Thru the Balkans………Albania

Ian must be frightened of Linda……….he wouldn’t phone her to say we weren’t coming to Turkey, so begrudgingly he agreed to ride thru’ Albania.  I stopped sulking 🙂

We then had to go back the direction we had come and past the Skadarsko lake – half of which is actually in Albania

and inland thru’ the mountains to the capital city – Podgorica

We rode around Podgorica about 3 times trying to find an ATM as we didn’t know how much they were going to charge us at the Border.  Eventually we found one

The border area was fairly quiet, we weren’t quite sure where to go for visas, insurance and whatever else we needed and nobody seemed to understand English.  Eventually I just said , well let’s just go thru the border control and see what they say.  So we did. They stamped our passport and waved us on!  Nothing to pay – no visa – no insurance!

Ian was worried about this and was convinced that the first police patrol we saw were going to stop us and ask for documents. We never saw any.  We knew about one of the few (only?) campsites in Albania from the internet.  It is run by a Dutch couple and is just outside of Shkoder. Most of the roads are ok, there were a few “dodgy” ones,  and there are various different types of traffic on them 🙂

Everybody waved as we passed by – in the villages the children all run alongside shouting hello – they maybe don’t see many motorbikes, especially Tigers from England! This is Shkoder and the Rozafa Castle in the background

We found the campsite easily enough – it wasn’t very busy, but we had some nice neighbours:)

The couple who ran the campsite very kindly cooked us a meal of sausage and chips – which was well received!  They also told us there were no problems with police stopping you or with border officials, they said it was alot of scaremongering done by people who didn’t want Albania to have tourism.  Seems a shame really that the country has this reputation – it sort of reminded me of Turkey 15 years ago and will probably become more popular in years to come (is this such a good thing???) Anyway, when we left the next morning Ian was feeling more relaxed – I however left with 31 mosquito bites – and that was only on my lower legs!

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Riding towards Tirana I hadn’t really seen any “food” places where I would be able to get something “non foreign” (no McDonalds, KFC etc…..) so when we eventually stopped at a place in the mountains I was trying to plead “non hunger”. We had noticed on the way in a half  side of “something” turning on a spit.  We asked the guy for a menu – “no menu” – so asked what they had “lamb or cold meat” Ian then asked what the cold meat was “lamb”  – Obviously!  So lamb it was, for him then.  I had a plate of french fries! He had a plate of ……….bones!!! Looking around, everybody had a plate of bones too – so he got stuck in!

Some of the roads were busy, others not so

Tirana

I love the brightly painted blocks of flats

I began to think the Ian was on some kind of mission – he was!  To my annoyance he said he wanted to be in Greece before dark, he was worried about the bike as we had no insurance and didn’t know where we would stay.  I wanted to go along the coast – he wouldn’t – made some excuse about the roads there being bad – I didn’t believe him – but as he was riding and not me, it was his choice 😦

It was about 8.00pm when we reached the border, and fairly quiet.  We got thru passport control without a problem and then saw this guy waving a piece of paper at us.  I knew we didn’t have anything that looked like that, so fumbled around in the bag for a few minutes, chatting away and smiling at him all the while.  I found our V5 (vehicle registration document) and handed it to him saying this is what you need – he looked at it, looked at us, mumbled something in Albanian and waved us away!  I still don’t know what we were supposed to have, whether he was finishing his shift and couldn’t be bothered with a couple of English people who he didn’t understand or whether he was in a good mood and letting us thru, and I don’t really care!  So, to anybody that asks – no, Albania is not a problem, you don’t have to pay a fortune to get in and out and you don’t get stopped by the police.  They need to do something about them bones tho’!

Coming into Greece was not so good.

Thru’ the Balkans……..Croatia/Montenegro

It was  quite a “flat” ride from Venice into Slovenia and I began to miss the mountains 😦

It was also very hot.  I haven’t mentioned Tiger  lately – he was still doing well, still comfortable and no problems (apart from Ian’s constant “messing about” with the chain!) We weren’t covering great distances in miles but some days were sat for long hours on the bike as we still weren’t using motorways.   Mr Garmin hadn’t got us lost and was proving invaluable, not only for directions but also for finding camp sites, fuel stations and other such points of interest.

We only briefly “touched” Slovenia.  We rode along the coast,but it was so busy that the only place we were able to stop was here

Not the best view in the world!  So it was down into Croatia.

