European HOG Rally - Final

In conclusion, it was a terrific trip, I discovered that I can enjoy the journey on my own, and my Harley rumbled faultlessly.  Jean enjoyed her week and I very much her company for it.  She's an excellent pillion, sits still, doesn't complain, and didn't need much luggage space either!  French drivers are the most courteous to motorcyclists; Italians are the most impatient although the Croatians are mounting a challenge.  Austrian bugs are the largest and stickiest, but Croatian bugs are the hardest and can leave your fingers stinging, even through leather gloves!  Will I plan a cross-USA trip based on this experience?  I will have to investigate the economics first - ship, buy/sell, lease a bike - along with all the other detail, which will take time.  Some say such a trip takes 2 years to plan.  Meanwhile, next year's rally is in Cascais, Portugal, which I visited last year during a C&W reunion with others in Carcavelos.  It should afford some fine riding in the Picos Mountains for starters.


Took the Harley for its 15,000 mile service afterwards and have found out that I have managed to slightly warp the front disk through overheating on long steep descents!  I thought I had used it a bit excessively a couple of times when the brake became spongy, usually an indication that the fluid is overheating or boiling.  Note to self - stay off the hills, or use the gears and engine more in future.

European HOG Rally - 6

Next day, Germany decided to throw everything weather and traffic-wise at me - heavy rain, low cloud, fog, cold & blustery winds, road closures, heavy traffic, accident delays, for the most miserable 300 miles of riding I have ever had for my return to the Black Forest, and Freudenstadt.  The closures forced me closer to Stuttgart than I wanted to be, where I got tangled up in what seemed like Germany's entire industrial output moving at a snail's pace on trucks.  It was dreadful and I was glad when it was over.

Descending from Freudenstadt towards Baden-Baden the next morning, the misty weather cleared, the sun came out and the temperature increased nearly 20º, requiring an early stop for the removal of several layers of clothing and glove liners!   I crossed the mighty Rhine into France and again got onto back roads for a more peaceful ride to Chalons-en-Champagne.  From there, I didn't retrace the entire route back to Calais and the Channel Tunnel, taking in some D roads across the Somme and stopping at a couple of British WWI Cemeteries, including this one at Ais en Artois.

European HOG Rally - 5

Leaving Biograd for home on an inland route brought a steady climb, with great views, up onto a plateau for quite some time and onward to Zagreb.  I found it quite dark and rather of eastern bloc look although Jean's advantage of pillion gave her a somehwhat more positive perspective.  Parking was difficult and it was quite congested, so I turned back, preventing us wandering in the centre, but we did find a spot for lunch not too far away.  Re-entry to Slovenia saw very long truck queues - understandable border control diligence for entry to the EU.  An evening sortie into Ljubljana revealed a lovely city, compact and beautiful and well worth a visit.  It is stylish and well laid out, the old town straddling a small river and we enjoyed some Slovenian fayre al fresco for dinner.

Jean's return flight time dictated a 5am rise, and it was quite cold when I dropped her off at the airport.  Sadly, her plane was delayed such that she missed the connection in Paris and had a long stopover there, not getting home until well into the evening.  My departure from Ljubljana was initially via motorway, passing through a huge, but unmanned border post into Austria at the end of a long tunnel high in the mountains.  I then took to more minor roads again to Zell Am See and Kitzbuhel, to enjoy more mountains and scenery before arriving in the small town of Rohrdorf (Pipe Village) in Germany, but I didn't see any pipes!

European HOG Rally - 4

Staying put in Sukosan, ~13m to the north of Biograd, for four nights was a pleasure and a laundry opportunity after my one-night stopping, a timely opportunity to 'refresh' some of my luggage!  It was a lovely location overlooking the marina.  Biograd and Croatia really embraced the Rally.  Everyone for hundreds of kilometres around seemed to know about it and there was a warm welcome everywhere.  It brought in significant economic benefit and must have enhanced the tourism profile, which is a major focus in Croatia.  Facilities were laid out along the waterfront, which was ideal with lots of cafes and bars for socialising.  10,000 Harley's was believable from what we saw as groups of bikes were parked up at every hotel and cafe for miles around, in addition to those in Biograd itself at any time.  We saw HOG members from Scottsdale, Arizona, Arctic Norway (World's Northernmost), Sweden, Finland, Latvia, all the other EU Countries, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, a very diverse group and all identifiable by their Chapter badges.  We stayed in for part of the evening, when the bands are belting it their stuff, some really good, some rather head banging!  Both of us were disappointed that we couldn't have stayed in Biograd itself, to avoid the ride back to Sukosan, but it seems that those who managed that had booked as soon as the dates were announced last year.

