Its Sunday May 29th and I find myself in the town of Nenagh in County Tipperary Ireland. In the last 3 -4 days I have continued my progress along the Wild Atlantic Way from my last stop in Kilarney. I headed up the next day to Tralee, first traversing the coastal roads along the Dingle Peninsula.

The roads along the Dingle Peninsula have been the highlight so far of my trip.
When I envisioned riding the WAW these are the kinds of roads and scenery that I was expecting. Long stretches of curvy roads hugging the mountainsides with a view of the ocean all around me.

Some photos below taken along route R559 on way to Slea Head west of town of Dingle







Near Slea Head which is the most western point on the Dingle Peninsula is an archaeological site that preserves the remains of an ancient Neolithic site containing stone Ringforts and Beehive structures that have existed there for over 4000 years. The site was last occupied back in 1200 AD. The stones are layered in a downward and outward manner, so as to funnel rain water away from the interior.






Some of the earliest Christians are from Dingle region of Ireland[/caption]


Some more scenes from ride around Dingle Peninsula[/caption]



Sheep they are everywhere in Ireland. They seemed to be allowed to roam around free and go where they want to graze. The painted markings I am told, identify which farmer owns them and also the sheep get marked when an ewe has been serviced by a ram.



I stayed overnight in a small hotel in town of Tralee. Its a rather unremarkable town, I did not even bother to take any photos of the place. The only reason that I choose to stop in Tralee was because it was the only community of any size nearest the Dingle Peninsula.

The one thing I will remember about Tralee is my re-introduction to Guinness . The truth be told I am not much of a fancier for s. Those times when I might of had a pint or two of Guinness to celebrate St. Patrick's and my Irish heritage, I remember the as being harsh and bitter and tasting like leprechaun piss. I am not sure if its a urban myth but they say that Guinness doesn't travel very well and a Guinness served at a bar in North America is just not the same as one served in a Irish pub in Ireland. Its also been a long held belief that Guinness purposely keeps the good stock at home and exports their inferior product to the rest of the world.

All I know now, is that after a long day of riding the motorcycle, there is nothing better than sitting down in a genuine Irish pub, eating good pub food with a pint of Guinness to wash it down.


Nectar of the Gods

From Tralee I kept heading north to Galway, again continuing along the Wild Atlantic Way. I was planning a staying overnight in Galway, but accommodations in town seemed to be on the expensive side, even for the cheaper B&B so I elected to stay instead in the nearby community of Craughwell, which is just east of Galway. I was not find the roads in this part of Ireland too interesting, the landscape was not as dramatic as what I had been experiencing over the last 4 - 5 days.

Took ferry boat between Tabert and Kilrush. I got charged 9 euros for the 20 minute ferry boat ride across the Shannon river.



Picture of my B&B in Craughwell County Galway. I have been really impressed with the quality of the B&B over here. For what I would pay to stay at a flea infested, bed-bug ridden motel in US or Canada, you can stay at a comfortable room at one of these B&B in Ireland. Plus you usually get a full Irish breakfast and free WIFI.


Doonard Manor in Craughwell Ireland

After my disappointing ride up from Tralee to Galway I decided to change my plans and discontinue following the route of the Wild Atlantic Way, instead after talking to another guest and fellow motorcyclist who was staying at my B&B I headed eastward for Lough Derg. Lough is the Irish word for Loc. Lough Derg is known as the Lakelands area of Ireland and is the second largest lake in the republic of Ireland. I was told that there were a set of roads that circled around the lake and that it would make for a good ride. As spectacular as the coastal roads have been, I was ready for a change-up.

Video from my ride around Lough Derg




After my ride around Lough Derg I stay in town of Nenagh which is the largest town in County Tipperary. It a pleasant little town.




My B&B in Nenagh The Willowbrook



Cool looking wall mural in town. Nenagh is know for its music festivals


Centre of town in Nenagh


Bars.. they are everywhere in Ireland





Nenagh is known for Castle Nenagh. In background circular Keep




Another Irish bar


Main street in Nenagh


Main street in town of Nenagh

Looking out the window of my room at my B&B in Nenagh. Everyone in Ireland seems to be mad into gardening. Walk down any street in any Irish village and everyone seems to have miniature botanical garden growing in their front yard.

I left Nenaugh on a brilliant sunny morning, making my way down to Kilkenny in the south-east part of Ireland. If I had taken the main Hwy, I could have ridden down to Kilkenny from Nenaugh in just over an hour, but as I did not want to arrive there until 3:00 pm, this gave me a chance to wander aimlessly around the backroads in this part of the country. So I kept ignoring my GPS and started taken turns at random to see where it would lead me to. Look closely at a map of Ireland and it looks like a spider's web with all the interconnected roads. They have been building roads here in Ireland for the last couple of thousand years.

I eventually arrived in Kilkenny in late afternoon, the B&B I had booked turned out to be just a 10 minute walk to the centre of town. Kilkenny as it turns out is a very popular tourist destination, as evident by the hordes of tourists.

Kilkenny traces its origins back to the 6th century. The landmark feature of Kilkenny is the Kilkenny Castle in the centre of town, it dominates the city's vista. Kilkenny is a well preserved medieval town.


