We have moved

Well that's it!  After 6 years and many, many miles we have moved our blog.  Apparently we have posted 1000 pictures(our limit) at this address so we have moved to an all new, improved address...or at least that is what they say.

So now you can find us at:

 http://motoadventures2up.blogspot.com/

We hope to see you there!

Romania and Bulgaria, we enjoyed them both.

The Lord and Lady at the Bran Castle in Romania

We bought a few plums from the lady if the background but this little guy wanted to come home with us.

Heather in one of the small villages, typical style of houses line the street and women in typical dress, including babuchkas.

The pass after leaving the Bran Castle was lined with rocky topped mountians.

Heather, the voyeur, checks out the yards of the farm houses in the small villages.

Bulgaria says Don't worry "Be Happy" and we don't and we are!

The fog settles in as we went over the pass, we can't see much but the gps(if you can read it) tells the story of a road with many twists and turns.

We had been to both Romania and Bulgaria on a previous trip so we put in some time in the saddles and headed for new terrain in Turkey, but not without making a few pleasant stops along the way.

As soon as we got over the Romanian border we started checking the map for the "green" scenic roads and we were not disappointed, in the road that is. We rode over a great biking road, full of twists and turns but the only thing wrong was the weather closed in on us and the fog and rain didn't allow us to see most of the views at the top. As we desended the mountian and day wore on the weather cleared and we enter a gorge with sides straight up ?? metres and the road was carved out of the walls, stacked turns one on top of the other. At the top a little manmade lake full of stumps was surrounded by hotels and people were renting little row boats to go out on the water, it reminded us how lucky we are in Canada to have the beautiful and natural outdoors that we enjoy so much.

One thing we do not have in Canada, however, are castles and we visited the Bran Castle which was wonderfully restored. The castle sits at the mouth of a pass and was used for centuries by the royalty of Romania to collect taxes from the traders passing from the south into the north of Europe. The castle was also used in the production of silent movies in the 1920's. The setting was magnificant and on the other side of the pass we discovered several gorges to ride, hike and explore. We spent a night in Podul Damboritel after traveling only 30 km from Bran, here we did a great 12 km walk up a gorge in Piatra Craiului National Park, went into a small cave and had a nice lunch in a small village nestled in the mountains. The roads in this area are great for walking and for riding, and some of the best hiking in Europe is here, ranked right up there with the alps.

After getting a little exercise we felt energized and ready to head south again. Bulgaria nice to ride through and as always here in the eastern countries we had to be careful where we were riding, being sure to miss the piles of horse and cow shit on the smaller roads. In Bulgaria and Romania we saw more evidence of the gypsies, riding in overloaded carts containing everything they own. The gypsy way of life is its own culture here whether it is choosen or not and now is harvest time and many gypsies are traveling from farm to farm harvest everything from sunflowers to squash, to hay and sometimes just traveling(kind of sounds like Ken and I, the traveling part that is). We passed throung some mountians on small roads and found them everywhere, they were probably wondering what we were doing back in the hills off the beaten track, sometimes so do we!

Now it is time for Turkey but that is a another time and another story. History in the making you might say...lots of history in Turkey!

Poland, Solvakia and down to the Ukraine for borshch

Small townsites with homes amidst bountiful gardens line the side of the small country roads we are choosing to ride.

The slavic countries are living 40 or 50 years behind us in some things, like hurding their cows down the main street(sound familiar anyone?)but in other ways their life is largely the same as these young girls with the cows were probably talking on their cell phones as they walked!

One last day in Krakow, a visit to Wafel Hill and Castle and a good Polish lunch.

Ken misses the off road riding at home! We stopped along a creek at the side the road to cool off in the 30+ degree temperatures. We soaked our feet and before we left our shirts, that kept us cool for a while.

Along the road in Ukraine you can find water taps with fresh drinking water, this one was made up to look like a tea pot and cup.

Along side the road in the mountains leaving Poland many vendors were selling wild mushrooms, sheep cheese, honey, huckleberries and assorted jars of pickled wild mushrooms.

The four days in Krakow, we spent waiting of the bike tires, was spent just kicking back at the campsite. We only went into the city one afternoon to visit Wafel Castle which we missed the first time around. This being our longest stop in one place(where we were not specifically visiting someone)was very relaxing. We had a chance to meet a couple from France, another from Germany(originally from Holland) and a family from Sweden...Huskvarna to be exact...I think we drove right by their house on our way out of town! Outrageous, we enjoyed the visit and especially the Swedish apple pie and whipped cream! The Michelin Anakee tires arrived and we had them mounted and balanced (something Ken usually does himself so he was a little put out)and we where on our way with the sun in our back and the wind in our face for just under $400.