My first thoughts on entering Croatia were “yuck”!

The first 15 minutes was industrialised and high rise buildings, but I soon changed my mind.  The scenery was fantastic and the sea so blue.

Up until now I hadn’t had a problem with food (i’m a very fussy eater) and had been able to understand the menus fairly easily – I sort of thought I might have a problem in Croatia.  Anyway,the country  seemed to be full of pizzerias so that suited me fine 🙂

We found a campsite, right next to the sea and went for a walk about.

and found a bar

I ordered a sandwich – cheese and tomato – and knowing the European penchant for mayonaise specifically said to the waitress “no mayo, ketchup or any other sauce”.  What came can only be described as “road kill lookalike” – a half baguette filled with cheese and possibly half a bottle of tomato ketchup!  The ketchup was everywhere.  I don’t like to complain,  so spent 10 minutes with a pile of serviettes wiping off the ketchup.  Of course, I got told off and when I went to take a photo of my “sandwich” was told “don’t dare show yourself up anymore by taking photos”!  I forced it down 😦

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We didn’t realise how big a country Croatia is and soon realised it was going to take about 3 days to get thru’

There were no shortage of campsites, at very reasonable prices. The Croatian people are very friendly, they don’t all speak very good English but you can generally make youself understood.  We had heard of people being “ripped off” in Croatia but we went with open minds and, though we did get charged for a plate of extra  fries at one place we had no problems.  The roads are very good and the drivers quite courteous.

We ventured into Split – but not for long, too busy, too many cars!

It was in Croatia that I decided I didn’t like camping!  It was too hot in the tent and I couldn’t sleep.  One night, even tho’ it was blowing like a typhoon, and we wondered whether the tent would take off, it was just not blowing into the tent and it felt like a sauna.  I had to keep the door unziped and risk “creatures” coming in!

Ian never had a “sleep” problem tho’

Croatia was probably more expensive than we expected, but all in all we enjoyed it and were looking forward to the other Balkan countries.

One of the “not so good” roads

Dubrovnik

Montengro is very similair to Croatia – just smaller and cheaper!  We weren’t sure of their currency, so when Ian went to buy some drinks with only Euros in his pocket, we didn’t know if we were going to get any.  He came back with 4 bottles telling me “he had all these and change from 2 euros” and that Montenegro had used the Euro for years. We had decided to stay in a hotel today as I was getting fed up camping!  We only actually passed 2 campsites and these were both on the lake side and looked fab!

We stopped at the town of Budva and found a lovely hotel.

and even treated ourselves to a meal in a resraurant

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End of 2nd week – total miles 2268

Budva is the type of town where you would take a weeks package holiday – full of hotels and shops, and alongside the beach lots of restaurants, bars and market stalls.  It was “nice” but one night was probably enough for us!

The next morning Ian went down with the luggage and I thought he was taking a long time so went to see where he was. I was greeted with “that’s it, we’re not going to Albania”.  He had been talking to a biker who had previously been there and had been fined hundreds of euros at the border and had also been fined by the police numerous times during “spot checks”  He had told Ian we could either  get a ferry from Bar in Montenegro to Igoumenista in Greece or to ride thru Serbia and  Macedonia and into Greece that way.  I didn’t really want to go the Serbia route (this also involved Kosova).   A Romanian guy had overheard and told us we would have no problems in Albania but there was no way he would go thru Serbia???? What to do??  The ferry seemed the best option.  By the way the biker was Serbian!

So, off to Bar then.

We arrived at Bar and found the ferry booking offices

I went in to enquire about ferries to Greece and was told ” no, ony ferries to Italy”!  This was not good – I knew Ian wouldn’t get a ferry to Italy and then another one from Italy to Greece and there was “no way” he was riding thru’ Albania so I had a brainwave!  When I told him about the ferry his reply was “that’ s it then, end of the journey – looks like we’re going to Italy”  So my brainwave was put into operation – I SULKED…….. and also told him he had to phone Linda and tell her we wouldn’t be coming to Turkey………

Water, water, everywhere……

I woke up with a bad head today!  He said it was the wine – I said it was his constant talking was finally getting to me………….anyway, no time to be ill!