Front view of Castle


Interior courtyard of Castle

Interior courtyard of Castle

There are a couple of main avenues in the city where most of the touristy stuff are, there are numerous restaurants, pubs and music halls. It well known in Ireland for its performing arts, music festivals, theatre performances.



Little Restaurant on Ormonde St in Kilkenny Ireland



View inside the restaurant



More scenes along Ormonde St in Kilkenny



More scenes along Ormonde St in Kilkenny

I left Kilkenny the next morning, again I only had an 100 km ride to Wexford where I would be spending the night preparing to take the ferry over to France the following day, so I decided to spent my day playing tourist. On my way down from Nenaugh to Kilkenny I kept coming across a number of sign posts pointing the way to Dunmore Caves. I am into spelunking and such things. The caves are only 10 kms north of Kilkenny a bit out of my way, but I had a whole day to kill before making my way back down to Wexford.

I remember hearing about the Dunmore Caves years ago on some National Geographic program. They are well known throughout Ireland early history.







Main entrance to Dunmore Cave



Main entrance to Dunmore Cave



Entering the cave. Not my photo - copped from web



Main cathedral room - Not my photo



Main cathedral room. - Not my photo

They put on a good show at the main interpretation centre. The guide we had for our tour who by his own reckoning, has been guiding tourist through these caves for last 22 years put on a great tour. The Irish are great story tellers.

Link to story about Dunmore Caves and Viking massacre.

Cave Story 5: The Massacre at Dunmore Cave @ The World of James M Deem

Well ! I had my first incident with the motorcycle while visiting the Dunmore caves. Nothing serious, no one maimed or injured. When I first came into the visitors parking lot, there was already a motorcycle parked away from where the usual parking spots were for cars. The parking lot is located on a steep incline, and for anyone who has ridden a motorcycle, the only secure way to park your park on a steep hill is by parking the bike on its side stand with the front wheel facing uphill. I parked my bike in back of the other one that was already there, we were parked in what I would call the service lane, the other cars in the lot were parked at least 20 feet or more from the bikes were parked,.

I entered the interpretation centre and was just starting to watch a short video explaining the history of the caves, when a distressed looking woman came into the theatre, she stopped and looked around, and then asked if the motorcycle outside belonged to anyone in here. I stood up, looked over to here and said, "Ahh.. tell me you didn't just backup into my motorcycle ?" At which point she nodded her head and like some guilty little child and said that she did.

I went outside to survey the damage, I remember when parking my bike that there was a large RV parked not too far from where my bike. So at this time I have visions of twisted metals and chards of broken plastic spread across the parking lot. What I found was my bike laying on it side on a grassy section alongside the curb. I had never seen my bike in this undignified position before. The bike reminded me of a great big fat cow that had just been toppled over on to it's side, and now couldn't get up. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but did not have the presence of mind at that time. With the assistance of a few other people, I quickly got the bike righted. The bike appeared undamaged. The handguards and the side cases took the brunt of the impact, and luckily it fell over onto a grassy patch of lawn.

The woman on seeing that my bike was undamaged now turned her attention to her own vehicle . She was driving one of those shoe box size Smart cars. Her rear bumper had just grazed the corner of one of my side panniers, but with sufficient impact to cause the bike to come off its side stand and knell over. The impact did not even leave a mark on my aluminum panniers. It did however leave a deep mark on her bumper, which is karma visiting on those who backup their cars on poor innocent motorcycles!! I went over to her and asked if she was aware that there were a pair of bikes parked nearby, she said she was, but always gets nervous when backing out. I felt like telling her, Lady you are driving a Smart car, you can practically do a U-turn inside a closet, you don't need 20 feet of space to backup your car. Then again, people have a limitless capacity to screw up.

While I was at the Caves I meet another intrepid motorcycle traveller from Alberta Canada who was over here on a 6 week holiday touring Europe, Ireland and Morocco. Its always good to meet up with other travellers along the way.



Another fellow motorcycle traveller from Canada. Riding a BMW Dakar 650

I spent the night in Wexford and then made my way down to Rosslare Harbour from where the ferry boats depart for France.



Irish Ferries Boat



2016 Honda African Twin. That's the bike I would have chosen for this trip, but alas all the local Honda dealers in Ottawa area were sold out of that new model.



My cabin on the boat. Bed folded against the wall



Pride of the Irish Ferries service, the Oscar Wilde



Scenes from around the ferry boat



Scenes from around the boat



Looking out the porthole of my cabin


Motorcycle snugly tied down for ferry ride to France

Awesome story so far....
I've been doing some research into renting a motorcycle in Ireland this September, so this is very interesting for me to see!

__________________
Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

You certainly well not be disappointed in coming to Ireland, although I was
fortunate to have had 12 days of good weather on my ride around Ireland. It good have just as easily turned out to be a wet and windy experience instead.

Bonjour! Bienvenue au France.

I am now in France. The Irish ferry arrived at its port of destination at 9:30 this morning, but as it turns out, not at the destination that I thought I was going to..

