 

Day 19, Timisoara to Szekesfehervar

I have no idea how to pronounce where we are staying tonight but we are in Hungary.

We had about 190 miles to travel today. Check-in at our hotel was 3pm, so we didn't need to rush and we didn't. I've got quite used to trundling along at 80kph. It probably annoys the hell out of the locals but they are free to overtake when it's safe. Some do even when it isn't! It gives you the chance to look around and see stuff, though on this run it was mostly farmland, both in Romania and Hungary. Still, oocasionally you get something interesting, like a Douglas DC3 in someone's front garden!

We had a fuel stop, then nothing for about 50 miles, which was at a place called Kiskoros, to visit what is named The Old Car Museum. The museum certainly isn't old, it's a very modern building, with lots of glass.Neither are all the cars old but there's a varied selection. It might be better named Classic Car Museum, as there are a lot of classics in there, a tiny Fiat 500, a Porsche 911 Turbo, E-Typre Jags. They even have a Trabant. It cost about €7 and was really interesting. Photos and video was allowed, she said but no touching. Just as well she said. Grizzly's already been told off for touching things in a museum, back in Olympia!

The road we were travelling on in Romania was one of the best surfaces we'd had. Hungary started off the same. Then it went down hill a bit. There's not much in between really smooth and excrutiatingly bumpy. We had a lunch stop after leaving the museum but were pretty much forced into another after being pounded on one road. The annoying thing is, they have a sign saying bumpy road for one kilometre, then another and another. Just have one saying the total kms!

There was no drama with Ginny today. The temperature was not so high, so she coped better. We arrived at the hotel and parked up in the garage. It cost the same for garage or outside, so security won the day. It's a nice hotel but suffers from style over function. The bathroom is split, so there's a separate toilet. Not only is it small but means you have to come out to wash your hands! Rubbish. The other gripe, was only one set of towels. We got more eventually but it was struggle! Oh yes, we got our first Booking.com room, i.e. furthest away from the lifts. It had to be 80 metres away, down a long corridor, then some..

I'd identified a place to eat, a craft beer bar. We went, we found, we came away! No food, only beer. Not even Grizzly would make do with that. We ended up in a burger bar before making our way back to the bar. I tried a couple of different brews, the second being called Gentle Bastard, a classic IPA. Beer count now 44.

And that was our day.

Pick of the pics.

A classic old Merc

My favourite baby car. Want one!

A baby bike, Honda Monkey

Saint Stephen's Basilica Szekesfehervar 

That corridor, red dot is my t-shirt

Tomorrow we will leave Hungary and make our way to Ybbs an der Donau, in Austria,

Day 18, Sibiu to Timisoara

Beer count 42. There, that's that done. Oh, and Ginny clocked up 40,000 miles and we passed 3,000 for the trip.

We filled up just down from the hotel, then made our way to our first stop at the monument commemorating the discovery in 1995 of 3 neolithic stone tables, the Tartaria Tablets, thought to be the earliest form of writing. 

 

Next stop was a Museum of Transilvanian buildings. There's a similar thing in the UK. Old buildings of the region moved to one location and restored. The place was free, not that that had any bearing and we wandered around taking photos. It was really interesting seeing the different styles, from wood to stone. Up on the hill was a monument with what looked like a big sword on top. Not sure what it was exactly.

We set off on to our hotel, in Timisoara. The ride was pretty good, a steady 50mph and some really good, fairly empty roads, all except at one point, as we climbed into the hills. Suddenly we came to a queue of traffic, We sat in the queue for a while, nothing moving, before I decided to ride down the outside. There was nothing coming the other way. We made up a lot of ground before anything came the other way. Then we got to a point where I couldn't see around a corner and big truck, so we had to sit and wait. Nothing moved for ages. Chaps behind said it was roadworks and a friend had been stuck for 2h30m. Eventually we got moving and were able to overtake cars/trucks again. We came to a point where the top surface was being removed, it was just rubble for about 100m, then on nice new tarmac we were off, But not for long. Another stop. No chance of getting through this time, as the opposite direction was backed up waiting to go through what we had just come through. So we waited.

A young lady going the other way (what is it with you and blondes? says Grizzly) wound down her window and called out, So I wandered over and had a chat. Apparently there more works in our direction. I said I thought they had a fairly long wait. We on the other had, after hanging around for a while chatting and taking photos were on the move again, It was absolutely ridiculous. They were doing 2 lots of re-surfacing about 3 miles apart but causing ridiculously long tailbacks in either direction. What a f*ck up! Clowns.

