June 21 Romania

Romania tour no  7 21June 2012
Early breakfast @ 7am briefing at 8-45 clutch out 9am
Woke this morning to find fog had enclosed us  so it was a good time to leave at 9 am.Breakfast we introduced Matej to Vegemite. Yuk was his response
The day was also going to be very hot and we had a huge challenge in front of us it was going to be a short day 190 klm but a very adventures one.

First we rode a country road and there were a few pot holes so we just practiced for what was to come.Rozle had already told us that what we were about ride was the worse road in Romania but the view was worth the ride.
(funny when you are on tour ,you believe anything)
Prislop Pass it is a mountain pass and climbs to an altitude of 1416 metres it is the highest Romanian pass and a bikers nightmare.
Leaving the main highway the challenge is in front,it is a National Park with little villages scattered along a river,many horse carts again packed with straw and peasants going about their daily chores.

The road is bloody dreadful, biggest pot holes we have ever seen, so we zig zag across the road to miss as many as we could, but sometimes it did not work and we get tossed about on the bike
 We see other motorcyclist camping by the river As we climb higher a couple of the Americans pass us dodging pot holes and going rather fast for the road conditions.yes the scenery spectacular as we reach the summit, you can see forever,the pine forest and the valley below mountains on either side .
We have our morning tea and the group photo , and then we check out the bikes for any damage from the pot holes   And yes there is major damage to one bike, both front and back rim's are stuffed, Lucky they have tubes other wise the rider would have been stuck  there.
As we descent, Matej rides ahead to get some photos, the American family thought they were going to be left behind so they followed  Matej down . Duh the road has many turns and lots of photo opportunities
The valley was beautiful ,the houses had gates with wooden carvings on them shingles on the roof,the place is very clean and No "club Mac"

The lady who was miss placed yesterday did it again today, got miss placed.
She stopped to take some photos and could not follow her GPS to catch up with the group, we stopped at a junction for a while in the bloody heat, and Rozle went looking for her, so Matej asked us to go on to the Barsana Monastery as there may be some shade.

Looking around this Monastery was very interesting it is UNESCO  listed,it has many wooden structures and very tall spires , in a beautiful garden setting,it has 16 nuns still in residence a notice  on a wall states it was built      around 1390 , (all this culture ) there is 56 metre tall spire reputedly to be the tallest  wooden structure in Europe.
Rob notices that his phone has gone missing much panic has set in ,retraces his steps, some honest person had handed it in , (but we are at a Monastery)

We had lunch in a little cafe on site, still the missing women has not turned up,
Rozle rings Matej to tell him all is well Ann is now at the hotel
The ride to the hotel is 33klms but it is35 c and the heat is draining our energy level.
Arriving at the hotel  which is situated a few kilometers from the  Ukrainian border the boys are going to have a ride there tomorrow, Australians need a visa to enter the country which we don't have, so we will explore this little city
The rice must be working for Pauline and Neil, but now we have a few more go down with the bug.We are both well (so far)
Dinner tonight is at the hotel

Romania 20th June

Romania tour 6 Wednesday 20 th June 2012
Well what a long day this was, as breakfast was not until 7-30 and briefing was a 8-45 and clutch out was 9am.
The day was going to be hot again so we all stocked up with some water.
First the road we ride through the Bicaz gorges it was cool and twisty as we make our way for 8 kilometers with rock on one side and sheer drop on the other, passing through a tunnel where souvenir shops were lining the roadway.
So now we are away from Transylvania into Moldova region.
The scenery has now changed and it is green rolling hills and it looks a little like Switzerland We fuel the bikes and head up through the mountains , pass many little villages and again many horse drawn carts covered with grass, as they are now building hay stacks for the winter.
We whizz pass a huge dam , and stop at the top of the  mountain for the customary  photo, stopping for morning tea after 82 kl in a little cafe that overlooked a river and a decorated bridge, bought some bananas from the little store nearby.
Heading for our next stop met some road works  i am sure that they were making more pot holes and not filling them in. The road now is real bad big rutts and hugh potholes.and takes forever to get over the mountain.
We regroup and find one rider missing. We wait and wait and it is so bloody hot, we take.of coats and helmets just as a funeral parade goes by, it was quite interesting seeing the parade with all the mourners walking behind a beautiful decorated cart.
We are still waiting for the other rider ,she turns up after about 1/2hour when she turned up, the gps said that she was on the wrong road so she turned around,but at last she figured it out.
Pauline and Neil both have the lurgy and Dr Rozle orders them Just Boiled Rice for the next few days,to get rid of all the tummy bugs ....Yummy no
After lunch we again climb over the mountain but the road is so rough, We have bottomed the bike many times, the last one gave us. big fright, as we were doing a left hand bend and we scraped the side stand but it hit a bump and we hit again and we were into the rough gravel  f#*¥ but with the skill and daring of the rider saved us from any disaster as we climb over the twisty. Mountain roads we see gypsy caravans all pained and some silver glistening in the sunlight

