Vienna and on to Slovak Republic

Vienna was primarily a social visit, but I also spent a couple of hours wandering around the historical monuments. Vienna is one of those cities where you can walk everywhere as everything is so close together. Another good city, but a day was enough for me as I was keen to press on having caught up with my friend.

The Slovak Republic was less than 50kms away, but the drizzle turned to torrential rain and my waterproof riding gear was getting tested fully. I'm pleased to report that they work!
Within a few miles of entering the Slovak Republic, I found myself in Bratislava, trying to find the way through to the other side. I had no interest in this city and just wanted to press on. The SatNav that I'd been relying on so far was starting to flounder as none of the streets were on my
machine, so I got hopelessly lost for 30 minutes, starting to overheat in my bulky waterproofs. Eventually, I got on the slow road out of town and it was another 50kms before I managed to get to the fast road.

It's funny how just one or two details can sway your opinion of a place. My arrival in Slovak republic was in the pouring rain, I subsequently got horrendously lost and when I stopped for lunch, I wouldn't understand enough to order lunch. I felt everyone was out to get me and decided I didn't like the country! A couple of miles later, the rain (temporarily) cleared, I rolled into a historic town and I liked the place again. Carrying on, the next few towns looked depressing, so I pressed on. I think that part of these assumptions come from the fact that you enter a country on wheels, don't speak with anyone, so only have stereotypes to base people upon. Until you've met them, you don't know whether they're friends or foes. It wasn't until the evening that I felt slightly more settled here. That could have something to do with me feeling a bit hung over from the night before, in Vienna, though...

I spent the evening in a medium sized town called Zilina, where, you guessed it, I ended up in the only place with a garage, which was also overpriced. On the plus side, they did upgrade my room to a suite with a jacuzzi, so I was happy. The parking seemed too good to be true, which concerned me, but when I checked this morning, the bike was still there. Yesterday evening, I went out for my first non-pizza dinner in some time. The town was buzzing as there had been a football match on and there was now a rock concert in the town square. I like it here, but after a wander around this morning, I shall press on - not sure where to, but where ever I lay my helmet, that'll be my home for the night! It seems that most of the towns have 2 areas. One with the town square and one with all of the shops, but it's not until you wander down an alleyway that you find the other whole area that you never expected.

Telc, southern Czech Republic

On my way south from Prague, I stopped at what I expected to be a castle in Kutna Hora. It turned out to be 'just another church', so I pressed on. When you see as many churches, castles and monuments as I have and am likely to in the coming months, you have to be selective.
As I headed south to Telc, I stopped for lunch (pasta for a change!) and sat out in the sun, looking at my map. When I opened it out fully, I noticed that I was within 100 mile of Vienna, so I called up a friend that I had not seen for 6 years to see if she was around! Next on the previous agenda had been Brno, but I wasn't too convinced on going there anyway. Within 20 minutes, a plan had evolved and, being under my own steam, I could easily redirect.
A short ride south found me in Telc. This was MUCH less touristy than Prague and I could finally find somewhere to stay that was not overpriced. One of the first things that I noticed was that it was very clean. It had a huge square with churches and stately homes at either end. Joining the two were lines of shops, each in stunningly painted buildings. They even had wifi in
the square, which gave me a chance to do some catching up both on emails and this blog. Most of the afternoon was spent meandering in the town, the park and by the river. I also did some washing, which I duly left out on a washing line to dry before retiring for an afternoon nap.
I awoke to the sound of heavy rain, which obviously soaked my clothes, meaning that they wouldn't be dry before I left the next day. Ho hum. So, I went into town for some dinner (reads 'pizza', yet again). Got soaked on the way when I found that my semi-waterproof travel trousers were not 'semi'! I had my pizza and trotted off home.
The next morning, I packed my soggy clothes, booked an overpriced hotel for Vienna (there's not much choice when you need secure parking) and jumped on my bike for the short ride.

Prague

After a three hour ride to Prague, the temperature was in the mid-30's. The bike seems to be running well and fuel consumption seems to be getting better and better. Previously, the reserve light came on at 175 miles and now it's up to 220 miles! (probably of more interest to me than you). Fuel, which is one of my main expenses is also getting cheaper - from around 90p a litre in Europe down to 65p!
OK, enough of the boring geeky stuff. When I arrived in Prague, with no accommodation booked, I turned up at a recommended place, but they were full (and miles from the centre). So, I headed for the centre, where everything was either full or very expensive (as I'm travelling for 200 days, £100 hotels every night will mount up quickly). After riding around for another 45 mins in the blistering heat, I gave up trying to find some where cheap and just took somewhere not too expensive and with safe parking for the bike.
For the next 2 days, the bike would be parked up and I was to be a tourist like everyone else. Prague is a stunning city. Many castles and old and extravagant buildings, but LOADS of tourists. Everywhere! I managed to get around pretty much everywhere and even made it to the Jewish quarter, which, as you may expect was full of jewellery shops.
Despite my previous comments of the Czech Republic being a backward country, it seems that I had jumped the gun! It is, in fact, very developed, seems to have plenty of wealth and a pretty decent infrastructure. On the food front, I need to learn to hunt down the more traditional places, but unfortunately, those places don't speak a word of English and my Czech isn't up to much.
Tomorrow, I head south-east to, hopefully, a much less touristy and old-style town.

