20th August 2022
I actually returned from the Bosnia trip, first of my 3 big trips this year, on the 23rd June; its taken me since then to get my thoughts together and produce a record of the trip. Two weeks after returning I was back on the bike setting off for my second big trip of the year to France, Spain & Portugal. Just enough time to get the bike serviced in between. In my rush to prepare the action cam for the second trip I managed to delete all of the on bike footage from the Bosnia trip!! Thought I’d transferred the video clips from the SD card to my PC, so I formatted the SD card; to my dismay found I had actually wiped the lot 🙁
However, the good news is that I had also taken lots of photos and video clips on my iPhone and I have been able to put them together into a 14 min highlight video which you can watch on YouTube at Big John Moto Touring Adventures. The link is at the end of this post..make sure to watch it!
The first 5 days of the trip I was riding solo to Croatia; travelling through Belgium, France & Germany, then across the Alps via Austria and into Italy and Slovenia, to meet up with my friend Bernard in Split, Croatia; we would take 8 days to ride back together via Bosnia & Herzegovina, then up through Slovenia and across the Italian Dolomites, before heading back to Calais via Austria, Germany and France. The trip turned out to be a great Adventure, with a few “moments” along the way, through some amazing scenery, with great roads, and 9 countries each with their own special culture 🙂
On Saturday 11th June I set off for the Channel Tunnel to make the crossing to France; on the M20 I saw signs “long delays at Eurotunnel”, my heart sank. Thankfully I found that the long queues were only for lorries bogged down with all the Euro zone paperwork. I’d hate to be a lorry driver! The queue for me at check in was short and I was through in no time and on the train, which left on time 🙂
(You can double click on any of the photos in this post to see full screen)
Once in France I took motorways and N roads to crunch the miles to Metz and my first night hotel, 400 miles from home. On arrival at the hotel I was told that the restaurant was closed and would only be serving breakfast!..but they were serving beer at the bar 🙂 Using my schoolboy French I found out there was an Italian restaurant 5 mins walk away. I arrived to be told they were fully booked, but I could have a take away pizza. After pizza and a few beers I slept like a log.
My second day destination was Weingarten, in Germany..285 miles. The route would take me via Les Vosges Nord and then on to the famous B500 through the Black Forest in Germany. No more motorways, nice roads all the way.
The B500 turned out to be a real disappointment as all the best bits now had 50kms/hr speed limit (31miles/hr)!! Last time I rode the B500 was probably nearly 10 yrs ago; It was a great road and fun to ride; it had the reputation of being somewhat of a race track for motorcyclists however..not any more! 🙁 The Black Forest is certainly a picturesque area; I managed to find a track leading deep into the forest and a quiet spot to have the rest of last nights pizza for lunch ( make sure to watch the video at the end).
The hotel that night was a nice family run guesthouse right in the middle of Weingarten, serving good beer and a nice dinner 🙂
I woke up on the morning of day 3 to find it was raining, the forecast suggested I should be clear of it by lunchtime. My destination would be Mittersill in Austria, a ride of 250 miles on increasingly twisty mountain roads through ski areas and mountain passes across the Alps.
As I rode to higher altitudes in the rain I was often in the clouds; it was good to have the SatNav to show me where the road was going! Mid morning I came through a small village and decided to stop for a coffee to get a break from the rain.
The rain stopped and the afternoon was dry; the roads were fantastic, as was the scenery. (Check out the video) Towards the end of the day my route took me to the fantastic Gerlos Alpenstrasse, a toll road pass in the Austrian Alps. Wow! what a road, I had real fun riding it..a great way to finish off the day.
I arrived at my hotel about 19:30 and the place was packed with people drinking beer, dressed in Tyrolian hats and lederhosen! They had a big fish tank, so fish for dinner it was 🙂
Day 4 was to be a big day. My route would take the Grossglockner High Alpine Pass across the Alps, down into Italy briefly and then on through Slovenia and my hotel for the night in a small rural town called Retje. 245 miles and 7hrs 15 riding time according to my SatNav.
The Grossglockner is one of the main passes over the Austrian Alps; 3798m high and 48kms (30miles) long it is a toll road and costs 28 Euro for a motorcycle. Sounds a lot but well worth it for the views and the great road, which is the highest paved road in Austria. Thankfully it was a really nice sunny day and it felt like being on top of the world at the highest point. Lots of bikers were out, as well as crazy cyclists puffing and panting up the steep inclines. (check out the video)
My second major pass of the day would take me from Austria into Italy..this one turned out to be a real adventure!! Deep in ski territory I wound my way up the Austrian side of the pass and at the top was the ski resort of Nassfeld, ahead was the border with Italy..and a sign which I interpreted as “Road ahead closed”!! I certainly didn’t need that and a long detour back the way I’d come! As I was stopped wondering what to do, a cyclist waved at me and indicated for me to carry on; chances were I thought there would be road works ahead, but enough room for a motorbike to get through..so I rode on.
