It has been two years since our last (and fourth) motorcycle adventure in Europe. We are planning our 5th month-long adventure which begins on about May 15, 2016. We never intended to make 5 trips but Beverly noticed that there was a hole in our previous European travels. She can't believe that we were going to leave those countries behind. That was unacceptable so here we go again.

Our previous adventures can be seen at:

**http://2seniorsonabike.blogspot.com included parts of England, Spain, Morocco, France, Andora, Switzerlandand Germany

**http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ride-tales/eastern-europe-two-v-stroms-59213 included parts of Czech republic, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania,Bosnia, Greece and Italy

**http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ride-tales/two-v-stroms-scandinavia-mike-64336included parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Latvia, Estonia andLithuania.

**http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...bulgaria-75897 where we added Turkey and Bulgaria plus a little car trip to WW I and II sites. We were reminded that we didn't finish posting this trip. Hmmm, maybe we should finish it.

2016 motorcycle trip by Beverly Whipple, on Flickr

Count Down - One More DayDSC_4348

Beverly likes to see how small she can pack her personal items.

IMG_1489 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/142185260@N03/]
Leaving our home behind for 5 weeks.

IMG_1495 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/142185260@N03/]

Off we go.

May 12

The flight from Seattle to Iceland was easy and we got some sleep.

Arriving in Iceland. No, we are not lost. Iceland Air offers free stopovers so here we are starting our European tour in Iceland. Customs and Immigration was too easy.

DSC_4385 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/142185260@N03/]
Iceland is an active Volcanic Island with a population of only 330,000 people. It is part of the EU and is the least dense country in Europe.


DSC_4394

We arrived early and had to wait for the car rental place to. Got a small Opel with 164,000 km on it. I was surprised how well it worked.


We stayed in Reykjavik at an Airbnb place. Airbnb is a company that coordinates private people and travelers for places to stay. We thought we would try it on this trip. We stayed at Lara place which was walking distance to Downtown.

Reykjavik is a small city that is certainly trying to develop the tourism industry. It has a small port and a significant fishing industry. Viking history is the theme. The whole country is an active volcano and thermal springs are all over the island. Iceland gets all its electricity from renewable sources. It feels like a very organized civilized place.

DSC_4363 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/142185260@N03/]

The cultural center is the Harpa which houses the symphony orchestra and much more.

DSC_4365 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/142185260@N03/]

Inside the Harpa

DSC_4379 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/142185260@N03/]


DSC_4393 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/142185260@N03/]

Went to dinner at the Viking Bar and had two surprises on the menu.

DSC_4392 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/142185260@N03/]
We tried the whale but couldn’t handle the smoked puffin.

May 13
You may have noticed that Iceland is not on our map of planned travels. No, we are not lost. Iceland Air offers free stopovers in Iceland for up to 7 days. Our stay is 3 days.

We drove through the countryside along the South coast.
It seemed barren. Lava and peat moss mostly on the ground. The evidence of snow covered peaks from below the clouds.

Apparently Iceland plants more trees per capita than any country on earth. We didn’t see any.



Hot springs are everywhere.


Iceland generates all of its electrical energy from the geothermal underground hotsprings, wind, solar and water.

Piping the geothermal energy


We went to one of the famous ones called the Blue Lagoon. It is supposed to be one of the 25 natural wonders of the world. It is quite touristy and expensive and is supposed to have significant therapeutic value.

Beverly at the Blue Lagoon


The sediment is said to enrich your skin. So we tried it. I wonder if it is working.




The Pearl is the fanciest restaurant in town and is built on the water storage system. We were told many times by locals not to buy bottled water as the tap water was the best you could get and the local bottled water was direct from the tap. Must be a boycott on the local bottling company.

We set out along the south coast to see waterfalls and glaciers.





Iceland is 12% covered by glaciers. Despite the claim by the US Republicans that climate change is liberal propaganda, the glaciers are decreasing each year. One glacier was recently reclassified as just a pile of ice.


We hiked to the bottom of the Myrdalsjokull glacier which is 600 sq. km.


We didn't participate in the 3-hour tour to hike on the glacier.



url=https://flic.kr/p/GRqXAC][/url]
There was a rainbow in the waterfall right before the picture was taken.

We hiked climbed nearly 400 stairs to the top of one of the waterfalls where we hiked a bit further to see river rapids and more falls. The trail goes even further but we didn't go on.


Mike climbing over the stile on the trail at the top.


Waterfalls are plentiful and spectacular.





We found this on a back road that was actually a drive-way that ended here.

Our turn around point was at Vic. In 1991, Islands Magazine counted the black sands beach in Vik as one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world.