We skipped our 2nd fuel stop, as it was in part of the gridlock and stopped a bit later on. From then on it was plain sailing into our hotel,

There was no dinner available at the hotel, so we made our way to the Timisoara brewery beer garden, and got lucky with a a table, as it was packed. We sampled the local brew along with a couple of meals, great value. Two meals and 5 beers for £24! It was a fine way to finish off our time in Romania.

Pics of the day.

Monument Tăblițele de la Tărtăria

The church, Muzeul Satului Transilvanean

Muzeul Satului Transilvanean site view

Sica Dacică

Going nowhere fast

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Romania and will spend the night in Hungary. We've ridden in Hungary before. Not that makes any difference.

Come back for more tomorrow.

Day 17, Craiova to Sibiu

A day of emotions I think it's fair to say and lots of them. Joy, sorrow, anger probably being the main ones.

 Forgot to mention the beer count yesterday. 3 more with dinner. 37 now? And something I forgot days ago, Ginny clocked up 39,000. That was back in Greece!

Was glad to see the back of Craiova, mainly because of the hotel. We got split up again for a while. Grizzly has a habit of stopping at crossings, which drops him back. Next he'll miss a set of lights because the gap between us is too big. In cities I can't just pull over and wait for him, so it can be a while before he catches up. He's been the same ever since we started touring. I don't bother saying anything now. His stock answer is, I don't give a f*ck, so there's little point.

Anyway, we got out of Craiova and were on the open road, good roads in the main, bowling along nicely. I think it's fair to say Romania is quite fertile. There are roadside stalls everywhere, selling anything from potatoes and strawberries, to massive football sized cabbages. Also, I think a lot of them must have log burners and it appears a lorry drops off a couple of tree trunks and the homeowners get to work making their winter stash of logs. We saw a lot of that. A different world.

We'd been going well, when the traffic came to a standstill. It looked from a distance as if there may be a market on, lots of people milling about, We rode down the outside of the queue and were confronted with a group of people surrounding a young girl/woman on her back on the crossing. Clearly she'd been knocked down. What was unclear, was whether she was alive. Quite shocking to witness. A little up the road, an ambulance crew were bringing someone out of a house in a hammock type carrier. Another possible death. That's the sorrow for you.

We had a fuel stop before we headed for the Transfagarasan Highway. I'm not sure Grizzly knew what to expect. We were heading into the Fagarasan mountains, part of the Carpathian range, so it was obviously going to be twisty and uphill. He soon dropped back, so I just concentrated and making it to the viewpoint in one piece. 

We came to a piece of water, Tomtom said left. Left I went. There was a tunnel. I flipped my sun shield up but the intense light to dark meant I couldn;t see what was in the tunnel. If I had, I would have stopped. Too late, I was on a dirt surface that wouldn't have been out of place on a motocross circuit, bumps, rutted, damp. If I had a GS I'd have been smiling probably but just had to concentrate on getting to the end of the tunnel, as there was no stopping once in. It's the worst place we've ever been. Grizzly had followed!!!

On reaching the other side, I could see this road was just an unmade track. Continue for 2,2km she said. F*ck that!, We'd have to turn round. I was so angry at Tomtom. She is set up to avoid unmade roads! Grizzly arrived and I was on the end of a massive tirade of abuse. I think he thought I taken the road knowing what lay ahead. I was already furious, so there was a heated exchange between us. I then turned around and ventured back into the bloody tunnel. Waiting for Grizzly, it was ages before he appeared. I was actually walking back as he did. He was even more angry now, as he'd damaged his number plate whilst turning round. To say it was frosty between us, would be an understatement. So I set off, on the correct road this time. There's anger for you.

As I got into the mountain section of the road, there was a sign saying there are bears in the woods, not to feed or approach them. A few corners later, I come out of a hairpin to see a bear hopping over the armco barrier in to trees. Wow! I never thought I'd actually see one.  A bit further on, cars are stopped, another bear at the side of the road. And this went on. People were leaning out of their cars to photo them. Not prudent maybe on a bike to stop. Around one corner, 2 bears were sitting on the armco, about a metre apart. You could just imagine them having a conversation about all these people! Which shall we eat first? I had to laugh. They were totally unfazed. I saw 11 in all, well 10.5, the last 2 were mum and baby. Definitely not a place to be stopping. It was fantastic. So there's the joy for you. One question has now been answered though. Do bears shit in the woods? No, they do it on the road! Beside the bears, 2 deer ran across me and there were 2 donkeys in a tunnel! No idea why.

