A Date with Duncan & Sylvia

We got up early on Monday and packed our kit into the pannier bags and then into the boxes to put on the bike. I have to say Ann has this so well organised, she can tell if there is something missing, or if something’s not in the right place by the ease or difficulty of putting the bags into the pannier boxes, she really has it down to a very fine art. Over a good breakfast we booked our accommodation in Prague, three nights at the Hotel Arlington, (it sounded much better than it turned out to be!). The weather was much cooler, down to a mere 23 degrees, and windy with it. We’d had a heck of a storm overnight, seriously heavy rain with lots of thunder and lightning, it must have been bad, as it woke us up!


Art Nouveau Municipal House - Concert Hall

We left for Prague at 10.30am, 130 miles to the north west along the main arterial route. It was very windy especially in the outside lane of the motorway and at times quite scary, we were buffeted all over the shop particularly when passing the heavy wagons. We arrived into Prague at about14.00hrs, after, what we’ve come to call a ‘Bum’stop off (cos our bums start to go numb). After yet another few little detours with the Satnav we located our Hotel - not great, but very welcoming. We done a reconnoitre of the area and discovered we were about three miles (ten minutes by bike) from the city centre, literally around the corner was Prague’s O2 Arena, ideal for gigs, but sadly no big bands playing whilst we were there. It seemed the whole area where we were staying, was being regenerated, on the ‘up n up’ but required more time. We ate dinner in the Hotel (as we had not obtained any currency – their currency is the Koruna; about 23 koruna to the euro ). Our dinner was interesting, served with a smile, a bit like Faulty Towers, after which we retired early to do some blogging and catching up..


View of Old Town Square, Old Town hall and
Astronomical Clock on left, Church of Our Lady
 Before Tyn, with twin towers.


We got up early on Tuesday morning, had breakfast and set off to explore Prague the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic, which is situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, and is home to about 1.3 million people. Prague has a number of famous cultural attractions, many of them survived the violence and destruction of twentieth century Europe. The main attractions include; Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, the Jewish Quarter, the Lennon Wall, and Petřín hill (small Eiffel tower and parks area). Since 1992, the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.



Rudolfinum Originally housed The National Assembly
Now the home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

 Like Vienna, there were many wonderful buildings and plenty of historic places to visit, but unlike Vienna, Prague was somewhat chaotic for the tourist. All the wonderful brown historic signage was in place but unfortunately there were no follow up signs, so you’d seemingly start off in the right direction, but then 200metres or so, and around two or three corners - no more signage. It was quite funny, everywhere you looked, there were people wondering around with their faces, either buried in a street map, or screwed up looking for the invisible signs!! We spent an enjoyable day in temperatures exceeding 30 degrees, discovering the wonderful sites including the Charles Bridge, spanning the river Vltava on stone piers with its sculptures and statues of the saints spread over the 515m length of the bridge, and fortified with towers at each end, it is the oldest bridge in Prague dating back to the 12th century.


View of Prague from Strahov Monastery.

  Late afternoon we visited the Strahov Monastery on Petrin Hill, a beautiful Baroque building dating back to 1140, we even managed to catch Mass in the Church of The Assumption, attached to the Jesuit monastery.The view from the Monastery, looking down across the city in the glorious evening sunshine, was absolutely stunning - I had to pinch myself again. We crossed back over the river and found our way to Old Town Square, the most significant square of historical Prague, surrounded by many important historical buildings. It was probably around 20.00 hrs and we discovered a jazz festival was about to kick off. A large covered stage had been erected in the centre of the square with a big screen to enable all to see and hear the musicians. We stayed for a couple of hours and enjoyed the jazz session, we eventually left to find our trusty steed and return to the hotel, after a long and exhausting day.



The magnificent National Museum,
 the largest & Oldest Czech Museum



A view of the River Vltava looking back from the castle

 Wednesday 13th July: We woke up feeling refreshed and ready to do some more sight seeing. The temperature was in the early 30’s and we had decided to do a guided walking tour of the old City to find out some of the history. We enjoyed the two hour tour, the guide spoke good English and was very informative, giving us facts and information you would never discover on your own. We spent the rest of the day using the by now, voluminous accumulation of maps and flyers acquired from the TI and elsewhere, to continue our sight seeing. We ate at a local restaurant and finished the evening back at the main square to enjoy an hour or so of jazz before riding off into the sunset back to the hotel. In reality, it started to look very overcast, we left the square and just made it back to the hotel before the heavens opened and the almightiest of storms broke out and lasted most of the night.