We planned to stay in Lake Garda another day, to go to the  town and then for a “short” 90 mile  ride round the lake.  We were staying in Riva del Gado which is at the northern end of the lake.

It’s a pretty place, fairly touristy but not too crowded.  The northern end is mountainous.  We soon realised that our short 90 mile ride was going to take nearly the whole day.  The traffice was slow and the main road went thru’ every town .  The weather also began to change

We stopped for a drink in this little town

and when we got back to the bike the heavens opened.  It was like a tropical storm – the drains couldn’t cope with it and within 15 minutes the roads were flooded.  And then it stopped………and started…….and stopped……it went on like this pretty much all the way round – we were wet and dry so many times and also didn’t get many photos 😦

When we arrived back at the campsite it was flooded.  Luckily our little tent was dry!

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As we were preparing to leave the next day we got chatting to the English couple who’s pitch we were sharing, Sally and Dan, they invited us to stay with them if we were passing thru’ Nice – and we exchanged phone numbers. Our next destination was Venice for another 2 day stay.

The weather had changed completely – and we rode thru’ more lovely scenery, again avoiding the motorways.

more mountains

and some great trees! 🙂

This was the first day I started to get hot on the back of the bike.  Once we had left the mountains behind I got a bit bored and wondered about what would happen if I accientally fell asleep!  Hmmm…. suppose I’d better stay awake then!

We found a campsite about 10 minutes outside of Venice called Camping Jolly!  Seemed to be very popular with young backpackers and had lots of facilities including a “disco” 😦  – we found a pitch well away from this!!   As we were lying in our tent later this evening we heard a  vehicle pull up in the pitch behind us.  We got out and saw a large campervan reversing into the space – but it didn’t seem as if it was going to stop.  I yelled at the driver to stop when he got a few feet away from Tiger but he seemed to not realise we were there until Ian shouted again at him.  We could have been “crushed by camper” had we not got out!

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The site ran a bus service into Venice for 4 euros return so we decided to take the bus rather than the bike and had booked the first one at 9.00. I went to Venice over 20 years ago and loved it.  Its a beautiful city but August is probably the worst (busiest) time to go.

View from Rialto Bridge:

The first bus back was at 7pm so we have almost 10 hours to walk around Venice.  I took almost 150 photos 🙂 – obviously I can’t put them all on!  How to pick the best……

It got very hot today – first day for the suncream!  The little side streets were lovely and cool and alot quieter than St Marks Square, which was absolutely heaving

It was also extremely expensive.  We stopped at a little cafe for a drink – 10.5 euros for a capuccino and coke!  Makes me think……if NOBODY paid these prices they would have to lower them………..wouldn’t they??

So on that, we walked down a few side streets and found a cheaper alternative!

A few random shots

When we got to here, we realised Ians directional antennae was faulty – we were at the total opposite end from where we had to catch the bus from!

He did “pretend” to know which way to go, but I knew he was lost!

So, a long walk back the right way then!

We got to the bus with about 10 minutes to spare – when we saw the bike park, we were glad we hadn’t riden into Venice!

Italians sure do like their bikes and scooters!

Ian got a “treat” the next day! (no, NOT that sort of treat!!) We were packing up and chatting to the Australian couple next to us, who were busy making pancakes, when an attractive young lady emerged from the tent behind them, stretched a few times, looked at us, smiled, and then realised she had not a stitch of clothing on!  She grabbed at a scrap of material from inside the tent, but it wasn’t enough to cover her, she then proceeded to “pack” away wearing just this. Every man nearby suddenly emerged from their respective “accomodation”  I don’t think Ian had helped to pack away so much previouly or did he again, and the Australian guy certainly cooked a fair few pancakes!  SORRY NO PHOTOS!!!!

It takes 4 hours on the map………..

Ian had read about the Stelvio Pass in the Italian Alps so wanted to ride it.  A heavily laden, 2 up, Triumph Tiger may not be the best mode of transport to tackle the 48 hairpin bends (would sure have been much more fun on one of Ian’s old bikes  – a GSX R 1000) but after a slow start he soon got into it and I  started to  get some shots

Snowy at the top!

As it was a Saturday afternoon the Italian racer boys were out in force and we watched as they were going round bends with not just their knees but their hand on the ground.  Oh, to be young  with no sense of danger……….  We were also amazed at the amount of  pedal cyclists riding up – a 2760 metre high ride up a twisty road full of motorbikes and cars would not be my idea of fun!(I would probably have a heart attack before I got to the first bend!!)  And coming  back down…..

