Hanging out in Havetoft

Havetoft is a tiny town of maybe 200 people. It is beautiful, very friendly people, but was here for 2 weeks with no transportation out. My bike had to go to the shop. I had noticed something was a bit off shortly after I left Sarajevo. Since there was nothing they could do there, with there being no BMW in the country (for bikes), I continued on. I knew there was BMW in Budapest, so I went there and asked them to look. I thoughht my forks were bent. Yes they are, and so is the front axle, was the answer. I could hang around for over a week till they fix it, or carry on safely. As I knew I was gonna hang out with my family for a few weeks, I opted to continue on. Slowly. I got up here, took it to the shop, and €1002 and 2 weeks later, I have her back! It's good to be riding again. I can't complain however. The people here are so nice.

One of the neighbours, Alex was going into Flensburg, so she took me in too. I got the train back to a nearby station, and Maike picked me up on her way home from work.

 

  

Then a couple of days later, Alex was going for half the day into Schleswig. So I went with. I wondered about all the places I have been before, but they are always lovely.

 

Then one day last week, I went into Hamburg. Still love that city. Had my usual cake at the Alster House. I go there everytime I am in Hamburg for a piece of cake. It is so good!!

Every weekend so far there has been something going on. Anniversary parties, birthday parties, for a little town, there is always something going on. It's great I love it! Amelie's birthday to the left, Alex and Gunnar's Anniversary party to the right.

 

Maike and I went to a Handball game in Flensburg to watch the home team kick Lübecker's arse! Good game. Very fast paced.

Went for a walk on the Schlei one sunny sunday afternoon. Plenty of puddles to be jumping....

Now I have found my new found freedom, I went yesterday to the North Sea, which is different. I hadn't seen anything like that before. I know they have that sort of thing in England, but I haven't been there. Shortly I will go for a ride around my Mum's home town, and tomorrow, I'm going to the Ost See, before visiting my cousin Sina near Hamburg for the weekend.

Wroclaw to Berlin

 

Wroclaw is not pronounced how you would think. At least not how I thought. It's actually Vrot-suave. Weird. Just for those unsure, it did used to be a German city called Breslau. They have this little quirk of having these little gnomes all over the place. there are 15 I think. I found 8 or 9. Just by wondering about. Considering I had only 2 hours of daylight, that's not bad.... 

 

 The old town was quite pretty. Very colourful, with nice open squares, but old town's in particular regions all start to look the same after a while... Though I can recommend Wroclaw as one of the nice ones.

 

 Crossing the border into Germany the next day on my way to Berlin. The first thing I see. The Golden arches. It was nice to be in a land where I could make myself understood at least. 

I settled into a commercial hostel for a couple of nights. I did the walking tour, which took us to alot of the places we went to at Christmas. I did surprise me to see so much green. Last time it was totally covered in snow. Quite a beautiful city really. It was the first really cold day, and it was freezing! I was well under-equiped. The top photo is of the university where Einstein worked, before he left for the USA. The lower photo is of the opera house and a church.

 The next day I took off early at 0730, and made it to my family in Havetoft, Germany, at about 1500ish. It was all solid riding, and there was a horrible freezing cold wind. On my heavily laden bike, winds are not fun. My utmost concentration was required to keep me in a straight line. Definately no Autobahns for me.

And on to Krakow.

 This is Andy. We crossed through Czech Republic, had lunch there, and then went on to Krakow. A long days riding, but enjoyable. The roads got quite bad in Poland, not to mention the traffic. I was very happy when we got to the hostel. Though the first one we tried was full, the second was closer to the Old Town, but we had to park the bikes up the street, round the corner, and in a little private parking lot. I'm sure they wanted to charge us for it, but we got away with it....

This the old Market Hall in the Market Square of Krakow. Pretty impressive square.

The next day we went into the old Market Hall, and had a gander. Some cool stuff. Lots of Amber jewellery, but most importantly, there were woolen skin things, perfect for my bike seat! Fantastic!!