We didn’t sleep very well that night, probably due to the storm, however, by 10am next morning 14th July, we’d packed our kit and were ready to leave. I have to say we were not sorry to leave the Arlington hotel, it wasn’t one of our better choices, just another link in the chain of our incredible adventure. Unfortunately, in our rush to leave the hotel, we forgot to deposit the room key back at reception, Ann found it later when we arrived in Krakow in Poland.

The moral dilemma; should we post it back or just dispose of it ?

Yes, Poland, our next destination, country number 14 and a staggering 8000+ miles covered on our bike!!!! (another pinch of the skin).

It’s difficult and probably unfair to draw any firm conclusions from the short time we spent in the Czech Republic. The country is experiencing considerable change after the old communist regime, the people are very stand offish and reluctant to speak to you, I suspect mindful of the past when 1 in 6 of the population was employed by the secret police. It will take two or maybe three generations to relinquish the inherent reticence to converse outside of immediate family members, but I am sure, just like the butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, so too, will the people of the Czech Republic.



'A Date With Duncan'  Rob, Bev,The Groom & Us

 Some of you may know we were invited to attend the wedding of Duncan Thorpe, to his fiancée Sylvia, in Kielce, Poland on 16th July 2011. Duncan is our Godson, and son of long term friend Bev, whom we’ve known for over thirty chuffin years – Kielce was always on our horizon and, in Krakow, we were only 75 miles away with a day in hand. We were really looking forward to the wedding and seeing some familiar faces from back home. We’d been told of the Polish hospitality and their wedding traditions, and we were certainly not disappointed. Poland has its own currency the Zloty, approx 4zloty to the euro.



Krakow was over 300 miles from Prague, directly east as the crow flies, the temperature was up around 27 degrees and warm. Along the way we travelled through a couple of heavy showers, fortunately not prolonged, so by the time we reached Krakow early in the evening, our kit was dry. We found our accommodation with the help of the satnav, a big one bedroom apartment with a kitchen; a really nice place with a lovely and very helpful woman owner. We found a big supermarket and got in some supplies, including beer and wine. Ann made us a superb chicken curry, which we washed down with the vitamen B, we done some catching up on the computer and checked out the tourist sights in the old town of Krakow and Wieliczka, (a salt mine, just outside Krakow) both of which we planned to visit next day.


An Incredible Church carved out of the rock salt,
by the miners deep underground

The weather, next morning played its part in deciding our agenda for the day. Alas it was raining, so the underground salt mine was an easy choice, after which, we would take off up to Kielce, to meet up with Bev, husband Rob (BallingerBob), Duncan and Sylvia and the other guests at the hotel venue for a pre-wedding dinner. We decided we would return back to Krakow after the wedding, to complete our visit of the old city, and to include Auschwitz concentration camp, 45 miles due west of the City.


'Skeletor' Ann, 64m below the surface
about to enter the mine

 The salt mine at Wieliczka, was indeed very interesting and you do get to experience what conditions might have been like for the miners. The mine is over 900 years old and mining has been continuous right up to early 2000, there are in total over 300 km of mine reaching a depth of 327m . Though it is no longer operational today, the salt mine has been made into a fantastic tourist attraction, the 3.5 km walk through the mine takes over 3 hours, during which time you get to see some fantastic sculptures and other impressive structures including an underground chapel, cut in the rocksalt by the miners. There is even a statue of Pope John Paul 11, who visited the mine on two occasions before he became Pope. He was due to visit the mine on a third occasion as Pope, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to ill health.

When we eventually ascended out of the mine at 17.00 hrs, via a swift lift (for which we waited 1.25 hrs), we were greeted with heavy rain. We made our way slowly out of a very congested Krakow heading north to Kielce, the 75 mile journey took us 2.5hrs. We travelled along some of the worse roads we’ve experienced since our adventure began almost 6 months ago (I’ve just pinched myself again), some of the Polish roads can only be described at best as farm tracks, a patchwork of tarmac. But, to be fair I’m pleased to say there is a big push by the incumbent government to radically improve their infrastructure – the sooner the better!


Don't they all SCRUB UP well!!

 We finally made it into Kielce and the Hotel Lesny Dwor. We were greeted with hugs and kisses from Bev and Rob (before we could even get our helmets off), what a greeting, we felt at home straight away. We quickly showered and changed and joined the rest of the guests in the dining room where we spent the rest of the evening, eating, drinking, chatting and eventually singing, till it was time to hit the sack. We had us some great craic that evening, some good memories – Rob stripping off his shirt and bursting into song, quickly followed by Paul ‘the quiet one’, doing likewise, sporting a mass of hair (like the proverbial gorilla but not quite so ugly) and about to derobe his trousers, only to be prevented by spoilsport Birthday gal Christine (she who must be obeyed -Wife).


Duncan & Bro Greig- Best Man!!

There were, no doubt, some sore heads the next morning, possibly even a few that suffered the effects of vodka poisoning – lightweights..... 1st casualty was big brother and Best Man Greig hehehehehe. Throughout all this merriment, Duncan and Sylvia remained, at least outwardly, cool, calm, collected and seemingly in control?????? Having said that, we did go up to Duncans room on our way to bed, it seemed the world and his wife were in there or out on his balcony still knocking back the Vodka, Duncan meanwhile was trying to memorise his words for the Church wedding service the following day!!



The Beautiful Bride Sylvia, Bridesmaid, Best Man & Groom


Saturday 16th July, at long last the big day has finally arrived. The wedding service was scheduled to start at 5pm, which gave plenty of time, for those who needed it, to recover. At 3.30pm we had changed into our wedding garb (the first time we’d donned proper clothing in many months), for which we thank Bev and Rob for lugging our stuff over on the plane with their own. As Godparents we had been invited to the home of the bride to witness the traditional Polish blessing of the Bride and groom, and all the other associated wedding traditions – one of which was to offer bottles of Vodka to the father of the bride in exchange for the hand of his daughter (A chuffin bribe if ever I’ve seen one). Sylvia looked stunning in her wedding dress and Duncan too, in his wedding suit looked a very smart and handsome groom, we felt privileged to be a part of this intimate and very personal family experience.


Party Time - High Octane Vodka!!

 After the wedding service it was back to the hotel where the reception took place over the course of 12 hrs till 07.00 the following morning. It was a reception to remember, (that is if you were capable the next day), the food was delicious and plentiful, the vodka was high octane and plentiful, and the music, merriment and dancing continued unceasing til the early hours, a truly extraordinary day!! But we were only half way through..... OMG, At 3pm Sunday afternoon it started all over again, another 12 hrs of VODKA and partying!!!





'Keep up Duncan'
Duncan got behind with the vodka shots




Soooooo it continueeeed, Sundray, regovery till 3pm, undooo the shtops on the vodjkaaa bokkles, eat yur phill, prarty and blitz til shensless, grayzzing as you go. Annnnuther fantashtic day, carried out shelflesslhy by all asshembled gusts, in the caush of Duncan an Sylvias shelebraishun hic,hic hic!!





 
Before we knew it, Monday arrived and with it the realisation, the wedding was really over, it was time to move on, back on our trusty steed heading south to Krakow. We said our goodbyes and wished Duncan and Sylvia many happy and loving years together. Once again we set out on the road, with each other for company, and lots of great memories accumulated over the course of the weekend, for us to chat about over a glass of wine.



Till the next blog....

Luv, hugs and kisses to all back home. The easy Riders xxxx
Ps The moral dilemma ? – We posted the key back to the hotel

One That Got Away



View of  Budapest from Buda castle - Parliament Building
on the left.

We arrived into Budapest a little stressed and later than we predicted. For reasons known only to the satnav it took us on a very protracted route, but we finally got to our hotel, the hotel Central 21, we had an excellent room, on the first floor looking out onto a courtyard. The weather had cooled quite considerably and after unloading our kit, we changed into our jeans to go out for something to eat and drink, a short distance from the hotel.


