Thanks PanEuropean for your very useful report on your experiences.

My wife and I intend to travel on our Pan European from the UK to Greece and Turkey next year and then double back to Athens in Greece from where we'll fly on to Australia and a friend will ride the bike back to the UK.

The bike is UK registered and we are all UK citizens, but I recently noted in the Lonely Planet Guide to Greece (albeit a 2004 edition) that Greek Customs make a note in your passport if you enter as a tourist with a vehicle and you are unable to leave the country without it. It sounds like that wasn't the case when you entered Greece from Turkey.

Can I ask whether the stamp they put in your passport made any mention of the bike at all?

I don't want a situation where they refuse to let us get on the plane, and/or refuse to let the bike be ridden out of Greece by someone who didn't bring it into the country.

If anyone else has any recent experiences that are relevant, I'd be grateful.

No, no mention of the bike at all, and they didn't even look at the licence plate to see where I was from - just a single standard EU entry stamp for me (the individual) with no notations of any kind. It was one of my faster experiences entering the EU.

Now, whether Greece will still be in the EU next year is another question altogether... :confused1:

Michael

Thanks. Looks like we'll be OK.

Many thanks for the report, some good info. Looking to head that way next summer.
Good to hear that both Romania and Bulgaria do not require a vignettes.
Oh, and will have to keep an eye out for the dogs.

Travelling through this area myself at this moment, resting up in Budapest for a few days.

There was one special move that was committed by the drivers in Romania especially nearer the cities.

The Romanian Slingshot

Traffic held up by truck/horse with around at least 8 cars waiting to overtake with indicators all blinking........

The 9th car to arrive at the very back of the queue normally decides to overtake all the other cars/truck and tends to do it at 180kph.

Those life saver checks have proved their worth several times already.

Hi, i am a huge fan of both Romania & Bulgaria which are great places for trail riding, they have a sense of adventure that Western Europe doesn't have and are of course considerably cheaper.
I have always found the horse & carts with 20 people on them incredible friendly and will instantly pull over to let you pass but beware the large black 4x4 's they will happily run you down.
another word of advise, if there is a car wanting to overtake coming towards you he will pull out into your path as he expects you to move over.
Andy

Very useful report, Michael. That area of Europe is on my radar so thanks for posting. Some more photos would have made it better

Michael, we just returned "home" to Spain after 3 months ride through France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, where we did cross the Bosphorus and rode the Black Sea coast all the way to Sinop then through Sanfranbolu, Goreme etc to the southern coast of Turkey and then along the coastal route to Izmir and a ferry to Greece and Italy and eventually to Barcelona.

Thanks for your well organized and accurate report. We discovered that 50 Turkish Lire (approx $27 USD) buys a toll card good throughout Turkey for toll roads. We purchased two cards at the toll office just after the big bridge spanning the Bosphorus...we each ride our own BMW G650 GS , but it was later explained that 2 motorcycles traveling together need only purchase only one card if they pass the unmanned toll booth side by side. We used the cards several times and each time we swiped the card the available balance on the card showed in the swipe window at unmanned toll booths. The card was sufficiently charged up for our tour of Turkey as the toll roads are only around the larger cities... We too, did a lot of trail riding.... FYI we had three nasty encounters with "Kangal" Turkish sheep dogs , this is a special breed of dogs outfitted with spiked collars as protection from wolves. These are not feral dogs they are highly valued and very well trained. We were spared two times by a few words from sheep herders, the other time we rode away "express." I always carry a medium sledge hammer handle, not the hammer, slipped into the straps of my tail bag for easy access.... I figure if times get rough it would be good to have. I am older and traveling with a very beautiful woman.

Please note, two motorcycles using one toll card is common practice in Turkey, but I cannot say whether it is actually legal or not. Talking of tolls, once in Mexico, a criminal gang took over all the toll booths for a major super highway and began collecting tolls. I suppose there was some complicity on the part of the toll workers for all were released by the gang unharmed, and the gang collected tolls for almost an hour. I noted the "gang" as we paid our tolls, and yet thought nothing of it until we read about the crime in the following days headlines.

On a more humorous note, this September 2011, we were stopped by an Italian "candid camera" film crew at their fake border for Slovenia. I thought the whole set strange and noted the pristine uniforms of the "border guards" and immediately signaled Elisa something was amiss. We have crossed enough borders to know the border guards never have creases in their pants and starched shirts.... and medals hanging from those starched shirts???? Anyway when the candid camera crew asked for our passports I just said no... we were willing to show our passports, but not hand them over. I began kidding around with the guards about not having any guns... and they finally pointed to the overhead camera and confessed. Anyone else run into this Italian film crew? xfiltrate

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Thanks for a great write up Michael. I'm strongly fancying a trip to Bulgaria this summer all thing being well.

I will say though, you're being a little harsh on the Greeks. I spent a lot of time in Greece as a younger man and have a great affinity with the country and it's people. From my understanding of the current crisis it can be traced to the political/fiscal situation that saw them gain entry into the EU in the first place. You can point a finger directly at that bastion of honesty and integrity Goldman Sachs for cooking the books. Thereafter the Greeks, like many EU minnows, were seduced (read fattened for the kill) by a big injection of borrowed money that financed the lavish public sector (as it was under New Labour in the UK). It was high level corruption rather than fecklessness that set them up to fail. Those in positions of public trust betrayed the people, the people themselves had no say in it. Of course it's more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it as I understand.

So Greeks have no intention of willingly complying with the servitude imposed on them for many generations to come and we should all take a leaf from their book. Long before Occupy Wall Street started, Greeks were occupying Syntagma square and elsewhere. They knew, as did the Spanish, they'd been shafted long ago, the rest of the world is simply catching up to the crimes of the banksters.

Well I'm glad I got that off my chest.

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A ship in the harbour is safe, but that\'s not what ships were built for. Anon

Thanks for taking the time to do this write up, excellent. I'm hoping to ride from England to Mt Ararat probably next year as i have just returned from Morocco.

I lived and worked in Greece and Turkey in the late 90's so I'm hoping to look up old friends and collegues on the way. Thanks for your tips.

Hello,

I am Swati, a 26 year old solo female rider from India. I always had this dream of riding motor bike in Europe, even when I had no hope of realizing it ever, being from a middle class family.

Well, out of nowhere I am coming to Bulgaria, Europe this summer!!!
Mmm I have to be on shoe string backpacker budget to survive from 18th May to 31st May, 2015 in Europe.

Can anyone help me by giving me details about cheapest possible deals of motorbike rental or if anyone can lend me their personal motorbike or accompany me on this Europe road trip adventure?
I know requesting for anyone's personal motorbike is a lot, but I wouldn't mind lending mine if it can help a young adventurer realize a dream

I will be grateful for any help, if anyone can join me for a little span, or help me plan my trip or if anyone could let me ride their motorbike even for a day..

A rider soul would understand what this dream means to me..
I believe in miracles.. Hoping someday your miracle becomes a reality!

Thanks for reading..
Cheers,
Swati