I soon found out after setting up my GPS that I was not where I thought I was. Ten days ago I went online and booked my ferry passage on Irish Ferries from Rosslare to Cherbourg France, but as it turns out I had in fact booked a one-way passage from Rosslare Ireland to Roscoft France. Roscoft is a port in Bretagne and not in Normandie. Instead of having a casual 160 km ride out from Cherbourg to the town of Saint-Aubin-sur-mer, I was now faced with a 375 km all day ride, not what I was looking forward to. Irish Ferries runs alternate routes between Roscoft and Cherbourg. The Oscar Wilde on alternate days travels between both ports. I am putting the fault on my computer for this foul up. My touch screen computer makes it a chore when trying to select items from a drop down list on a website.

Nothing that I can do about now, my GPS says that its a 6.5 hour ride to my final destination. As soon as I left the ferry terminal it started to rain maybe not quit a rain but a wet mist, you don't notice it when you are stopped but when riding at 100 kph, you get wet.

As events unfolded, my first day in France turned out be a wet and miserable one. For starters, there are a number of work related strikes going on across France. These strikes are affecting the delivery of gas to service stations throughout the country, especially in the north-western part of France where I am presently, I was warned about the possibility about fuel shortages when I departed from Ireland. I got as far as Caen before deciding that I had better top off my tank. I landed up wasting about an hour riding around Caen trying to locate a service station that still had a supply of gas to sell.

You would have thought that riding 375 km in a day would be an easy thing to do. France has a lot of great roads, in fact if you talk to anyone who has ridden in France, they will all sing the praises of what great roads the French have. Except that in order to use their Hwy system you will need to pay a toll. While I was still in Ireland I went online and checked out one of the French travel sites that helps you plan your travel route. When I entered my travel route it came back saying that if I were to use the toll roads from Roscoft to Saint-Aubin-sur-mer it would cost me 24 Euros which is close to $30.00, so I setup my Garmin GPS to avoid the toll roads.

GPS is a great tool and one that I rely on a lot when touring. Except for a few occasions where I was allowed to ride on some sections of the main highway, my GPS managed to find the most circuitous, convoluted route to Saint-Aubin. I was directed through every main street in every little village, through every back alley between Roscoft and Saint-Aubin. After what seemed like an eternity I finally arrived at a town on the Normandy coast called Saint-Aubin-sur-mer. When I arrived into the town, I thought to myself, Geez I thought this place would be a lot bigger, all I found was a sleepy little village with no hotels, restaurants or any thing to suggest that this was a prime tourist distinction. As it turned out, yes I was in Saint-Aubin-sur-mer, but not the right Saint-Aubin. There are two communities on the coast of Normandy, both with the same name, my GPS had directed me to the wrong one. I checked my paper map, something in hindsight I should have done from the start instead of blindly trusting my GPS, the town I wanted to get to, was some 2.5 hours to the west of my current location, or 165 km along these back country roads. It was 7:00 pm in the evening by the time I realized my error, and of course it had started to rain. There were no towns or villages around here of any size, and I began to doubt if I would even be able to find an accommodation for the night. I had my camping gear with me and although there were no camp grounds around, I was prepared to do some stealth camping in some farmer's field if it came to that. My GPS did located a couple of B&Bs, the first two I checked out were both closed, the third place I came to was open, they offered me a place for the night. Lesson learned, never put your trust in a GPS. GPS bad, paper maps good.


My B&B in Veules-les-Roses

The following morning I departed from Veules les-Roses where I stayed for the night and back tracked back to Caen, the original place I intended to get to is just North of Caen on the Normandy coast. It still took me close 4 hours to travelling along the back roads and avoiding the main highways to finally reach Saint-Aubin.

As I update my travel log I have now been camped out in Saint-Aubin for the last 2 days, and have decided to stay an extra day here. I have a great little hotel facing the beach.


Hotel Le Cos Normandie in Saint-Aubin-sur-mer

I chose to come to Saint-Aubin-sur-mer as its is located on what is know as Juno beach, which is where the Canadians troops landed on D-Day June 6th, 1944. There are a lot of tourists about, many having come here to take part in the D-Day celebration. Its a big event around here. I have talked to a number of other hotel guests who say they come back every year to support the remembrance of D-Day. I am of an age where I grew up with memories of the war still fresh in people's. My father was a WW2 veteran, he did not land on the beaches of Normandy but rather took part in the invasion of Italy. All those images and videos I remember seeing growing up in news casts about the D-Day invasion are all brought to life here. Many of the iconic buildings depicted in news reels can be seen here, still recognizable after all these years. Its a powerful emotional experience to walk along Juno beach, viewing the plaques and war images posted along the route.

There seemed to be a large contingent of British tourists here at my hotel. I meet a few veterans, they must be in their nineties, who participated in the D-Day invasion. I talked at length with a group of them about their experiences, it is one thing to read about the events of WWII but quit another thing to hear about it first hand from someone who actually lived through it. There are not too many of the veterans left. I was surprised at how many sons and daughters come to the D-Day event as a tribute to their fathers.

I spent a couple of days visiting many of the historical sites along the Normandy coast from Omaha Beach, Sword, Beach and Juno Beach where the combined allied forces of America, Britain and Canada landed.

What entreat me the most during my visit here, was comparing old WWII photos taken during the day of the invasion in Saint-Aubin and today. Many of the old buildings that line the beach in Saint-Aubin are still standing.