The Opera House



Sat morning the 2nd July was again very cool (only 22 degrees), as we were about to leave the hotel to do some tourist stuff, it started to chuffin well rain, but that didn’t stop us hardy annuals, out came the brolley and off we went. However,first things first, we had to get some money (their currency is the Forint and there’s around 264 forint to the euro) Often cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Budapest, with its extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in the world. Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs the world's largest thermal water cave system, Dohany Street synagogue, the largest in Europe and second largest synagogue, in the world and Parliament building the third largest– it is the principal city of Hungary with a population in excess of 1,720,000 residents and attracts about 2.3 million tourists a year.


Looking across the danube to Buda Castle

We spent two full days catching the sites, one or two of them had that real ‘Wow’ factor like The Parliament, built between 1884 & 1904, in Neo-Gothic style on the bank of the Danube, and serves as the permanent seat of the national Assembly. There were other really magnificent municipal and Church buildings (St Stephen’s Basilica) and also some outstanding commercial buildings like The Parizsi Nagyaruhaz, which opened on the main shopping street in 1910 as a department store, built in Art Nouveau style; The former Gresham Palace, once the offices of Gresham Insurance Brokers, London, now the luxurious Four Seasons Gresham Palace Hotel, also built in Art Nouveau architecture, a real joy for the anorak brigade, sadly I include Ann and me, when it comes to buildings. I’m afraid the weather on Sunday didn’t improve a great deal, if anything it was slightly worse as the rain, when it started to fall, did persist and made sight seeing on foot, a little slippy!!



Having fun with the auto water fountain



C'mon Ron you can do it, look it's easy,
lift the right leg first then the left



On Monday the 4th we set off for Bratislava the capital of Slovakia (430,000 population), 130 miles in a north westerly direction. The weather was still grey and overcast, temperature 22 degrees, but no rain about. On the way, we stopped off in the small town of Visegrad famous for the remains of the Early Renaissance summer palace of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and the medieval citadel. We walked around this partly restored citadel, which has been made into quite a tourist attraction, with good English historical translation, certainly one we enjoyed. We continued on our journey towards Bratislava and just before the border into Slovakia we passed through the town of Esztergom. My goodness, there right in front of us stood this immense domed building. It turns out to be The Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and St.Adalbert - It is dedicated to the Saint Mary of the Assumption and Saint Adalbert.



Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary 


It is the tallest building in Hungary and the 18th biggest church in the world. Its inner area is 5,600 m². It is 118 m long and 49 m wide. It has a reverberation time of more than 9 seconds. Its dome, forming a semi-sphere, is situated in the middle, and it has 12 windows. It is 71.5 m high inside, with a diameter of 33.5 metres, and is 100 m high from outside, counted from the crypt. The main altarpiece (13.5 × 6.6 metres, depicting the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by Michelangelo Grigoletti) is the largest painting in the world painted on a single piece of canvas.

All this amazing stuff and we never got to see it, we rode on by, not ever realizing what the building was or what significance it held, and to make matters worse, we later discovered that it attracts a million visitors a year. (The One that Got Away).

We arrived into Bratislava at 19.00hrs, we found the Hotel Medium, and unloaded our kit. We were quite impressed with the hotel, they welcomed us with a bottle of champers, which we guzzled down obligingly. We showered, changed our kit and went down to dine in the restaurant, before retiring to bed for a well earned sleep.



A Modern day Bratislava Castle.

Tuesday morning started with some warm sunshine. The currency in Slovakia is the Euro so there was no pressing need to get some money. We spent the day trying to discover Bratislava. Unfortunately for us, we arrived during a two day national holiday, literally everything, everywhere was shut, including many of the museums, historical places of interest and even the retail shops. We walked around and around, we went up to Bratislava Castle, but were frustrated as that too was closed (due to refurbishment). In the end we gave up and stopped for a drink in the main street and done a little bit of people watching and just enjoyed the surroundings in the sunshine.



   On Wednesday morning before leaving Bratislava for Austria, we booked our next hotel (Hotel Europahaus), over the internet. Austria would be our 12th country and Vienna the capital city, our destination, only 50 miles due west. The barometer had picked up and temperatures once again were into the 30’s. Less than two miles out of Bratislava we crossed the border trouble free into Austria, (there was no border control). An hour and a half later we arrived into the beautiful city of Vienna. With the assistance of the satnav (now back on full duty), we made our way through the labyrinth of streets to the hotel Europahaus, tucked away in a green oasis, about 20 minutes from the city centre.




