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TIBOR THE GREAT and SNOW

2018-09-29

I left Sighisoura fairly late, with no real plan. I was just taking side roads as much as possible and seeing where they went. I was roughly heading towards the Parcul National Munti Rodnei, a Romanian National Park on the Ukraine Border.

On one road, I saw an interesting monument of wood. I stopped, and there I met Tibor the Great, a Hungarian Armed Forces Officer, Retired. We talked about all things great and small. He explained that Transylvania, this area of Romania, is almost entirely Hungarian, and proud of it. They speak Hungarian, not Romanian, and follow traditional ways of living. The Monument was put up by the various towns in the area, and each town has it’s own wooden monument.

Tibor the Great

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CANADIANS TASTE LIKE LAMB

2018-09-24

My hosts at this Pension were very nice. I mentioned that they invited me to dinner. They said that they were having two Canadians for dinner. I took that to mean that there would be two Canadians eating dinner with us. Well, when I got to the table, there were three place settings. Me and my two hosts. Where were the Canadians going to sit?

Remember, this is where Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad the Impaler was born.  Vlad was the inspiration for the Dracula story.   His father was Vlad Dracul.  Another wonderful Romanian man from way back. Maybe having Canadians for dinner was a tradition here. Romanian Goulash?

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Dracul Disney, Myths about Myths, Retiree Discounts and Romanians

What to do next.  There are some areas in Northern Romania I want to see, and Bulgaria is looking interesting.   I am nearing the end of September.   I have insurance for the bike through October.   I have to either plan to get more insurance and continue on, or to store my bike somewhere (plenty of options) and head either back to the states to visit family and friends, or somewhere else.    The Divers Den Dive shop is going to Honduras again.   Might be a good trip to do with old friends.   It would be nice to see family and friends around Christmas and Thanksgiving.   Maybe get out the Honda and ride around the country.   Well, if I start in November.   Much of the country is cold and bleak in December.   I am planning on being in New Zealand sometime in our spring, but what do I do between Christmas and New Zealand?   Tahiti?  Scuba or Motorcycle?   I am open to suggestions.   I want to do it all, so hard to decide.   I am feeling great, really enjoying my time, but I will need a change soon enough.

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TRIUMPH BUDAPEST and the IRONBUTT

2018-09-13

www.triumphbudapest.hu

www.facebook.com/TriumphHungary/

I stopped by the local Triumph Motorcycle Dealer to buy some maintenance items and see if I could work on my bike there.

I could just do it at my Air BnB but here if something goes wrong or I need something else i am covered.

I do all my own work on my bikes. See my tire/radiator fiasco if you want to know why.

The dealer had a great time watching me work on the bike, changing my brake pads and other maintenance, especially after I told him it had over 150,000 Km and was a 2011.

He had to photo my Ironbutt plate, and my odometer. He said he would put them up on Faceplant, but I have not seen them yet, here two days later. So, no photo yet.   He was pretty amazed by my description of the Ironbutt Rally.

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BOOT MOLD

2018-08-30

This is a post from way back in the wettest parts of our Norway ride. You know you are riding in a lot of rain when you start growing things on your boots. Usually I just grow things IN my boots.

Nancy’s boots starting their own Garden. 
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More Cool Towns

2018-09-12

My favorite way to ride is to plug in a destination, and ignore the GPS. I try to stay as far away from heavily populated areas and highways as possible. It is not good for making time, but you can find fantastic roads and some pretty great little towns.

I was on the way to Budapest today, and was just wandering around. I could have gotten there in a small number of hours, but it took all day.

I found these guys

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14 Km of Dirt?

2018-09-12

http://www.kralovastudna.com/sk/en

Roads?   Where we are going we don’t need roads:

While wandering towards Budapest, I stopped to look at my GPS. A guy stopped to make sure I was OK. His English was less than great, but I had ear plugs in so I was not sure if it was him or me. He pointed at a sign, Hotel and Cafe, and said something about dirt, and I should follow him.

I decided what the hell. It was not a terrible road. But it was not great. Lots of loose gravel, large rocks and ruts. Just what a fully loaded big bike loves. It was not so bad, and I had fun, but about half way up I realized that the shortest way back down the mountain was to take the same 14 Km down. We rode right past the signs that said no motorcycles.

At the top, I discovered that he knew no English. He bought me a beer, Non alcoholic, and paid for my access to the road, which aparently is required.

We had a grand old time trying to have a decent conversation with no common language. We did OK, then we rode back down the mountain. I wonder why it seems to take me forever to get to my next destination?



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Our Route:

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CESKY KRUMLOV CASTLE

2018-09-11

hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cesk%C3%BD_Krumlov

I had not originally intended on going to Czechia, but since it was sort of on my way, I went to the Church of Bones. I went to Prague because it was close to the church. I went to the next place because I found good riding roads in southern Czechia and this place was close. Since I had not intended to go here, I really did not have any notes. SAN had told me all about it in detail, but I forgot all of it. I thought it was a drive by.

You are not allowed to take photos of the  inside of the castle during the tour.  You can take photos FROM the castle though.   It is a big sprawling tourist trap, err, I mean historic city.  I will be back when I have more time.   It was pretty great.

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Czechia Air Museum

When you are riding down the highway in Czechia and see a sign for an Air Museum, one that is NOT on Google Maps, you have to stop. More of a junk yard than a museum, but they did have good info on the planes. In Czeck. This was a great place to walk around. I did drop my bike here though. I was standing on the pegs to take a photo, and when I jumped down I bumped the bike just enough to get it off balance. Fortunately some guys were driving by on their traktor and stopped to help.

https://www.museum-kunovice.cz/

Tow Mater’s cousin.

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