There is in particular one image that stands out in my mind, a picture that is often associated with the Canadian landing at Juno Beach, I spent some time walking up and down the boardwalk before finally identifying the building ( it has a plaque on it)



This is what the building looks like today. The building today has front porch added to it



Building as it appeared on D-Day invasion on Juno Beach

Another famous iconic war image from Canadian D-Day invasion



Canada House Saint-Aubin


How the house appeared on D-Day. This was the first house liberated on D-day



Some other photos from scenes around Saint-Aubin and ongoing D-Day remembrance events. My visit here was especially poignant as it coincided with June 6th.



Plane doing low level fly over beach



Plane doing low level fly-over beach



Along boardwalk in Saint-Aubin-sur-mer



Along boardwalk in Saint-Aubin-sur-mer



Canadian ceremony plaque at Juno Beach



View of wall surround beach

You see a lot of people riding around the D-Day invasion route on old restored army jeeps trucks and WWII vintage car. A lot of people come here to participate in D-Day reenactments.



One of those reenactment camps


Old army truck




Old Wiilly's jeep

I am now in Belgium. I left the Normandy coast of France and headed north west for Vimy France. What brings me up to this part of the country is my interest in visiting the Canadian National War memorial in Vimy. This is a popular landmark visited by many Canadians who visit in France. Its almost like a required pilgrimage for Canadian tourists to visit this site. To those not familiar with the Vimy Memorial, it is probably instantly recognizable to anyone who has seen any images of the Vimy Ridge site.


Canadian National Memorial at Vimy France

It was about an hour into my ride from Saint-Aubin in Normandy to Vimy that I decided that there was a change up needed in my travel routine. Since the time that I arrived in Ireland, I have been travelling 2 to 3 days in a row with a planned rest day on the 3rd or 4th day. I was beginning to find this travel schedule taxing on both myself and the bike and was finding that I was spending more time riding than exploring the regions I was travelling to. I also decided that instead of avoiding toll highways I would allow my Garmin GPS to select routes that included toll roads. I was finding that trying to navigate around Europe and at the same time avoid toll roads was turning into an impossible tasked. In the first hour after leaving Saint-Aubin I had ridden exactly 20 kms. I was making no headway along these country backroads, my progress was being slowed by numerous stoppages for work crews, 30 km speed limits when riding through villages and towns which are spaced 2 - 3 kms apart. This backcountry road adventure was beginning to get monotonous. I was longing for the sensation of speed, the feeling of air rushing across my helmet, bugs splattering their innards over my face shield at 120 kph.

The only place I could find accommodations near Vimy was in the town of Mazingarbe , which is west of Lens and North of Arras France. This choice turned out to be a mistake in selecting this town. There is no reason why any tourist would ever want to come and stay over in this place. On a rating of 1 to 10 on the tourist attraction scale, this place would not even rate a 1. There was nothing unacceptable about the B&B I chose to stay at, its just that Mazingarbe is about as lively as a morgue.

I arrived on Monday only to find out that in many of these little back water provincial towns and villages across France, nobody works on Mondays, all businesses are shuttered. Same thing with Sundays, most all businesses are closed for the weekend. The only place I was told that I could find a restaurant was 16 kms away. I stayed in Mazingarbe for two days, needing a day to spend visiting Vimy. Google Maps had indicated that there were at least 4 - 5 cafes and restaurants in Mazingarge so I should not expect to have an issue finding a place to eat. The following day when out looking for a restaurant I find 3 of the 4 places mentioned in Google were now closed down and the only other place only opened at noon and shuts down after that for the day. The owner of the B&B that I was staying at freely admitted that Mazingarbe was a boring little place to live in.

Half starved and weak from hunger I did manage to make my up to Vimy to tour the national monument. The National Memorial is located out in the countryside near Vimy Ridge, the site of an important WWI battle. The twin towers of the monument dominates the surrounding landscape and can be seen for miles when first approaching the site.

The landmark sits on a 250 acres plot of land which was donated by France to Canada in order to construct the WWI memorial.


View from the base of the memorial

A tribute video I made to show off the Vimy memorial




Aside from spending time walking around viewing the memorial there is an interpretation centre on the ground, they give guided tours of some of the underground tunnels that were built during the battle for Vimy Ridge and have preserved some of the trenches that the soldiers took refuge in. The grounds all around Vimy have been left undisturbed since the end of the WWI conflict. You can see the remains of bomb craters, old trench lines. Much of the area is off limits as the grounds around here are still littered with unexploded ordinances.


An effective "Keep off the Grass Sign"


Land around Vimy is pockmarked with bomb shell craters.


This huge crater was created by underground explosion. Battle lines were only couple hundred yards apart. Each side would tunnel under each other's trenches and blow the crap out of each other.





Touring one of the many underground tunnels



Replica of the trenches used during battle at Vimy Ridge



Another view of the trenches



Bike and monument in background.

Yesterday turned into a bit of a travel day, no photos or videos, just a layer of rubber off my tires from Vimy to Florenville Belgium.

