Bike stuff – Travel Younger

Chapter 265: Sri Lanka Bike Tour: Just 6 months to go!

Norm Bour — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 08:46:17 +0000

06.04.25

Recently I shared the details of our Sri Lanka Motorcycle Tour coming up in December, but it’s time to get into more specifics. My partner in this is a fellow bike rider, Simone Loganathan (a lifelong Sri Lankan AND a fellow Gemini!), who used to have a motorcycle touring web site I wrote for. Simone guy knows his bikes AND his country! We were lucky enough to meet in Athens two years ago, and we formed an instant bond (motorcycles have a tendency to do that…), and now we’ll get to ride for eight days through a country I’ve been wanting to visit for several years.

Please join us!

Pretty much everything is included, from bikes/ gas (Royal Enfield 350 bikes) to rooms (plus all meals), to a support vehicle tagging along to carry all your gear and deal with any mechanical issues. Airport transfer to start the ride is also included, and all support staff speaks English. The tour will be 8 days/ 7 nights and cover 803 km, about 500 miles, which means not a lot of “long rides” each day, and the roads will be 80% paved with 20% a little rough. The price is $2,500 USD and $1,500 USD for extra riders (2400/1430€), which is a bargain for what you get! This is an early bird special and the fun starts Dec 5, 2025. Here’s a brochure with particulars: https://1drv.ms/…/EaYOeBNA0mdJrMd6ZA….

The 350 cc size is great if you are short in stature or not an experienced rider. It has enough power to carry you, but keep it under control. For ladies who want to “test the waters,” this might be a great way to enjoy a safe guided ride, not have to worry about mechanical issues or lodging, nor carrying any excess gear. Plus have lots of fun on the way!

Simone and I are coordinating a free ZOOM video call shortly for anyone who wants to join us and ask their questions. We are limited to the first 20 responses, so please DM me or send an email to asknormb@gmail.com for the link.

Chapter 263: Goodbye to Hermes 🙁

Norm Bour — Wed, 28 May 2025 16:54:55 +0000

05.28.25

Well, our 5-month adventure on a motorcycle through eight countries came to abrupt end a few days ago, when Hermes, the BMW we rented from Romania, was STOLEN in Palermo Italy !!!.

As we have come to find out.. this is quite common. It doesn’t matter whether you lock or chain your bike – if they want it, they know how to get it. And foreigners (and out of country license plates) are easy targets. Never a fun situation, but less so when this was is your only mode of transportation– and all of your future stays have already been booked in advance – based upon using the bike to get there.

But since we try to find the silver lining when things go south, we are thankful for the help of our lovely AirBNB host who spent most of the day driving us to different police stations in order to find the right one. And translating in order for us to get a police report.

Many times, when we’re only staying for a couple of days, we leave all of our luggage and clothing in the buckets on the bike, but because we needed to reorganize, we brought most everything in with us, so we only lost a few replaceable items and some food.

We were also thankful it happened the first day rather than the morning we were to catch a ferry to Sardinia. We had to decide: do we take the ferry to Sardinia WITHOUT Hermes, and then another ferry to Naples? Or do we can the whole thing. We decided to carry on to Sardinia, and that is where we are now, and that will be shared shortly. But we DID need to cancel our Amalfi Coast leg and instead go to the destination where we’d be the longest, so we could catch our breaths; that will be Tirana, Albania, which we booked for a month. After that, we’re still working out details

Kat was never fully on board with this trip since the only bike we could get this year was much larger than we’ve had before ..and her concern for our safety was valid. So, who knows? Maybe this was a blessing in disguise ..keeping us, from what could been much worse. Sometimes you just have to let things go, and it all works out the right way.

Chapter 260: Meet Hermes! (The god of Travel)

Norm Bour — Tue, 06 May 2025 08:30:05 +0000

05.06.25

In 2022 we rented a BMW motorcycle from our favorite rental shop in Bucharest, Romania, and had him for about 5 months. We named him Max. He was only 310 CC, but for a single cylinder motorcycle he was full of spunk, which is how he got that name! I rode him down from Romania to Antalya, Turkey, where we were living at that time, and during that spring we used Max to check out some of the local places along the coast. Then in July we started an 88 day 4900 km trip North through all of Turkey and into Greece.

The following summer we upsized into a F750 GS BMW and started in Hungary, rode west through Slovenia, then south through much of Croatia, several Islands, Bosnia, Serbia, and finally finished up in Romania once again. That one was almost the same time period, 87 days, but less miles (3600 km) and since we were not under a time constraint of being anywhere during any particular time, it was nice to go at our own pace. We named him Aragon (like the dragon) since he was solid, much more comfortable, and had a lot more storage capacity so we didn’t have to tie stuff on.

Last year I proposed to Kathleen that we do one more motorcycle ride through Europe, only 5 months this time… Let’s just say she was not overjoyed at that idea… We had been in Asia for about a year and I told her I was compelled to return to Europe so I could truly do a side-by-side comparison between how I felt about Southeast Asia, and how I felt about Eastern Europe. She was not enthused to go back through the same route that we had taken the year before, but when she came up with the the idea of taking the ferry over to Italy and going south into Sicily, well, then she got excited. And that’s what we’re doing.

Hermes is similar in size, another 750, with about the same amount of storage capacity, and believe it or not, we have 5 months worth of everything we need in four containers. I know, surprises us too! We’ve been on the road about 3 weeks and so far it’s been great. We limit our daily milege as best we can, take frequent breaks, and have enough “downtime” between rides to allow us time to recover.

Coming up with a name for Hermes was NOT easy!

We went through other dragon names, as well as Lord of the RIngs characters (Gandalf), plus a few random gods of mythology. Why Hermes? Because he was the Greek god of travel, hospitality, and trade, and Zeus’s personal messenger, so that all fits.

Will this be the last ride like this?