I made it to the summit, enveloped in cloud and 13 degrees. a short way on the downside is the viewpoint, it was sunny and I could see the twisty road I would be going on. Grizzly caught up, probably 5 minutes later, maybe more. His temper had calmed a bit but he knew he'd not keep up on the twisty, so said he'd see me at the hotel. He actually pulled up behind me as we entered Sibiu.

The hotel is very boutique. There's a code to open the gate and one for the room. Very high tech and finished to an extremely high standard. Plus here too, it's bikes that are allowed to park on site, not cars!

Dinner was had in the town at a micro brewery. A nice chicken schnitzel and chips and 3 of their home made B13 lagers makes 40 now,

Pics of the day. No bears though. Didn't want to be brown bear dinner!

Yes, we're going down there

Ginny at the Transfagarasan viewpoint

Sibiu

Sibiu Town Hall, I think

Sibiu Cathedral

Tomorrow we are heading west to Timisoara, our final hotel in Romania. We have a couple of historical stops on the way.  Until tomorrow then.

Day 16, Sofia to Craiova, Romania

Today was a fairly unremarkable day. We had no stops to make apart for our fuel stop. Getting out of Sofia  was a bit of a chore, as the road we were supposed to take seemed to be closed for roadworks, so we had a little tour of the area close to the hotel, before we finally got back to the route out. Still, we didn't have to contend with miles of bloody uneven cobbles! At least not in Sofia. 

I set a nice steady pace, of about 80kph, where we could. Out of town it's 90kph, though the locals treat that as the minimum! We were overtaken by huge lorries and coaches, besides the endless stream of tatty white vans and big black German BMERCAUDIS. Tomtom was up to her tricks again. Set for fastest route, she took us down a back lane, through a village, with a cobbled street, before joining the main road we'd crossed a few kms ago! Needless to say my niggling chimp was there to tell me Garmin had said turn right, onto the main road. It is frustrating that Tomtom does that. How on earth it felt the route we took could be faster than the main road, I have no idea.

The further north we went, the fewer vehicles we encountered, so it was a quite pleasant ride. We came to our fuel stop and were in need of some water, as once again the temperature was on the up. A lady pump attendant was happy for me to fill up myself, then when I'd paid, showed me where it converted to €s on the receipt. Helpful but I was actually looking for the details of litres. Anyway, we were in the shop and Grizzly was about to buy a huge magnum cornetto, when the lady came up and best she could, explained they were bogof, so I had one as well. She wants me Woody, rang out again! Still, very nice of her. I gave her a wave and thanked her as we left. The magnum thingy was delicious, I should say.

The next part of our journey would take us over the Danube, the middle of which, is the border between Bulgaria and Romania. There's a toll on the Romanian side but bikes don't pay it, so as we rolled up to the booth, the barrier was just lifted and on we rode.

We were now in our third new country and to mark the occasion, I had a kerbside wee! The temperature was now in the 30s again, so we needed a drink too. There was barely anything on the road, which was arrow straight and flanked either side by crops, wheat, potatoes and sunflowers. Strangely, the sunflowers were all facing away from the sun.

As we entered Craiova, I just knew there would be issues. The high temp/crawling traffic combo. I tried to keep moving as best I could, filtering between traffic and somewhere along the way I lost Grizzly. The road layout was crazy in places. A major junction with no traffic lights, just the flashing yellow, go if you can signal. It was chaos. I just squeezed between 2 cars and went when they did. I wasn't far from the hotel when the red triangle struck again, so I pulled over for a couple of minutes. A minute or so later I was at the hotel. I say hotel, hovel might be to strong but it was every inch and less, the £27 it cost for the night. I had to ring to check-in. A bloke then came from the bar area I had just walked past! The room looked ok ish on initial inspection but then you start to notice the things that either are missing, have fallen off , are just broken or just don't work. The only thing good about the place, was the restaurant/bar, which had good reviews, for good food at good prices. There was little option, so we ate there and weren't disappointed.

The beds in the room are a bit soft but comfortable enough but there is no aircom, so the window is wide open. Mossie alert. I've put on some repellent.

Just one photo from today. Someone using a Beemer for a leg up onto a wall!