The temperatures are starting to climb so we headed for Slovakia and maybe a few hills. We spent one night camping along a reservoir where we met a mother and daughter out for a evening beer together. We found the Slovakians a little reserved but these two where very friendly, and we were very happy to find someone who spoke English. We had a great evening questioning each other on our different ways of life past(under Soviet rule) and present(the daughter now works for the Slovak E.U. government in Brussels). They invited us to their cottage...the blue lagoon...for a night cap and then gave us ride back to our camp at close to midnight!

We are found it easier in Poland and Slovakia to find a place to eat a hot afternoon meal and then just something small at night. $3-$4can buy you a great lunch with soup, a main, and a drink(sometimes even dessert). I'ld like to say that an afternoon stop pleasantly broke up the day, which I guess it really did, but we have only been doing around 200-300km per day...tops...so we haven't had hard days to begin with. We are travelling the small roads enjoying the villages, it is havest time here and the people are bringing all the vegies from their gardens, from potatoes to squash, tomatoes and cucumbers. Everyone in the family or should I say the village is out to help. Several times we have tripped across a very touristy area by mistake, with activities like rafting, spas, and hiking going on to name a few.

Going into the Ukaraine was the the only border we have crossed which is not in the E.U. I took a picture of Ken at the border crossing which a couple of the guards promptly made me erase from my camera?!?! The Africa Twin is registered to Heinz and it has a German plate but Heinz had letter notarized for us to say that we allowed to have the bike, everything sounds good. The officers at the border looked at the letter from Heinz(front and back...with nothing writen on the back) then called another guard over to read it(front and back...were we missing something?), who in turn passed it on to one more guard who entered our home information in a computor, smiled and said good-bye? We were in! but they didn't have us fill out an imigration form, hopefully this will not be a problem on the way out. The Ukraine seems to be the poorest of the countries we have visited so far but the people are very friendly. There is definately a huge separation between the poor and the rich-the rich, who are driving their expensive sport utilities(like mad men), and the poor who are riding horse and wagons on very unimproved roads. It's easy to see wo has benifited the most from the new free market system. Beer is definately the drink of choice, coolers full of many types of beer line the walls of every little corner store and there are more cafes and bars than you can shake a stick at. Beer is cheaper than water and they start drinking it early in the day, it appears to us that there may be a bit of a drinking problem. I don't drink beer but Ken is enjoying a few.

Yes, life is good here in the Ukraine! Yesterday we got a cute little hotel for less than $20 a night, then went out for borshch and varenyky(perogies) for $7 for us both...I am happy! However unfortuanally, when the bill came we didn't even have the $7 in our pockets to pay(we were .50 short) and Ken had to run to the Bankomat for more money...try to explain that to the waitress using hand/sign language. Here, in the Ukraine, no one speaks English. Russian-yes. German-maybe but English-not a chance. Who would have thought that we would be using German as our second language when we were trying to negotiate the price of our room yesterday, not me.

All in all, we love it here. For breakfast today we went to the bakery next door and got a fresh loaf of bread, white and soft just like mom used to make then we went for a 6 km long walk up a road near our hotel. On the way back down we stopped in at a little bar/store where Ken had a beer and we talked to an old couple drinking schnapps and 4-6 young guys working on their 2nd, 3rd or 4th beer. We spoke English to them, they spoke Ukrainian to us and we all laughed! Sitting in our room we can hear the horse and wagons clipity-cloping down the back alley, looking our our window we can see hillsides covered in fields dotted with piles of hay, raked by hand and trying to comunicate with the people...well that is really good for a laugh.

The Baltics and South

We had a great time with Heinz and Martina during the late 10 days, it's nice to have a couple of extra bikes along and we enjoyed their company in the evenings playing cards and sharing an nightcap(we discovered a liquor called Vanna Tallinn, yummy, great to sip and great in coffee). We made our way up to Tallinn, Estonia and were very impressed with the city. Its is very different from the other historical cities we have been visiting. The first thing was, I think, it is a little older, some building dating back to the 1200 and 1300's. The second thing we noticed was the white...most of the buildings are white and the third thing was, it's a bit more artsy than the others. Many little streets and markets in the citz are full of artisans painting, knitting, sewing or making something!!!Unfortunately we are all on bikes and there is no room for taking anything with us.