Re grouping at a junction out tour leader takes us to the Sucevita Monastery
Both interior and exterior are covered with mural paintings the paintings date back to 1601  fantastic stuff.
As the tempature was gettinging warming and the time is slipping by, we forgo the second Monastery.
We arrive at our beut little hotel at 6-15pm
We had dinner and again the food was fantastic ,Pauline and Neil both got stuck into the "boiled Rice"
We broke up the americans by sitting in the middle of a long table so that had to talk to us so we had some great conversations
Again we have a long ride tomorrow over the worse roads thought we were already on the worse roads
We head for Marmatiel  190 klm
We are still having a split tour but we do regroup.
To tired to down load photos to night will do soon

June 19 Romania

Romania tour 5 Tuesday 19 th June
Briefing at 8-15 am clutch out 8-30 am
It was a shame to leave Brasov early as it was such a beautiful place full of history,and great food , there was so much more to explore.
Our first stop today is Sighisoara, the roads are fast and the weather again is perfect, as it is tourist destination we had to be careful of many buses, but as it is early in the season we did not encounter very many, saw lots of horse drawn buggies full of grass and all sorts of farming implements.The scenery is very green and we see many people out digging in the fields. Gypsy's selling fruit on the road side, It really is a fantastic place.
The road to Sighisoara is  very good condition lots of sweepers  and we set a fast pace .We have two hours for sightseeing and lunch,the town is best known as the birthplace of Vlad 111  the Impaler .  Aka Dracula , we buy the customary tee shirts and little souvenirs.
It was great to explore, had a beaut lunch, and headed for our destination buy the Red Lake,
As some of the group are very very slow the wisdom of Matej and Rozle  have decided to split the group, fast and slow so every body can have a great ride.Of course we are in the fast team Neil and Pauline are also in the fast team but doing a leisurely pace,Neil is feeling a little better after he was so poorly yesterday
As we climb up the mountain side the road turns into NSW roads bloody great pot holes, large ridges no barriers, just like motocross.But the biggest ones are in the shadows on a corner in the line you take.bloody hell we hit bottom and scrap the underside and nearly high side.
As we are scooting along we see one rider being pulled up by the Police, as yet we ave not found out what he did wrong.
We have not met every body as the Americans seem to keep to them selves, or they just can't under stand us.
Another great night with fantastic food and company
Found out about the rider who was talking to the police , he overtook on a bridge on an no overtaking sign.
Tomorrows ride is 310 klms and we think it will be fast and slow teams.
Vatra Dornei we leave Transylvania and head for the rural areas just hope that the road improves as we are getting sore bums.
Oh the bikes are 3v stroms 1 250 , and the rest bMW the weather tomorrow will be hot again

Romania 3 18th June

Romania 3 18th "June 2012
Another great day was had exploring this city, we caught the hop on hop off bus and hopped off at the old town.We wandered  in amazement  of the old buildings that had survived the test of time some dated back some 300  years the oldest one we spotted was built in  the 15 th century.
After all this culture we called into "Club Mac" and had our salad again, then  caught  the bus back to another "Club" for coffee.Walking back to our hotel we see a street community  function we stop and mingle with the crowd, it was very interesting, of course we had to take Vics photo in front of the sex shop .

