The Tatra Mountains; June 2023
The Plan
In March 2020 I got myself a brand new Yamaha Tracer 900 GT. I was very pleased with it and was intending to ride it to Istanbul on a club organised trip. Unfortunately by the end of that month the UK was in lockdown at the start of the Covid 19 pandemic. Naturally this put a kibosh to my Istanbul trip and it wasn't until June 2023 that the Tracer and I toured Europe.
I planned a solo trip of two weeks, 12th to 26th June 2023. I had been considering touring southern Poland for a while, in particular, the Tatra mountains that sit on the Polish – Slovakian border. I booked a Eurotunnel return and using Booking.com, pre-booked accommodation along my intended route. For the outward bound leg I planned to cross central Germany stopping at Drseden before crossing into Poland for a stop at Wroclaw. Then it was onto Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains via Krakow. For the return leg, I crossed Slovakia stopping at the capital Bratislava and from there crossed Austria, southern Germany and France.
Dresden and Wroclaw
On Monday 12th June I rode to Folkestone and took the midday Eurotunnel crossing to Calais. Everything went smoothly enough and from Calais I rode through Belgium to stay at a hotel just north of Antwerp over the border in the Netherlands. I had to filter through some very heavy Antwerp traffic to get to the hotel. It was quite a long and a hot day so I was glad the hotel had air conditioning and I spent a comfortable night there.
The next day, Tuesday 13th June, I crossed into Germany and took the autobahn through the busy and densely populated North Rhine-Westphalia state. As those of you who have used the autobahn will know, it's very busy with many Polish trucks and high speed tailgating lunatics favouring big German cars. So a bit after Dortmund I set the GPS to avoid motorways and headed for the Edersee dam. A very pleasant ride on nice roads. On arrival I spent some time walking around the dam which was a bit draining as it was another hot day. That night I stayed at Hofgeismar, just north of Kessel, in the quirky Hotel Villa Wirtshaus Köpenick where a Russian speaking Kazakhstani lady introduced me to the hotel speciality of barbecued spare ribs. (They're on special offer Tuesday and there's a sculpture out front of the hotel celebrating this delicacy.) To be fair the ribs were very good and I had a nice dinner eating ribs and sipping beer outside in the warm evening sun. The bed there was a bit different as it had a sprung base with a brick frame and the lady in red lurking just outside my room gave me a surprise as I left my room in a half awake state in the morning. Interesting place. (Chris always says I should spend more on hotels.)
Wednesday 14th June I head for Dresden stopping off at Colditz. Again the riding is a mixture of autobahn and country roads. Castle Colditz is imposing and interesting to visit. My hotel was about 4 miles west of Dresden so I go into Dresden in the morning. I parked up at the Altmarkt in Dresden centre and walked around looking for a memorial to the Dresden bombing. I don't find any memorial but much of the centre was inaccessible because of the extensive development going on in the centre. On the way to Wroclaw I stop off at Stalag Luft III near the Polish town of Żagań, the prisoner of war camp that the film "The Great Escape" is based on. Some of the Polish roads are a bit challenging and I thought the bike was going to shake itself to bits on one cobbled stretch. The history of Stalag Luft III is a bit darker than what the film portrays. The Polish guy there describes how unforgiving Stalin was towards Russians who allowed themselves to be captured and those Russians who found themselves on the wrong side. An interesting place to visit and I took my time having a good look around it. At Wroclaw I head for the centre to find the monument to Witold Pilecki. A brave man that my son told me about. One of the things he did was to voluntarily enter Auschwitz to find out what was going on there. He was eventually executed after world war II by the Soviet installed puppet administration and it wasn't until after the Soviet Union fell that he was recognised and remembered in Poland as a national hero. I had a good stay at the Campanile in Wroclaw. It's conveniently close to a large impressive shopping mall where I had an excellent buffet style Chinese meal for dinner.
Krakow, Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains
I booked into a hotel for two nights at Krakow, Friday 16th and Saturday 17th June. The hotel has a strong Catholic theme with photos of the pope and crosses everywhere. It's not central but it's a safe place to leave the bike and Krakow centre is a short tram ride away. Staying on the religious theme I had some authentic Polish dishes for dinner at the hotel. I think one was called monk's dumplings! It was a comfortable hotel and the staff were very friendly. I had pondered whether to stop off at Auschwitz-Birkenau on the way to Krakow. I eventually decided to and spent much of Friday walking around Birkenau. In 2017 I had visited Treblinka and found the experience very sombre and moving. However, Birkenau is much more commercialised and, for me, Treblinka was a much more powerful experience. Unlike Treblinka, there were many tourists. Lots of guided tour groups and coach loads of school children.