I have been resting up in Florenville, niece little quit town on French-Belgium border. Located on the Semoise river. Small peaceful little place, lots of restaurants and bars and outside cafes.



Scene near my hotel. Old train bridge over Semoise river



Old building



Old church constructed 12-13th century



View from Florenville looking down into river valley below



Looking down into valley, old train bridge in background



Street scene from around town of Florenville Belgium

I do not even remember the events of my ride down from Florenville Belgium to Ludwigsburg Germany, that is how eventful my day was. I spent 5 hours on the motorway stopping at the occasional gas station for fuel and food. During my entire ride down I was followed by a massive storm system that threaten to overtake me at any time.

I arrived in Ludwigsburg Germany latter that afternoon just before a storm system swept in. Germany as well as most parts of Europe have been under a deluge of rain and thunder storms this past week. So far I have managed to avoid the worst of the rains.

One of my reasons for coming to Ludwigsburg is because there is a BMW motorcycle dealer in town and I need drop bring the bike in for an oil changed. Ludwigsburg is a small city of 88,000 people about 12 kms north of Stuttgart. My plans are to stay here for two days, get the bike serviced and do some sightseeing.

Next morning, I awoke to the sound of rain beating on the steel roof of my Hotel.
The BMW dealer I needed to find was only a couple of blocks from where my Hotel was located. My visit to the BMW dealer did not end well, its a Saturday morning and although the dealership was opened, they had no mechanics on duty. So I will have to look to getting the bike serviced elsewhere along my route.

Fortunately, the morning rains dissipated and the sun finally came out. According to the Wikitravel, the only thing of note in Ludwigsburg is the Ludwigsburg Palace, so with nothing else better to do, I found my way into the city centre to view this historical site. This is one of the main tourist attractions in Ludwigsburg.

The Ludwigsburg palace is one of the best preserved Baroque palaces in Germany. The building was constructed back at the turn of the 1700's by Duke Ludwig of Wuttemberg. The building was first constructed to serve as a hunting lodge, than things got out of hand as the Duky kept adding on to the palace over a 30 year period,to where eventually he had built a palace with over 442 rooms, requiring a staff of over a 1000 to maintain the place. He hired the best tradesmen and artisans from around Europe to come and work on the palace. At this period in history all these Dukes and other aristocrats across Europe were competing amongst themselves to see who could build the biggest baddest palace.

The scale of this place is enormous. The territory of Wuttemberg that this fellow Ludwig lorded over, only had a population of 325,000 people. How could he afford to build such a palace and maintain it? He must of maxed out his credit cards on this one.


Ludwigsburg Palace


Ludwigsburg Palace



Recreation of gardens that existed around the Ludwigsburg Palace during its heyday



Gardens on grounds of Ludwigsburg palace.

There were a number of museums setup in the palace. Part of my ticket admission was to some of these museums. This was the highlight of my tour to the palace (not) hundreds of display cases showcasing ceramic vases and dinner ware used back then. I spent 7 Euros to view old vases and gaudy ceramic figurines. You notice that there is not a single other person in the museum.









Scene inside the palace



Inside one of the Duke's private rooms

I was hoping to start my next day's ride down to Salzburg Austria under clear skies but that was not to be. Next morning I awoke to the persistent sound of rain, interspersed with claps of thunder. I had already booked and paid for my hotel in Salzburg so I was committed to getting down to Salzburg today.

If there is one thing that motorcyclists do not like, it is riding in the rain. But when you are on a long motorcycle tour like I am, you just need to accept that there will be some days when you are forced to ride through bad weather.

I was not on the main highway more than 10 minutes when I was forced to exit off the freeway and seek shelter, the rain was coming down with such force that I could not see the road ahead of me and parts of the road surface was flooding over.

I waited out the worst of the storm before attempting to go back out on the Hwy. About an hour into my ride I was forced again for a second time to exit and find shelter. I exited out at a gas station along the Hwy. It was a peculiar site, as there were at least 40 - 50 other bikers huddling in from the rains. Most of the bikers appeared to be soaked to the bone as most were riding without rain gear. Myself, I put on my rain gear as soon as I stepped out the door this morning. It was another half hour before the rain subsided and I headed back on the road. By mid afternoon the skies began to clear up.

Whenever you mention Germany, one of the first things that come to mind for most North Americans are big luxury sedan cars and the autobahn. The autobahn is the German federated highway system. For many parts of the autobahn there is no set speed limit although there is a posted advised speed limit of 130 kph. Some sections because of high traffic density, unsafe roads or construction will have lower posted mandated speeds.

About half the roads along the German Autobahn have unrestricted speed, which in theory means that you can drive as fast as you want. I have ridden on the autobahn before so I am familiar with rules of the road. The main sections of the autobahn have three lanes, right lane for slower traffic, other two lanes for passing, with the most left lane for high speed passing. Since I am one of those staid North American riders, use to our slower pace of travel this day I was keeping to the slow lane, doing 130 - 140 kph, yes that the speed of the slow lane on the Autobahn ! Occasionally I would get behind a slower moving truck or RV and pull out to pass, well this day, I pull out into the middle lane along with another vehicle that was probably 200 feet in front of me to passing a RV, I checked my left side mirror, not a car in sight behind me on the middle lane, as soon as I changed lanes this blur of a black colored Porsche Carrera comes screaming past me not more than a foot away from me, and alongside him on the further left hand lane is another sports car speeding away, the Porsche narrowly misses me than somehow avoids hitting the car in front of him in the middle lane by severing into the right almost hitting another vehicle.

