Eastern European Delights - CEE2401
Mark and Barbara were greated with a clear blue sky and perfect summerly weater already in the early morning and headed into the inner city of Vienna, ready for some sightseeing.
While most of the other hotelguests are still on their way to the breakfast, we started with the morning briefing and made our way to the motocycles. As soon as we left the hotel, we were greeted by a wonderful sommer day. We left Vienna behind and headed north into the direction of the Czech Republic. Before we crossed the boarder, we had a quick Coffeestop in a small village. For Lunch and some sightseeing we stopped at the Lednice Castle. it's not only an impressive castle, also the park around the castle is beautiful and invites you to linger around. But we still had some miles to enjoy on some country roads through a the breathetaking countryside of Czech. Before we arrived at our hotel for tonight, we stopped at the Austerlitz Peace Mount, a place of one of the most important events, the battle of Austerlitz, took place. Even though the memorial place was being renovated, we were still able to visit it. We then made our way to Kroměříž, where we were able to round off the first day of driving with a leisurely dinner.
After a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast, we started a new day of driving full of anticipation. After a last coffee stop in the Czech Republic, we crossed the border into Slovakia, where we were greeted by somewhat flooded roads due to the recent heavy rainfall. Full of the spirit of adventure, we accepted the challenge and, contrary to expectations, got to enjoy some off-road fun. At our next stop in Čičmany, beautiful old wooden houses awaited us, which were painted with white line patterns according to a tradition dating back over 200 years. We enjoyed a tasty lunch at Bojnice Castle, which looks like something out of a fairy tale. After taking a closer look at the castle, we drove on to the Certovica Pass, the highest passable mountain pass in Slovakia and our first pass on this tour. Happy and satisfied, we reached our hotel in Liptovský Hrádok, where Joe was waiting for us with a little surprise. However, it still wasn't quite enough adventure for one of us, so Jeff then explored the cave found on the hotel grounds and was rewarded with a treasure ;)
After a nice stay in a beautiful castle we were very optimistic that the rain would stop to enjoy the landscape. But after 1 hours drive we had to realize the opposite.The High Tatras came into our scope and the clouds released a short impression of the beauty. The rain got stronger and stronger and that means only a very little view of the mountains. Despite these conditions the mood in the group was always good. We directly drove to Bradejov. The lunch break there was very appreciated, the people there were very friendly and we enjoyed the local special soups. We arrived safely and happy in our nice hotel in Kosice.
After crossing the hungrian border our first stop was Füzer Castle. The castle romantically positioned over a step rock. The castle was first mentioned in 1264 and completely restored from 2012 to 2016. The next stop was in the region of Tokaj, were we bought some bottles of wine for tasting as an apperitif during dinner. We took a very small ferryboat with an engine what looked like a heritage of the last century. The landscape got more and more flat and everybody recognized the Hungrian Pusta. After crossing the border to Romania, which took more time than wanted we arrived late in Ordea our next stay overnight.
We left Oradea behind us and drove into the Apuseni Mountains, where we were not only awaited by countless bends and hairpin bends, but were also rewarded with a wonderful view. We enjoyed driving along the winding road through the green landscape. After a lunch break in Campeni, we drove on towards Alba Iulia, where, after a quick stop for fuel, we continued on our way to avoid the rain clouds gathering behind us. Although they caught up with us in the course of the afternoon, we didn't let them spoil the fun of driving and were greeted by a blue sky in Sighișoara. To make sure we didn't miss out on sightseeing today, we explored the town before dinner, passing Vlad's birthplace, among other things.
After a very heavy thunderstorm during the night we dressed us for leaving with our rain gear. Nobody thought that during the day the weather would change so much, it got a lot better when we entered the Transfagarasan, the most spectacular road of the Carpathians connecting Transylvania to the Walachia. Along the road we saw several brown bears. Fortunately no collision. Reaching the top of the pass it started to be very cloudy and the temperature went down to 7 degrees celcius. Arriving Sibiu we all were happy and many of curves richer.
Everybody agreed that the Transfargasan ride was a highlight of the tour so far. Today we left Transsylvania in direction west to the Banat area towards Timisoara The hightlight of the day was the Transalpina. Little traffic, spectacular views and perfect streets expected us. We enjoyed the temperatures because we reached an altitude of appr. 2240 m (7.300 ft)The road brought us down to Caransebes and straight to Timisoara
Today we left Timișoara and its beautiful citycenter behind and head on into the direction of Hungary. Our first "stop" was at the border with Hungary, where we had to wait a short time due to passport controls. We made our first real stop in Szeged, where we took a look at the beautiful cathedral and enjoyed a coffee in its shade or, like Jeff, simply took a short break. For Lunch Joe surprised us with a very deliciouse Picknick. From there we headed on to our next adventure of the day, we crossed the Danbue with a Ferry. Before we reached our Hotel in Pecs, we had another stop at the Mohács Historical Memorial Site, which is quite important for the Hungarians.
For today, we had some Country hopping on the plan ;) First we left Hungary behind and crossed the boarder to Croatia. We had a relaxed an deliciouse lunch break in Varaždin. From there found some narrow and twisty roads right after we crossed the boarder to Slovenia. In the citycenter of Ptuj we found a very lovely coffee for a little break, some of us decided to take a short nap ;) After the vastness of Hungary, the Croatian lunches, the twisty roads and sightseeing in Slovenia, we arrived at the hotel in Maribor with a lot of new impressions.
After crossing the border from Slovenia to Austria we enterd the very nice region south of Styria. Cruising through soft hills, nice vinyards and forests brought us close to Graz. In Thal we visited the Museum of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Another highlight was the visit of the famous home of the white horses (Lipizaner). The tour brought us to the beautiful Admont a small town in the middle of the mountains were we stayed ofer night
Today we started earlier as usual to be right in time to visit the Erzberg and Iron Mine which is one of the oldest in Europe (exploring for 850 years). Their main product is iron ore for steel with high purity used in the automotive industry. The Hauly Tour opens us the view of the size of this big iron mine. The Gesäuse National Park was a perfect area to view the beauty of nature and the smell of herbes and forest. Endless curves brought us to Vienna where we all were caught by the rush hour traffic and a brutal heat over the nineties.