From Tallinn we headed east to Lahemaa National Park were we did a little free camping along the coast of the Baltic Sea, the government free campsites were very nice, clean, most had a cover over the table and they all had either a camp cooking stove or fire pit with metal grates. The only thing that was not very nice at all were the pit toilets...yuk!(the bush looked better). The water was a little too cold for us to go swimming but the view was great. We enjoyed riding along the coast, visiting some of the old estates dating back to the 1300's and driving through small villages, checking out everyones back yards and the town squares. Everyone has a garden growing, potatoes are number one producers and a close second is cabbage, both are the stables in their everyday diet, I'm loving it.

We made it as far east as Narva on theEstonia-Russian border where there is a castle on the Estonian side and also one on the Russian side. From there it was down through Estonia and back across into Latvia to the Slitere National Park which is located our on a tip of land in the Baltic

Sea from where you can see the sun rise on one side and set on the other.

The hill of the Crosses in Lithuania was our next big stop. It was here that the Lithuanians had a graveyard which the Russians continuously destroyed and the Lithuanians turned around and rebuilt, today there are millions(no exaggeration)of crosses piled into a hill where the Lithuanians still come to place crosses in memory of their deceased loved ones.

We enjoyed the Baltic countries, they were not 'wow' countries but the food was great and countryside with the many, many km of farmland and all the coastline to the Baltic Sea was very nice.

We said good bye to Heinz and Martina yesterday as they headed home to Germany via Klaipeda and we headed south into Poland. Tonight we are staying in a hotel in Lublin after searching for two campsite that never were! Our back tire is in need of being replaced and we thought maybe we could get one here but...no go! Most bikes here are either scooters or sport bikes not adventure bikes, we need a different tread pattern on the tire than they do so ours is a little harder to find. We will have to make a few phone calls and see if we can find one in maybe Krakow...we liked that city and it wouldn't be too bad going back there for a second time.

The dome on one the cathedrals in Tallin looks like the tiles are made from onion skins.

The Hill of Crosses

Ken and I on the Baltic Sea, on the northern side of Estonia the beach is rockier than on the west coast where you can walk for miles on beaches of powder fine sand.

Tallinn, from a view point in the old city.

Heinz and Martina take a little walk on the beach.

Poland and the Baltic Countries, Lithuannia, Latvia and Estonia

In Kuldiga, Latvia, they sold colourful tableclothes in a store where they also made them.

The main square in Krakow, Poland, was big and busy.

A lady at the side of the road in Lithuannia sell fruits and vegetables from her garden. She was nice enough to let us take a picture and then insisted that we take some apples with us, which I put in the only place we had room...my jacket pockets. Unfortunately, we had to stop and throw them away because they were bruised and full of worms:(

They say Polish is hard language to learn, and we can see why. Can anyone translate this for us?

Varda Ruga, in Kuldiga are the widest waterfalls in Europe, not the biggest but the widest.

In Krakow, we enjoyed a dinner of all our favourites, perogies, cabbage rolls and borcht.

Dresden, Germany, is beautiful by night. We enjoyed a walk and did some people watching by city light.

We have been very busy since we left Holland. Travelling over 3500 km and crossing six countries, Belguim, Germany(again), Czec, Lithuannia, Latvia and now we are in Estonia.

After leaving Amsterdam we traveled south, through a small part of Belguim and back in Holland to a motorcycle campground in Heerlen. It was recommended to us by a couple from Holland and we would recommend it also, the owners were very nice and campground was nice and clean.

From there it was back to Germany. Driving through Monschau on our way to Dresden. The night before we reached Dresden we stayed in Wetzlar at a campsite along a river and we had a very big thunder storm, the ground shook the lightning was so close! Dresden was very impressive, we had driven by in recent trips to Germany but had never gone into the city. It was a nice mixture of old and new, and there was a concert in the park under one of the bridges that we enjoyed listening to for a while and people watching.

