1/3 Complete Euro trip AND a Breakdown.

[Gazz]

(Be warned in advance, this is a long thread)

Please bear with me here, because the latter part of this thread will become nothing more than a rant, therefore I will split the trip into 2 main parts, namely “The Euro trip” and “The Breakdown”. If you decide to give up reading because the thread gets a bit long after reading the part about the trip, then I fully understand…

Once upon a time, I decided to visit numerous countries throughout Europe on my 2 weeks holiday from work; on my motorcycle – because I love travelling and I love motorcycles!!!

I had a route planned but no one to go with me. Eventually my cousin gave in and decided to join me as a pillion, so we were all set. All bags, camping gear, supplies, paperwork and documents sorted.

Our original plan was to pass through; Scotland, England, The Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Luxembourg. This might seem like a lot of places but we didn’t have stuff to see in the all the places so it was do-able in the 2 week period.


PART 1 – THE EUROTRIP

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Bike ready to go.

Day 1 – Saturday 3rd July – Home, Scotland – Newcastle Ferry Port

We set off from Central Scotland at around midday to catch our ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuiden, North Holland. Everything seemed fine after hours of riding, however I noticed the fuel was getting low around the Scottish/English border. On the digital fuel gauge it said that there was still 1 little LED bar left so thought about getting fuel at Gretna services.

A couple of miles away from the services, the bike starts to loose power, and feel rough as fuck. It was just about to cut out!!! Luckily there was a slip road coming up to get off the motorway so pulled the clutch in and took that road.

About 3 seconds (literally just 3 seconds) after pulling over, some random guy appeared behind us in a small pick-up and asked what was wrong. We had run out of petrol. As luck would have it, he was a motorcyclist and had a jerry can in his pick-up. He took less than 5 mins to go to the nearest petrol garage and get us fuel, and when he came back we spoke about him building a trike for his wife, etc.

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Our Saviour

By this time it was getting late, so we pushed on. Into the services, got more fuel and finally made it to the ferry port. At the port, we came across a large group of German bikers who were over doing a tour of Scotland and were now heading home. They didn’t speak much English, unfortunately.

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Good night on the boat, watched some football and had a good nights sleep.


Day 2 – Sunday 4th July - Ijmuiden, The Netherlands – Nurburgring, Germany

First day in Europe, very excited – never driven on the right hand side before. The weather was lovely, and all was going well. After a couple of roundabouts I had mastered the European roads. We decided to just head for the Nurburgring instead of fucking about in The Netherlands. Very nice and pleasant drive, with a couple of stops throughout.

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Eventually made it to the Nurburgring. What a sight – this place is amazing!!! I cannot stress how much everyone should visit this place at least once in their lives – especially if you have any interest in cars or bikes. Every car and bike just driving around the surrounding place is something ‘special’. You can hear the tyres screeching from miles around. After a while driving around the outside of the circuit, we found the shopping centre bit and decided to go in. After a long time in here we spend a while on the outskirts watching everyone scudding around the circuit. You are able to see some areas of the track from small lay-bys just off the main roads, so you don’t even have to pay to watch it.

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Town of Nurburg

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It was getting around 5pm (maybe slightly earlier) at this time so decided to head east and find a camp site somewhere along the road. Before we pulled away, I noticed a little drip of oil, under the bike! Had a check and couldn’t find where it has come from – perhaps it was from someone else???

After an hour or so, we found a campsite in a place called Koblenz. Very nice place, so decided to set up camp for the night.

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Day 3 – Monday 5th July – Koblenz, Germany – Prague, Czech Republic

We decided to get up at 6am to get some good miles under us before the traffic got heavy. According to Google Maps we had around a 6 hour drive (with no stops) to get to Prague. The weather was great again, is a little to warm with full textile suits on. But who’s complaining? Done some good miles with few hold-ups. Little traffic there was, was easily filtered through. After about 4 hours of riding, we stopped in Nuremburg to post our postcards, get something to eat and drink- more importantly.

