Motorbike trip to UK and Europe July/August 2018

Kms today = 387 Kms to date = 8,234 Colin and I were up early this morning as we had to retrieve our bikes from the parking lot of a block of apartments. We took the tram and Colin had a problem finding a place open that sells tram tickets. He has to pay as he is not over 70 and travel free like meeee!! It was only three tram stops to our destination and we managed to get into the parking lot with the security tag we had been given by Anatoly. When we tried to exit the parking lot the bikes would not trigger the boom gate as they were too light. We had to wait for a car to leave and tagged on closely behind it. Mabel got us back to the flat where we loaded up our gear and headed for Berlin. Unfortunately the blue-tooth receiver in my helmet has packed it in so I had keeping looking at the screen to determine which way to go. Luckily it was fairly straightforward to get to the freeway heading north out of Prague. Colin had planned a cross country scenic route so after a while on the ...

Kms today = 0 Kms to date = 7,847 Because our favorite cafe didn't open until 10am we lazed around the flat before heading out for breakfast. Colin and Morag decided to go and see the babies festooned on the communications tower near our flat (only to find out when they got there that they had been taken down). I walked down to the station to get my over 70 free travel pass. I didn't realise that there was more than one station. The first one I came to was for provincial trains and nobody could help me except the woman in the "Information" booth who directed me to the "main" station which was about 800 metres away. I found the information desk in the main station but the woman couldn't help me and directed me to another part of the station.  I wandered around for a while trying to follow her directions and by chance found a tourist point where the girl behind the counter said I didn't need a card and all I had to do was produce my passport to prov...

Kms today = 0 Kms to date = 7,847 Today I stayed in the flat to rest my hamstring. I walked down the street to have breakfast at the cafe we had dinner at last night but it was closed. It doesn't open until 10am (and it serves breakfast??). I thought I might find a shop that sold belts as I was over the gerry-rigged broken belt I had been using for the past two weeks. All the shops were closed. A lot of them don't open until midday? Luckily there was a mixed business shop run by a chinese couple that sold limited clothes along with dried goods and souvenirs. Smart business people the Chinese.  Amongst the clothing were belts so I bought one for A$10. Not particularly good quality but does the job. I ditched my old one in the garbage bin outside the shop. I walked back to the flat and the cafe was open so I had a nice breakfast and headed back to the flat for the rest of the day. The internet at the flat is pretty good so I watched the MotoGP and Moto3 races from the Red Bull...

Kms today = 422 Kms to date = 7,847 We were up fairly early and headed out up the Kokada track for the last time thank goodness. It is easier going out than coming in because of the steepness of the track. We refueled and ate breakfast at our favorite place in Trieben (they take credit cards). My right hamstring was playing up, I must have strained it putting the bike on the centre stand. Colin worked out a great scenic route over the mountains to Steyr. It was a beautiful road with very little traffic and plenty of scenery to enjoy. Unfortunately the Austrians don't put any viewing points on the side of their roads where you can pullover, enjoy the view and take the odd picture. That's a castle (schloss) in the distance in the Austrian alps. After Steyr we headed to Linz then Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic)  and on to Prague. That road was hot,  slow and boring in a lot of places. We stopped for lunch in Freistadt just before the Czech border. The restaurant was ai...

Kms today = 193 Kms to date = 7,425 Race day at the Red Bull Ring. The view of the mountains from the"Cowshed". Weather fine and sunny. Up early and headed for Treiben for breakfast at our favorite petrol station. Then we took highway 114 through the mountains to the Red Bull Ring in Speilberg. We couldn't get to our parking area (general admission - green) the way we did yesterday. The police were redirecting traffic all over the place. We went round in circles until we met a policeman who spoke english and told us how to get to our parking area. We eventually arrived there but by the time we had changed into our shorts etc and made the fifteen minute walk to the track we had missed the Moto3 race. Jirka Broz said he would meet us at the North Stand near our viewing area. He called again to say he would meet us after the Moto2 race. Danny and I watched the race through a mesh fence. Luckily we had a screen right in front of us. Colin went back to his favorite spo...

Kms today = 175 Kms to date = 7,232 The weather is still a bit iffy this morning. Cloud over the surrounding mountains. Perhaps we'll see them if the weather improves!! We headed to our local village Wald am Schoberpass for breakfast. Nothing was open so we headed 15kms down the road to Trebien which was on our way to the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. We refueled and had breakfast in the service station restaurant. Not bad. After breakfast we headed to Spielberg via a beautiful road that wends its way through the mountains along a valley. Unfortunately there was patchy rain and the roads were very wet so we took it easy. We eventually got to the Red Bull Ring and Colin found the place where he was to pick up his ticket. We found out where the general admission area was for our "green" tickets. It was miles away round the other side of the track. We eventually found the parking field allocated to us and parked the bikes in the nearest spot to the entrance. Unfortunately t...

Kms today = 210 Kms to date =7,057 The weather this morning was looking a bit ominous with black clouds on the horizon. We left our luxurious accommodation at the "Farmhouse" around 9am, dropped the keys off to Pavlik and headed for the butcher shop in Vesili for our usual breakfast of soup and whatever was on the menu. This time it was schnitzel. After breakfast we said goodbye to Max and Jirka and Danny and I headed to the "Cowshed" at Wald am Schoberpass in the Styrian Alps, Austria. Because of the insidious road closures we took a few wrong turns but not many and we were soon on the road to Linz. It started to rain so we donned our wet weather gear. The Austrian border passed without us seeing it!! As soon as we crossed the border the roads improved dramatically and we got on an Autobahn. Then the rain got steadily heavier. We stopped at a service centre to have something to eat and buy a Vignette for the bikes. These are used to cover us for travel on the...