Belvedere Palace, cascading waterfall and gardens.

Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states that make up Austria, it has a population of about 1.7 million (2.4 million within the metropolitan area, more than 25% of Austria's population). It is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre, and is the 10th-largest city by population in the European Union. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, such as the United Nations and OPEC. We spent three wonderful days in awe of Vienna, it is an incredibly beautiful and clean city with so much to see and do in and around the city. In 2001 the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I’m not going to go into detail at what we saw or what we done, because there was so much, what with 27 Palaces for starters.......Do I hear cries of ‘oh come on Tone’, or shouts of joy?. However, be assured, it is most certain a destination we would gladly return to, at some point in the future, God willing. Oh go on then - just one little comment about the nature of the Austrian people; they are immensely obedient and will not, at any cost, stand outside the law. Even to crossing the road they will wait till the green man says ‘Yes it’s ok to cross’ although there would be no traffic in sight – this was ‘Big Tone Territory’ I would smile to myself as we crossed the road, the chuffin red man flashing and their faces convulsed. I’m really not convinced it was fear of disobeying or just downright envy. Whatever, it made me chuckle!!!!!!!


Jaw dropping - Another typical example of the
wonderful Architecture

On Saturday 9th July, we left Vienna in temperatures of 35 degrees, heading due north to Brno in the Czech Republic, approximately 85 miles away. Our ultimate destination was the city of Prague and Brno was a reasonable place to stop off. Co-incidentally, Brno does have a motorbike racing circuit and as LUCK should have it, the next stage of World Superbike happened to be taking place at the circuit over the same weekend 9th and 10th July. Well I can hear one or two of you saying ‘I bet, what a coincidence that was?’ well, I’m not goin to be drawn on that one, but I did get a ticket and I did go to the circuit late Sat afternoon, and all day Sunday (after Mass).
 

Come on my son!



The temperature on the Sunday was in the mid 30’s, Ann stopped at the Hotel and enjoyed the glorious sunshine around the pool, whilst I biked over to the circuit (about 7 miles away) and watched and enjoyed the thrills and spills of the real racers - it was most unexpected!! I even got a little sunburnt, but it was worth it!!!

For those of you who would like to know the result........

But, the real coincidence was, that Katherine (daughter No 2), along with her cousin Charlotte, were both at the F1 Grand Prix, Silverstone at the same time (Paps watchin motorcyclin in Czech Republic, kids watchin F1 in UK – how good is that). They bought tickets for the whole three day event and really enjoyed the experience, if not the result - Katherines a Vettel fan, but probably would’ve been pleased for Allonso, the winner.

And so hear endeth this blog, On Monday morning the 11th we’re off to Prague, the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic.

Luv and prayers to everyone back home

The Easy Riders xxxx

Unspoilt natural beauty.

Mokra Gora, Ann looking like she's about to growl!!



So, at 08.30 on Sunday 19th June, after an excellent hot breakfast, we loaded our kit onto the bike in temperatures already burning at 30 degrees. After a discussion with one of the tourist information staff, we changed our plan and decided to visit a place by the name of Mokra Gora (wet Mountain in English), on the northern slopes of mountain Zlatibor, part of the Prokletije mountain range, on our way to the Serbia/Bosnia border. Quite a tourist attraction by all accounts, which became popular after the reconstruction of a narrow gauge railway called Sargan Eight. Its route viewed from the sky, looks like the number 8. Once over the border we would follow the River Dina through the mountains to Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, population approx 310,000, and their currency, the Mark (approx 1.95 to the euro). Our general direction would be South west to Mokra Gora about 125miles, then turning in a westerly direction to Sarajevo a further 90 miles away.