Rock basalt formations called Reynisdranger at the Black Beach



Beverly wanted to touch the Norwegian Sea


We ate lunch here gazing at the beautiful panorama



One more trip to town and we packed to leave. Flight to Frankfurt leaves early in the morning. We liked Iceland as a novelty. Even in mid May, it was only dark for a couple of hours a night. People were very friendly and the living was easy.

May 15
Flight arrived in about noon. No customs as Iceland is in the EU.
Took the train from the Airport to Heidelberg and arrived at Stefan’s place.

Found the bike and started on the preparation. The bike needed new back brakes and rotor, oil change, top box repair, and a good cleaning.

We met Chris who is a Cider Maker and Orchardist. He shared some Spanish cider with us which Beverly liked a lot.

Met also met Jurgen who is a mining professor from Colorado. His background is in coal mining so you can imagine we shared some lies. Had a great dinner. For about Two or three weeks, white asparagus (spargel) is in season and it is a culinary event in Germany. We get it whenever we can.



There are bikes here from all over. This one parked outside one of the rooms was from Kuwait


Mike packing up, getting ready to go.

May 16
Spent an easy day getting the bike together and acting like tourists in Heidelberg. Had dinner with Jorgen, packed and were ready to go.

May 17
Set out and decided to go to Rothenburg and then overnight in Nuremberg.
Of course I spelled Rothenburg wrong in the GPS and went on a wild goose chase up the Autoban. At least it was a good test for the bike. We drive 85mph (137 km) on the Autoban which is fast enough for a loaded down 650 cc bike with two old people on it. Even at that, we have to stay out of the way of the cars doing 120mph or more.

Rothenburg is a walled city which is a popular tourist place. The was interesting; the shops were the same as every other tourist place.


We parked here and had some coffee and pasties. We sat next to couple who were celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary. The woman was in Rothenburg learning a special horse training akin to “horse whispering.” She told us all about it, even demonstrated riding postures: both good and bad.



Beverly at the Rothenburg wall.

Nuremberg was 200 miles away and was our first days stop. The Nuremberg trials was and is an important history event.


Like most old European towns, it has an interesting past and a historic old town. Here is the church.



White Asparagus at the market. Yum.


We stayed at the Hotel Agneshof in old town. We were able to park our bike right in front on the hotel.


Local wine

May 18
Nuremburg is a big town and now it is time to leave. We are headed out to Passau on the border of Germany and Austria.


We went part of the way on the back roads and stopped at a little church bench to have lunch.


We stayed at the Holtel Wilder Mann right in the middle of old town.

Passau is a university town with a lively vibe. It is also a port for river cruises which seem very popular.



Some of the sites.



We walked around town and to where three main rivers, the Danube, The Inn, and the Ilz come together. This is Mike at the convergence



St Stephens Cathedral has the biggest cathedral organ in the world and the have concerts every day at noon. We needed tickets for tomorrow at noon.



We ate dinner at the main town square.

May 19

We walked around the old town then went shopping for a camera part at the mall.

The organ concert was interesting. The second piece was written in an atonal modality, seeming to lack a tonal center. Even though Beverly has a background in music, neither of us have been immersed in this type of music long enough to develop an ear for it. The organ sound is awesome.



The organ in Passau in the St. Stephens church and the church.



We headed out to Vienna on the old road along the Danube River. Very peaceful with nice roads and castles every once in a while.



We ate lunch in an idyllic spot. We stayed for a while watching the river boats go by.


We got on the highway for the last 40 miles and hit some torrential rain. Not much advantage to stopping if there is no cover so we just slowed down and splashed through. Our gear worked well.

Took us an hour to get through Vienna traffic to our Airbnb place. Weal is our host. He lives in a renovated old building in what was the Jewish area.

At one time, King Joseph wouldn’t let the Jews into the main city. They settled in this neighborhood. All over the neighborhood, there are plaques recording where Jewish people lived who were killed or sent to concentration camps during WWll. Karin, a neighbor whom we met, told us about the building plaques.


This is the plaque that was on our building.


Went to town in Vienna. It is ranked as the most livable city in the world.
We went to a Hungarian restaurant. Beverly wants to eat all her meals there.


Then to Hawelka, a quintessential Vienna Café. No food here.

May 20
Vienna is a beautiful city. Walking, biking, and trams make it easy to get around. There are special markings on the walks for bikes and walkers. Then the trams have their lanes and the cars have theirs.


Bike markings.


Walking/biking way.


We walked through the parks, went to the Spanish Riding school which was not showing, got symphony tickets for this evening, and had coffee at the Imperial Hotel which was rated the best hotel in the world. Don’t know about that, but the coffee and strudel were good.