Spent about an hour here and back on the road again. The autobahn is fucking amazing. Excellent for saving time. Pretty empty, and despite only having 2 lanes in large section, everyone pulls in after overtaking to let the faster cars pass. There was bits when we were doing 110-130mph and were still being overtaken by some cars. Crazy bastards, but all seems very safe over there. Motoring heaven.

On approach to the Czech border we could see some big black clouds overhead. And as soon as well crossed the road-sign for the Czech Republic, big, massive rain drops came scudding down on us. It was exactly as we passed the sign the rain started. Weird?!?!?

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As soon as you get into the Czech Republic, the roads get shit. Potholes, bumps, gouges in the road and loose stones. Didn’t get any of this in Germany! Got to the border cross and was surprised to find that you didn’t need a vignette for motorcycles – RESULT ! Exchanged some money and then spotted 2 shifty looking cunts walking around all the cars, and then heading towards us. We were ready to leave anyway, but didn’t hang anyway.

On the ride into Prague, the rain came off and on, and when it was on, it was really ON. We had seen this massive lightning bolt come down from the sky and strike the ground somewhere very close in front of us. Pulled into a services and there was a line of bikers all had the same idea to park up for a while.

Back on the road again, we seen some blue flashing lights in the distance, the rain was back on and visibility was very low. We caught up to the police car on our side of the road and to our amazement, we see a large helicopter sitting in the middle of the road on the other side and loads of police cars too (all on the other side). There had been a massive multiple car accident. We saw at least 2 cars on their roofs. 1 was a fairly new white Mercedes. After that we cut the speed a bit and took it a little easier for the remaining journey into Prague.

Getting into Prague ‘Centrum’ was interesting to say the least. It was probably due to luck that we found the tourist areas than by good directions. Found a Tesco and had a look around (especially the Bakery) (because I work in a Tesco Bakery). Similar to stuff back home, only with a few minor changes probably best suited for the Czechs.

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Found a very cheap hotel in the tourist bit of the city, parked the bike up and spent the rest of the day exploring Prague. Loads of photos! Good times.

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The bike was starting to make some noises (well the same noise, but getting progressively louder).

Day 4 – Tuesday 6th July – Prague, Czech Republic – Kutna Hora, Czech Rep (and beyond)

Our plan for this day was too get up early again, visit Kutna Hora which is only an hour away from Prague and ride on into Poland. I have been wanting to visit Poland for many, many years now and this was (as I was hoping) going to be the best part of the journey so far – for me.

However all did not go to plan !!!

Getting out of Prague is a cunt, what else can I say?

I think the Czech government only made a certain number of road signs for different places and then stuck the name ‘PRAHA’ on all the rest of them. Any road sign that we did see was not on our map.

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Eventually after a cocktail of English/German/Polish/Czech conversations with the locals we finally found our way out of the city and onto Kutna Hora.

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Advice for anyone going here, please take a sat nav, you will NEVER get there using maps – I promise. Had to ask the locals again – the language barrier was worse this time. Got there eventually and found out there are 4 churches, but we only knew there was 1 so we only stuck around long enough to visit the 1 church we were after.

Met up with some British bikers who were doing basically the same route to us, only doing it in reverse. They had already been to Croatia, etc and said the weather was lovely, over 30+ degree. Thinks were starting to sound good, unlike my engine which was starting to sound bad!

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Getting lost coming out of this place was inevitable since we got lost getting into it, so I didn’t mind too much, but after about 2 hours of riding around in circles on twisty roads which would put the moon’s surface to shame, I was getting seriously pissed off. Decided to follow this one road, for miles upon miles and eventually seen a sign for Brno – I had no idea where this place was on the map and couldn’t be fucked stopping and getting the map out, but I knew it was a city, so just headed towards it!