At some point of the descent I got “told off”.  As any pillion knows, it’s hard not to slide forward when coming down a steep road if you have no grab rail to hold and are trying to take photos!  I was then told I was responsible for the rear brake pads wearing down as he had to keep braking for me!  Hmmph, I think I was expected to get off and walk!

Haha – no I didn’t get off – this was somebody else waiting.

After this is was mountain pass after mountain pass and into Switzerland.

This is St Moritz, and Ian decided we would get something to eat!  Now St Moritz has to be the most expensive place in the world – I thought it would be, he had never heard of it!  It was – we didn’t!  We left.

It was from here that my route map had said 4 hours to Lake Garda (I remembered this) so we thought if we cracked on we would be there before dark…………

Once you get in these mountains, you can’t get out!  There don’t seem to be any straight thru’ roads, they all wind their way up and down the mountains, some of them are really slow.  We soon realised it was going to take a lot longer than 4 hours so looked for a camp site when we got back into Italy.

We found one with a view of a waterfall in a place called Chiavenna.

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The next day was more of the same – mountains

and vineyards

and little towns

We eventually arrived at Lake Garda, alot more than 4 hours later,  and found a campsite.  The receptionist told us there was only one pitch available and to go and look at it. We found the “pitch” – a small triangle which “housed” 2 boats and a French registered car.   After debating whether or not we were in the right place, we decided we were and it was going to be too much hassle to explain to the people who had parked here that this should be our pitch we were set to leave.  A woman then came up to us and asked us, in English, what the problem was.  We explained and she told us it was her car and she would move it but  if we wanted we could put our tent up on their pitch and park the bike next to the car.  (the boat owner was still unknown) We did this and it turned out she was English and was living with her partner in Nice, France and they were on a touring holiday too.  The site had a well stocked shop so we bought ourselves some goodies and a couple of bottles of wine and went and sat with the swans on the lake!

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End of our first week – 1444 miles.

A rıde thru’ the Black Forest

I lıved ın Northern Germany for many years when I was younger (Army brat and wıfe!) and really lıked ıt – so we decıded we would, on thıs trıp, have a rıde thru the Black Forest and Bavarıa.  It dıdn’t dısappoınt…..

We rode to Bergen Bergen and then thru the forest – ıt was quıte cold at the top of the mountaıns and once agaın the roads were practıcally empty of traffıc

Lots of trees tho’ 🙂

Thıs guy decıded to come along for the rıde too..

We found a great campsıte ın a small vıllage (can’t remember the name) whıch ıs our favourıte sıte, to date, and the cheapest at only 10 euro – we practıcally had our own toılet block!

Had a bar too – cheers!!

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The next mornıng was on to Bavarıa.  More pretty scenery and trees!!

Ian made a frıend – cute lıttle calf complete wıth jınglıng bell round hıs neck

The maın reason (for me) ın comıng to Bavarıa was to see the fantastıc Neuschwansteın castle, buılt by Kıng Ludwıg ın the late 19th century, and the castle on whıch Dısneys Sleepıng Beauty castle ıs based

We dıdn’t go ınto the castle as, predıcatbly, was full of tourısts!

Kıng Ludwıgs ”other” castle ıs  Hohenschwangau – whıch ıs also faırly ımpressıve

From here ıt was just a short rıde ınto Austrıa

Where are we?

We had decıded to keep off the motorways\autobahns so set off thru the Belgıan countrysıde headıng for Luxemburg.  Belgıum ıs a very clean, neat country wıth good roads.

It ısn’t borıng

We passed thru pretty vıllages and scenery and were never too sure whıch country we were ın – Belgıum, France or Luxemburg as we crossed borders so often

We found a campsıte we thought to be ın Luxemburg, but were told we were back ın Belgıum.  We were gıven a huge pıtch, for our lıttle tent and bıke, but the neıghbourıng kıds seemed to thınk thıs meant they could use the rest of  our pıtch to have water gun fıghts – a few well placed glares dıd the trıck and they soon got the hınt!  I quıte lıked Belgıum – pıty about the raın ın Bruges and you do get nıce bıg sandwıches!

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We headed for Luxemburg cıty the next day whıch was only a short rıde away.  When we arrıved, I agaın got the ”whıch way” remark from Ian – whıch I ıgnored and pretended I couldn’t hear hım (I do thıs quıte alot actually!)  When we reached the centre he remarked how ıt was just lıke rıdıng thru Newcastle – too much traffıc…….

We rode around tryıng to fınd a parkıng place and eventually found the perfect one just after the brıdge so we were able to get a few photos

Luxemburg has lots of shops – but thıs ısn’t a shoppıng trıp so……………no, not goıng to be tempted! Also has lots of flowers…

We carrıed on thru Luxemburg and ınto France on our way to Germany – stoppıng for food along the way

The weather was just rıght, not too hot and great for rıdıng, and on these country road was hardly any traffıc

We arrıved ın Germany and found a campsıte called Campıng Rammsteın ( I thought Rammsteın were a rock group but apparently not!)

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And we’re off……………

We ıntended to leave at 9.00am on Sunday mornıng but decıded to make a few “packıng adjustments” to the bıke and moved the sleepıng mats to the top box rather than the pannıers as ıt was really hard for me to clımb on

It then started to pour wıth raın so we decıded to put waterproofs on………..mıne are, for some strange reason , ıntended to be worn ınsıde my bıke kıt, so took kıt off and put waterproofs on – we went to say goodbye to my parents and wıth the temperature at around 22 degrees ıt felt lıke I was walkıng ın a huge plastıc bın lıner, so off they came agaın, of course, ıt had now stopped raınıng anyway!  Fınally we left at 10.00 am

We got about half an hour down the road and Ian decıded the tent was goıng to fall off the back, (ıt wasn’t), I then had the good ıdea of gettıng off the bıke usıng the pıllıon foot pegs rather than the rıder footpegs (somethıng I was NOT allowed to do really) but maybe ıt wasn’t such a good ıdea as I got ın trouble and told that ıf I wanted to rıde round Europe wıthout a footpeg then to carry on doıng thıs – I dıdn’t.  As we pulled away there was a horrıble gratıng noıse, ıt turned out wıth the extra weıght the chaın was too tıght, so another stop to adjust ıt

We then had an uneventful journey to London and the Ace Cafe, a famous bıker cafe,

we had a quıck (expensıve) snack and set off through the London  traffıc and the raın…….

fınally arrıvıng at our hotel for the nıght ın Folkestone

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Intro……………..

After owning a shop for the last nine (very long!) years my partner, Ian,  and I,  have decided to sell up and move to Turkey.  Before we do this though we thought it would be fun to take a little bike trip around Europe. First (and most important) question –  What bike should we use?? The one we already had……….

Nah…………..it’t not really that comfortable on the back, and the suspension is too hard……….(sorry BMW) so we decided to look for something different.  Ian, pretty much straight away started looking at more BMW’s (GS’s).  Now, I know i’m probably in a minority here, but I think GS’s are very strange looking machines,  they may be the best tourers/most comfortable/best for off road bikes around for all I know (and I think i’ve read somewhere that they are) but they’re bloody ugly!!! So I did a little research (looked at some pictures basically!) and came up with a few options – Triumph Tiger,  KTM 990 and Yamaha 660Z Tenere.  Unfortunately my choices were not his – KTM was too expensive and the Yamaha too small – so Tiger it was then.  Nope, he decided he liked the Suzuki V Strom.  So off we went to the dealer and had a look/play/sit on one.  Not bad – but we don’t want a brand new bike and that’s pretty much all they had.  After scouring the internet for days……….and days………..turning into weeks we found ……………nothing!  In the meantime some friends of ours, Dave and Linda, (more on them later)  who were also doing a European trip arrived to stay with us on their bike………

A Honda Transalp.  So, we tested it, Dave and Ian had several “discussions” about it and yep, seemed ideal for us too.  Back to the internet then.  We found ONE bike – but by the time Ian got round to phoning about it, it had already gone.  I now know that the North East of England is sports bike territory!  Then one day, quite by chance as I was supposed to be working, I found him……………..

He was in Liverpool, which wasn’t too far from us, and maybe silver isn’t the most exciting colour but he sure fitted the bill.Off we went  to Liverpool then.  He was 3 years old, low mileage and in excellent condition, with lots of extra bits fitted. (so Ian tells me!)  So he came home……