Aug-Sep 2013 Distance: 4'000km Ferry trips: 8 Vehicle: BMW R1200RT
Yes, this is 2013 trip part "B". It was the second bike adventure of the year as the first one (2013 part "A") wasn't even on my own bike.
Having only crossed European borders I decided to see what Turkey had to offer as Asia Minor was always on my bucket list, a place where many civilasiations had settled, abandoned, only to be settled by a different ethnic group. Believe you me it was worth it.
To save time I drove to Feldkirch, in Austria, just over the border from Switzerland, and boarded a train. We drove on the train on a Friday after work, booked a berth, the train drove all night the 700km between Zurich and Vienna, and we found ourselves in Vienna on Saturday at 8:00 in the morning. There were dozens of people doing the same thing, the train had almost only bikes as freight.
Having only crossed European borders I decided to see what Turkey had to offer as Asia Minor was always on my bucket list, a place where many civilasiations had settled, abandoned, only to be settled by a different ethnic group. Believe you me it was worth it.
To save time I drove to Feldkirch, in Austria, just over the border from Switzerland, and boarded a train. We drove on the train on a Friday after work, booked a berth, the train drove all night the 700km between Zurich and Vienna, and we found ourselves in Vienna on Saturday at 8:00 in the morning. There were dozens of people doing the same thing, the train had almost only bikes as freight.
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A quick walk about in Vienna, a quick coffee in one of its famous coffee shops, where strangely you were still allowed to smoke indoors in 2013... a 70km drive after that and we found ourselves in Britislava, the capital of Slovakia.
200km SW of Bratislava lies the city of Budapest. One of the most magnificent cities of Eastern Europe, its beauty mathing the beauty of Prague. OK the parliament was copied from Westminster, but the locals very proudly claim that it's a few metres bigger, and here size does matter, bigger equals better. It's still a copy though... Pic Right: Bratislava centre Picture below: Budapest |
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A few hours drive south and were were in Belgrade. The city itself I didn't find that great, but it was totally worth visiting the Fortress.
After that came Sofia, where we check in at the only camping place there was. It was very difficult to find, but I did finally find it. We were the only people staying there, so they charged us 10 Euros for two people, and told us that we could happily use one of their bangalows. It was the most spooky camping place I had ever seen in my life. But probably the weather and wind and full moon above my head played a big role. Also, everything around looked abandonded. Camping Sofia GPS 42.6377, 23.420 Pic left: Belgrade Fortress |
Bulgaria shares a border with Turkey. This was the first time every that I would cross into a non Europen county with my own vehicle. I had my international driving licence (no one asked for it) and green-card insurance paper. A few stamps in my passport and my and my bike had made it into Turkey.
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We weren't planning to visit Istanbul this time. We were heading for the West coast of Turkey. From Canakkale we took a ferry and crossed from the European into the Asian side of Turkey.
Next stop: the magnificent town of Bergama. The name is similar to the town of Bergamo, in Italy, but this was a settlement much older that Rome, from the Hittite empire. Picture: bike on the ferry from Kilitbahir to Canakkale |
Below: the city of Bergama asdf: more to come
