From Bulgaria to the Alps and back in 8 days: passed more than 3600 km though 7 countries

[fazer_warrior]

Just a couple of days ago I came back from the most serious trip I've had until now with the Fazer. The group consisted of three bikes in total - me with my FZ6, my boyfriend with an XJR1200 and a friend of ours, again with an XJR1200. Following is a short summary and a couple of pictures from the trip.

The idea:
Some serious route planning was needed - most of it was was done by the guys - the 2 XJR's were equipped with GPS's, while I bought myself a normal map. It turned out to be quite insufficient as soon as we left the highways.

If I could cut the long story short, the idea was to travel from Bulgaria through Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Germany and back. The targets were the passes: Stelvio, Gavia, Gerloss, Grosglockner, Nockalmstrasse, Villacher Alpenstrasse, the passes in the Triglav National Park and also the castles near Fussen in Germany (e.g. Neuschwanstein).
Here is a log of the trip encompassing predominantly the mountain part of our trip.


The trip

The fazer packed with luggage and ready:


Serious rain and cold on the way to Passo di Gavia:


Let's document ourselves on the Stelvio pass:


Grosglockner was quite picturesque even in the quite unfriendly weather conditions:


Camping at Faak am See:


Somewhere under Mangrt mount in the Triglav National Park:


Entering Bulgaria - tired, but quite happy with the adventure we had:


The full picture sets are here:
Picasa
Picasa

I'm quite happy that we made the trip and would definitely recommend the routes to everybody interested. The nature and the roads are marvelous. Well, we are definitely going back next year if we have a chance to, hoping to see some more favourable weather conditions.

Greetings from Bulgaria!

 

[mrphotoman]

Wow it is really pretty there, will check out the other photos at your link.

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Amazing trip report. There's been a number of monster trips by members this summer, including me. Thanks for sharing.

I thought California had the best roads for motorcycles, but after looking at some of your pictures from the Swiss Alps, I take that back. Sick, just Ssick!

 

[tuningfork]

great set of photos and looked like quite an adventure!

 

[lytehouse]

Very Nice! I hope you have better weather too for next year! You look cold in a couple of those pics.

 

[rchamberlain]

Great report. I am going to be planning a trip for next summer after reading all of the nice reports. It will keep me excited through the winter. Thanks again!

 

[Kazza]

Thanks for the ride report. Fantastic pics. Looks like a beautiful area.

 

[mxgolf]

There has definitly been a bunch of great FZ6/Fazer adventures this year.
Looks like a great trip and great photos. :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Cloggy]

Sounds like an epic journey :thumbup:

I really love the castle Neuschwanstein (visited it many years ago).

and those alpine roads are so amazing, thanks for sharing :thumbup:

 

[Rumpole of the Bailey]

thanks, great story.

 

[krid80]

Very cool! thanks for taking us on the virtual trip!

 

[Motogiro]

Thank you for sharing your trip! WOW! Beautiful!!!!

Oh Yeah!!!!

 

[Motogiro]

Thank you for sharing your trip! WOW! Beautiful!!!!

Oh Yeah!!!!

 

[Wavex]

w00t!!! Thanks!!! rep point for you

 

[Hoshiko]

Wow, really nice. Thanks for sharing.

Is weird to see only one Harley, around here you see more of those.

Is that a "tri glide ultra classic"?

 

[zmeiaspas]

Awesome stuff - really enjoyed the pics - looked like you guys had a blast!! Glad to see another Bulgarian on this board Поздрави!

 

[fazer_warrior]

Thanx to everybody for the nice comments: we really had great time on the trip

Hoshiko, I'm not sure what the exact model of the harley is - oh now I see what you mean )) yeah maybe Harley should get some inspiration from this work of art!

Now serious, the cruiser type of bikes were not very common. No idea why that was so. The BMW's and in particular the GS versions of these were almost everywhere, as you can see here...


One thing that impressed me most was the perfect grip of the road - I would definitely like to see such road conditions around here in Bulgaria, but who knows when...

Another thing that you couldn't possibly avoid were the "Bikers welcome" signs everywhere around in the hotels, guest houses, restaurants and cafe's. However, the prices were not always that "welcome", especially when aiming at a low-cost budget.
Here is one of the suggested biker routes:


In general, the region is quite biker-friendly and the tourism and most of the services are targeted towards bikers of all walks of life.

My favorite: somewhere on Nokalmstrasse we saw this family: mother, father, two kids and ... two bikes.


And here we are discussing how Eastern Europe has changed after the fall of comunism. These guys are from Berlin and have been in Bulgaria for a vacation years ago before the unification of East and West Germany.


Greetings once again!
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