The road surface of the SP10 on the Italian side was very poor as I started my winding decent into Italy. I had ridden for probably 5 or 6 miles and rounded a corner to find road works and a big truck blocking the road, but with enough space for a motorbike to pass..there were 3 guys working there and one of them stood in front of the gap and started shouting and waving for me to trun around. I stopped my engine and said “parlare inglese” (speak English) in my best Italian. He continued to shout at me in Italian and I pointed to the gap and indicated that I wanted to go through. At this point I thought I heard him say “three coffees”, and wondered what he meant; he said it again and suddenly the penny dropped..did he want payment for him and his friends to let me go through? I had to laugh and got out a 5 Euro note which did the trick and he waved me through!! I was happy to pay the “toll” as it saved me many miles and lots of time. 🙂
I reached the end of the pass and came into the small town of Pontebba, it was about 14:00 so decided to stop at a café for a cold drink. As I sat there checking the next part of my route I noticed the immaculately dressed local policeman “Polizia Locale” standing with a large glass of white wine, chatting to some of the locals. Maybe it was his lunch break I thought..or maybe it was a “public relations” visit..either way he was enjoying his wine and another large glass was delivered soon 🙂
I continued my journey and was soon crossing into Slovenia, which is a really nice picturesque country with great roads. I started to leave the mountains on rural roads, with good surface (unlike our awful pothole riddled UK roads) and arrived at Guesthouse Ana overlooking the small town of Retje. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the place had recently been refurbished, room was great and they had a nice restaurant with piped very jolly accordion music playing, which the locals all seemed to like 🙂 (check out the video)
Day 5 I set off on the Slovenia back roads heading for the Croatian border, my destination is Sebinik, a small seaside town on the Adriatic coast. 212 miles today. Taking it easy on a twisty road near the border I came up behind another motorcycle with pillion; I waited until I could overtake safely and we waved to each other. A couple of miles later I rounded a bend and ahead was a barrier and a small hut at the Slovenian border; the border police wanted to see my passport and went away to check it out. Couple of minutes later the other motorcycle arrived; it was a Slovenian couple, they saw my UK plate and the wife happened to speak reasonable English. We had quiet a chat and the husband wanted a photo 🙂 His wife said they were impressed with how fast I was riding..I didn’t like to tell them that I was actually taking it easy at the time! 🙂
The Slovenian police waved me through and 100 yds round the next bend was the Croatian border..another 15mins wasted checking passport!
I was soon on the Adriatic coast highway heading south; the sun was out and it was getting hot..30C. It was great riding down the coast with the blue sea stretching out ahead.
My hotel was right on the sea front, I sat with a cool beer watching the rich people on their yachts and enjoyed the “holiday moment”.
Day 6 I set off early to meet up with Bernard at our arranged rendezvous point just outside Split, about an hour’s ride away. We then set off together for the Bosnian border on our way to Mostar and the famous Old Bridge.
Mostar is quiet a large town, the bridge is in the Old Town area. The famous bridge was originally built by the Ottermans in the 16th century; it was rebuilt in 2001 after the Bosnian war and is considered to be a fine example of Islamic architecture in the Balkans. We didn’t want to park and walk into the Old Town in the heat, instead we managed to stop on another bridge just upstream and take a few photos without getting run over by the steams of traffic.
We spent the night in the town of Livno, about 100 miles north of Mostar; our hotel Dinara was a large rather grand, but faded, hotel in the middle of town..we got the impression that we were the only guests; there were no other people around whatsoever, other than the old guy on reception. Through a mixture of Google translate and sign language we managed to get a recommendation for a restaurant and an idea of how to get there. It turned out to be the best restaurant in town and we had an exceptional grilled fish platter for two at a very reasonable price; the only problem, there are no restrictions on smoking indoors in Bosnia..one forgets how nasty it can be when you’re eating!
Day 7 We continued our way northwards, riding some great roads through rural areas and small villages, with hardly any traffic. (check out the video) One thing we noticed was the large number of derelict properties along the way, with new houses built right next to them! Our conclusion was that this dated back to the Bosnian war in the 1990s when many properties were destroyed. Why they never demolished them is a mystery. Googling came up with the following….Housing destruction and forced expulsions were used as a method of ethnic cleansing during the war in Bosnia Herzegovina (BiH). Thirty-seven per cent of pre-war housing stock was partially or totally destroyed. When the Dayton Peace Agreement ended conflict in 1995 over half the pre-war B&H population had been forced to leave home.
It was really hot, so just before leaving Bosnia we stopped for a cold drink at a café beside a beautiful lake.