After a nice relaxing morning wondering around the Old Town, we had a much more sobering afternoon at Auschwitz. It was very interesting, and the museum was well done. The film with footage was quite good. It was as depressing as expected.

Then on day 2 we did two walking tours. The first was the of the old town, and this photo is of the original gate that still stands. It was never penetrated, cause there were something like 7 gates between it and the town.

The afternoon was spent walking around what was the Jewish Ghetto in WWII. It was also the place where Shindler's factory was. Turns out that the movie version of Schindlers List, was a little off base on facts, as was the book. But he did help alot of people. I need to read more about that...

It was time to leave, and I had my very comfortable throne installed. It was so lovely to sit on!! My bike is so overloaded it's not funny, at least I know a bit more next time about what I need, and don't.

On my way out of Krakow, I stopped by Birkenau. I am quite glad I split it into 2 days. It would have been too much otherwise. This photo is of the train tracks and the entrance to the Camp. Quite a scary view.

After spending a few hours there, I left Krakow and headed for Wroclaw. Andy came with me to Birkenau, and then peeles off and did a marathon run back to London. Only stopping for fuel breaks. And on his bike, that wasn't very often...

Continuing on from Pecs.

Budapest

Spent the next 2 days in Budapest. Above is the Opera house, which I did a tour of, and it was beautiful! Rich fabrics and gold paint everwhere. The little fella to the right is one of Budapests many quirky art peices. One of the things that baffles me about Hungary is the language! It's nothing like anything I've heard before!! 

 I spent a few hours at the Terror House (left) which threw some light on Hungary's terrible recent past. A very enlightening few hours if very depressing. Made very good by the many personal accounts on video of the goings-on during that period. Then I lightened up the evening by going to a folk-music and dancing evening in one of the parks (above). I didn't participate in the dancing, but I sure enjoyed watching, and the music was quite good too.  

 The next day I did 2 walking tours of the city. One of Buda, and the other of Pest. Very interesting stuff. To the right is the main cathedral, which is one of the reasons I need to go back to Budapest, to go inside.

 

 After 2 days in Budapest, It was time to leave. I left Budapest via the Statue Park. A park with all the statues from around the city during the soviet era. They were all but 2 ripped up and were going to be trashed, but someone decided it was worth keepinng as a memory. So way out of town, this park was organised.

 

 Another long day of pretty riding, in which Andy (from HU) joined me. We followed the Danube up to the Slovakian border, and then made it to Bratislava. Just before it got dark. Good timing once again. We didn't see much of the city, just a good pub with great food. Back to the hostel for a good nights rest, then shoot for Krakow tomorrow.

To be Continued.......

A Photographic Catch-Up

It has admittedly been quite a long time since I wrote. Thank you Nikki for the prod. I left Sarajevo after 2 weeks. It is a place that I definately want to go back to, I was lucky to get out this time. It catches you and doesn't want to let you go!

To get used to the idea of riding again, Wojtek and I went up into the mountains. It happened to be the same route I did when I had the accident. No issues this time! This photo is at the Olympic ski jump site.

Finally the day came where I packed everything up and said goodbye to the city and it's wonderful people. Many good memories. Thanks guys!!

                  

I rode for quite a while through the beautiful countryside of Bosnia, then through a very rural part of Croatia, before finally crossing into Hungary. It seemed to be all rural that I saw, though it was beautiful.                           

I called it a day in this very pretty, old city of Pecs in Hungary. I made it before dark, which is always the goal...

To be continued

Back in Sarajevo at last.

I made it back here last week. I flew in late thursday evening, and as I was leaving the airport to find a taxi to finish my journey, Nedzla popped out! She and her dad had come to pick me up. It was a lovely suprise, and then when we got back to the hostel, she and her family welcomed me into their home for a chat. They then fed me, some fantastic capiscums stuffed with meat and rice. a local dish that I love, but it is also so much better when it is home made. Tastes delicious.