It becomes quit apparent that there were two idiots racing each other down the autobahn. By my estimate they must of being doing over 160 mph or more, I was making my pass at about 100 mph and still he passed me like I was standing still. Well !! there's more to this story, about a half hour later, the traffic came to a near stand still, as the traffic inched along, I could see a police car and a recovery vehicle on the side of the road. In a farm field adjacent to the Hwy I could see two parallel tracks from where a vehicle had obviously plowed through a farmer's crops. As I got closer to the scene of the accident, what do I see but that same black Porsche that nearly took me out. Ain't karma a bitch!! Outside the vehicle I see some kid who can't be more that 17-18 years old, looking pretty stressed out as he stood there talking to the police officer. Whatever happens to him, he probably deserves worst.

I have been in Salzburg now for two days, today I was able to locate a BMW motorcycle dealer and get someone to perform an oil change. At first the service manager told me that they were booked solid for the week and there was just no way for them to service my bike. So I had to resort to shame tactics to get him to help me out. I told him its been the code of the road for decades for dealers to give priority to touring motorcyclists passing through an area. At least that is what we do over in Canada and the US. That must of struck a chord with him as he disappeared for a few minutes and then came back saying that one of his mechanics would be able to work on my bike right away.

I was happy to get my bike service but I was in for a shock when I received my bill for the oil change... $288.00 CDN. Because the mechanic had to remove my crash bars to access the oil filter, I got charged for an hour of labor. At this shop they charge $160.00 CDN per hour. Tax over here is 20 %. I got to talking that evening with someone from my hotel, he was touring Europe in his BMW car. He said that some BMW dealerships where he lived in England, charge upwards of 200 British Pounds or $365 per hour to work on a vehicle.

I spent the rest of the remaining day roaming around Salzburg. According to a tourist flyer I found in my hotel room, Salzburg is famous for 3 things, its the home of Mozart, Old Town, which is one of the best preserved sites for Baroque architecture in Northern Europe and is listed as an UNESCO World heritage site. Lastly, Julie Andrews and the movie The Sound of Music was filmed here. The latter fact is probably only know by the tourists who come here.

Here are some photos I took on a walk around the old historical section of Salzburg, across the Salzack River. Old Town as it is called, is where all the tourist come to when they visit Salzburg. Old Town is the historic centre of Salzburg. It is a mix of Medieval and Baroque buildings, replete with dozens of Church spires and cupolas. Its a warren of narrow streets, connected alleyways and archways, all lined with restaurants, cafes and small shops selling their wares to the hordes of passing tourists.

















Hohensalzburg Castle



Hohensalzburg Castle





Bridge across the Salzach River in Salzburg Austria

Nice RR and pics. I also plan on sending my bike to Dublin only it will be next year via Air Canada. I appreciate your telling me what I can expect both on the sending and receiving end of things.

Buen viaje.

Air Canada's "Fly Your Ride" program is still very much a prototype program for AC. Not sure if they will continue offering these low air freight rates for next year.

Lovely pictures.

I would love to get my hands on one of them.

I crossed the border into Greece and Albania at the Kakavia crossing. No high drama, showed my passport, vehicle registration, insurance and I was on my way. I survived Albania !

The first city of any size that you come across on the Greece side is Ioannina. Nice Greek sounding name. I was not able to find any hotels in Ioannina that provided secure parking for my motorcycle so I found lodging at the nearby tourist town of Perama, just a few kilometer north of Ioannina. One of my biggest concerns while travelling is making sure I am able to find a safe secure place to park my motorcycle each night. So far I have had no problems in this respect

I did not know this at the time that I booked a guest house in Perama, but Perama is famous for its caves. In fact the whole existence of Perama seems to be to serve the tourists who come to visit this landmark. Its a town of only a few hundred people, one main street with a couple of restaurants, jewellery stores, food markets all clustered around the main entrance to the cave.

The guest house I stayed at was only a block away from the entrance to the cave. I took a guided tour of the cave. There were not many tourists in town. The entire group for the tour consisted of myself and a fellow from Holland. I have been to many caves around the world, and as far as caves go, the Perama caves were near top of my list of best caves I have been into. The tour takes about an hour, the guide leads you about a kilometre into the depths of the cave.

They would not allow any photography inside the cave, so I have had to cop a few photos from the web to show what the caves looked like inside.


Guest house I stayed at.




Some of the formations inside Perama Cave



Some of the formations inside Perama Cave.


You notice from the photos below, not many people in the streets of Perama. Aside from myself I may have counted 4 or 5 other tourists in town. I really do not know how these local businesses exist. And this this is during the peak tourist month of July.