Newly Weds, Ahh don't they look sweet

 We got to Mokra Gora without a hitch, in temperatures reaching a record high for us, 35 degrees!!!! I couldn’t wait to get out of my jacket when we parked the bike, I was sure that once I undone the zip, there would be a flood of water, even Ann admitted to being extremely hot (not under the collar). We spent a short while in Mokra Gora and had something to eat before leaving to cross the border into Bosnia and on to Sarajevo. I have to say the route we had chosen was beautiful, it followed the river Drina through the rugged mountain terrain, real bike riding. Truth be told, we probably passed more bikes on that stretch of road than anywhere else to date, confirming that it was great biking territory.




Glorious Scenery



Sarajevo Old Town



We arrived into Sarajevo around 5 ish and found ourselves a bed and breakfast guest house by the name of ‘Focin Han’, yes an unusual name, and no it wasn’t hell!! One of the first things that struck us whilst we wandered around the old quarter of the city looking for something to eat, was the strong muslin influence, not just the presence of several mosques in a relatively small area, but also the significant number of people dressed in traditional muslin attire; and finding a beer proved to be quite challenging, but one, we rose to. The weather had turned cool (down to about 22 degrees) and actually started to rain, we ate dinner and retired back to the b&b to do some catching up.

We got up early on Monday morning 20th June, the weather had improved and though still some cloud cover, the sun was out and about. Our plan was to move on out of Sarajevo, heading in a south westerly direction to Mostar and on through to our ultimate destination Dubrovnik, in Croatia, 170 miles away and country No 9 on our travels. I only have vague memories of the Serbian/Sarajevo conflict back in 1992, (reported through the media), which lasted for three years. Today it seems that on the surface things are much improved and Sarajevo is a city that is emerging from the shadows of war. Personally, we were not that impressed by what we saw, or what was on offer for that matter in Sarajevo, but we only spent a very short time in the city - we left at around 10.30hrs.


Taken from the back of the bike



The water proved too much of a temptation


The journey to Mostar was absolutely beautiful, the Bosnian scenery was quite breathtaking, so much so that we stopped off several times (photo opportunities). The sun was burning, we were once again, travelling in temperatures of 34 degrees, and starting to melt. The river Neretva, which we had been following for many miles through the mountains, became too much of a temptation, it looked so chuffin inviting. We decided to park the bike and next thing we’re up to our knees in ice cold water – it was magnificent. We motored on through Mostar and eventually crossed, trouble free, over the border into Croatia. We had decided to stay a few miles outside Dubrovnik due to the excessive hotel costs, we picked the small coastal resort of Neum and located a great studio apartment overlooking the sea. It turned out to be an excellent choice, so good in fact, we stayed four days. It was an ideal location, by the sea to relax and chill, and a great base to tour out from.



Magnificent Croatian coastline



St Blaise Church.



The fountain in the Franciscan Monastery

 Tuesday 21st June, we were up early, the current bun was out and temperatures were creeping up beyond the 30 degrees. Dubrovnik was our destination and we were going to spend the entire day in the old fortified part of the city, one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic coast, and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. Surprisingly, a population of only forty four thousand. Our first priority was to obtain some money – the main currency in Croatia is the Kuna and there are 7.37Kn to the euro. Once armed with the right ammunition, we were free to enjoy the delights Dubrovnik had to offer – The Placa main street, City hall & Marin Drzic Theatre, The beautiful high domed St Blaise catholic Church, The Franciscan Monastery and museum, the big Onofrio’s Fountain and of course the magnificent ‘Raddison Blue’ hotel, where Lisa (daughter No 1) stayed on a recent working visit (shame it didn’t coincide with the time we were there). The sun eventually took its toll, the temperature inside the the old city rose to 35 degrees and was just too hot to continue. We decided to curtail the site seeing and head back to the cool of our apartment.

Wed 22nd - The weather was glorious, temperatures hovering in the 30’s, we went down to the beach and swam in the sea. Done naff all today, went out in the evening and had a lovely meal and a few beers.