That remains to be seen. Kat reminds me that neither one of us, including me! Is not getting any younger, and as time goes on, handling these big bikes will become more cumbersome. I grudgingly agree. But for as long as I can ride on two wheels, I will continue to do just that

Chapter 246: Let’s Motorcycle through Sri Lanka! Enjoy a life-changing experience.

Norm Bour — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:40:32 +0000

02.13.25

Kat and I both enjoy motorcycle touring and have taken two long (90 days) rides over the past three years. Our third trip will start in April and go through Greece, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and much of the Balkans, ending five months later in Romania. But a good friend in Sri Lanka, a native, and highly experienced motorcycle tour leader, is structuring a great intro tour of his island country the end of this year. Simone has been leading Sri Lanka tours for many years, along with organizing rides in Nepal and Bhutan!

Here’s a quick video intro: https://www.facebook.com/rideonlk/videos/595089500072616/?rdid=ulioNqoLyZg1um3v#, and this will be a great place to start if you’ve not done anything like this before. Pretty much everything is included, from bikes/ gas (Royal Enfield 350 bikes) to rooms (plus all meals), to a support vehicle tagging along to carry all your gear and deal with any mechanical issues. Airport transfer to start the ride is also included, and all support staff speaks English. The tour will be 8 days/ 7 nights and cover 803 km, about 500 miles, which means not a lot of “long rides” each day, and the roads will be 80% paved with 20% a little rough. The price is under $2500 and $1500 for extra riders, which is a great price! This is an early bird special and the fun starts Dec 5, 2025. And here’s a brochure with particulars: https://1drv.ms/…/EaYOeBNA0mdJrMd6ZA….

The 350 cc size is great if you are short in stature or not an experienced rider. It has enough power to carry you, but keep it under control. For ladies that might want to test the waters, this might be a great way to enjoy a safe guided ride, not have to worry about mechanical issues or lodging, nor carrying any excess gear. Plus have lots of fun on the way!

Sri Lanka is an amazing country, and on the route you will probably see wild animals and literally ride through safari type scenes! If you’ve wanted to do an African safari but were intimidated by the environment or expense, this may offer you a better option to immerse yourself (safely!) among the native wildlife. The web site has a full day x day agenda, so contact Simone directly through that link, mention us, and if you have specific questions about long distance touring, hit me up!

Oh, and if you have ever thought about going to India, it’s right next door, just a ferry ride away. In the other direction, Southeast Asia is a quick flight, great if you need some medical testing in Malaysia, or want to check out Thailand or Bali

Chapter 172: Romania (still diggin’ it) & How We Do What We Do

Norm Bour — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 18:07:49 +0000

08.02.23

How We Do What We DO!

With 68 days behind us on our “summer vacation,” we’ve stayed at 21 different places. Two have been courtesy of friends, only one was “unacceptable,” and most have been good to great. People always ask, “Do you book your places in advance?” and the answer is “usually.” It takes away some of the stress, and probably 95% of our units are via AirBNB or Bookings.com, with a smattering of unique situations or drop ins.

Another question we get asked is, “How can you afford this?” so I calculated how much on average we paid for rooms (only) over nine weeks, and that came out to be $35.48. THAT is higher than what we usually pay when we stay long term, but for summer season it’s pretty damn good!

Kat and I were talking about what we missed the most living outside the US, and her response was, “a clothes dryer,” which we were lucky to get a few days ago, so she washed everything, and it was so nice to have wrinkle free clothes! Again, life’s simple pleasures.

My answer to what I miss the most is probably still the same as from day one: bacon. No one does bacon like America does bacon, and I think our national motto should be “As American as bacon,” instead of “apple pie.”

We’re back in Romania and spent three days in the town of Timisoara. We’ve been here before and we both agree that we’ve lost a bit of that “WOW” factor that we had in the early years, which is probably inevidable when you’ve seen as many castles, churches, and monasteries as we have.

08.08.23

Mission: POSSIBLE!

We’ve been in Romania (again) for about a week, and before we got here I wondered why we never saw any STORKS or stork nests in any of the other Balkan countries, and sure enough, within 10 minutes after crossing from Serbia, we saw one! In the past week we saw two, and they are quite unique, huge nests on top of telephone poles with a few long skinny legs sticking out. We also did something we hadn’t done in a while: we saw a movie! Mission Impossible (thumbs up) and it was in English and a real throwback to “old times,” when we used to go to the theater a lot. This was our first outing in over a year, but sometimes it’s nice to feel “normal.”

Our first visit in Romania was in Timisoara, where we stayed before, and our next destination city was Sibui, also a place we’ve visited, but it was such a long distance we had a “stop over” in a small village called, Hateg. It was hot that day and we were tired and frustrated trying to find a room on the fly, but we found one and it was also unique in that it had a POOL! Just what the doctor ordered and we cooled off there for just one night but realized that there was yet another castle nearby, so on our way we took a slight detour to Colvin Castle, AKA Hunyadi Castle or Hunedoara Castle. I’ve shared our castle experiences and how we get jaded with yet another castle, but this one WAS unique and special. It was built in the 1400’s near the (now) city of Hunedoara, but over the centuries went through many rebuilds, modifications, and name changes. Its one of the largest castles in Europe and seems to be under continuous renovation, but they are doing it right, and not spoiling the original architecture.

From there it was on to Sibui through relentless wind (!) which makes for a interesting bike ride, and on to one of the nicest rooms we’ve had in a while. We’re right in Old Town, about a 5 minute walk to eateries, coffee, and anything we want. There’s a large square in the center of town and there is a Folk Festival going on, so we have live music every night! We have three nights here and then on to Brasov, a city we loved in 2019, and we’re mulling over crossing the border into Moldova, just to say we’ve done it.

08.11.23

We spent the last three days in the city of Brasov, Romania, which has risen to the top of our list of places to return to for a longer stay. In 2019 we were there for almost 3 weeks and felt almost the same way, so that’s good! After our three days we had some extra time that was unaccounted for and unplanned, so we went away for the weekend to a small mountain town called Busteni, which is about an hour away. Traffic was a little crazy since lots of traffic flows through it, but the mountains surrounding the town are spectacular. And having a BIKE, cut our driving time by half.

In Brasov we reconnected with our good friend, Paul, a fellow nomad, who is also in love with Brasov and he will be there for 90 days. That’s a strong commitment, and this is his second time staying in Brasov! The elevation is such that you really don’t have to worry too much about summer heat, but it is still eminently affordable compared to many other places. The biggest challenge as a nomad is, “Where do you stay in winter when it’s cold, and where do you stay in summer when it’s hot, expensive, and crowded?” So we are looking for multiple solutions to have the flexibility to go to different places.

Before we got there, we went through one of the most impressive mountainous areas in the world, called the Transfagarasan Highway. I will be posting a video specifically on that, but here’s an example of some of the roads that we went through. Kathleen, like always, was a rockstar, and took some great videos while we were driving!

After our weekend getaway in Busteni, we are returning to Brasov for another three days, and get to know it even better. It’s hard to believe, but our summer journey is almost to an end, with only 10 days left before we return Eragon, our BMW bike, to Bucharest. We’ve been to seven countries since the end of May and have ridden over 5300 km, about 3300 miles, so almost the distance from the east to the west coast of the US. The bike has been awesome, and except for 20 minutes of rain that I ran into on DAY ONE before I picked up Kat, we have had no rain but for occasional sprinkles! We are thankful every day for our good fortune.

08.17.23

As we slide into our last week in Romania, we have grown to love this country in so many ways. Last week we were in Brasov for 3 days, and went away for the weekend to the town of Busteni. Not only did we enjoy the beautiful scenery, but we also visited an exquisite castle called Cantacuzino. I was vaguely familiar with the Netflix show called Wednesday, an expansion from The Addams Family TV show, but this is where they filmed it. The school she attends is called Nevermore Academy, and this castle has all the vibes of a show set in that genre!

Over the years we have seen countless castles and I keep thinking we’ve seen enough, but every once in awhile, including now, one catches my fancy and makes me go WOW!. This castle is not as old as many, but it has so much character, with statues and artwork spread out throughout the large estate.

We came back to Brasov, and reconnected with some friends who we met four years ago, Mihai and Georgiana (above). They were our Airbnb hosts, and we all connected, so much that we were invited to their house for a barbecue and a wagon ride through the hills of Romania. That experience still stands as one of the most unique and outstanding experiences over our 5 years of travel. We met them again yesterday, and it was though we had never been separated by 4 years, we all just reconnected again, and I know that we will be back to see them. I also hiked to the top of the tram to see the Brasov sign. I was proud of making that hiking about 1 hour!

We are now on to our next to last stop, the small village of Sinaia, which is on the way to Bucharest. It’s a little bittersweet knowing that we only have one week left on our trusty steed, Eragon, and then we will be moving on. To say it has been a fantastic summer would be an understatement, and we live in gratitude for every day that we get to experience this nomadic lifestyle. Sure, we sometimes miss some of the luxuries of a stable home and living in a country where everyone speaks English, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

08.22.23

We are in our final city of our 87-day biking tour: Bucharest. This is where I picked up the motorcycle the end of May, and six countries later and 5772 km/ 3586 miles behind us, we are packing up and getting ready to move on. Many thanks to Sergio at www.motorentals.ro for helping us create a great and amazing summer on two wheels.

We spent two days in the small town of Sinaia and visited the main attraction there: Pele Castle. It was strange, on my Facebook memories I found out that we were there exactly four years to the day, 1461 days later. What are the odds?? We had a nice room there that was a throwback to Romania from 30 years ago, but it had its charm. Almost all the places in Romania have their own identity and sense of charm. We also went looking for an attraction called Rock St. Anne, which took us up a narrow winding road. We never could find The Rock, but there were other cars on the road so we thought, “let’s see where they go.”

It took us to the top of a ski lift, and 20 minutes later we got off the bike and took another chair lift to the very, very top of the mountain. It was spectacular, and once more proved that sometimes the roads that are mistakenly taken work out for the best.

Now we are in Bucharest, we have an awesome apartment right near Old Town, but our fascination with Old Town has diminished. The restaurants are overpriced and a quality of the food is not that great, but we found just a block or two away an area where all the streets were closed and people were walking around listening to the street musicians. Magic! It’s like we visualize when we think of Europe sometimes.

In a few days it’s on to our final European city: Paris. This will also be the 30th place we will call “home” since the end of May. The only reason we picked that is because they had well priced flights back to the United States. It’s strange, neither of us is fascinated by Paris, and we will do just a few tourist things, like re-visit the Eiffel Tower, (if we can get tix) and I will probably go to the Louvre museum, since I missed it the last time. Thank you press pass!

We are now in the process of packing, bringing everything into carry-on size! There are things that we need, things that we don’t, and others that we have to make that decision. I got a new backpack, much larger than the last, and Kathleen has a more comfortable one too. We avoid check in luggage, which greatly reduces the stress! It’s been an eventful summer, and now we’re ready for the next chapter. Stick around for that since it’s taking us to the US, Hawaii (including Maui), and onward via a repositioning cruise to Sydney, Australia.

Chapter 171: Bosnia–WOW–just WOW (and the end of Stage II)

Norm Bour — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 18:30:57 +0000

07.26.23

Our first 24 hours in Bosnia is leaving a HUGE impression on Kat and me, and it’s all good. The border crossing from Croatia (Schengen to non-Schengen) was seamless and took just a few minutes, which is always a great way to start! This was really our first time in this country except for a 15 minute run through Bosnia going into Dubrovnik back in 2019, but now our route is taking us from Split (Croatia) to Sarajevo, and then into Serbia, so we will totally bisect the country in two.

But let’s start with the first nights’ stay; a small village called Rama (actually Scit…), which is a finger of a land mass between two lakes. The weather looked a bit iffy when we left Split, and it was overcast the entire trip through Bosnia. We were recommended to visit the lake area since it is/ was a higher elevation (2000’) and hopefully cooler, and it was. But the RIDE coming into the area was breathtaking as we stopped at a view spot and just took in the two lakes and the few islands peppered throughout them. Kat and I noticed a finger of land jutting off the mainland and said, “How cool would it be to go down there!” and that is where our room was.

We had no mobile data coming into town since it had not been set up yet, and as we came down a long hill we stopped in front of a house to check the map. This guy comes out, Mario, who spoke English, and asked about us. We told him our short story, and he says, “wait a minute, please,” and he disappears. We thought he might be getting us some water or maybe someone who spoke better English, but instead, he came out with a carafe of raki (native liquor) and three glasses, and we did a toast! What a welcome, right?? He told us about his life there in just a few minutes and took us to see his dog’s new litter of pups, which was a joy for Kat, who loves her doggies!

He gave us a recommendation for a restaurant right down the hill and Oh My God, what a treat! I had trout, Kat had a shish kabob, we had two beers, and the price? About $15 USD. Yes, maybe we COULD live here affordably! From there we went to our room, which was another surprise. We had a lovely lake view, a balcony, and comfy beds, plus our hostess could not be sweeter, even though she spoke zero English. We met some fellow travelers, enjoyed (another) beer, and had a nice night with windows open and no mosquitos, which is great.

In the morning we took a walk, checked out the local church, and took in the sights of the lakes in the morning. We almost stayed a second night since rain was expected, but the weather cleared, so off we went, up many curvy, hilly roads, which Kat handled like a champ. We also stopped in a restaurant that had lots of meat on spits outside, and we shared an awesome lunch for a great price.

Our target was Sarajevo, but since much of the road paralleled rivers and lakes, we kept our eyes out for that overnight option on the water. Which we found. After a few false starts we found a hostel on a river which is actually just connectors for the many lakes here. We rode down some truly majestic canyons along the way and pictures cannot even come close to capturing their size. Our room is on the river, great balcony and view, and highly affordable as well. Oh, and we are the only ones here…

We’ll probably stay a second day since a second days’ rest is always a treat, but even after one day, Bosnia is looking to be a VERY desirable summer destination since the temperatures are 20 degrees cooler than the oven we roasted in over much too long! The people are lovely, prices are right, and the scenery is off the chart. Yup, add Bosnia to your list to check out.

In the nearby town of Konjic we loved the unique walking bridge and I learned that this was one of the focal points of the Bosnian war from the early ’90s. The entire country, and especially this region, was under siege for 4 years. Many of us remember that.

07.29.23

A reminder popped up on my memories page, that yesterday was the 7th year anniversaryof when I landed in Amsterdam to begin a 19-day journey over there. It was really my first time in Europe, and I was intimidated, scared, and excited as hell. After visiting six different countries and speaking at three different venues, I was so impressed with how the Europeans lived that I decided that I needed to learn more and commited to returning. That I’ve done, and I had no idea back then where my life would go. And sometimes neither will you…

Many of you are nomads, wanting to be nomads, or still thinking about it. Regardless of where you are, if you want to make it happen you can do so.

08.02.23

The End of Stage II

Four countries in one week; that’s a lot even for us! Last Monday night we were having dinner in Croatia, the next day we were in Bosnia which we loved quite a bit. We actually liked it so much that we stayed a few extra days and have put it very high on our list of places to return. Serbia however, has us a bit confused as we get mixed feelings.

It is quite flat, and not as dramatic as some other Balkan countries, and there is an unusual energy. Some people are friendly, others are very curt, like they don’t want us here. I rarely pay attention to people looking at me, but I definitely felt like the odd man out! But we have had amazing meals over the last few days. My favorite freshwater fish, trout, is abundant, and we have enjoyed several.

We are at the end of stage II of our 87-day journey, and now moving on to the end, to Romania, still one of our favorite countries. Here’s a newsletter for July which shares much of what happened, and in 30 more days it’s back to the US via Paris.

Chapter 170: Returning to Split (Croatia) for the 4th Time

Norm Bour — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 18:05:42 +0000

07.07.23

Chasing the Wind

Yesterday was one of the most challenging days that we’ve had on the bike, as we were chased for over a day by the Bura. You may not be familiar with the Bura, we weren’t, but from the time that we got off the ferry in Stinica, back on the mainland of Croatia, it started chasing us as we headed south. We did not realize how dangerous it was until we were pulled over at a police stop and they said in no uncertain terms, “You cannot continue; you must turn around and go another way. Two motorcycles have already gone down.”

The Bura, which is sometimes called the Bora, is one of several “winds” in Croatia, and it is considered the most dangerous since it can blow up to 136 MPH. We were lucky it didn’t hit that, but it WAS moving us back and forth on the highway fronting the Adriatic, so when we hit the police stop we were forced to turn around and go UP and THROUGH that same mountain range that it comes from! I guess it’s considered a better alternative, but we crisscrossed back and forth up the most amazing side of the Velebit Mountain range until we got over it, and it still blew the whole way south, and even into today.

They say in winter it can last for days and it is very cold, and even in July the air mass was still chilly.

But we made it to our stop last night near Sibenik, and today rode into Split, probably the fourth time we have been here. When people have asked us where our “home” is, we usually tell them, “we have none,” but I recognize that Split, Antalya (Turkey), and Sarande (Albania) are pretty damn close to being almost like a home to us, so we’re in Split for a few days to appreciate the summer chaos! This weekend is a HUGE EDM concert, and the entire town is packed.

07.11.23

No matter how many pictures I post of these beautiful mountains behind the city of Makarska, they will not show the true grandness of them. The tallest one is 1762 m, just under 6,000 ft.

The city is beautiful all by itself, but to see this enormous wall of rocks immediately inland just makes it all the more significant. The last few days we have spent in one of our favorite cities, Split, and we were also graced with having a room courtesy of our good friend, Maria Brooks. It was downtown and close to everything and considering the whole town was taken over by kids for a major EDM concert, we were glad to have a room! We spent several days with another friend, Sanya, and finally started working on our tans!