Main street in Perama



Main street in Perama

I really had not mapped out a travel plan for Greece. Whatever direction my front wheel is pointing is usually where I am headed. I meet up that evening with the Dutch fellow I had meet earlier in the day. he and his girlfriend have been down here to Greece many times before and he recommended that I should visit Thessaloniki and Kakamaria which have some of the best beaches in Greece. If you look on a map of Thessaloniki there is a large bay there called the Therminian Gulf, up and down the coasts on both sides of the gulf are numerous beach resort communities. I found a place on the western side of the bay, riding around all the way to Kalamaria would have added another hour to my riding day and I figured a beach is a beach and found a hotel on the western side of the gulf.

I decided to take a mini-vacation break from my travels and booked myself in at the Edem Holiday Club in Olympiakis Akti for 4 days. They claim to be a 3 star establishment, but I think a couple of those stars have dimmed over the years. This place and many like it along this stretch of coast south of Thessaloniki do not serve a North American clientele , so standards are a little less demanding. Most people who come here are mostly from eastern European countries, Poland, Russia, Romania. The hotel I was staying at was the only place in town that had a swimming pool. Most of the lodgings in this beach resort community were apartment units catering to family groups.




Pool side at my hotel

For those who travel to Greece, you probably already know this, at many parts across Greece, you can not flush toilet paper down the toilet, you have to dispose of it in a special little "shit paper bin". A local explained it to me. Greek plumbing uses only 2" drain pipes while the rest of the civilized world uses 4" pipes. Toilet paper clogs up the smaller pipes.

How did Greece get accepted into the EU? I thought the assessment criteria for entry into the EU, were good governance, free and fair elections, rule of law and 21st century plumbing.





Nice sandy beaches



Many bars and restaurants along beachside promenade




scene at the beach



Scene at the beach

This resort as I quickly discovered catered to eastern European families. There was another beach resort just a kilometer north of where I was, it had a completely different mix of people, single, fewer family types, after my second day in Olympiakis I started spending more time hanging out in Paralia.

I have discovered where all those stout, matronly babushka women vacation, its here in Olympiakis, and another reason why I deserted the beaches of Olympiakis for Paralia.

Take a look at the picture bellow, can you spot the guy in the speedo? You see a whole lot that down here, 40 -50 year old portly gentlemen wearing speedos. didn't they get the fashion memo years ago. A Polish gentlemen told me that's common beach apparel for the Russians, they like their speedos.



Scene at the beach





Scene at the beach

My dyslexia gives me constant entertainment. It really isn't a disability.

I read:
"Bras.. they are everywhere in Ireland"


When are you visiting Scotland?

My exploration of Croatia and the Dalmatian coast continue as I made my way down to Split. Split is the second largest city in Croatia. The city is built along a peninsula. The city was first founded as a Greek colony and then was taken over by the Romans. The city of Split has been around for over 2400 years.

Aside from Split being the second largest cities in Croatia it is also one of the most popular destinations for tourists travelling to Croatia. Many of the cruise ship companies that ply the Adriatic Sea, stop over in Split.

Finding affordable accommodations close to the old historical part of Split can be a challenge especially during the summer season, I lucked out and was able to find a place not more than 15 minute walk from the central part of Split. The place also has the benefit of secure on site parking which is something I always look out for when booking accommodations.

My main interest in coming to Split is to view some of their historical archeological sites, both Roman and medieval.



This is from a stop I made on ride down between Zadar and Split



They go to extreme lengths to keep Old Town scrubbed and tidy for the tourists



Street scene from inside Old Town of Split





A lot of the cruise line companies make port calls in Split



Scene from within Old Town in Split Croatia





Section of wall fortification surrounding Old Town in Split




After a few days spent visiting Split I was set on getting an early departure and heading down to Dubrovnik which according to the owner of the apartment building I was staying at, was a 3-4 hour ride depending on whether I choose to take the tolled Hwy or follow the coast road. The coastal road I was told was very scenic but was very slow, since the route passed through dozens of little coastal villages and the road was very curvy.

I went outside to move my bike around in preparation for packing my gear on to it when I noticed that my rear tire looked very flat. My initial thoughts were that the woman who had struck me the other day may have damaged the tire or the rim of the bike, causing the tire to deflate. I used my portable air compressor that I carry with me to pump up the tire. Every thing looked ok after filling it up with air. I could hear no leaks and the tire seemed to be holding pressure. I checked the tire to ensure that I had not picked up a nail and shit!! I found a large 3 inch screw embedded right in the middle of the tire. There did not seem to be any air escaping around the screw, but there was no way I was going to continue riding with a screw in my tire. Out came my puncture kit and 10 minutes later I had the hole plugged, unfortunately while filling up my tire the pressure fill line on my air compressor exploded. While all this was going on the owner of the apartment was standing by offering to help out if he could. He had a compressor pump of his own which he loaned me to get the tire filled up. My motorcycle has tubeless tires and when you get a flat and plug the puncture from the outside, the way I did, the fix is only meant as a short term solution until you can get to a tire shop and either have it repaired properly or change out the tire. In Canada, motorcycle shops are not allowed to repair punctured motorcycle tires, the only recourse you have is to replace the tire. The owner's son came by, he rides a motorcycle and told me that there was a motorcycle tire shop close by where I could get the tire repaired or replaced.