Got back to the hotel and the boys were preparing the bikes we then had our briefing and introductions to the rest of the group.
Dinner we were taken in a taxi to a fantastic restaurant and had traditional Romanian tucker, very nice and very different.
Today is our first ride and we head out of the city to Brasov  it is only a short ride and will take us all day to do the  187  kls .
Matej will be leading and Rozle will be tail end charlie as it is a big group.13 from the USA  and the 5 Australians .
One family mum dad and the daughter is riding Susan in on 250 Kawasaki ninja, another family has a set of  male boys who we have not been introduced as yet. One couple is driving a car due to he has just had a back operation.One chap called Stephen says he rides slow as he likes to stop all the time (don't know if he has a bladder problem or just takes photos)
It is quite a mixture of riders.Rob Smith is from Bathurst and is in the Ulysses club he is doing a back to back tour
I reckon by this afternoon Vic will have it  sorted.

Romanian Tour the bikes

The bikes have arrived, and we leave on Monday
As yet we have not met any body who is on this tour .Briefing is tonight with our welcome dinner
Today Sunday we are heading for the markets.
Maybe check into "Club Mac"

Romania Day 2 16th June

Romania tour 2 Saturday 16 th June 2012
What great day we had, after a fantastic breakfast, we decided to catch a hop on hop off city tour bus.The weather is just perfect as it is predicted to be 28 c great for  sight seeing on a open top bus.
We go under the very busy street by a walk way to the bus stop, after about 1/2hour the bus arrives Vic and Neil pay the outrageous sum of 25 lei which is about $4.00 Australian for the tour.
We get great seats and there is no commentary so Vic is our tour guide as he has the tour book.We pass the many Embassies and the zoo ,we stop at the Palace of Parliament the worlds second largest building after the US Pentagon, it has over 1000 rooms , a crystal chandelier which weighs 2700 kg and has more than 7000 light bulbs
Our guide also tells us that Bucharest has 37 museums 22 Theatre's,2 opera houses 3 concert halls and. 18 art galleries.We pass the  Arch of Triumph as Bucharest has a very French influence as it was called Paris of the East or Little Paris.french was the common language in the past centuries
A tax gst 24%
We finish our tour which took about 2 hours so we head for " Club Mac" for a salad  and ice cream and our guide buys a bottle of water for the huge price of 2.5 lei (70c aus) then we walk through huge shopping  centers selling every thing at a lot cheaper of the cost in Australia

We then head back to our hotel for a nanny nap as we are still a little tired from yesterdays mammoth journey.
The team Adriatic Moto tours has yet to arrive as they are bringing the bikes from Slovenia on a trailer and should arrive early tomorrow morning, and we have not caught up with any of the other 17 people which are booked on this tour.
We are eating again in the hotel tonight

 Tomorrow weather is predicted to be 31 c

Romania tour day 1

Romania tour 1
Left Sydney on the 14 th June, shuttle picked us up at 8-30 am,
Flight to Kuala Lumpur by Malaysian air departed  at 2 pm the plane was chock a block. After a 3 hour layover we got the connection for the 12 hour flight to Amsterdam this plane was also full .


We had a 7 hour lay over in Amsterdam where we found MacDonald’s (of course) but no free Wi Fi ,then our flight to Bucharest which was 2 1/2 hours and that plane was very  full.  



Waiting in line to board in Amsterdam Neil has a back pack with his helmet in it, he did a quick turn around and with me being a short ass it hit me fair in the face .No damage to the helmet just slight bruise under my eye.

On the flight to Bucharest Neil was in a deep sleep, and when we were landing he woke with a jolt and grabbed the seat in front. Which was my hair it gave me a fright?
We were picked up in a Van and driven through this sad and run down city, it has only been 22 years since it was under communist rule and as yet not many improvements have been made no money about. The electrical wire system looks like an electrician’s nightmare as wires' are just wrapped around the street poles and dangle.  
Our hotel is the   Intercontinental and is the most modern building and has all that opens and shuts .
If any thing is going to happen on this trip it will happen to Neil.
When he picked up his new bag which contained his riding gear, he found that the stitching had come undone and the top layer of the bag  containing his clothes  was exposed, he says it must have been dragged from the bottom of a pile or dropped from a great height.

Looks like a new bag coming up, as he tried to stick it with super glue but the lid had come off during the flight and the glue had leaked over the plastic bag that it was in, as he pulled the tube out it stuck to his fingers

Then he got all lathered up to shave and he left his razor and gear in the bathroom at home
this is only day one?
Our meal last night was delicious after all the air line tucker.
Today we are doing a hop on hop off tour on a double Decker bus to get a real feel of this place, the weather is perfect .
Sorry the photos were upside down but that is how we are at the moment, I will work it out with this iPad soon