We’ll be in Makarska for a few days, then back to Split again for about a week. This morning we went exploring on a nice trail and found some beautiful beaches along with nice coves that were fully prepared for laying out towels. And the water was fantastic.

07.23.23

We will be leaving Croatia in a few days, but it’s been great! We came south from Slovenia, which we REALLY loved, and visited three different islands in the Istrian area. If you have never been to the northern part of Croatia, I recommend it! Meanwhile, I had time to do some video work, so here’s one of the Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle in SLOVEnia, which were amazing, and the other is on Kat and my first time spelunking in Pazin Cave in Croatia.

https://youtu.be/fUAb4khnurM & https://youtu.be/TCW3i5CBK-Y

07.24.23

“Some Like It Hot,” they say, but that does not include us! You are probably broiling under the same relentless sun if you are in most any part of Europe, or much of the US. It’s a July thing, with temps here in Split, Croatia, just under the triple digit (100 degrees) mark, 38°C, but things could always be worse! At least we are by the ocean, the beautiful Adriatic Sea, and to jump in the water is always an option.

How Hot Is It?

We are staying in Split longer than we initially intended, but that is working out well, since traveling right now is uncomfortable. We visited the nearby Kastel we originally settled in on our first visit in 2019, and it brought back some great memories for Kat and me, since that was our first introduction to Split, which we still love, even after this, our fourth visit. We haven’t been too motivated to do much, and since we know the town pretty well, there’s not much TO do, except for relaxing, catching up on things, and hitting the beach. So we’re not complaining.

Tomorrow we will finally be moving on to Bosnia, and after a few days cross into Serbia, and then back to Romania. We have about 24 days left on the motorcycle before we need to return it, so we are using it for all it’s worth! Today we went to a nice spot called Slatine, which is near the town of Trogir, one of the places we fell in love with during our first visit here in 2019. We found a nice area on the rocks and then met my cousin Michael and his wife Cheryl for dinner, which was awesome since they had never met Kathleen.

Chapter 169: REALLY exploring Croatia; from North to South

Norm Bour — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 15:27:51 +0000

06.28.23

Exploring Istrian Peninsula (northern Croatia)

(Here is a compilation from my personal Facebook page and GROUP)

I love it when a plan comes together! Our “plan” when we left our room a few days ago in Ljubljana, Slovenia, was to go south to the Adriatic Sea and check out the towns of Koper and Piran in Slovenia. Since we were THAT close to Trieste, Italy, and since we had friends staying there, we joined them for coffee along the way. From there we drove into the coastal village of Koper…and drove out minutes later, for no reason other than we decided that the “Old Town” did not compel us to stick around. , on the other hand, Piran drew us in, and was pretty damn awesome! Having a bike helps since we can usually go past entry gates and this village had a nice entry road running right along the waterfront. We drove right IN TO the downtown area and we normally can park on the sidewalk or a designated bike area—and not pay for parking. Sweet!

Even though so many of these coastal towns are so much the same, we had lunch in Piran and both agreed that it had good energy. These towns/ villages almost all have a castle, along with a few churches, and usually overpriced restaurants. But we enjoy them, and after an hour we were on our way south into the Istria area of Croatia. The upside of Croatia now being part of the Schengen Zone is that crossing the border is seamless with no stops.

The next day we hit Poreč, since that is the closest coastal town to us, and that was similar to Piran, and we gave it a thumbs up as well. The distances between some of these cities up north are not that great, so 15 minutes later we were in Novigrad, which sounds more Russian than Croatian, but we found a beach, laid out, and chilled for a bit. This was the first time in the ocean for both of us, and the temperature was ideal!

Rain hit that night and we postponed a snorkeling trip for the following day, but we DID go to another town we both wanted to check out called Rovinj. Again, similar to most coastal villages, and while some are better than others, this one was noticeably crowded, but got a big thumbs up, too. We can see the summer crowds building momentum, and it seems that German was the most common language we heard, followed by French, and even a few American accents in the mix.

Since we’ll be in the Istrian Peninsula for about 10 days we’ll get a good overview to determine where we might want to return to. Croatia is still very high on our “top countries” list. We know the town of Split pretty well, but the north is all new. The summer trip continues… Thanks for joining us!

06.30.23

In 2019, on our first visit to Croatia, we went to the city of Zagreb, the capital, and rented a motorcycle for about 3 days. We rode to the coastal city of Rijeka, and explored a bit of what is known as the Istrian peninsula.

From there our destination was the city of Pula since everyone said it was a cool town to visit, but our eyes lit up when we pulled in and saw a full size coliseum, just like in Rome! We found out that it’s one of the six largest coliseums outside of Italy, and the only one with four side towers entirely preserved. It’s a landmark in this town, and we both agreed that we wanted to come back. We just did.. .

We spent the entire day in Pula, which is about a 1 hour magnificent ride from where we were staying, went to see the coliseum again, of course, walked around Old Town, and also did something that we hadn’t done for quite some time: we went snorkeling. The local Istrian tourist board is doing a campaign to introduce tourists to snorkeling in this area, so I contacted them and said that we were interested in trying it since we had never found good snorkeling in Croatia yet! We met Barbara Unkovic, a lifelong resident in this area, and a diver for three decades. She changed our mind about snorkeling in Pula as we spent quite a bit of time talking about the area, and over an hour in the water. Her passion was drawing maps of the topography of the coastline, and she did it where we dove plus 22 other locations! It’s like having a roadmap of where to dive, which, I think, is brilliant.

Pula was awesome, and if you get to Croatia, allow some time to go up north to visit the Istrian peninsula.

07.03.23

Of the many places we have stayed over the years, our most recent rooms in Slovenia and Croatia were a bit different. Whereas we used to stay “in the city,” especially near Old Town (if they had one), in Slovenia we stayed about 30 minutes south of the capital city of Ljubljana. In the Croatia Istrian area, we were in a small village called Katun, about 30 minutes from the West Coast, which we thought initially was in the middle of NOWHERE, so we were surprised to find, just 10 minutes away, a really cool town, just a bit larger, called Pazin.