To make a long short, I rode down to the shop which was only a few kilometers away, they could have repaired the tire with an inside patch, but I would have to wait at least 8 hours for the patch to properly set before riding again, or they could sell me a new tire. My rear tire had about 6000 km on it, I normally get 10,000 km out of a rear Metzler Tourance tire.. I was hoping to ride the bike to Athens before having to replace the rear tire, but since I was here and the shop had the right tire for my bike, I opted to buy a new tire and be done with it. I still do not understand how a 3 inch long screw got perfectly embedded in the center of my tire. This is the 3rd puncture I have now experienced over the last 3 years.

I did not get out of Split until sometime after 12:00. With the lost time this morning getting the tire looked after, I opted for taking the toll road from Split to Dubrovnik. I have been very impressed with the quality of the main highways here in Croatia, main roads are as good as anything you will find in other parts of Europe.

I was not aware of it until I rode down from Split to Dubrovnik but in order to get to Dubrovnik you need to pass through Bosnia. Croatia is broken into two non-contiguous parts. There is a section of land called the Bosnia Neum Corridor which separates the two regions of Croatia. Bosnia has a 20 km section of the Adriatic coast that belongs to them. There is an unofficial treaty allowing EU and other foreigners to pass freely through this zone. They have a customs port for truckers and buses but cars and bikes are allowed to pass on through.

Here is an article from Wikipedia explaining how this strange fact of geography came to be

The Neum corridor dates back to the Treaty of Sremski Karlovci of 1699, whereby the Republic of Ragusa was separated from the Dalmatian possessions of its rival Venice by two buffer strips ceded by Venice to the Ottoman empire: north of its territory Neum and the bay of Klek, and south of its territory Sutorina with the port of Herceg-Novi on the Bay of Kotor, now part of Montenegro since 1947.

The Karlovci borders were reaffirmed in 1718 by the Treaty of Požarevac, but then the Ottomans, tired of negotiating in vain with Venice for a widening of their maritime access, simply usurped from the Republic of Ragusa the territory of Gornji Klek and most of the Klek peninsula, which it had bought from King Stjepan of Bosnia at the end of the 14th century. After the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797 and the Vienna Congress in 1815, the Austrian Empire, which had annexed both the Dalmatian possessions of Venice and the territory of Dubrovnik, tried to buy back the Neum and Sutorina enclaves from the Ottomans, but in vain; instead, it stationed a warship to block access to the port of Neum until the Treaty of Berlin, which gave Vienna the whole of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878; Neum had been under Ottoman control for 179 years.

In 1918, as a consequence of Vienna's defeat, Neum joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which would start being called "Yugoslavia" in 1929. Under the Karadordevices, the Yugoslav Government ignored the borders inherited from history twice: in 1929, when the Neum Region was included in a Banovina of the Coast, and in 1939 when, following the Serbian-Croatian Sporazum, it was included in the Banovina of Croatia. Tito's federal Yugoslavia was founded on the principle, declared at the 1943 AVNOJ in Jajce and comparatively well-respected by the Ðilas commission in 1945, of establishing the federated Republics in their borders of 1878 which is why the Neum enclave is now part of the independent Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, including most of the Klek peninsula (Ponta Kleka, Rep Kleka), the two islets Veliki i Mali Školj and the rock of Lopata in the Bay of Klek.

The accommodation I found in Dubrovnik was right near the center of town, the street the place was not found in my Garmin nor did it appear in Google maps, I had a heck of a time trying to find the place even after stopping and asking some of the locals where the street was.

Dubrovnik is the crown jewel in Croatia's tourist destinations and is the place that all the major cruise ship lines stop at. The city only has a population of 46,000 inhabitants but they get 2 - 3 times that number of tourists each day. Dubrovnik like many of its sister cities up the coast Split , Zadar is a mix of baroque and medieval buildings, marbled streets and red tiled roofs. But Dubrovnik is on a scale of its own. The fortress walls, ramparts and castle spires are enormous in scale. I was here 35 years and was impressed then and was looking forward to my return trip. But sadly, things have changed. At anyone time now there seems to be 3 or 4 giant cruise ships in the harbour flooding the Old Town with tourists. Everything about Dubrovnik now looks like it was designed by the Disney corporation. Everything looks too perfect, sanitised, not a speck of litter anywhere. Its been turned into a giant tourist trap. Every single space within the city has been allocated to a restaurant, outdoor cafe or trinket shop. I wanted to take a walk around the top of the ramparts for better view of the city, you can do that except they now charge you $23.00 to get access to the top of the fortification walls. Sit down for a coke, that will cost you $5.00. There were so many tourists packed into the narrow streets of the Old Town that you could hardly move freely about. This what happens to these seaside resorts when 2 -3 ships come into port, with each carrying 4,000 to 5,000 passengers. They overwhelm the city.



City of Dubrovnik in Croatia







Main entrance into Old Town of Dubrovnik



Some of the wall fortifications around the city



Want to take a stroll on top of walls? that will cost you $23.00 - 130 Kuna



Too many tourists

No plans for a visit to Scotland this time round.

I spent a few weeks motorcycling around Scotland a few weeks years. Had a great time, at top of my list of favorite countries I have motorcycled through

Link to old ride report on my Scotland ride.

Trip Scotland 1

Cheers

Brian