Day8 We had spent the previous night at a nice modern hotel/restaurant in Slovenia; today we would continue north through Slovenia and then west into Italy and through the Dolomites to Villa Santina for the night. 230 miles on some seriously twisty, scenic roads. It was my turn to lead and one point I must have missed a turning, so my Garmin quickly picked up a new route which took us up into the Slovenian hills on some nice back roads..there came a point however when the SatNav wanted to take me off on unpaved roads, so I decided it was time to stop and figure out where we were (much to Bernard’s relief). We used the opportunity to have a lunch break by the roadside in a very pretty rural area way up in the Slovenia hills..all part of the Adventure!!! 🙂
We found our way back to the original route and soon crossed into Italy, making for Villa Santina. We arrived at the hotel around 18:30; in the car park already were 8 German bikes, but no sign of any people; just inside the door of the hotel was a chair and on it was a key with my name on it..no hotel staff anywhere to be seen, also there was a notice saying that the restaurant and bar were closed for the night, but would be open for breakfast in the morning! The hotel had received good reviews on Booking.com, so this all seemed very strange!
We let ourselves into the room, which could best be described as “basic”, but at least the shower worked.and there was a plug for the sink 🙂 We then set about Googling to find a restaurant nearby and came up with a pizzeria a short walk away; a basic place with wooden benches..but they served beer and the red wine was inexpensive. The pizzas turned out to be a new experience..check out the pics. I reminded Bernard again that the trip was an Adventure..not a holiday” 🙂
Day 9 We set off after breakfast for our next destination, Merano in Italy, only 170 miles today; our route would take us through the very scenic Dolomites on some fantastic, very twisty mountain roads, it was a great day’s ride. ..check out the video.
Our hotel in Merano was a very nice restaurant with rooms above it..a big improvement on the night before! We celebrated in style with a seafood platter and a nice carafe of white wine to wash down the beers 🙂
Day 10 270 miles to Barental in the German Black Forest. This was always going to be long tough day, crossing from Italy to Austria and then a long stretch of motorway/major roads in Germany around Lake Konstanz to avoid travelling through Switzerland and paying their exorbitant motorway vignette charges. The day started well as we rode over the fantastic Timmelsjoch pass into Austria.
As we entered Austria the scenery was spectacular, we stopped to look down this fantastic valley. Check out the video…
As we entered Germany the temperature was 30C+, we made slow progress through heavy urban traffic; filtering past stationary cars as best we could..it was HOT, then we came upon a police roadblock. Thankfully they didn’t seem interested in us, only stopping and searching cars. As we entered the motorway we found four lanes of stationary traffic for as far as we could see. We squeezed between the cars; some were happy to lets us through, other hot and angry drivers tried to block us. We decided to come off at the first available junction to get away from the madness; at the exit there was a major police presence. (We subsequently found out from the local news that a policeman had been shot and all the chaos was due to the police activity trying to catch the assailant)
We were now well off the route and well behind schedule so we just plugged the hotel destination into the SatNav and let it figure out how to get there. The route turned out to be major roads full of lorries and roadworks.. a nightmare journey in the heat. Finally we arrived at our hotel in the Black Forest at 19:30, it was to be a 2 night stay. We were tired and ready for beer and dinner. But things were about to turn from bad to worse!!
At check in we asked about dinner, the manager replied that we should have reserved our place no later than 5pm, so they were fully booked and we could not have dinner! There was restaurant 15mins walk away he said! We argued that we’d had a long day and were tired, as guests of the hotel we expected to be served! When booking the room we had not been advised about their rules; voices were raised by this point and the manager then said “if you don’t like it go find another hotel”. I was really angry and told the guy in no uncertain terms that his attitude was totally unacceptable, we weren’t going anywhere so he better sort it out! We had the room key so we went to the room. 5 mins later the room phone rang, they had found a table for us as someone had “cancelled”, but we had to come down as soon as possible..result!! The meal was fine and the beer was good! Apart from the manager it was a really nice hotel with swimming pool and in a nice position (check out the video)
Day 11 Our original plan was to ride a loop of the Black Forest, but after the bad day yesterday we decide to have a rest day. We checked out the local village, did some bike maintenance to try and find out why my bike was overheating (gummed up radiator fins), had a nice lunch and a swim in the pool. That evening there was a spectacular sunset and we got talking and had a laugh with a German couple, the husband was a farmer and had definitely had a few beers.
Day 12 Our last night destination was Metz in France, 270 miles via a good route through the French Vosges. As we set off it was raining and continued to do so most of the day. Lunch was a roadside layby kitchen; the French version of the British one man band with his trailer.
Day 13 Metz to Calais Eurotunnel..We took the toll roads, 300 motorway miles and then another 125 on the dreaded M25 and finally A41 to home.
Conclusion: A GREAT trip ..3,200 miles in all. A real Adventure though 9 countries. Fantastic roads and scenery, lots of beer and red wine!!
We embraced the reality of unintended consequence 🙂
Thanks for reading my ramblings..make sure to watch the video which will bring this great trip to life 🙂