Cat Burgler Maybe?

Tomorrow we will be spending the night in Sibiu, to the north but before that we will tackle the Transfagarasan Highway. I know Grizzly doesn't like lots of hairpin bends but this tour isn't just about him and being so close, for me, it just has to be done. Transylvania here we come!

Day 15, Lithotopos to Sofia, Bulgaria

We went down for brekkie, expecting the usual fare. Oh no! The waitress delivered two trays, which took up the entire table. On them were 2 plates. One with ham slices, cheese slices, 2 fried eggs and 4 little sausages. The other had 2 savoury pies and 2 sweet pastries. There was a piece of fruit, a bowl of the thickest yoghurt I've ever had and some bread and butter, not forgetting a small pot of honey and one of jam. We were stuffed by the time we'd done. Just as well we had a bottle of water and glass of juice to wash it all down with. Humongous!

Hitting the road, I was amazed to see some pelicans on the lake. Didn't know they were in this part of the world. Bowling along I had a couple of brave little lizards dash across the road in front of me. By recent standards it was quite cool, mid 20s. Our first 'stop' was at the toll booths on the motorway, just before we made our way into Bulgaria. €1.30 each. At the border crossing I was expecting to have to stop and present passports but no, we rode straight through into a country I've never been to before. A country, it has to be said, with more cops on traffic duty, than we've seen the entire trip thus far. Despite nobody adhering to the speed limits, the Bulgarian plod seem to be doing their best to put a stop to that. Dutifully, everyone crawls passed the plod in a layby, only to race away when they were out of sight.We must've seen at least 5 different checkpoints on the journey to Sofia.   

To get to Sofia we needed to negotiate some big mountains, with lots of twists and turns. We got stuck behind a group of about 5 cars, headed by a lorry and with a transit type flatbed towing a car trailer, just in front of me. After a while, I could sense that Ginny would soon be getting hot under the collar, so pulled into a layby to let her cool down and the traffic get some way ahead. With a nice clear road ahead, I was able to keep Ginny in her sweet temperature spot. After a while though I caught the same group up again. Not so bad this time, as we were on the way down, so I could freewheel, engine off. Amazingly, these vehicles were so slow, I could keep up with them, under now power whatsoever, just gravity doing its thing. On the way down it was amazing to see massive truck after massive truck crawling up towards us. Grizzly counted 15 in a line at one point. Not to be triffles with on tight hairpins (switchbacks).

Out of the hills we were able to motor along quite nicely to our first Bulgarian fuel stop. The cheapest so far, equating to £1.04 per litre!

The going was good for the rest of the journey, though the heat had returned, so by the time we were arriving in Sofia, it was 37 degrees and I was naturally worried what Ginny would make of it. I was doing my now usual trick of switching her off at traffic lights, which seemed to be working. The worse bit of the ride was to come though, as we were confronted with a road of cobbles. That would have been bad enough but there were so many bumps and dips in it, it was impossible to go more than about 25mph. The whole bike was rattling and shaking. Grizzly, who as you may know, hates bumps dropped way back, so we were separated for the last few kilometres. I arrived at the hotel and was already checking us in, when he turned up. We had booked a parking space, which necessitated us backing the bikes up about 30 metres, to get to the road where the entrance was. Hazards on, it was easier than I'd imagined.

The Hotel Anel is pretty posh, part hotel, part art exhibition really. Everywhere there's statues or paintings. A tad over the top I thought. A bit like our room. In fact a superior suite, with two separate rooms, living and bedroom, and a big bathroom with a jacuzzi bath! A bit 80s but still. 

We ate in the hotel. Grizzly had a pork stew of some description and I had a Thracian Cheese. You can google it. It was very nice. We had a beer but they were small and pricey, so we went looking for a bar. One was just closing but we found another tiny place. We had a couple more beers there, bigger and better value. Is that 34 now? There was a young American woman I struck up a conversation with. Her and her friend had hired a car and were touring Bulgaria. She was from California but given what is happening in the news, wasn't looking forward to going back. Who could blame her, with that clown in charge?

Piccies.

Storks nesting on telegraph poles

My Thracian Cheese

Saint Nedelya Orthodox Cathedral

The Monument of Saint Sofia - Patron of City

A No.20 Tram, older style

One night is all we have in Bulgaria. Tomorrow we shall be in Romania, in Craiova, the first of 3 nights in the country.