On the Saturday I left the bike at the hotel and took the tram into Krakow centre. I spent most of the morning looking around the impressive Wawel Royal Castle. I then walked around the old centre including the Main (Rynek) Square where in a rush of blood I climbed the Town Hall Tower to get a better view. Nearly killed me. After the square, I wandered over to the Jewish Quarter to find the hotel Ester where Chris, my wife, and Martin, our son, had stayed at when they visited Krakow at the end of April. Strange to think they'd been there two months earlier. At the hotel I sat outside having a a drink while I listened to the trio of musicians playing in front. They were playing “If I was a Rich Man” as I walked up to the hotel. I finished up my walk around Krakow by visiting The Ghetto Heroes Square which remembers the Jewish people deported from Krakow to Nazi concentration camps. It's an unusual memorial which consists of 70 empty chairs in the square. A lot of walking on another hot day but I really enjoyed Krakow.
I had booked a tour around the The “Wieliczka” Salt Mine for Sunday 18th June. It was over 30 C when I got there but that was fine as in the salt mine itself it was around 18 C. You descend into the mine via a spiralling wooden staircase of 380 steps. The blurb describes the tour as taking in 'nearly 3 kilometres of winding galleries, 800 stairs to climb and a descent to 135 metres underground.' I found it a great experience but a bit exhausting. I was particularly impressed by St Kinga’s Chapel with its salt stone sculptures. After the mine visit I rode onto to Zakopane, a tourist town in the Tatra mountains. I had a nice hotel there where I got a good deal on a “help yourself” 3 course dinner at 60 Zloty (~£12).
The plan for Monday 19th June was to ride some Tatra roads but first I thought I had better get some chain lube for my bike's drive chain. It was looking a bit dry. I covered a good part of Zakopane searching for some chain lube and I eventually got my hands on some Motul chain lube. I did go for a shortish ride around the Tatra Mountains that day, dipping in and out of Slovakia but I was a bit disappointed that there didn't seem to be any mountain passes and it was very busy with tourists. I might describe Zakopane as the Weymouth of the Tatra Mountains? Anyhow, the mountain scenery was impressive.
Bratislava
Tuesday 20th June I leave Zakopane to ride across Slovakia to Bratislava. On the way I briefly stopped off at the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising but it was too hot in motorcycle gear to linger. I had intended to visit the site of Kalište, a village that was raised by the Germands in workd war 2, but unfortunately my GPS didn't seem to be able to cope with the roads. I did enter it in the GPS as a lat,long waypoint so maybe the site isn't accessible by road? Now Chris is always telling me to spend more on hotels and I think with my Bratislava Penzion she has a point. It's two redeeming points are it's secure gated parking and, of course, it's cheap. That evening, as the Penzion's restaurant was closed, I walked to a Vietnamese restaurant and had a good dinner.
I spent two nights at the Penzion and on Wednesday 21st June I left the bike at the Penzion and took a Bolt (same as Uber) ride into Bratislava old town. The first place I visited was Bratislava Castle. It was funny to stand in the same spot as I did when I briefly visited Bratislava on my 2016 Danube ride. The castle is a great place to view Bratislava from. There's a good view of the Most SNP (UFO Tower) that sits over the Danube. On my walk around the old town I met Cumil the sewer worker. After the old town I walked over to see the President's Palace. Now I have a thing for Soviet monuments but understandably post the Soviet Union most of the previously Eastern Bloc countries have removed their Soviet monuments. Bratislava still has the Slavin War Memorial which remembers the Soviet soldiers that fell during world war II recapturing the city. So even though it was hot and on top of a hill, I trekked up to the Slavin War Memorial. It was quite a nice spot high on a hill overlooking Bratislava. Not many people there and a nice place to rest up on a hot day. I enjoyed my time at Bratislava.
