Eastern European Delights (CEE2402)
Our destination today is the small town of Kroměříž in the Czech Republic. With only just over 200 kilometers to ride, today is a very relaxed first day and just right to find our way around the tour and our motorcycles. We leave Vienna in the morning heading north and as soon as we leave Vienna and enter the province of Lower Austria, we are in a part of Austria that probably very few people know. There are no mountains here, but a sparsely populated hilly landscape that is mainly characterized by agriculture. We leave Austria at one of the smallest border crossings and can already tick the first country in Eastern Europe off our list, the Czech Republic. There will be many more border crossings on this tour and countries unknown to most of us. Once in the Czech Republic, we make a stop in Lednice, a small town with a beautiful 17th century-style castle, which is one of the most visited sights in the Czech Republic. We then continue to Austerlitz, the scene of one of the most important battles in European history, when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered a large part of Europe on his campaign and defeated the troops of Austria and Russia here.
Today we started our journey towards Slovakia. After a short break before the border for coffee we stoped at the border to greet the next country on our journey. Our first stop in Slovakia was Čičmany where we saw the beautiful painted wooden houses. For lunch we stoped then at Castle Bojnice. Our last part of today's more then 300 kilometers took us through the beauty of the low tatras.
We leave our hotel in Liptovsky Hradok this morning with a little melancholy, because how often do you have the opportunity to spend the night in such a lovingly restored castle? But today we have another good day in Slovakia ahead of us. We leave our hotel heading north-east and make our way towards the High Tatras. This mountain range in the border region between Poland and Slovakia was practically undeveloped for a long time and has only been discovered by tourism in recent decades. Today, the area is a paradise for hikers and climbers who want to enjoy the almost untouched nature here. But it is also perfect for motorcycling, with long, sweeping bends through the countryside and very little traffic. After a short detour across the border to Poland, we continue to Bardejov, where we stop for lunch in the medieval town center. Freshly fortified, we then continue directly to Kosice, the second largest city in Slovakia. Our hotel there is located right in the historic center, perfect for exploring the city on foot.
An astonishing long day through Hungary in rising temperature, glad we had a nice picknick on the way to gain a little bit of power.
Yesterday we only drove a short distance past the border between Hungary and Romania to our hotel in Oradea. Today we saw a lot more of Romania and we spent most of the day in Siebenbürgen, the part of Romania formerly mostly populated by German emigrants. Incidentally, this area is called Transylvania in Romanian, which most people probably know as Dracula's homeland. The highlight of the day today was certainly the Apuseni National Park and the Apuseni Mountains, a foothill of the Carpathian Mountains, which characterize a large part of Romania's landscape. This is a great area for hiking and mountain biking, but the winding, mostly little-used roads are also ideal for motorcycling. Today we spend the night in Sighisoara, a small town with a beautiful historic center, which has even been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999.
We prepared us for the highlight of the day with fortess churches, so we can then go safely to Bran´s castle.
After driving along the Carpathian Mountains for the last few days, this time we are heading into the heart of this mountain range that characterizes the Romanian landscape so much. And we're not just driving any road today, but the world-famous Transfogaras High Road. This road through the mountains, which was actually built for military purposes in the 1970s, was once named the world's best road in the car show "Top Gear". After driving it today, we know that this designation did not come from somewhere. For almost 100 km, one bend follows the next and the driving pleasure is not interrupted by a single village on the entire route. In addition to the many bends, there is another attraction on the route that draws many visitors. You can almost always see bears sitting at the side of the road, hoping for food from passing tourists. This time too, we saw 2 bears snoozing in the shade and our fearless photographer Birgit even managed to take a photo of them from a safe distance.
Today we want on the Transalpina road, luckily we have been there almost on our own and could enjoy the nice sweeping roads, also the tempreatures in the mountains have been very nice to us.
Our time in Romania was great and the country was probably different from what most of us had expected. But today it's time for us to move on and make our way towards Hungary. First thing in the morning we head towards the border, where a long line of cars has already formed. Fortunately, we are able to pass the stationary cars on our motorcycles and our interruption for the border formalities is limited. Once we arrive in Hungary, we also get back the one hour we lost due to the different time zone in Romania. In Hungary, we then head through the Hungarian Puszta to our destination for today, Pecs, one of Hungary's cultural capitals, which we will explore this evening.
Two border crosses have been on todays route and some marvelous backroads along the Drau.
Slovenia, Austria's neighboring country to the south, is beautiful and there would have been many beautiful motorcycle routes for us to explore here. But today we're heading back across the border to Austria early in the morning, where we started our tour almost two weeks ago. Fortunately, Styria in Austria also has a lot to offer, both in terms of scenery and beautiful roads. As soon as we cross the border, Austria welcomes us with countless vineyards and beautiful hills. As we are not far away, we naturally take a break on the famous “Herzerlstraße” to take a few romantic photos. We then continue towards Graz, the capital of Styria, where we visit the only official Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum, which was set up in the house where he was born. We then continue over the Gaberl Pass towards Admont, today's destination of our journey.
Out last riding day started with the perfect weather slightly cloudy and cool temperature. Heading through Gesäuse on our way to Kalte Kuchl where we had our well protected lunch stop. Our last curves we took at Baden through the vineyards as we then entered back again Vienna. We had nice days with our customers and want to say thank you for the pleasent ride.