Touring Europe

[fireblake]

[size=78%]If you go to Dinan, and if you like cider, be sure to pick up a couple of bottles of Val de Rance. It's made in a factory 5 minutes from Dinan, and has won prizes worldwide to boot! Ask Exup and Dead Eye what they thought when they sampled some of the bottles I brought back last time! [/size]

I think we need to teach Christo to drive a car so he can fill the boot up and bring some of this Cider back to Blighty?


Mickey

[adeejaysdelight]

Fireblake, Neuschwanstein Castle is well in range and a great ride down. A ride around that area you will find some of the most spectacular "sound of music" scenery. It is a stunning part of the world.

[ChristoT]

[quote author=ChristoT link=topic=9108.msg90925#msg90925 date=1374960370]
[size=78%]If you go to Dinan, and if you like cider, be sure to pick up a couple of bottles of Val de Rance. It's made in a factory 5 minutes from Dinan, and has won prizes worldwide to boot! Ask Exup and Dead Eye what they thought when they sampled some of the bottles I brought back last time! [/size]

I think we need to teach Christo to drive a car so he can fill the boot up and bring some of this Cider back to Blighty?


Mickey
[/quote]

I have panniers!!  :lol :lol :lol

[ajmes1]

We've just planned an end to end trip across the uk. So far, for 3 of us, it has cost around £500 for accommodation for a week. And that's just a night in each place and they're not fancy or anything.


We booked all the places in advance on recommendation from a friend who has done the winging it approach previously. His experience of winging it on the continent was several hours spent looking for a good place to sleep, and quite often getting charged an inflated rate, particularly the later in the day it got.


Depends what you want to do, maybe book your key places and rough it/camp in between. Wild camping is acceptable on the continent! I'd at least chuck in one of those tiny backpacking stoves to brew up in between stops if its really rural!

[locksmith]

Or another option for those who don't want to tour but have fun days out blatting around great roads.

A, pick a region off a Michelin map that has lots of green scenic routes.
B, go online and find a hotel that suits somewhere in the middle of the region.
C, hire a long wheelbase high roof van with two mates, load three bikes and all the clothes/riding gear you might need and drive straight to hotel.
D, next morning get up have breakfast then have a day out riding a pre planned route following all those green roads.
Get back to hotel for dinner and beer.
E, next day do it all again

Not the cheapest way I know, but my preferred method as I don't really like "touring" with loads of luggage on the bike.
I love it because it's like Sunday morning blast's that last all day on fantastic roads.

[andydrz]

I stayed at the Pension Roesneck in early May. As mentioned before, it is highly recommended. Greg knows most of the passes over the Alps and would give you routes to ride if you wanted them. We travelled through Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Spain. Apart from Pension Roesneck we just found B&B's when we were getting tired. My mate went the year before so had a few he had visited before which helped. A top tip we found was find a tourist information centre as they had good B&B's on their lists and could ring them to check price and availability. We budgeted on 100 Euros per day for fuel, food and accomodation which was about right plus the cost of ferries. The Swiss Alps for me was the highlight of the trip. Just to warn you of extras, Mont Blanc tunnel is 27 Euros, The cable car to the top of Mont Blanc is 50 Euros and the train to the top of Jungfrau is 160 euros. Check the view online before you splash the cash! 

[pitternator]

My favourite stop is in kauernetal in west tyrol, situated close to switzerland, italy and germany.Close to stelvio, lots of swiss passes, passo de rombo etc. BUT its all down to weather my friends....pre booking is IMO out as its too easy to pick the wrong week ! My advice is to watch the forecast and go on spec . You will always be able to find a space in a hotel. Much much harder for a big group...maybe then you will have to pre book and risk it.
Prebooking I mean , like months in advance to suit holiday dates.
My ideal is to just go when austria has settled weather. IF the weather is good, there is no finer area to ride than tyrol and switzerland. If its wet ....uh uh. You have to have the dry weather. period.
Cost wise my favourite  hotel does half board for around 70 quid a night , with great food and reasonable drink prices.Fuel in austria is one of the cheapest too, and its a country totally dedicated to the tourist and is mostly biker friendly.
But you have to have the weather....believe me, in 5 seperate visits I have had only smatterings of dry weather interspersed with cloud or rain. All because we prebooked a tour and had to take what came.
Yet its just 1 overnight stop from calais to get there, so it is possible to just go on spec.
Switzerland btw is very expensive to stop eat and drink, far cheaper in neighbouring austria !