First few days in Western Europe

The ferry arrived in Calais and after a few adjustments to the bikes, we were on our way through France, heading towards Belgium and Luxembourg where we briefly paused for fuel for our bikes and fuel for ourselves (i.e. food).
By the early evening, we were into Germany in a town called Trier. Nothing particularly exciting. We went out to what was to be the first of many pizza restaurants in Germany. It seems that wherever you go, EVERY restaurant is a pizza place!
Day 2 and we headed for the Nurburgring a little to the north. This is one of the longest motor circuits in the world at 13 miles. Whilst we chose not to have a pop ourselves, we did watch a variation of cars zooming around. From Mercedes and BMW prototypes to brand new models and 4x4's as well a Porsches in every colour and a couple of Brits out playing with their Astons
and Bentley Continental 4 doors!
Later on, we were going to press on, but needed to attend to a minor oil leak on one of the bikes. A garage duly identified it and it was easily fixed but we decided to stay over before heading south to the Black Forest the following morning.
We hit the Black Forest (in the south of Germany) after a fairly tedious Autobahn blast in the early afternoon, where we caught up with a friend of mine from London and a German riding buddy of his who showed us all of the good roads. Stunning area and the roads were perfectly windy, which is always fun, although it did feel a bit strange doing this kind of riding on
our fully laden travel bikes.
That evening (partly due to arriving late), we decided to camp and head into town for dinner and to watch the football final. The next day, we headed further south, into Austria. I hadn't intended to go into Austria, but as we had plenty of time, I thought why not. I had never
been there and was not adverse to clocking up another country!
Wow! What a place. We took a turn off into the mountains to a pass called the Silvretta. Despite only being 4 days into the trip, this was by far the most impressive landscape so far. We even found a welcoming guesthouse to stay in up at the top.
Today (Friday), we both pressed on Easterly into Austria before parting ways to go to various weddings before we meet up again in Budapest in around 2 weeks time. I peeled off and after another autobahn, paused for lunch in Salzburg on my way to the Czech Republic. Salzburg was a pretty little city, but, living in London myself, cities generally don't do it for me. (Note to
self: It would be a good date place!).
Later in the afternoon, I crossed the border to Czech. Whilst it is still part of Europe (so no border issues), it was quite a big step for myself as I see it as the start of Eastern Europe - so the adventure was beginning. Immediately, I noticed a deterioration in the road surface, quality of cars and a more traditional style of building. There were quite a few street sellers along the way, but I didn't stop (partly as I had no space for souvenirs and partly because I had no local currency (Czech Kroners). Just half an hour later, I rolled into Cesky Krumlov. This is quite an old town, set on a river (albeit a bit of a tourist trap). I pretty much took the first hotel that I saw that had garaged parking for the bike and checked in before heading out for dinner armed with a map and a pen.
- The pen is to write the best man's speech for a wedding in 2 weeks' time!
- The map is to work out how to spend the two weeks in Czech, Slovak and Hungary before I catch a flight back to London for that wedding.
Hopefully, I'll come up with something entertaining for both!

Departure day

After what turned out to be a frantic last few days, departure couldn't come any sooner. Once we had left London, that would be it in terms of packing up the flat and in gathering things to take with.
When we finally left at 8.30am on Monday morning (from the West End in London), it was quite an exciting, yet nerve-wrecking moment. The trip was actually happening and I was fully prepared in terms of planning. In terms of my mental preparation, I was pretty much there, but for the last minute or two before leaving, I felt the angst that one often does as they embark
on an adventure to the unknown. As we rode off, 200 metres later, all was fine again and I was eager to press on and get out of London. As we headed down the M20 to Dover, we found ourselves a little short on time for the 10.55am ferry, so had to pick up the pace. We made it in time (just) and the tickets that Nutt Travel had booked on our behalf (many thanks to them for providing the tickets!) were waiting there for us. After a minute or two for phone calls, it was our turn to board and then we were whisked away in what will probably be the only other time that we will not be riding under our own steam until we have to navigate around Myanmar
(Burma) in around 5 months time.

3 days to go

There are now only 3 days to go and last night was my leaving drinks. It was great to see so many of my friends there (with only around half of them voicing their thoughts that I must be crazy)!
The paperwork slog turned out to be an unexpected breeze. After working out what needed to be applied for and in what order and filling in the form in the correct ink, we cruised through the visas. Pre-leaving, we have got 5 visas (Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Pakistan and India). All of these last 3-6 months so will still be valid by the time we arrive.
My flat is all packed up into boxes and what I am taking with me is now packed up into aluminium boxes which will be carried on the bike. My brain has now reached saturation level on the planning, so I just want the wheels to start turning and heading towards the continent.