We rode in the other morning and found yet another castle, and this one was awesome! It was primitive in that it felt “old,” unlike so many others that get modernized to the point of taking away their charm. Pazin is the capital of the Istria admin area and is almost in the dead center of the peninsula. We were able to drive to either coast in about an hour–which we did.

Behind the castle in Pazin we also found this HUGE chasm with zip lines running across. We passed on that, but we DID do the cave exploration, first time for both of us, so that was a great experience. Neither Kat or I had “spelunked” before, and it was challenging, but not scary, and we did two zip lines getting in, and came to the end of the tunnel 200 meters inside, to find the blackest black we ever experienced. Very cool.

Croatia has always been very high on our favorite places list, and that is still the case. In the last week we visited Trieste (Italy), plus the Istrian towns of Novigrad, Porec, Rovinj, and Pula, and we are soon going to the island of Cres, via ferry, then zipping over to the island of Krk, where we will stay. From there we ride down the coast to Sibenik, then Split, and onward a few days in Makarska. We exit Croatia to Bosnia and east, to eventually return to Romania in about a month.

07.05.23

Yesterday was another day of firsts as we took not just one ferry, but two. We left the inland area of the (Croatian) Istrian peninsula and went out to the east coast and departed on ferry #1 from probably one of the most beautiful ferry ports I’ve ever seen, called Brestova. We started from the top of a very tall mountain cliff and worked our way down to the waterfront and there at the port was a restaurant as well as a beach! The ferry took us over to the island of Cres, which only took about 20 minutes.

Cres is one of the largest islands in the country, relatively narrow but quite long, and as we left the arrival port area we started climbing and literally rode the motorcycle along the top of the mountain peaks. Water on the right side as well as the left. It was just thrilling, windy, and the sky was pristine, and Kathleen was a rockstar as she dealt with the curvy roads and the ups and downs.

We eventually worked our way down to the next departure port, Meraj, and 20 minutes later found ourselves on our second island of the day, Krk, which is where we spent the night. Croatia has over 1,000 Islands, and is a boater’s paradise, but most of the major islands are also accessible by ferry, so that works for us, though not all of them take vehicles.

This morning we started our next ferry trip, and this one took a little bit longer, about 90 minutes, to get to the island of Rab. The goal was to at least view some of these islands, and at some point we may return for longer.

Rab was absolutely amazing, and surprisingly not very crowded and relatively affordable. Tomorrow it is back to the mainland and onward to Split, kind of like a distant hometown for us.

Chapter 167: Goodbye Hungary, Hello Croatia (again)–and now, Slovenia

Norm Bour — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 12:50:25 +0000

06.08.23

Budapest is now in our rearview mirror, and was a lovely stay for 8 days. We did not see everything, we didn’t need to or want to, but we saw what we wanted to and had a terrific time. The weather was actually very cooperative for the week except for some overcast skies and a few spots of rain.

Here is a compilation from my personal Facebook page and GROUP.

We are now 90 minutes west at Lake Balaton, a place that had been suggested several times over the years. It is the second largest lake in Central Europe, and the water is a very unique color of blue green since it is mineral water and thermal! The temperature stays within a few degrees year-round, but we will have to take their word for it since we are not going in!

Even though the weather report sounded threatening before we left, we were blessed with beautiful sunny skies, so explored some of the small cities around the lake. It is a bicycle rider’s heaven! Very flat and beautiful with dedicated bike lanes. We had an amazing lunch and are now in our intimate, cozy room getting ready for our exit to Croatia tomorrow.

06.10.23

Closing thoughts on Hungary- for now: Our time in Budapest was quite wonderful, although the prices of many things have changed since when we were there in 2019! The $22 massage? A thing of the past. The best that Kathleen could find now was $50 USD, with most between $60-90, but we are seeing that same trend everywhere these days. We discussed whether we would like to return for longer, like maybe a month or more, but twice was enough for us. So much more to see.

Our time at Lake Balaton was quite lovely, and I would definitely like to return. It seems to be a magnet for bicycle riders, and I could easily see spending a week or two there just touring the entire lake, which is the largest in Europe, 77 kilometers long, but not very wide. The night before we left it poured rain, including thunder and lightning! But when we awoke it had slowed down to a drizzle and the entire 246 km to our next destination was rain-free.

Our exit out of Hungary was the smoothest ever, and this was our first Schengen to Schengen border crossing, which was kind of weird. The only way that we even knew that we had crossed the border, is that we had to stop to pay a toll once we reached Croatia. No passport control, no showing of motorcycle registration documents, it was easy peasy. I can see why those who live in Schengen love it!

After about 24 hours in Zagreb, we find it to be a lovely town, also imminently walkable, like Budapest. Plenty of places to eat, drink, and find decadent delicacies to splurge on! The architecture here is quite beautiful, statues everywhere, but just like in Budapest, no cats anywhere! We haven’t quite figured that one out… But we did find the farmer’s market and lots of cool statues here, too.

Some interesting sites we visited include the Grič Tunnel, which was built during WW II as a bomb shelter, and used during 1990s war as well. It’s 350 meters long and has six exits.

We met up with some friends who we initially met in Peru- 2 years ago- and stayed in touch with over the years. They picked us up for dinner and introduced us to cevapi, which is kind of like a flat patty made of sausage meat. Definitely a treat!

06.14.23

How we travel NOW: By the numbers.

We crossed into Slovenia yesterday, which is country #47 in total for me as well as Kat, and #35 within the past five years. And here’s another fun fact; of those 47 countries, all but FIVE I visited after I was 60 years old. So do not tell me you are “too old” to travel!