Northern spain and possibly the french alps are the nearest thing to guarenteed settled weather  booking in advance, but even then it does rain there from time to time !

[nick crisp]

Yes, that's the problem with mountain regions. They generate their own weather systems and you just have to live with what you get. Have heard stories of climbers pitching close to their intended routes and then having to wait for weeks until conditions were right. In some years, those conditions never materialise, and they end up packing up and going home having achieved nothing. I've been really lucky with the weather on UK trips to Scotland, Wales & the Lakes so far, but I suppose that luck can't last forever. And of course, the Alps are a bit more extensive/extreme compared to our own little hills.

[Borderraider]

Toured Europe every year since '93, most trips have been a mixture of pre-booked and 'see where we end up'  Usually start looking for accommodation around 4:30pm -only twice have we struggled to find somewhere but always managed.
In June this year we did a 10 day/2500 mile trip staying in Heidelberg, Livigno, 3 nights in Imola for WSB, Grindelwald & Cochem. Room  prices between 35-60 euro.  Cost worked out at approx. 100 euro daily...thats room, food, fuel. 
July we headed off for 18 days/3800 miles, Goslar, Dresden, Krakow, Debrecen, Brasov, Bruck An Der Leitha, Kistelek, Schlusselfeld & Brodenbach.  Room prices between 35-70 euro.  Cost worked out at approx. 85 euro daily, cheaper as had 4 days sightseeing & food/drink considerably cheaper in Poland, Hungary & Romania.
Going back to Brodenbach end of the month for Nurburgring WSB, done a 4 night deal with Hotel @ 35euro night.
If you end up on the Autobahns don't use the service stations, follow the Autohos signs...they'll take you to a Truck stop..much better   

[Phil]

Debrecen, Brasov,

Nice 1st post. I'm heading that way next month. Is most of Hungary flat and boring or is there plenty to see along the way. I guess Romania has plenty of accommodation in the touristy parts, but what about elsewhere? Any highlights/lowlights from either countries?

[Borderraider]

[quote author=Borderraider link=topic=9108.msg92983#msg92983 date=1375886165] Debrecen, Brasov,

Nice 1st post. I'm heading that way next month. Is most of Hungary flat and boring or is there plenty to see along the way. I guess Romania has plenty of accommodation in the touristy parts, but what about elsewhere? Any highlights/lowlights from either countries?
[/quote]

Bukk Mountain area in North very nice, first time in Hungary and impressed- clean, cheap, well surfaced roads, will be going again next year to explore.
In Romania you'll only find accommodation in towns not in small villages, food & people fine but roads & traffic horrendous. Approach roads to Transfaragaren pass horrendous, Dracula's Castle near Brasov with a visit.
I won't be in a hurry to go back.
Oh.. Money, you will need local currency contrary to advice I was given.
Enjoy your trip ;-)

[Borderraider]

Phones & predictive text!

[nick crisp]

I love the way this thread is shaping up. I hope it's a help to a lot of folks - if I can get it together to do this, I know the suggestions and advice here will be a great help to me. 

[Phil]

 


Bukk Mountain area in North very nice, first time in Hungary and impressed- clean, cheap, well surfaced roads, will be going again next year to explore.
In Romania you'll only find accommodation in towns not in small villages, food & people fine but roads & traffic horrendous. Approach roads to Transfaragaren pass horrendous, Dracula's Castle near Brasov with a visit.
I won't be in a hurry to go back.
Oh.. Money, you will need local currency contrary to advice I was given.
Enjoy your trip ;-)

This the route I'm thinking of, if I go via Slovakia. http://goo.gl/maps/aKwdr

The google streetview van went around in July-October 2012 and in some places its following a truck for miles and cant overtake, others there is quite a traffic queue behind it  :lol    Most of the roads look decent enough, road surface is no worse than the UK. The roads through higher land between smaller towns look the worse.

I've looked on Romanian bike tour companies websites and they dont bother with the Prislop Pass in the north, perhaps for that reason. They drop down via Bistrita.

I'm guessing the major roads between the major towns will be the busiest traffic wise. On those I've found a long queue behind trucks on single carraigeway roads. So maybe I'll look for secondary roads if its annoying.
I can't imagine a local tour companies going to rubbish places, so I've nicked some of their routes. http://motoromania.com/index.htm  This one has a top 5 and spotted the DN57 Danube route so I'll be doing that.
Hopefully and damaged roads from last winter will be repaired by now.

