Tuesday, October 05, 2010

EUROPE TOUR Part 3


As we arrived at our hotel for the night in Zagreb, several thousand suckers exited the conference centre - opposite the hotel - where they had attended a Godbothering (give them your money & they'll save your soul kinda thing) meeting. They blocked the hotel entrance, the reception desk & the parking lot.
We were not amused.
Thankfully they cleared off within half an hour.

The day before we arrived in Zagreb, several rivers had flooded due to torrential rain. It was heartbreaking to see heaps of fields of crops & grazing land badly flooded.

A street, hastily snapped whilst riding through Slovenia. At least it wasn't raining.

We got stuck in a traffic jam, which trailed back friggin' miles. There was no warning of what the problem was & traffic in the opposite direction was flowing smoothly. Like everyone else, we sat & fumed for an hour. Turns out the roadwork crew decided to close the lane completely. Arseholes.

On the road again...........Salzburg here we come!

With the exception of our hotel in Prague, every hotel we stayed in during the tour, classified the above as a 'double'. It's 2 single beds pushed together, not a double! And what's with the sleeping bag style duvet? Duvets were folded width-wise on the bed, which essentially meant you have to shake it out & lay it the long way on the bed, before climbing into yer perch.
Europeans are strange people.

The scenery just outside of Salzburg was stunning - incredible mountains & lush green grass - what a pleasure!

'Mirror' gardens at Hellbrunn Palace. In true German/Austrian precision, each side of the garden has been created/landscaped to be the perfect image of the opposite side.

In the heart of Salzburg, the rather splendid gardens of the Mirabell Palace are open to the public to mosey around. The gardens are absolutely awesome. I could've quite happily stayed there for several days, perhaps reading a good book, or maybe doing a spot of people watching. (Gawd, there are some weird folk about!)

Fabulous scenery, on the road from Salzburg to Nuremberg. (Please note my keyboard doesn't have a key with 2 little dots that sit on top of letters, so I couldn't spell the city the other way - Nurnberg)

On our trusty steed at the Harley dealer in Nuremberg.

When we eventually arrived back in Berlin, the heavens opened again & that, along with rotgut courtesy of a dodgy kebab, made doing touristy things a bit unpleasant. We managed to get a taxi, which took us to Checkpoint Charlie but a big chunk of the city became 'out of bounds' thanks to the Berlin Marathon.

Hubs & myself next to the most misquoted phrase in Germany. Gotta love it!

On the whole, we had a great tour with good friends - the weather for the first 4 days was really kak - it rained buckets & was bloody cold. From the 5th day onwards, the sun came out & it made riding so much nicer. I personally was really impressed with the standard of driving by cagers & truckers throughout each country - they're courteous towards bikers, which makes a nice change. I detested the attitude of the locals in Bratislava yet fell in love with the friendliness of people in Salzburg. We rode through other major towns/cities, such as Brno & Munich & generally took in as much as we could see, given the limited time available. We bought Harley T-shirts in every dealership we visited, which meant that we came home pretty loaded down! (Fridge magnets don't take up much space!)

Finally, I really must give a plug to a guy who has started up an invaluable service. Parking at airports can be really costly. We weren't in the position to get friends to drop us off, so we had to take T2 to the airport. A friend of mine here in Schleppalale, told me about a new parking service at Oliver Tampon Airport (aka Joburg International). Martin, from S U Parking will collect your vehicle from the airport, store it in a secure warehouse & be at the airport to meet you on your return. I made arrangements with him beforehand & I couldn't have asked for better service. He was waiting for us at the airport before our departure & had T2 ready & waiting for us on our arrival back from the tour. In total, it cost us ZAR640 for the collection, storage & delivery of T2, which is less than 50% of what it would have cost us if we'd left the bike in the actual airport carpark.

Labels: Berlin, Brno, Harley Davidson, Munich, Nuremberg, Salzburg, SU Parking at Joburg Airport, Zagreb

Posted by Jayne :: 10:41 :: 8 Had Somminc To Say

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---------------oOo--------------- EUROPEAN TOUR Part 1

I'm the first to admit I have a bloody awful memory, so for the last 2 tours we've done (with friends) I've made an effort to make notes on my trusty DingleBerry. But having said that, I thought I'd do a synopsis of the tour, 'cos otherwise you lot would be yawning..............

Met up with Mikey, Max & TLT in Berlin. Much catching-up over various liquid refreshments. Following morning, load up the bikes & head for Prague.
It rained.
It was cold.
(bitch moan)
German roads are good.
Czech Republic roads suck.
Czech Republic is held together by roadworks.
Czech Republic is partially owned by Tesco. Their fucking massive advertising boards are a blight on the landscape.
Prague was nice, even in the shite weather.



Sadly, Max & TLT had to leave us, as they nutted off to Franfurt to buy a dog.


Wenceslas Square (oh he of the Crimble Carol) Prague, full of dodgy casinos & porn establishments. (There is a Marks & Sparks as well, but it didn't have any crumpets or pork pies. *sigh*)

Having watched

Henry (I-don't-'arf-whinge) Cole's

rides through Europe recently, we made a detour on the way from Prague to Bratislava, to check out

Kutna Hora

It was well worth it.




A quick trip to the Harley dealer in Bratislava revealed this sign:

I suspect is was planted by a non- Harley rider who thought he had a sense of humour.

Labels: Berlin, Bratislava, Henry-whinge-Cole, Kutna Hora, Prague, Tesco

Posted by Jayne :: 07:36 :: 7 Had Somminc To Say

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---------------oOo---------------