Statue of Our Lady at Medjugorge

 Thurs 23rd. We decided to go to the town of Medjugorge, once a simple village parish, but now, famous, thanks to the apparition of Our Lady to six young people, the first of which took place on 24th June 1981. Medjugorje has become a shrine to Our Lady and a place of pilgrimage for millions of people. I have to say this was a completely unplanned destination, we just decided that we would go visit Medjugorje because we had seen a road sign pointing to it on our way from Mostar to Neum, three days previous, and, I’m ashamed to admit, we weren’t even sure if it was the same place we’d heard about from our Marriage Encounter friends. Well, there is no doubt in my mind, this was Gods Plan. Literally, we arrived into Medjugorje in Blazing temperatures (a new record high of 39 degrees), there was considerable congestion but somehow we found our way, or perhaps were drawn (on the bike) to the church. We parked, changed into shorts and t-shirts and headed straight for the church. It seemed there was a service going on, there were lots of people standing outside the main entrance and music was coming from the speakers. We made our way into a packed church just as Mass was about to start, Lo and behold we discovered it was Corpus Christi, we were about to participate in the celebration of Corpus Christi with an English Mass in Medjugorje, and on the Altar, over forty visiting priests from across the globe, also ready to celebrate this Feast Day. It was a truly uplifting experience, one we will both always remember.


Can u pass me the soap please





39 degrees, absolute bliss





OMG! It's a Chuffin Donkey in the Trailor

 We left Medjugorje around 14.30 hrs and headed to the nearby national park of Kravica. We had been told of this park with it’s wonderful waterfalls and lake which you could swim in. Well that’s exactly what we done, the place was packed but there was just enough room for Ann & I to squeeze into and enjoy the rest of the afternoon – we had great fun as the pics might suggest. On the way back to our apartment we passed a car towing an open trailor, as we rode past it I realised there was only a chuffin donkey in the back. I couldn’t believe it, so a little further on we stopped to let it pass, so that when we caught it back up, Ann could take a picture of it ......LOL.




The sea front, Podstrana



Next morning we left Neum heading north west, back up the coast to Split about 100 miles away, the second largest city in Croatia with a population in excess of 227,000. It was an interesting journey to Split, at times we weren’t sure that we were travelling in the right direction - the mapping for Croatia on the satnav has been very poor, and many times in Croatia its’ gone AWOL, causing us considerable consternation. Anyway, we arrived into Split and headed out to Podstrana, a coastal resort about 5kms outside Split with a plentiful supply of accommodation. We found ourselves a great self contained apartment, ‘Casablanca’ owned by a lovely family who really looked after us. The strange co-incidence here was, the eldest son, Neeno, was a time served mechanic and motorbike fanatic (in fact it turns out the whole family, including mum & dad are serious motor bike enthusiasts), he operates a servicing and repairs business from premises below the apartment. After a couple of days, checkin out his credentials (don’t be rude Pauly More), I asked him if he would help me do an oil change. Papa, had once again, provided us with an answer to an ever increasing concern......, we’ve done 7000 miles on the bike since our adventure started, and an oil change was overdue!!


Ace Mechanic Neeno doing oil change.
Note the specialist tool to remove oil filter



Yadstrana, bbq'ing dorado fish for dinner

 

Yo Ballinger Bob, you’d be proud of me the way I’m lookin after this “incredible piece of German Engineering, that I’ve bought into”!!


Krka National Park - cascading Waterfalls


Podstrana, like Neum, was a great base from which to tour, we spent four nights at ‘Casablanca’ and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Whilst we felt Split was a bit of a disappointment in terms of site seeing, though it did have the Diocletian Palace, and is included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites, we did discover another Croatian treasure in the form of Krka national park. Similar to Kravica but much bigger and once again we swam in the lakes around the waterfalls with temperatures in the mid 30’s.



Monday 27th June. Today we received some very sad news, one of the boys at St Ben’s, George Vale, lost his battle for life with cancer. Ann & I have known George, and his family for many years from our days at Studley News, we have been privileged to know them and to share through Adele’s letters, after we left Studley, the achievements of their courageous young son. We will pray for the repose of the soul of George and ask God to give his loving support to Dad Paul, Mum Adele, brother Billy and their families at this sad and difficult time.

On Tuesday 28th, we left Podstrana, heading north west to Zadar and on to Starigrad Raklencia, 160 miles away, but still in Croatia. At 18.00 with temperatures still in the 30’s we arrived into Starigrad and found an hotel - The Rajna. We booked a room for one night, and quickly unloaded our kit into our room. There wasn’t a great deal to do, so after a couple of refreshing drinks over a good dinner, we retired early to get a good nights kip, ready to make an early start the following morning. At this point we were unsure whether we would head up to Ljubljana in Slovenia, or across to Zagreb, the Capital of Croatia; We were going to sleep on it and make our decision the next morning.