I met some Romanians in Germany. They said avoid the bigger hotels in the touristy areas as they are more expensive and that the pensions/guesthouses are far better value and for money there are plenty of cash machines in towns. They said have plum brandy as an apperitif but dont do a session on it. They also said around Bucarest the drivers are nutters and they go to Transfagarasan on weekends so its busy. So I'll avoid there at the weekend hopefully.
Only 3 weeks to go  :b

[Phil]

Well I'm back, everything in one piece.

After Nurburgring WSB I headed south east in the direction of Vienna for a day and a half of boring autobahn to get the mileage out of the way.
After that, I followed the Danube around the North of Budapest and into the hills of north Hungary to Eger.
Across the very flat Hungarian plains to Romania. Satu Mare, Baia Mare then over the hills to Sighetu Marmatiei. Happy Cemetery, wooden churches of Maramures county.
Past the ski resort of Borsa and over the Prislop Pass, to the Bucovina county and its many 5,000 year old painted monastaries.
South to Piatra Neamt. Bit of a concrete jungle of tower blocks, but not too bad, watched Romania v Hungary Euro footy in a bar, 3-0 so the locals were happy.
South through the Bicaz gorge and Hungarian speaking area to the old Saxon town of Sighsoara for the weekend. There was a film/folk/music festival going on so that was lucky, it added to the atomsphere.
After that the fortified church of Viscri, then onwards to the Transfagarasan Pass. I had planned to go to Brasov/Bran first, but the weather forecast looked better to do it straight away.
Great views in 20c and sunshine. Bran for a couple of days, 'Draculas' castle & Peles castle. The B&B was owned by a Brit who had been there for 15 years and filled me in on a few things about the Romanians. Past Brasov, nice view from the top of the hills. The forecast rain didnt really materialise in the valleys, just enough to dampen the roads for a while.
Past the Transfagarasan Pass again, dry in the valley, pissing down up top so I didn't bother going past 1/2 way up again.
West past Sibiu, another castle at Hunedoara where I met a Polish couple on DR400/Transalp 600. They were doing a camping trip and said up the mountains they woke to frost.
They said the Romanian roads were better than the Polish roads overall, but the Poles tarmac all their roads, the Romanians dont. They were keeping off the main roads sticking to th minor roads. There was another group of Poles on enduro bikes who had vanned them down there.
Down to Orsovo and along the Danube valley. I had planned to find a guesthouse on the river, but a road closure meant a long detour and then it started pissing down and got dark early so stayed on Orsovo. It took a while, maybe 1/2 hour,  to find somewhere to stay as several places had closed after the main tourist season.
Up to Timisoara, with its work in progress museum of the revolution in 1989. An old man showed me around, very interesting.
Then back to Hungary, to Pecs, then Lake Balaton, home of millions of midges. I was going to go to Croatia, but the forecast there wasn't good, so back to Austria, light rain and cold for a couple of days before it perked up back to sun and 20c.
Motorail overnight from Innsbruck to Dusseldorf to bypass 400 miles of boring motorways, then home.
Romanian accomodation was excellent. A little time spent researching where to go meant quality cheap guesthouses. Even those I turned up on the off chance were good, just looked for the '3 daisy' tourist board rating. Hosts were all very helpfull. 
In the north, prices were about £25 for b&b inc dinner with a couple of 500ml bottles of moonshine plum or pear brandy on the table if required. It tasted fine, wasnt sure of the %, so didnt want to risk a hangover next day so took it steady. The VFM guesthouses in Sighisoara were all full due to the festival, so the €45 a night 4 star hotel had to do. Most parts of the country on the tourist trail had loads of places to stay. Food was fine, as was the beer and wine. Very little imported from far away countries here.
Romanian roads were shit through to so new and fresh I could have written my name in the tarmac. Sometimes from 1 extreme to the other around a bend. Fully adjustable rear shock was adjusted many times to find a decent Romanian bouncy setting.
Quite a few newly weds spend day 2 of their 3 day long weddings being photographed around the more pretty castles and towns, mingling with tourists.

Fascinating country, with a lot to see and do. Well worth a visit but not if you are just requiring fast speedy riding for your holidays.
Main part of the route
http://goo.gl/maps/OyRIU












Far too many photos here

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/2098824729

[slimwilly]

That was amazing, thanks for that,it looked great, how many miles,, still , its the sort of trip we all should do one day.