There were many custom bikes there, including this one with three Smith & Wesson 357 Magnums mounted in the frame, one with bullet leaving the barrel, and several loaded chambers:

We joined in the parade of a large number of bikes for 30 km from Zadar to Biograd, which was quite a spectacle.  There were lots of 'characters' assembled, including a French guy with a small terrier on his shoulder, who had its own box built into his bike's windscreen, complete with vent, bedding and door!  The police headed the long columns and closed all the junctions so that we kept together, winding round the Zadar sea front, through the old town and eventually onto the main highway with people waving and cheering at the roadside all the way to Biograd.  Jean got some good video clips over my shoulder.

And, here is a series of clips in video:

We did come across a few others from my Chapter, two in a lay-by that I happened to stop in just south of Rijeka, another couple in a petrol station a little further on, and then some others while back in Ljubljana, whom I met once more in Calais, and yet again at Oxford Services on the way home!  

We enjoyed a couple of local rides, including one through Krka Natural Park, but the most memorable feature of that was not the scenery as much as the number of bombed out buildings that had not been rebuilt since the Balkans conflict of the early 90s.  Split is an interesting and pretty city to the south, I found much like Dubrovnik in look and feel, and we enjoyed the coastal ride there and back, in addition to a pleasant lunch near the waterfront.  It also has very good ice cream!

European HOG Rally - 3

Passing through another town border crossing on the edge of Gorizia, albeit now unmanned since Slovenia joined the EU, I was once again quickly up into the hills and woodlands on a minor road ride through Slovenia to its capital Ljubljana.  Rolling wooded hills gave way to more pronounced mountains as I got closer to Ljubljana.  I tried to find the local Harley-Davidson dealer in the city centre, but it was too hot in the middle of the day in all my biking gear.  The coordinates in my satnav weren't quite right, so I gave up and headed for the hotel.  Jean arrived by air and, on check in, the chap behind the counter noticed in her passport that it was her birthday.  A short while later there was a knock on the door and a fancy piece of cake was delivered, which was very well received by her.

We took a short motorway ride before getting onto a lesser highway to cross the southern part of Slovenia.  We had short stop for lunch close to the substantial border controls that punctuated the crossing into Croatia, although both parts were lightly loaded because of the more minor road chosen.  However, once in Croatia, it was onto a very new motorway towards Rijeka, with no vehicles whatsoever visible, front or back in either direction - wonderful!  Later, we would hear Croatians complain about their motorway toll charges, but I found them very modest.  Croatia has invested in its motorways, presumably to draw in tourism traffic.  Rijeka is a substantial town on the coast overlooking the Adriatic and offshore islands.  It is busy and has a sizeable port and we took a short ride northwards along the coast through small fishing villages, then enjoyed a very pleasant dinner overlooking the Adriatic.

The coastal route from Rijeka south to Biograd was very pretty indeed, offshore islands in the Adriatic with the sea bathed in sunshine, as more and more Harleys were being encountered converging on the rally site.  I missed one planning element where I could have crossed over by ferry to a long island that is now connected at the southern end by bridges into Zadar.  It would have avoided a rather prolonged period of 'contour riding' of sharp bends towards the end that began to tax my arms and concentration.  It would also have avoided a delay for an unexploded landmine that closed the road, still quite common, although it was actually dealt with quite quickly all things considered. 