The Croatian coast from the Velebit Mtns


Over breakfast the following morning, we struck up a conversation with a couple of Israeli guys staying at the hotel, who, as it turned out, were touring Croatia on pedal bikes. It was a conversation with them that helped us to decide that Zagreb was the preferred choice going via the National Park Plitvicka Jezera - A most beautiful and in their words ‘a must see area’ of Croatia, and part of the reason why they had travelled over from Israel to tour Croatia. At At about 09.30 am on Wed 29th, with glorious blue skies and temperatures already up to 27 degrees, we loaded up our trusty steed, and set off. Initially we headed north for about 15 miles and then turned due east, up through the Velebit mountains and on to Plitvicka, a further 55miles away. Oh boy, what a bike ride, an absolute delight, probably (for me), one of the most enjoyable rides throughout our entire tour - the scenery and the views were stunning and the winding roads, whilst challenging, were fantastic fun. It made for a perfect start to the day.


Magnificent torquoise colour of  water at Plitvica

 Plitvicka Jezera continued in the same vein. It is famous for its natural lakes arranged in cascades which are renowned for their distinctive colors, ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colors change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle of sunlight. It was incredible and exactly as the Israeli guys said, we were so fortunate to have visited this magnificent protected natural area (a total of 295 sq kms) on such a beautiful day. With visitors approaching 1 million a year, the park is maintained and well managed, swimming in the lakes is forbidden. According to the scientists, the reaction of the natural minerals in the water with the human body, would some how, damage the ecco system and thus destroy what has taken centuries to develop naturally.


Nature at its' best!!!


We spent about four hours walking in the national park in temperatures reaching 32 degrees, and probably covered in the region of six to seven miles. Though it was difficult and at times very tempting, we did resist the urge to jump into the water to cool our biriyani down. There were other walks on offer, and with more time we would have gone further, but the park closed at 20.00 hrs. We’d gotten to the furthest point where we had to catch a trolley bus back to the main entrance, else we’dve been left behind with the bears!! Riding back to our accommodation, we stopped off for dinner at a restaurant, we had a lovely meal, a fitting end to a perfect day.




The National Theatre in Zagreb



The Cathederal of The Assumption Blessed
Virgin Mary in the background

 Thurs 30th June - At around 11.00am we set off for Zagreb, approx 115 miles away, heading in a north easterly direction. The weather had changed considerably and was dull and cloudy with the sound of rumbling thunder in the distance, the temperature on the other hand was just over 30 degrees. We booked our accommodation over the internet and using the coordinates for the hotel Laguna, we programmed the satnav and off we goooooooooooo. Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northeast of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb is a vibrant city of around 800 000 people, it boasts a charming medieval 'old city' with some superb architecture and cobbled streets. Although we only stayed one night we did two days and clocked up a fair amount of ‘shank’s pony’ miles.

All that walking, we had worked up an appetite,
 a pizza the size of a bicycle wheel!!



For Marky Elsmore, I wanted to buy this for you
but they didn't have the box big enough!!!

 At one point we even called into a technical museum which contained loads of gear from the past, it included a section on ancient and modern petrol and diesel engines – Anns dad, Bill, would have been in his element! I have to say, in the short time we were in Zagreb, what we saw, like the magnificent baroque and unmistakably yellow Croatian National Theatre, ‘The Stone gate’, St Mark’s Church, The Cathedral of the Assumption Blessed Virgin Mary, which Pope Benedict had visited literally three weeks previous –if only we’d known....and many more superb examples of exquisite buildings with great architectural merit, all of which we thoroughly enjoyed. In truth, what we had read and what we’d been told about the city, left us with little expectation or anticipation. In reality, what we actually saw, far exceeded our expectation.



Specially for you Mike Baggot to match your other Motor

  At 14.00 hrs we had to leave Zagreb, we had a journey of 220 miles to cover, due north east before we reached our next destination - The beautiful Hungarian City of Budapest, on the River Danube – our 10th country.


Like the T- shirt??



Till the next blog.....

Lotsa luv

The Easy Riders xxxxx