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At Brno, we looked at the map and realised we had actually got further away from the Polish border, despite being slightly closer to where we wanted to go when we got into Poland. The bike was sounding really rough now, but was still working. It was running best when doing 100mph in 6th gear because the revs were high. If the revs went to around 3-5K it was struggling, and felt like there was a misfire.

We decided to head for the Polish border and assess the engine every so often. We weren’t sure if we should risk going into Poland, because despite having full insurance cover I didn’t have any breakdown cover for Poland. My Polish is good enough to have got us a lift out of there if the bike broke down there, but the risks were too high if we broke down in the middle of nowhere.

We were nearing a city called Olomouc now and the engine sounded so bad by this time, we both agreed to find a mechanic in the area. Headed for the city centre, and there was nothing – no people and all the shops were closed, which was weird since this was the middle of the fucking day. Spoke to a taxi driver and he said the town had closed for the day. Fuck knows why ?!?! Next thing we know we had 2 shifty looking bastards coming towards us, so got out of there asap.

An hour or 2 hours of driving up and down we finally found some locals who pointed us in the right direction of a campsite, 11 kms away in a place called Sternberk which is in the middle of nowhere, all it has is a campsite on the outskirts of town. You have no idea how remote this place is. The campsite itself is like a scene from a 1970s Soviet Union Holiday Camp. No one spoke English and we didn’t speak Czech. Got a small wooden hut to sleep in for only a 16 Euros. They were a bit apprehensive about accepting our currency but we has spent all out Czech Crowns and had no other money left.

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That night, I phoned the European Breakdown Company, who sent a tow truck for the bike. Things were starting to look like they were going to get better – maybe they would work on the bike and get it back to me the next day or something. Who knew ?

*It is officially at this point that our European Motorcycle Road Trip comes to an end and Part II “The Breakdown” begins. Please feel free to stop reading here if you wish.*

PART II - THE BREAKDOWN !


Day 5 - Wednesday 7th July – Autokemp Sternberk

Had a good nights sleep cos I was so fucking tired. Slept in my bike gear on top of the bed. We had to be out of the hut at 10am the next morning, but didn’t know what was happening with the bike. The last I had heard from the breakdown company was that they would phone me back – and it was costing me lots of phone credit to call them since it was a UK phone number.

We gave the keys back to the receptionist – an older Czech lady with no knowledge of the English language. Plonked our bags (5 of them) at the front door and waited… and waited… and waited.

After a while she found someone in the camp who spoke some English to come and speak to us; told her we were waiting on a phone call and she told us to sit in another hut. We moved into and there were kids plays at our feet. They all spoke Czech (we assume) as we sat there for many hours. Many phone calls passed between myself, the breakdown company, Czech translators, and the old woman at reception to clearly wanted rid of us, but I think the only reason she didn’t tell us to leave was because she didn’t know how to tell us.

The old woman phoned the garage where the bike was at and they has told her than it would take over a week to repair, she somehow told us and as a result; we knew more than info about the bike than the breakdown people.

We were stranded, had nowhere to go. We sat in that hut from 10am – 7pm ! When finally we had a breakthrough, the breakdown company found us a hotel! Relief for us, and for the receptionist too I am sure – I bet she is still walking round the campsite looking for us now!

The hotel was in the town. Apart from the hotel all that was open was 1 pub showing the Spain vs Germany game. Tried to get a beer but couldn’t pay for it since I only had Euros so just decided to leave and have an early night.

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Day 6 – Thursday 8th July – Hotel M, Sternberk – Ostrava Airport

Had an 18oz Steak, Crab Salad, 4 Drinks and 2 Ice Cream Sundaes and it came to less than £15. Bargain.

The breakdown company had organised us flights home when they realised the bike could not be sorted quickly and efficiently. They were from Ostrava Airport – Prague Airport – Amsterdam Airport and then into Glasgow.

