Montenegro

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Todays journey started at the border crossing into Montenegro, about 50kms down the road from Dubrovnik – well it would have been if we hadn't followed the directions of the campground guy and headed toward a smaller border crossing where there would be no queues

Korcula and Dubrovnik, Croatia

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Well, what a day – I think we are going to run out of superlatives to describe what we're seeing, but here goes – the ferry crossing to Orebic was interesting as 6 Harleys pulled up and so we compared bikes – unfotunately they were not very interested in looking at the Honda!!!

Island Hopping

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From Split we caught the car ferry to Hvar Island ( about 1 hour) on smooth crystal clear blue seas, and after disembarking drove the 25kms into Hvar town. Lonely Planet said

Somewhere in Croatia

Our campsite at Karlobag was right on the beach so we started the day with a swim before breakfast! That sure beats a Wellington winter morning!! The ride south from Karlobag was a beautiful sweeping road

Croatia - Rabac to Karlobag

Plitvicka Jezera

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We headed inland this morning to the Plitvicka Jezera Lakes. It was really interesting to leave the coast and drive inland and see the villages and houses. The coast to date has actually been really barren and dry.

Slovenia to Croatia

Fiesa to Novi Vinodolski 392kms total kms to date 2154kms


We left the Istra peninsula and crossed the border into Croatia yesterday. Lonely Planet said that the border control could be a bit tricky here as Croatia is not yet part of the EU, but they just looked at our passports and waved us through – excellent..

Fiesa, Slovenia

Lake Bled to Fiesa – 500 Kms total kms 1750km

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The sun finally came out and shone on us – we left Lake Bled and the stoney campground at around 9am and headed to Ljubjana, about 60kms,

Lake Bled

Lake Bled

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Well, what a magnificent place – the day started off misty and wet and so we walked around the lake taking pictures of the church on the island from every angle – even in the mist it looked fantastic

Prague to Lake Bled, Slovenia

Prague to Lake Bled Distance 600kms Total distance 1250kms

After a night of heavy rain we set off on the road to Lake Bled only to find that the headlights weren't working – as it is the law to drive in Europe with your lights on all the time, we thought we had a major problem ( eg fines $$$).

Prague

We arrived into Prague at 6pm after a really long day of riding – and the last 20km in the rain which was a pain. But the GPS found the hotel for us (thank goodness for GPS …. !!!). We are in a nice hotel reasonably near the centre of town and have spent the last 2 days walking and walking and walking.

Prague Day 1 photos click here

The rain cleared on the first morning and we went on a 4 hour walking tour to give us some general history of the region and an introduction to the major landmarks. Prague is a very beuatiful city that largely escaped any damage during WW2.

Hamburg to Prague

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 Hamburg to Prague 645 kms

The real journey has begun – we arrived in Amsterdam from Beijing a few days ago, hired a rental car to get us to our friends in Oldenburg, Germany where we stayed whilst organising the bike.

China - Beijing stopover en route to Europe

We have just spent 4 days in Beijing on a stopover on the way to Europe - our reflections of that busy busy city are:
The Sights - We managed to see most of the tourist sights in Beijing – the Great Wall is amazing, snaking its way across the mountain tops for miles as far as you can see. There are 3 main sections you can reach from Beijing, and we chose the Mutyianu part which is about 60kms away and has a gondola to the top making it easy to get up to the best photo taking areas ( you can walk up but in 35 degree heat its probably not a good idea)

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. The wall itself was originally 6000kms long and was built to keep out the mongol invadors from Beijing. It has recently been restored in several areas and understandably is now one of the world's top tourist attractions.