European HOG Rally - 2

Crossing back into Germany, I had chosen a hilly route through ski resorts, including a lunch stop in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and a prolonged descent back into Austria to Innsbruck.  The fresh air, smell of timber once more, the views, and the periodic chill on the fingers at higher altitudes were especially memorable.  I had booked a city centre hotel to be able to walk about and found it much as remembered from my first and only other visit in 1983, very pretty architecture with lots of al fresco facilities, plus the fast flowing green glacial water of the river.  I was lucky to make it back to the hotel just before a seriously heavy thunder storm came through, but it had thankfully gone by the next morning.

Climbing steeply out of Innsbruck and heading south, I was reminded constantly of my elevation relative to a train line and a motorway, which were either hundreds of metres above or below me at various points.  High in the hills, I passed into Italy, heading for Cortina d'Ampezzo, most notable as the set for the Pink Panther film starring David Niven, albeit in winter, and claimed to be the supermodel of ski resorts - "fashionable, pricey, icy, and undeniably beautiful".  I was looking forward to a stop and look around there, but found the road to the centre blocked by police and eventually deduced that some sort of local bicycle race was taking place.  I had to backtrack and detour 60km around it to my next stop at Pieve de Cadore.  However, the detour added a bonus of more stunning scenery among snow capped mountains that I would otherwise have missed.  Cadore means mountain community and there are a number of them in the area set on hills overlooking lakes, at the top end of the Dolomites.

I didn't think I could be further impressed with scenery, but found the Dolomites and its Natural Park achieved just that.  The mountains are craggier than in other parts of the Alps, somehow distinct in look, and some valleys tended to ravines, with the mountains soaring up either side.  After an initial steep climb with the temperature dropping to the low teens, it was then a long slow decline, winding through the hills and small townships, to the rather more arid northeast corner of Italy, temperatures up to the low 30s, eventually to the town of Gorizia, right on the Slovenia border.  It's a curious place with a convoluted history of Slovenian origin, but has wide open streets in the centre, some interesting architecture, and very good ice cream!  It has a mishmash of common languages - German, Slovenian, Friulian, Italian and Venetian, all allegedly in use today and symptomatic of its past.

European HOG Rally - 1

This year's location for the European HOG Rally was Biograd, Croatia.  Distance and time were to preclude many groups of riders going from UK, including any from my own Chapter.  So, I challenged myself to ride on my own.  This meant not only all the planning of the routes and stops, but also the navigation on every sector, which would normally be shared in a group, plus such tools and spares as I could fit into my luggage.  I wanted to learn how much I could indulge in the journey and not just get to destinations.

I sought out scenic routes, duplicated only where necessary, mostly avoided motorways, and kept daily mileage low where the scenery was expected to be best.  I played with the options for quite a few weeks, eventually finalised the route, booked up all hotels in advance, and obtained motorway vignettes for Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia, to make passage easier.  It took me through northeast France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, most of them twice, and totalled nearly 3,700 miles.  The day after my return I found it disappointing that I was not saddling up for another ride, but my backside didn't object much!

I passed through France quite quickly, largely familiar from previous trips, but remained impressed by their massive fields, without hedges, given over to agriculture and wonder how UK can compete with this scale effectively.  From near the French/German border in the pretty town of Baldersheim, I entered the southern part of the Black Forest to enjoy my first real taste of stunning scenery, enhanced by the smell of pine, climbing to cooler air under blue skies and sunshine.  A road closure sent me off on a detour to roads not in my satnav, but keeping an eye on the sun helped me get around it.  Clearing the Forest, I passed through small settlements with picture postcard dwellings adorned with window boxes and hanging baskets in full bloom amid brilliantly green landscape that looked as though it had been fertilised and manicured for the occasion.  Julie Andrews must again have been in the wings of these idyllic settings as I followed the German/Swiss border, until eventually dropping into Switzerland. I continue to be puzzled by border crossings right in the middle of large busy towns, where is must be impossible to effect proper controls with people criss-crossing the street, and the border, all the time.  I enjoyed the ride and view along the shore of Lake Bodensee, and then passed through the Austrian border and onward to Bregenz, a popular German tourist resort, not surprisingly because of its lakeside location.  It is very picturesque.