Bratislava, Slovakia and Budapest, Hungary

Just a short ride from Vienna is the City of Bratislava.  The City has its old charming section, very familiar to the other surrounding cities, but it also has it Soviet era buildings.  Miles and miles of Soviet apartment blocks.  Boring, very large, multi multi family, concrete block, apartment blocks.  The locals have tried to dress them up a bit with contrasting paint colors and textures and some relief added to the exterior walls, but it still just looks like an over abundance of Communist construction.  Slovakia, although being allowed into the Euro (monetary unit) Club, seems to be lagging behind the other EU Euro using countries.  Everything here seems to be a step behind, especially considering the other half of its former namesake, the Czech Republic, is doing so well.

Danube River, UFO Bridge, and in the background, miles upon miles of Soviet apartment blocks

Bratislava Castle

Since Budapest is just a two hour ride from Bratislava, I headed down for a day and a night.  Very cool city, great architecture, wonderful energy.  Although the architecture is timeless, the culture seems to fading as it now seems to be heavily influenced by both the East and West, to the point where the City appears to loosing its own identity. Thai massage parlors, cheesy themed bars, and restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe and foreign cuisines are becoming the norm. Apparently, if one wants to have authentic Hungarian style food in Hungary, well, one might go hungry.  

Buda Castle

Chain Bridge Connecting Buda to Pest

The Danube with Buda and Pest on either side.  

Stage Distance: 299mi (481km)

Total Distance Traveled: 18,234mi (29,410km)

Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino. Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary

Vienna, Austria

So I have arrived in the home city of Mozart, Schultz and the adopted home of Beethoven.  The City is quite proud of the first two, especially Mozart, but has seemed to completely ignore Ludwig van Beethoven.  I mean Beethoven, he wrote Moonlight Sonata, Fur Elise, had big furry dogs named after him, and his bust sat prominently on Schroeder's piano.  Why ignore him? He moved to Vienna when he was 21, wrote most of his greatest works here, died here, so I am not sure what has lead to this snub.

On my way up, since the day was sunny and not too warm, I rode through the countryside on small back roads and ignored the highways, and rolled inot Vienna around noon.  I plan to be in the City for a 4-day stay.  Vienna is just flat out gorgeous. Clean does not begin to describe this place.  Traffic is light, not over populated, and day to day life here seems a bit more mellow. If you exclude WWII and Soviet rule until 1993, the locals here have it very nice.

National Austrian Library

Ferris Wheel from
007-Living Daylights

Next Stop Bratislava.


Stage Distance: 124mi (199km)
Total Distance Traveled: 17,935mi (28,928km)
Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino. Slovenia, Austria

Trip Issues - Transitioning the Middle East - Part 1

Well... I made a big decision recently, and it has to to do with getting from Istanbul to New Delhi.  The distance is approximately 4,000-6,000 miles.  If I go the most direct path, I will need to transition both Iran and Pakistan.  If I take the northern route, I have Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Tibet, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tibet, Nepal and the disputed region of Kashmir in my path, not to mention winter. The number of countries is not daunting, but it is a different story when factoring in visa requirements, and of course Kasmir.  I think the best path is going to be through Iran and Pakistan, just two visas.  I have already made contact with a biker club in Pakistan, and they said they would help with strategy on how to successfully make it though.  I have not found a club in Iran to help, but I have just started this process, so there is time left.  The big thing the Pakistani club mentioned is not to blog my way through, as it will announce my position to those who dislike westerners, which I thought was very wise information.  So I will have to go dark for a month or two as I make my way though.

Out of Italy and Behind the Iron Curtain

Headed north out of Rome, and visited the small country of San Marino,  San Marino (not to be confused with the former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino), is the fifth smallest country in the world, and is comprised mostly of small villages on a hill and about 100 acres of parking lots to support all of the people that came to visit the village on the hill. San Marino, really has little more to offer that all of the other villages on the hills in Europe, except of course the tourists, parking lots and cheaper gasoline.  Veni, vidi, vici.

Continued my route north through Italy and crossed into Slovenia.  My first impressions were a little guarded, the buildings on the border were Soviet era communist style construction, I was afraid the rest of the country was going to be similar, but not so much.  The country is absolutely gorgeous.  A mixture of Swiss and German influences, with most of the people fluent in English and very cordial and inviting. I stayed off of the interstates for most of my riding here, Once across the border I headed for the Alps though the back roads.  There were a bunch of small villages that I ran into along the way.  The villages were small, picturesque and looked like they came out of a Disney children's book.   I wound my way though the Alps as the rain started coming down hard, topped a range, and passed into Austria.  The riding here in this part of the Europe is just fantastic.  Little to no traffic, twisty mountain riding, and decent roads, who could ask for more when touring an area I have only dreamed about.  

San Marino

Slovenia Rest Stop

Crossing Alps into Austria

Stage Distance: 724mi (1,168km)
Total Distance Traveled: 17,806mi (28,720km)
Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino. Slovenia, Austria

Pisa, Rome and the Pope

Came out of Florence and headed east out to the sea. stopped by Pisa, and the beach for some days off the bike.  Saw some of the sights (Pisa, beach, etc.) and headed down the coast to Rome.  Wandered around and ended up in Vatican City.  Lines were long, and the square in front of St. Peters Basilica was crowded, for what I thought was due to the good weather.  As I entered the square, I noticed all eyes were looking in one direction, and then a voice came over the speaker system, and waddya know, the Pope was addressing the crowd.  Since I am agnostic, and don't speak Italian, the whole experience was a bit lost on me, but pretty cool for the 5 minutes I stayed.  

Stage Distance: 337mi (544km)
Total Distance Traveled: 17,082mi (27,552km)
Countries Visited (Leg 2): USA, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City

Florence, Italy

Rolled into Florence a couple of days ago.  For many years I have thought of this City as my favorite city in the world.  After riding around the area, it still is as beautiful as I remember, and still number one in my personal rankings. Unfortunately, this is the high season, and downtown can be very crowded. The only real issue is the heat wave that we have been having here.  Last couple of days there have been record highs here in Florence, hitting temps as high as 108F (42.2C), making it difficult to wander around too much during the day.  So, I have been going down to the City late at night when only the bars, restaurants, and most importantly, the ice cream parlors are open.   The place is cooler and more or less empty of people at night. So a win-win for Ken.

Fake David

Real Church

Original Bridge

Soon I will head towards Southern Italy.  Heat is supposed to break soon, so all should be good.  

Stage Distance: 102mi (164m)
Total Distance Traveled: 16,745mi (27,007km)

Countries Visited: 22

Northern Italy

It has been extremely sunny, and hot, for the past month or so, not a cloud to be found.  It is good for traveling, but makes it very difficult to read the GPS in the direct sunlight.  I broke down and bought Bluetooth earbuds so I can hear the directions, not a perfect fix, but better than just the visual cues.  The earbuds have an added benefit, I can listen to my tunes when riding along, which I have been sorely missing for the past couple of months.

I was coming out of northern Italy this morning, running the twisty back roads, through miles and miles of vineyards, classical musical playing.  I was a rolling cliche, a wonderful rolling cliche.

Northern Italy Vineyards

My Around the World Progress

Stage Distance: 410mi (666km)
Leg 2 Distance: 4,383mi (7,069km)

Countries Visited (Leg 2): USA, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy