Eastern Europe by motorcycle

Our R12?0GS motorcycles are comfort machines, designed for exploration of the world. My 2020 model had only been driven to Sweden so it was time to unleash its potential. With a bucketlist of countries and places in Eastern Europe, a trip to Easten Europa was planned. Two weeks were set aside for the trip and visits to Moldova, Iron Gates on the Danube and Beograd were made compulsory.

The planning was started by consulting the insurance company. We were issued a green card for travel, excluding only Ukraine, Belarus and Kosovo from visits on this trip. The route planning was done using Calimoto targeting MC-friendly roads, avoiding motorways. The route was chosen as to follow the Carpathian mountains as much as possible. Navigable track and tracklog was transferred to my BMW Navigator VI.

Day 1: Kristinehamn

We started off from Trondheim towards Røros in excellent weather. Gauldalen is the best road going south from Trondheim. Due to the distance, we chose to drive through Trysil. This was also done partly to save Härjedalen for the return trip. We drove to Vänern and found accomodation in cozy Kristinehamn. 700 km was a good start to the trip.

Stadshotellet in Kristinehavn.

Day 2: Karlskrona

To limit the driving distance down to the Carpatian mountains, we chose to take the ferry from Karlskrona to Gdynia. This crossing can be done at night and would give us a starting point in the eastern Poland.  We drove the approx. 400 kms from Kristinehavn on the East side of Vättern stopping for gorgeous views of the lake near Skyrsta.

Vättern

We arrived quite early in Karlskrona, and this gave us time to explore this beautiful city for a few hours before boarding the ferry in the evening.

Day 3: Ostroleka

I've visited Poland for work quite a lot the past years and have driven the fast 140 km/h motorways between the big cities. It was not what we were after driving motorcycles. So we decided to head east before driving south. Seaching for points of interest in the area, we discovered Wolf's Lair in Gierłoż. This was Hitler's command center in the east where he spent at least 800 days and survived an assassination attempt in July 1944 as part of Operation Valkyrie. This historic site is filled with partly demolished bunkers and quite the interesting visit. There were also quite a few other motorcycles visiting.

Me at the reconstruction of the meeting at Wolf's lair.

Driving further south on minor roads were actually quite boring. Firstly, the landscape is complete flat and there are only a short distance between villages with reduced speed to 50 km/h or less. We quickly learned that nobody was following the limits, so we adjusted slighly to just follow traffic. Anyhow, the small road strategy did not work well in Poland and we only made it as far as Ostroleka where we found a very cheap motel for the night.

Day 4: Solinas lake

Next day we still stuck to our strategy of following smaller roads. By accident we drove by the Treblinka II concentration camp and decided to visit. It is a solemn memorial of the between 700 000 to 900 000 exterminated in 13 months as part of the final solution. Continuing further south we drove through Lublin. This is a beutiful city with an impressive old town. We probably would have stopped had I not been there for work a few weeks earlier.

As we reached Kańczuga, the roads became more intersting as we entered the Carpathian mountains. After a stop to look at the map, we decided to stop at Solinas lake. We chose the DW Atrium hotel among many other options. As we arrive it became clear that this was a large resort, American style. Luckily, we were too early in the season to be bothered by overcrowding, but definitively a touristic location.

The hotel was quite interesting. The owner was clearly into motorcycles as the lobby was filled with classics. There were also quite a lot of american classic cars parked outside.

Classic motocycles on display in DW Atrium hotel.

Day 5: Satu Mare

Next morning after a gorgeous walk along the lake we set out for driving further into the Carpathians and into Slovakia. We stopped to get an overlook over the lake and to take photos of our bikes.

My 2020 R1250 GS HP at Solinas lake.

We followed the road south to Cisna before driving through a gorgeous valley northwest before finally crossing the border to Slovakia. Leaving the mountains we quickly got into rather boring village-to-village driving. There is really not much to say about this part of the country, and we entered into Hungary after one stop.

Hungary turned out to be worse. Added to the villages, was really poor road cover. So bad that I wondered if my old F800GS would have been the better choice. Also, the maps on the Navigator VI was not working well and we had to make frequent checks with google maps in order to find the road to the Romanian border crossing.

Finally, reaching Satu Mare we could park the bikes safely at Hugo Hotel. We found a brewpub with an intresting menu and decided to walk across town. The contrast in architechture was prominent. The historic buildings often beautiful, as with a stave church in middle of the city.

Satu Mare Stave Church.

On the other hand, there were quite a few examples of horrible architechture in the city. And this was a general trend: the bigger the cities the more ugly concrete buildings could be found. It was our strategy to stay out of the larger cities and drive into the more remote places in the mountains.

Communist era architecture.

Day 6: Lacul Bicaz

The next morning we set out for Baia Mare, mostly because it is a very cool name. After discovering that it actually means mining town we had to look into its history. It turns out that it was the location of one of the largest environmental disasters in Europe when a gold processing facility spilled large amounts of cyanide into the surrouding waterbed.