Our last day in Zagreb included more walking, and over the past few weeks we’ve done more than five miles each day we weren’t traveling. On the way to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, we stopped in Samobor, a cute village about 30 minutes west of Zagreb, and enjoyed a peaceful rest before the remainder of our 90 minute or so drive. Our Slovenia room is not IN Ljubljana, but is about 30 minutes south in another small village called Velike Lasce. We typically get lodging inside major towns, close to the two things we require: restaurants, and coffee shops, and ideally, near the “Old Towns,” but we’re trying something new. And when we say this town is small, that is not an exaggeration! One coffee shop, one restaurant open on weekends, one pizza store, one grocery store, and four nail salon and hair salons. A “Night on the Town” takes only 11 minute…(Thank you Google!) Our AirBNB unit is awesome, with a large bedroom, nice kitchen, and bathroom, and it’s on the main road, with a bit of road noise, but is quiet after about 8:00 pm.

Our experiment is not our typical M.O., and we can, and will, get into the city a few times during our 14 days here, but we are almost dead center in the country, so will use this is a “base” to explore in all directions. We will do the same thing when we return to the Istrian Peninsula (Croatia) when we leave here the end of June. By that time, our 87 day summer ride will be about halfway done, and we are still figuring out where to go then, but we know we will end up back in Romania for the last few weeks in August. We’ve been doing this travel thing for almost five years now, and we are still experimenting, trying to find the right thing(s) that “work” for us. It is never dull! Thanks for joining us.

06.20.23

Slovenia is known for its lakes, mountains, and amazing topography, but the lovely people we have met make it all the more attractive. Meanwhile, it’s also known for caves!

Last week we went to Postojna Cave, since it is on every list of places to visit in the country. It is immense, as in huge, 20 km long, and the most biologically diverse cave in the world. It is the home of a small amphibian called the olm, which is like a salamander and can live for over 100 years and go for more than a decade without eating! They have been called “Living Dragons,” and there is a lot of folklore around them.

The cave: You actually ride a tram inside, and for 20 minutes it feels like you are going through Disneyland! The tunnels feel surreal, almost artificial, and you expect Captain Jack Sparrow to pop out from behind a rock and start singing! But once the tram stopped and we started walking, it turned into a whole new feeling. We must have walked for an hour, and got to see many different levels of the cave. The pictures can in no way show the beauty inside.

About 10 km down the road is another attraction, the Predjama Castle, which is the largest castle built inside a cave! Yes, it is actually built into the mouth and it is almost mythological, like you are looking at something from a fantasy and expecting a dragon to fly out.

This was the second of three castles we visited during the past week.The most recent one was in the city of Celje, which was unknown to us, but other travel sites also recommended we check it out. And for good reason! It truly felt like we were cast back to medieval times. Then on to our final destination, the city of Maribor, which is the second largest city in the country.

Unfortunately, it didn’t wow as much as we expected, but I did get a chance to view the oldest grapevine in the world, almost 400 years old and still producing.

No question, Slovenia has captured our attention. It is one of the smallest countries in this region, and we are almost geographically dead center so plan to visit as many places as we can while we are here. Did I tell you, “the people here are just amazing!” We have not met anyone who was not pleasant, friendly and courteous, and English to them is almost a second national language, so communication is pretty effortless. Which is always nice.

06.25.23

There are some pictures that we see of spectacular places, and we don’t always recognize or remember where they were. That’s the way it was when I went to Lake Bled in Slovenia. I have seen pictures of this lake with a church in the middle, but it never quite stuck in my mind as to where it was.

When we were in Meteora, Greece, last year, the same thing happened. I had seen pictures of the monasteries on top of the pinnacles and always thought that they were spectacular and never even imagined that I would see them, but we did. Likewise, that same thing happened in Peru .

We were on our way to Machu Picchu and needed a room to stay the night before. I was perusing bookings.com and saw pictures of what they call a “vertical hotel”: capsules strapped to the side of the mountain that you sleep in. I flipped out and told Kat we need to do that. She rolled her eyes in disbelief and said, “no way.” When we saw the price, I agreed with her, but I actually reached out to friends who helped us experience this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Angkor Watt was another. The iconic image of the main temple rising from the ground with the sun behind it was profound, and for several days we toured the largest religious monument in the world.

Keep track of pictures and places that give you pause. Maybe you think you’ll never go there, but maybe you will! How many other places will WE visit and find unexpected surprises? We look forward to sharing them.

Chapter 166: from Albania to Athens to Bucharest…and on to Budapest

Norm Bour — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 12:27:28 +0000

06.06.23

Since my Travel Younger GROUP documents our day to day travels, I am also sharing them here:

May 28, 2023

Back in the saddle again! If you’ve been following our journey, you may know that last year Kathleen and I rented a small BMW 310 GS motorcycle and spent 88 days traveling from Southern Turkey into northern Greece, where we stayed for a month. We rented it in Bucharest Romania and finally returned it last October. Well, if one time is so much fun, two times must be twice as much fun, because I just picked up another bike today in Romania, only this one is bigger: a BMW F750 GS. I spent all of one night in Athens, mostly at the airport(!), flew to Bucharest, and Kathleen will stay in Athens for six days, and then we will meet in Budapest Hungary. She gets to fly, and I get to ride through the amazing mountains of Romania.

For those of you that are motorcycle lovers or would like to try, I cannot speak highly enough of Romania. They have two of the highest mountain passes in all of Europe, and we were on one, the Transfagarasan, in 2019, and tomorrow I will visit the other one, the Transalpina. My journey may be shortened however since the roads are just now starting to open after the winter snows.

My short flight from Athens to Bucharest was flawless, and as I exited the baggage claim, I was reminded so clearly why we do not check luggage! You can check out the picture.

This is the start of a whole new chapter since we will be on the bike until the third week of August, and then start our journey to the other side of the world. Hope you can join us!

May 29, 2023

Waking up under cloudy skies, seeing raindrops on the cars, and looking at a pretty iffy weather forecast was not a good way to start, but you have to do what needs to be done sometimes, right? I was able to find the rain gear and pack everything up nice and secure, but I was pleasantly surprised that I ran into no rain! Because it was not a good day to handle twisty roads or look for scenic views, I decided to pass on the TransAlpina for now. We will return to Romania near the end of our trip in August, so I will make that trip when the weather is more cooperative.