Since then, I have spent time catching up with people, wondering around town and just hanging out, like I would at home. I have looked at the bike. The guy had got it running, but I had to get it idling, and she does. But there is a rattle in the exhaust at revs any higher than 3000. Noisy. It had me scared for a bit there, but an expat biker here came and looked at it, and confirmed it was the exhaust, and after some time and questions on online forums, the advice is keep riding. So that is what I intend to do. BUT, I also had a problem with the front wheel being rotated (twisted forks), so we have pretty much fixed that, with the hope that the forks aren't bent. I will find out when I hit a pothole, at slow speed hopefully.... And again, but, when we were fixing the rotation, we found that the handlebars themselves were rotated. Looking closely, we realised we had to pull it apart. The bolt in the left handlebar clamp was bent. Considering it is high tensile steel, that is quite impressive! Aside from the crash, the reason it probably bent is because there is a cushioning pad that is missing. So now my mission is to get that replaced, possibly by a local guy who will make one, and then fashion a cushion myself. Getting parts here will be a nightmare, and I have been riding the bike for over a year like that, so it will do for a couple of months, then when I get back to London I will source it, and maybe a new handlebar too. The handlebar is still bent but not too badly.

So that is the bike. Due to this, and me not getting my act together, I will be staying here in Sarajevo till next week. I am not upset at all by this, I will thouroughly enjoy hanging out here, and I can see myself coming back many times. I will update when I know what I am doing. but over the next few days I have the opportunity to go to Zagreb with a friend for the weekend. I also may go pillion with an Aussie-Polish guy on an Africa Twin to the pyramids nearby. That will be fun. I still haven't been able to ride my bike! Argh. Soon, That should motivate me to get moving shouldn't it?   

View from the hostel terrace, no wonder I am stuck here!

So, it's been a while.....

Since I last wrote, I flew from Sarajevo back to London, because my knee just wasn't improving... I got back to London 5 weeks after the accident, and jumped straight into Physio. And I have been going to the Physio ever since. I had an MRI that stated I had Patella Tendinitis and fluid on the knee. So the Doc said that would be a couple of months of healing. And then the Physio suggested Acupuncture. I was quite doubtful of the benefits of acupuncture, not least because of the needles. But as it turns out, it works! I now have much more flexibility and the swelling has gone down. I can ride a bike, go swimming, and walk around without much of a limp. There is still a way to go, I still limp down steps, but I can go up them almost normally. I can't run. And there is no stamina. After 3 or 4 hours of walking about, it is time to elevate the leg. But it is improving! 

So to bide my time whilst in London (I can't work because I can't stand for 12 hours), I have been doing things that I have been wanting to do for some time. The BBC Proms is a classical music festival that goes for 2 months at the Royal Albert Hall, and I have managed to go to that several times. For only a fiver, it's hard to find excuses not to go.... I have also been to the Royal Opera House and watched a show with the Mariinsky Ballet company for St Petersburg, and also saw a show that showcased the different singing styles from around the world. All very fascinating stuff! There are still things that I want to do in London, which I somehow think I will find time to do... 

I also went to the Horizons Unlimited Meeting in Ripley. A great weekend where Bikers from all over the world get together and share travel stories and advice. On Thursday, I am going to Scotland to another meeting of Lady only travel bikers. It's promising to be a great weekend!

That is pretty much all that has been going on. I plan to fly back to Sarajevo in the first week of September. My bike is running, so I have been told, I am not sure about the handlebars and indicator though, though they should be fairly easy to sort out before I go back over. So I hope to continue on my trip going up through Serbia, to Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland to Maike's house hopefully in October and spend a couple of weeks there. Then I will head back to England via Netherlands and Belgium and maybe Luxembourg... That is the plan for now, but that can easily change, as I have already proven. Fingers crossed it will go like that though!!