Driving out of nearby Baia Sprie is where the fun really started: windy roads over montain passes. Road 18 really gave us the opportunity of active driving and with views towards snow capped mountain peaks.

Road 18 out of Baia Sprie.

The road futher on was also fantastic. I espescially remember the road from Borșa to Borca well. Here, traffic was low and the intermittent villages with cozy wooden houses were actually a welcomed break from the active driving. This is the reason I wanted to come here in the first place: In my youth I watched "Michael Palin's New Europe" days and was captivated by the beautiful scenery.

Mountain pass near Borsa.

The road continued to the beautiful Lake Bicaz where we followed the road to the dam. It was getting dark so we found a nearby motel and restaurant serving local food.

Day 7: Moldova

This was the planned to the be turning point of the trip in the East. I had wanted to visit this country for years; compulsory as I intend to visit all European countries at some point. There were some concerns about safety, and possible theft of the bikes. Reading up on this we found it safe to travel to the east, but advisable to avoid the Transinistra area east of Dnestr river.

Leaving the Carpathian mountains we expected the roads east to be boring. We could not have been more wrong! The roads through rolling hills were amazing: fast, winding and with excellent cover. The drive to the border was a blast.

Passing the border at Sculei took some time as each vehicle were checked. Eventually, an official let us pass the queue and proceed to the front (probably a MC owner). The roads to Chisinau were good, but not especially entertaining. Entering the city, we discovered that The Festival of Romanian Traditions was ongoing. Traffic was awful, and we got stuck in the heat. After circling downtown, we decided to leave for the biggest attraction in the country, south of the city.

Mileștii Mici is a winery, famous for its 200 km of limestone tunnels. 55 km are currently used to store 1.5 million bottles of wine in addition to numerous barrels. We took a guided tour but had to abstain from the wine tasting itself. We left each with a bottle of sparkling wine as a gift. One of the bottles even made it back to Trondheim.

Mileștii Mici winery.

Looking for accomodation in Chisinau we found very limited availability in the area due to the festival. We decided to return to Romaina. But before I left, I needed to get hold of local beer: I had never tasted beer from Moldova before. Stopping at a local store, I found only Ukranian and Romanian beer in the fridge. But on the wall I actually found three taps: local beer for sale by the bottle. I selected one of the beers and brought it with me.

Moldovan craft beer.

We crossed the border back to Romania at  Leușeni and drove southeast. Here, we were greeted with the most amazing rainstorm. It was almost impossible to drive due to sight through the visor. We eventually found a motel with a restaurant near Zorleni where we stopped for the night.

Day 8: Brasov

Starting out drive next morning in much improved weather condistions, we could again enjoy crossing the rolling hills and eventually the Carpathians themselves into Transylvania. Brasov was recommended to me by a bartender in my local waterhole in Trondheim, Habitat. Brasov has an amazing old town and this is where we found the best beer on the trip, at the Aftar Stube.

Aftar Stube, Brasov.

But I am getting ahead of myself with the good memories! Let's do the not so good memories first. As we came into town early, we decided to visit the famous "Dracula's Castle" in Bran just outside town before parking the bikes for the day. I remember my father visited this place in the 80ies, so it was added to my bucket list. Unfortunately, I did not do my home work properly, because this was a real tourist trap!

Bran Castle, although strategically important in the defense of Transilvania, was probably never related to Dracula: Vlad the Impaler was never here, and Bram Stoker did not know of the place. Athough the castle itself was impressingly well preserved, the surrounding town was too touristic.

Bran Castle.

Day 9: Orșova on Donau

After a good night's sleep in Old Town Brasov we set out west. We knew that the famous roads through the Transylvanian Alps were most likely going to be closed this early in the season. We got confirmation that there it was snowing in the mountains before setting out. Transfăgărășan and Transalpina takes you to 2042 and 2145 meters above sea level you need to wait until late June or early July to be sure to ride them. This was a tradeoff we made with less tourists and colder and more comfortable temperatures.

Insted, we had to drive further west before going south. On a tip from a colleague at SINTEF, we made a stop in the gorgeous, medevial UNESCO town Sibiu before moving on. The Carpathian mountains go all the way to the Danube, and this made our drive along them on Road 6 to Orșova quite enjoyable. We found a motel on the river bank on the Romanian side of the river.

Motel on the north side of the Danube.

Day 10: Iron Gates and Belgrade

Waking up to sunshine, and having coffee on the Danube was just amazing. This was also the day where we were going to visit Serbia for the first time.

Iron Gates: I cannot recall why this place ended up on my bucket list. When I was at work in Cluj some years ago, I was too far off to make the visit. This time I would be to do it, and on motorcycle even. Iron Gates is an area on the river where the Carpathian mountains meet the Balkan moutains.  Donau is very narrow in this region and with beautiful rock formations on each side of the river. Naturally, the river was traditonally running wild, but eventually they build on of the largest power stations in Europe here and with that locks for transport of ships on the river. The Iron Gate I power station produces today more than 10 TWh.

Iron Gate I Power Station and border crossing.