Coffee and strudel at the Imperial Hotel

Every building seemed to be adorned with statues of historic or biblical people.



We had lunch in the park and people watched.

In the evening we took the tram to the symphony at the Koncert Haus. It was very impressive. Beverly got some of the music. Most of it was over our heads. Again, some of the atonal music that the people around here must have had a lot more exposure to than us.



Concert Venue


Concert Hall


Waiting for our tram back to our hotel.

May 25
The Avala hotel is family owned and it seemed that Natalie was the head person. One of her sons was going to the US to work as a roller coaster operator in Ocean Falls NJ. That was the buzz around town.


Having coffee with Natalie and Dragona who speaks English and introduced us to her town.

Someone who stopped by our outside table asked to make sure that we saw the sights in Kikinda. He said "our town has a soul. The people here get along and love each other." It is a nice place. We did notice, however, that a lot of people smoked. We looked it up and discovered that Serbia has the highest rate of smoking per capita in the world.

We headed out to Romania. The border crossing was easy. The roads were secondary but in good shape.

We were headed for the Carpathian Mountains but we were in a rain pattern so we stopped in Hateg, a good sized town in Romania and stayed at the Fredrick Hotel.

Alex at the front desk wanted to travel on a motorcycle so he gave us an upgrade to a Jacuzzi room. It didn’t have a drain plug but the gesture was nice.


Parked in front of the Fredrick Hotel


Our Jacuzzi tub that we couldn’t use.

View from our hotel

We ate at Café on the Park and had a Romanian fried vegetable and chicken dish. People here generally seem thin and fit. Doesn’t compute with the local diet.

May 26
Headed for the mountains. 0ur goal was to ride the Transalpine highway. It has the reputation as one of the best motorcycle roads in the world. Top gear did a show on this road with some of their exotic cars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transalpina_(DN67C)

To get there, we had to go on Hwy 7a. It was interesting but I guess typical of backroads Romania.







The 7A


We will hit our goal road in the middle at Obarsia where 7a crosses 67c. Our plan was to stay at Obarsia, unpack our bike for the ride, go south, see the Transalpina then turn around and do it again going North.

We arrived to see a car parked at the intersection with a family from Poland. They were combining a vacation with her job where she was lecturing on European trade.


Meeting at the junction of 7A and 67C

Look a little closer.

DSC_4910 by Beverly Whipple, on Flickr
The sign says that the Transalpinia was going to be closed until June 5. The road looked fine to us so we proceeded in a predictable manner.

The road surface was excellent but they hadn’t cleaned it yet. The worst thing about biking is sharp turns with mud and wet pine needles.
The road peak is 2300 meters. We went to 2100 meters or 6900ft. The scenery was exceptional. See the pictures.















We went back to the junction and decided not to continue. It was raining and tomorrow was going to be sunny. Better to ride this kind of road in the sunshine.

Stayed at a lodge. We were the only guests. No internet. We had to read and talk to each other.

May 26

This was right BEFORE we got to the 7A. Just weaving through some sheep cows and weather.

Yes, sunny as on your side of the mountain. Also no precipitation the previous night, that was the one that got me at 18 yo, some 45 years ago.

May 27

It is a sunny day so we are going to do some riding so we packed up and hit the road. We stayed here at the Pensiunea Bradal


All ready to go.


The bike had a nice cozy place for the evening.

The north part of the highway is not as extreme and has beautiful rhythmic turns. Pictures tell the story.



...though sometimes the roads were not so smooth.





Beverly taking pictures from the back of the bike.









We stopped in Sebes for a late lunch, got on the internet, and made a reservation for a room in Cluj for the evening.


Our lunch spot in Sebes

The ride to Cluj was through some nice scenery but we had heavy truck traffic.




The Gorge near Cluj

Cluj is the second biggest city in Romania and the Transylvania area of Dracula. Our hotel reservation ended up being in the suburbs though our GPS didn’t quite get it. We didn’t want to stay in the suburbs so we got the first hotel that we came to rather than continue to fight with traffic or find a place to stop and look on the internet for another hotel. The locals suggested the Beyfin and there it was with a place to stop. The Beyfin is more upscale than our normal standard. It seems as if locals quite often recommend upscale places – especially restaurants. Oh well. It was a great place to take care of our first chore: go have a on the terrace on the roof. The view from the Terrace is nice.


We made it.






After a , we headed out for a tour and had a traditional Romanian dinner. Our waiter sounded like Dracula, but that must be our imagination.
This is Transylvania, the home of Dracula. The true story id that Dracula is a figment of an Irish author's imagination, and there are no real historic sites. We bagged the idea of Dracula tourism.