We spent a day and half riding through northern Czec before heading into Poland. We had spent time in Czec on a previous trip so this time it was short and sweet. Poland was a pleasant surprise for us. We knew the food was going to be good but we also loved the countryside and found the people very nice once they warmed up to us. We especially loved Krakow. We stayed in a campsite about 4 km out of town and took the bus and tram into town for the night. We have been to more cities this trip than in all of our others put together and we are really enjoying it(even Ken). Polands people are very hard workers and it was not out of the ordinary to see them out raking the fields by hand or using very outdated machinery. We rode many little side roads through countryside and saw men sharing a beer while looking over a large field they had just finished working and women picking vegetable in gardens much bigger than we are used to. A great amount of their stables still come from their own land, not the local grocery store. The last night in Poland we stayed in a campsite just short of the Lithuannia border, camped beside a lake we actually swam and enjoyed the company of many locals, until a thunderstorm blew up and chased us all away. There doesn't seem to be any rime or reason to campsites here, at this campsite we payed $3 with a shower included but at other times we have paid $15-$20.

We met our friends, Heinz and Martina, in Klaipeda, Lithuanna and are now travelling with them. Heinz is on a Honda Africa Twin and Martina is riding a Honda Trans Alp. Still heading north we crossed the Latvia border and headed into Riga, another old city with an amazing old town center. The city campground was located an an old Expo site across the Daugava River from the old town. We walked into town for the evening and made it back just minutes before another thunderstorm terrorized us with terrents of rain and winds that would have flattened our tent(once again, as in Nord Capp)if we hadn't made it back in time to batten down the hatches. The next day we packed up soggy tents and headed out in miserable weather for our next destination, Tallinn, Estonia. Here we have a room for the first time on this trip(not including the cabins at the campgrounds), there is something special about having your own bathroom in your room...even if it is small. We will ride around Estonia for the next few days then slowly start our way back down toward Klaipeda where Heinz and Martina will once again take the ship back to Germany and Ken and I will continue on our way.

Holland

Lots and lots of canals, if you don't have a bike you have a boat to get around in and chances are you have both. This canal was in the center of the village of Bolsward.

At last, sunny skies. The sail boats are liking the sun but are lacking a little wind.

At a local college you don't see parking lots for the students, you see bike racks, and lots of them!

The statue of Lely, the man whose dream was to build the 33km dyke between the Ijsselmeer(now a lake and Waddensee on the northwest coast of Holland. Unfortunately, he died just short of seeing his dream completed.

Churches take on a whole new look in Holland, this one has much more intricate work on the steeple.




Wow, 5 days without a drop of rain and not a hill in sight for a cloud to hide behind. This country is flat! Lots of peddle bikes...and riders on vacation with more roads only for bikes than there are for cars, canals and boats run a close second. Our first night in Holland we stayed in a nice campground at a farm, really clean but as we are finding out Hollands campsites have great facilities but you pay for everything extra, hotwater, the tent, people, electricity to charge the ipad and the bike, they also don't have kitchens like Scandinavia. Oh well, I guess we'll have to eat out more often, there goes the budget.

Amsterdam, here we come! We camped just south of the city and visited it for two days we walked and walked and walked! What a cool city. It's big, it has some beautiful old buildings, it has great beer, millions of bikes and as many canals as Venice! There is no way you can get bored in Amsterdam. I could just sit in a sidewalk cafe, DRINK COFFEE and watch the people go by for hours. It was great!

An older neighbourhood in Amsterdam has had a nice facelift.

I stopped to look at the flowers, hydrangeas love it here, and Ken looks at a couple of bikes parked on the sidewalk.

Pipes for smoking marjauana are sold in all kinds of stores. In some cafes you can order a joint and/or a coffee while you relax in a comfy seat line the streets, I don't think I saw a starbucks in Amsterdam.

Ken might have a hard time wedging himself into this little guy. It is even smaller than the smart car.

If you look closely you can see the prostitutes in the windows trying to attract a sale or two. They stand in windows lining the alleys and many on the main streets in the red light district, wearing not too much more than their birthday suits(and some on them are not all that nice). If you don't find what you want in a window there are lots on shows and shops with adult toys around. Crazy!

Ken was happy to help me drink the Heinkein beer we got when we took the tour of the brewery. I actually drank one whole beer! It'll be a while until I drink my next.

Pork Schniztel

This is good recipe to take out your frustrations on!

Ingredients:

Pork fillets
dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
flour
egg
bread crumbs


Place fillets between 2 pieces on paper towel and flatten with fists or a rolling pin. Season with salt and pepper and a thin covering of dijon mustard on both sides. Fry in butter for approximately 2-3 minutes on each side remove to a hot plate and keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.