There are not many opportunities to cross the river in the area; the dam provided one of them. On the Serbian side there was 134 km of gorgeous roads following the river towards Belgrade. We had to stop several times to take photos of old fortresses and rock carvings, but otherwise the road was marvellous with good cover and few speed reductions.

View of Danube river from Serbian side.

Belgrade: the white city. Strategically placed on the confluence of Sava and Danube rivers. It is on of the eldest, continually habitated city in Europe and an important crossroad between east and west. Today, the city is a metropol with a bustling nightlife and art scene. Perhaps the biggest attraction is the Belgrade Fortess whose white sandstone towers have given the city its name. We only had one day to explore the city. We should have had a couple of days more.

Belgrade Fortress.

Day 11: Banská Bystrica

From looking at the map, the landscape north to Budapest was completely flat. We therefore resolved to following the fast roads to the Budapest ring road and then go north into the Carpathian mountains. Since we both had been in Budapest several times, we decided to skip this gorgeous city.

Once again into the Carpathian mountains we could enjoy good roads and scenic landscape.This part of Slovakia turned out to be much more enjoyable on motorcycle than what we had experience further east. Since we had visited the aluminium smelter in Ziar Nad Hronom and the gorgeous UNESCO town Banská Štiavnica more than 20 years ago, we decided this time to visit Banská Bystrica. This turned out to be an excellent choice as the city center is beautiful. We had a nice walk up to one of the fields outside town to get a good view.

Banská Bystrica main square.

Day 12: Zakopane and going north

Continuing further north in the Carpathian mountains we found excellent roads. We decided to head for Zakopane through winding roads. Zakopane has been on my bucket list since 1995, when I as a student in Crakow was the victim of a vodka drinking party. I just did not manage to get on the train the next morning, and it has been an annoing missed opportunity ever since.

Zakopane is a tourist machine situated in very scenic surroundings.  The streets were alredy filled with tourists, a bit too much for our taste. The traffic in and out of the city was also slow. We stayed for lunch and moved on.

Zakopane

Coming out of the mountains, we did not even try for the smaller roads but stuck to the 140 km/h motorways towards Lodz. We found a hotel we would like to forget outside town and ended the day.

Day 13: Return to Gdynia

Not much to report from this day. We drove the fast roads, listening to music in excellent weather. The GS's actually behave  well in 140 km/h without too much wind noise, so we arrived in Gdynia early in the afternoon. We stopped near the waterfront only to see thee boars walking on the sidewalk. We were a bit startled, but apparently this is quite normal and these pigs are not aggressive at all.

Gdynia boars (video link).

Day 14: Sälen

For the return through Sweden we chose another route than down. We drove between Vänern and Vättern and stopped at Göta Kanal in Sjötorp. In gourgeous weather, this was a very nice location for a stop with a lot of restaurant with outdoor seating. There were a lot of other motocycles there too.

Sjötorp locks on Göta Kanal.

Driving further on, we stayed on the Swedish side of the border and eventually ended up Sälen, the starting point of Vasaloppet. We were lucky and found Olargården hotel that had a barbeque buffet that night. Excellent stay in a lovely room. Food was amazing too.

Olarsgården dinner.

Day 15: Trondheim

The last 400 km we drove through Härjedalen and were disappointed that due to the poor road cover, the speed limit was reduced to 70 km/h. We crossed the border near Funäsdalen in rain and 6 degrees, but the weather improved down Gauldalen so we had a nice finale to our trip entering Trondheim

Back in Trondheim 6900 km was registered over 15 driving days. That's fully acceptable with less than 500 km per day on average. My BMW Navigator VI gave up logging the trip half-way so I had to reconstruct the route from memory and the BMW app.

Conclusions

We are generally very happy with this motorcycle trip. Important of course was the reliability of our motorcycles. They both came through this without as much as an error message, except the R1200 GS needed an oil top-up. For the planning of the trip, we have to admit that there is a lot of travel to get to the Carpathian mountains. We can defend four days of driving in Sweden, but the least enjoyable part was the northern part of Poland.

Looking at the travel budget, we are suprised how cheap Eastern Europe turned out to be. Our motels ranged from 400 to 1200 NOK per night at a decent standard. We booked on the road with hotels.com or booking.com and had not issued with availability. Gasoline was also cheap, sometimes as low as 12-13 NOK per liter. Food and drinks were around half the price of Norway. The food in the area is kind of a fusion of east and west, with influences from Balkan, Hungary and Turkey. Solid meat dishes with exciting sides were experienced, and on the craft beer scene we found a lot of options from breweries not yet taken over by Heineken or Carlsberg.

The Carpathian mountains are a fantastic experience on motorcycle. Here you will find some of the most spectactual roads Europe has to offer. Roads has good cover, traffic is limited and local culture is up close. Wooden houses are a welcome contrast to the communist concrete architechture you will find in the larger cities. Since we missed the opportunity to ride two of the best roads, Transfăgărășan og Transalpina,  I have already started planning a trip from Bucurest: fly in, rent a bike and drive staight into Transylvania.