Salzburg and the Eagle's Nest
Thursday 22nd June I cross into Austria heading for my next stop at Salzburg. I had planned to stop along the way but it's so hot I just keep going. To start with I keep off the motorways and ride some lovely Austrian roads through mountain scenery. In the shade of a parasol, I had a nice lunch at some village restaurant. However, as I near Salzburg and the heat gets to me I take up the motorway to get to Salzburg. It's a sweltering 35 C by the time I get to Salzburg so I stay local to the hotel and pass on visiting the house where Mozart was born. There was some spectacular thundering and lightning that night while I was tucked up in bed.
Just outside Salzburg is Adolf Hitler's Eagle's Nest which I ride to on Friday 23rd June. You can't get to the Eagle's Nest directly. You have to park up and pay 30 Euros to take a bus there and back. As I'm parking up I meet a guy from Derbyshire on an Africa Twin and we go around the Eagles Nest together. It was nice to have some company. It's quite an impressive spot with magnificent mountain views although it was a bit misty when we were there. Still after 35 C the previous day it was nice to have it a bit cooler. I have to say that you do notice when you're back in Germany. Our tickets said we were returning on the 12:15 bus but we wanted to go back a bit earlier on the 11:45 bus. Even though his bus had plenty of empty seats the 11:45 bus driver wasn't having it. Eventually he relented and let us on his bus. You definitely do not want to cross the road until the green man lights up and filtering your bike through traffic is frowned on. After the Eagle's Nest I had a few miles to do so I took the autobahn to my hotel at Temmenhausen just north of Ulm. A nice stopover in a quiet village with good food.
Homeward Bound
The weekend Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th June are my travel days to get to Eurotunnel. I resign myself to taking the autobahn which turns out to be a nightmare. There's a big accident on the A8 just east of Pforzheim and the autobahn is closed. The traffic queues for several miles and, although it's frowned on in Germany, I filter my way through the jam to find that the autobahn is being decanted of traffic roughly 10 vehicles at a time when the traffic lights on the single lane exit turn green. It was horrendous, there must have been people stuck in their cars for hours. I make my way through Pforzheim (so many traffic lights) and stay off the A8 for a good 40 miles before returning to it further west. Blow me if just as I'm riding onto to it a police car with sirens blazing rushes past onto the A8 because, yes, there's been another accident. Once again I filter to the front to find a damaged mobile home pointing the wrong way on the hard shoulder with another vehicle further along on the hard shoulder. I pass by the carnage and carry on. It's not surprising there's so many accidents on the autobahns. The traffic is often dense and the there's a lot of very high speed tailgating, I'm doing 80 mph (130 kph, the legal limit) and some of the big German cars are rocketing along in the outside lane. At last I make it to France and although I dislike the Péage, the French motorways are a relief after the autobahn. Unfortunately I run foul of the French Traffic Police at the Péage when I stop on the hard shoulder just before it looking for my ticket and credit card. As I'm fumbling away I hear in best 'Allo Allo' French, “Problem?” and turn around to find an officer with a big orange transit complete with multiple flashing orange lights. Turns out he's a nice guy and after telling me not to stop in such a dangerous place he helps me through. Embarrassing. Further on I arrive at the Metz Ibis where I stay the night.
Metz is close to Verdun so on Sunday 25th June I make my way to Verdun. Once again, it's very hot but I leave my gear on the bike and take a good walk around, including the erased village of Fluery-devant-Douaumont. In terms of human life, Verdun, a world war I battle between the French and the Germans, was one of the most costly battles in human history. The many rows of crosses tell the story. After Verdun I head for a late arranged Campanile at Béthune where I stopped the night before riding the short distance to Eurotunnel, Calais next day.
I arrived home around 2 pm Monday 26th June. In total I did just shy of 3000 miles (2982) and the Tracer averaged a very respectable 60 mpg. I passed through France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Slovaki. Currency was mostly Euros except for Poland where Zloty is the currency. An enjoyable trip which I was a bit anxious about as I hadn't done a trip like this since 2018 when I went to Romania (and I'm not getting any younger). However, I had no problems and I felt all the better for having done the trip. The bike was fantastic. It went like a good one with no issues. I managed to keep to my pre-planned schedule of accommodation bookings done through Booking.com and my Eurotunnel return booking. Apart from a nothing shower on the way to Zakopane and overnight thunderstorms at Salzburg it stayed dry. But, it was very hot for June staying above 30 C most days and reaching a sweltering 35 C at Salzburg. A great trip and it was nice to find out that I still have it in me to do a trip like this and enjoy it.