Even so, I decided that the town of Sibiu would be a good destination, since Kathleen and I were here in 2019, and found it charming. Like many European towns it has a big open square with restaurants surrounding it, which truly makes you feel like you are an old Europe. Finding a room for the night proved to be more challenging that I’m used to, since none of the addresses they had on the bookings website actually existed, and signage was nil! I found a nice one by talking with a local, and it worked out great.

Sibiu is a unique Romanian town, with a strong Germanic influence. It consistently gets rated as one of the best towns to visit in Europe, and I can see why. They have unique architecture that “looks” at you as you walk down the street…kind of eerie. Since I got an early start this morning I skipped breakfast, so was pretty hungry for a good lunch. I took care of that with the largest schnitzel I have ever seen, along with a lemonade, followed by a nap to catch up some much needed sleep.

May 30, 2023

Sometimes we read horror stories about lodging while traveling as a nomad, so today I am sharing a good story! And it proves that you can never judge the inside from the outside.

I left Sibiu (Romania) about 0900 and my Maps said that Timisoara was about 3 hours away on the highway. After about 45 minutes of boring driving, I said, “forget that,” and changed my route options to exclude highways, so took one of the alternative routes instead. That added another 90 minutes to my journey, but it was worth every second as I explored some magnificent roads and scenery in Romania. The day started off beautifully, and it stayed that way, with some light clouds but no rain.

My destination was Timisoara, a town that Kathleen and I visited back in 2019 when we first started our journey. When I pulled up in front of my lodging, I was very confused, which was compounded by the fact that the road in front was totally torn up by construction and not a sign to be seen anywhere! You can watch the video and see what I saw, but the room exceeded my expectations for all of $28 USD. Come to find out it is not a hotel per se, but just an apartment in a building and it is quite lovely.

Meanwhile, while looking for restaurants, I found one called Meat Busters, and it was right in the old town. Perfect! This town square must be a carnivore’s heaven because there were 3 burger places within 50 ft, but I ate at one around the corner called E10, and it was the first TRUE burger I’d had in months! As much as I like Albania, and Saranda, finding a good burger was an Impossible Dream.

May 31, 2023

Szeged: another town, another town square, but this time in Hungary, the land of my mother’s birth. This is my heritage, and I’m in the process of trying to obtain citizenship, but am being challenged by bureaucracy and the lack of some documentation. Regardless, the first and only time that I was in Budapest was in 2019 with Kathleen, and we had only been traveling for 6 months. Hearing the Hungarian tongue spoken around me brought me to tears since it was so reminiscent of my mother, who passed 14 years ago.

Budapest was terrific, we spent about 4 days there, and will be staying for about 8 days again starting tomorrow. Meanwhile this town of Szeged (the s is silent) is the third largest city in Hungary, and the home of one of the largest and best universities. And I was pleased to find a cat cafe! Something that is always cool to encounter. I got into town very early, my room was not ready, so I hung out with the kitties for about 2 hours. They are still beta testing the cafe, not formally open for business, and the owner was very kind and obviously trying to create a good presence and asked for my feedback.

While I was waiting for my room to be ready, another great room BTW, I walked to the Town Square, which was very cool and full of restaurants, though not like the two towns I just left in Romania. The population is supposed to be just under 200,000 and about 80,000 our students, so that should certainly help the energy here.

After staying in four different cities over four different days, it will be nice to have 8 days in one place! Then it will be onward to Zagreb, Croatia, followed by Slovenia, a country I have been wanting to visit and look forward to.

June 4, 2023

After 4 1/2 days on the road and about 940 km/ 584 miles, I finally rolled into Budapest under beautiful sunny skies. Thursday was the first day of the ride where there were few clouds and the weather was comfortable. It was very uneventful and I got to our room about 1:00 p.m. and found it ready to go, always a nice surprise! It’s in a beautiful part of town with amazing architecture all around us, and more eateries within walking distance than we could visit in a year’s time. After relaxing and unpacking, I went to pick up Kathleen at the airport, and her Athens flight was right on time. We have 8 days to explore Budapest, or just relax…

Kat and I both agree that hitting all the sites/ attractions is not as important as it used to be. Because we are always on the go, sometimes it’s nice going to a coffee shop and relaxing, or going through a market. We found a large mercado where they have fresh produce and eateries over three floors, and whereas they used to be bargains, I think they now cater to tourists and push up the prices.

We returned to our room to leave some of our stuff and to take a nap and the plan was for Kat to go out and shop without me pacing back and forth. We got back just in time, no sooner did we get back and the sky erupted with hail, and the thunder boomed overhead! Thank God that didn’t happen on the way into town…

June 6, 2023

Seven miles yesterday, 6 miles today; no question, Budapest is a great walking town! You can go for blocks and blocks and constantly be amazed at the churches and synagogues and old buildings on every street.

We just connected with Johnny and Roxanne, friends we initially met in Romania, then again in Croatia, and they’ve been here for 3 months, (for their third time), so they love this town and were kind enough to show us around a bit. Last night we met with some other friends, John and Nina, who we met in Albania and they are here as well!

The town has two sides, a fact that I learned when we were here the first time in 2019. Buda is on one side of the Danube River, and Pest is on the other. Yesterday we walked along the waterfront up to the Budapest Parliament, one of the most prestigious buildings we’ve ever seen. Since summer is starting, we came across a music festival, so checked that out for a bit, and today we went to the Buda Castle, which we did not visit our first time. The place is ginormous and it still houses the Royal crown.

The weather has been pristine, today a bit cloudy with just a few sprinkles, but nothing threatening. One of the things that pleasantly surprised is their extraordinarily large cups of coffee, after having those picayune cups in most other places! Prices are reasonable, but nothing like what they were in 2019…