Sauce:

2 small diced onions
1 lb sliced mushrooms
olive oil
500 ml light cream

Sautes onions and mushrooms in olive oil in a hot frying pan until cooked through. Add cream and simmer until thickened. Season with vegie-salt if desired.

Serving suggestion; serve sauce over cutlets and potatoes, along side a tomato salad and a green butter lettuce salad.

Sorry the pictures are not in order but the new way of publishing the pictures on the ipad will not let me place pictures in a desired order.

Good bye Scandinavia

A typical Danish farm on the west coast of Denmark, a bunch of buildings, home, barn and out building sit nestled in trees and shrubs(to break the wind)and surrounded by vast fields of crops.

Just a little more rain!

A tram is pulled by a tractor out to the point where the North Sea meets the Baltic Sea at the very tip of Denmark.

We walked the 1 1/2km or so out to the point(and back)with "a whole lot" of other people to see the waters meet, not and easy thing to do in bike gear fighting a head wind. Another pilgramage of sorts.

It is a paragliders paradise along the west coast because the wind is always good. Many windmills for power are located in this area.

More beautiful countryside, it is very picturesque when the weather is good.


We made our way all the way north to Skanan, the tip of Denmark, to see the meeting of the seas. With a day of good weather mixed into every 3 or so of rain we managed to enjoy the countryside and the awesome views over the water. We couldn't decide if this area of Denmark or Norcap had the most tourists in Scandinavia, ribbons of cars line the roads leading to the tip. In Scandinavia they actually close factories for a month at time for vacation(yeh, like I could see that happening in B.C.)so all the tourist areas are very busy. From the tip we headed south along the coast and lucky for us, and the paragliders, the skies opened we were able to catch sight of dozens of kites hitting the sky. In this area the kiters take-off from the beach when the wind currents rise quickly as they hit the sand dunes the kiters are lifted without any effort at all. I took dozens of pictures with colourful kites against blue(ish) skies, my project now will be to get the numbers down to a reasonable amount. We stayed and watched the kites a little too long and the clouds closed in and chased us into a campsite where we decided to stay for two days before heading south instead of fighting the torrents of rain. It was here that we discovered the electric petal bikes at a bike store, their battery packs were so small you wouldn't even know they were there, no wonder they ride bikes here until they are very old. It's great, and fun too! After two days in the rain we said the heck with it, threw caution to the wind and headed out in rain showers but determined to get back to Germany and our friends "Family Detering" to do a little work of the bike and set off on the next leg of our trip to the Baltic countries and Turkey. Ken has requested a new rear spring and after 11000 km he is also considering a new rear tire. Once again, we are thankful for our mechanic Heinz!

Ken and Heinz installed the new rear shock, evaluated the tire situation and also bought new bront brake pads which will be installed at a little later date. It's great to have Heinz's shop to work in!

14 years, can you believe it? We celebrated our anniversary in Bremmen, having a little dinner and drinks, with Heinz and Martina at a Bavarian restuarant on the river.

Swedish Meatballs

Swedish Meatballs, you can't visit Sweden without trying them and we had the chance to help make them!

Ingredients

new potatoes
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
2 small boiled potatoes, finely grated
1 egg
1 small onion, finely minced
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

Clean and boil enough new potatoes to serve with dinner, plus 2 extra for meat mixture, reserving 1 cup potato water for making gravy. Mix together all ingredients except cream until well mixed, but still loose(add a little water if the mixture is too dry). Roll meat mixture into small balls wetting hands to stop mixture from sticking. Fry balls until brown and cooked through. Remove balls from pan and add 2 tablespoons flour, reserved potato water and heavy cream to drippings, cook to thicken. Serve meatballs with boiled potatoes and gravy with a bit of cranberry jelly on the side and cucumber salad.

Agnetta making the perfect sized meatball.

She fryed the meatballs in a cast iron frying pan passed down to her from her mother.

Ken waits with a glass of wine, licking his lips!

Dinner is ready and so are we!

Cuccmber Salad

Slice cucumber thinly into a bowl and sprinkle with salt, let rest for 30 minutes then rise off salt. Mix a white vinegar and sugar mixture together, it should taste strongly of the vinegar but with a little hint of sweetness. Mix dressing into cucumbers and top with chopped parsley to serve.