Got a taxi to the airport (which took 2 hours and took many weird looking roads – think the driver was taking the piss) and waited on the fights. Went to pick up the tickets and they wouldn’t give us them unless we paid 14,000 Czech Crowns!!! We didn’t have this kinda money! (That’s nearly £500), and that was just to get to one side of the Czech Rep to the other airport (Prague) besides, it was supposed to have already have been paid for.

Waited and waited, many phone calls passed back and forward and eventually the gates closed and the plane left without us!

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Breakdown cover orders another taxi and takes us to another hotel near the airport and organises more flights for the next day.

We arrive at the new hotel. More fucking around and more fucking phone calls back and forth. (This was now about £40 I had spent on bloody phone top-ups!) And it was finally decided that this hotel wouldn’t take us unless cash was paid up front for the room, so we got another taxi to another hotel – which was a shame because this was a really nice hotel.

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There wasn’t much point getting us a hotel because we had to be up in 4 hours to get flights the next morning, but they got us another hotel anyway. Not the best, but was only for a matter of hours.

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Day 7 - Friday 9th July - Ostrava Airport - Home

Taxi came at 03:30 for some early flights home via Ostrava airport – Vienna (Austria) – Brussels (Belgium) and Edinburgh.

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More mishaps today include, my cousin getting a full thorough search in Brussels because he had a camping stove in his luggage despite getting through 2 other airports no problems, my bag was opened at the side when I got my luggage back – I have lost a coin I got from Prague and maybe something else. When I got it, my girlfriend’s iPod was actually hanging out of the side of it!

And to top it all off, the breakdown company never ordered us a fucking taxi to get home from Edinburgh airport! So more fucking about with phone calls and we got one an hour later!

So as you can see I have had a stressful couple of days. Still don’t know what is happening with my motorcycle. I don’t even know where it is now. The Czech recovery people have my bike, keys and logbook. They said they would be in contact when I got back to the UK – I am still waiting.

Hopefully when I do my next Euro trip (whenever that may be) I will have a better write up, and more pictures – I couldn’t be arsed taking photos when I was pissed off.

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[rob_scott92]

Thats a good write up that, i actually read it all

So you've no idea what was wrong with your bike then? And the breakdown company still have it?! Thats not something i could do. Poor bike, all alone in a strange country

Hope it all gets sorted reasonably hassel free for ya
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First bike: 1982 Suzuki Gs 125 'The beast MK1' > 1988 Honda Cb 350's' FOR SPORT! (Good ol' oil burner!) > 2001 Suzuki Sv 650 's' Made it out of the 80's! > 1997 Honda Cbr 600f :p

[Gazz]

[leenit]

Cheers Gazz 'n' welcome home!.

l read the lot also, good post - hope everything works out ok with your bike!.
Let us know the outcome when it happens, should'nt take too long
l hope!!!

Which recovery company you with?, was it through your insurance comp or separate cover?, sounds like they still left you a bit of work to do through this! although the basics were there - or am l been harsh on em' ?

[Carl_steveo]

I read the whole thing last night aswell while waiting for whar Raoul go boom.

Good write up mate pity about the ending.
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Current: Honda Nsr 125
Live: Sunderland
Luke "cant be arsed to read your post, but suck my balls anyway."

[Gazz]

[N cee thirty]

good write up,i read it all aswell suprisingly

unlucky about what happened,least you got to see some places
____________________
'00 Aprilia RS50 > '92 Honda CG > '99 Yamaha Fazer > '91 Yamaha RXS > '79 Suzuki X5 > 01' Honda Cg > 07' Honda Cg > 82' Kawasaki Z200 > suzuki gsxr 400 gk73a > honda vfr 400 NC30 Mod 2 Passed 09/06/2011

Jewlio Iglesias wrote: I actually did vote BNP once

[Gazz]

Edit: Map Added.

[element]

just read this... nice writeup. any news on the bike?
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04' DT125RE (run-a-bout) // 89' DT125R (rebuilt + supermoto conversion)
SPARES FOR SALE. 2RK TZR // 82 DR125 // DT125R/E .... PM ME...

[Gazz]