The Second Grand Tour Part 3: The Way to Rumelia

"Kravice falls is a wonderful place for a morning swim" he stated, smugly

 

Three days after arriving in Makarska we packed up and headed south. We had indulged our seaside slothfulness quite enough and were itching to get back on the road. It didn't take long to reach The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's border and the morning was steadily getting hotter. We crossed the Croatian checkpoint without any problems and then rode to the Bosnian side. They checked our passports and everything seemed to be going fine until we were asked to show our green cards.

Now for those who don't know The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina isn't part of the EU yet. We had gotten very used to crossing borders in the Schengen Area as just being roadsigns, even in the newest union countries all it would take is a flash of the passport. Now we required Vehicle insurance as proof of ownership. I couldn't help but feel a little worried at this point about the UK's future post-brexit (which at the time of writing, we still don't have the faintest idea how this monumental balls-up will go for us). Thankfully this wasn't too much of a problem. There was a small, ordinary looking house between the boarders that the guards said we should go and visit. This was all a little strange but we didn't have anything to lose at this point. Inside we found an old Croatian lady who seemed to know exactly why we were there. She asked for our documents, then filled out and sold us a sheet of paper. This was enough for the boarder guards and after the €5 fee we were on our way to our first destination. The road conditions aren't great in the federation but then again it is only a recently stabilised country, without the luxury of the EU's money to help build its infrastructure. A small and winding countryside road eventually led to where we were heading. Kravice is a little known gem in the Balkans, a huge waterfall flowing into a calm and protected river that is perfect for swimming and picnicking. It was really bloody hot and we had to carry our gear down to the falls from where it felt safe to park the bike so a swim was most appreciated.

Us. After the blistering heat the cool water was a 'warm' welcome

Feeling refreshed, we rode across across the Herzegovinan lowlands for about half an hour before we started the almost ridiculous decent on the western road into Mostar. The heat, combined with the steep roads and sudden turns meant a lot of stress on our brakes, which screamed as we pressed them all the way down. Mostar's outer suburbs were filled with traffic. It was hot and long and all the roads we wanted were closed.

But the reward at Mostar's heart was well worth the difficulties.

Stari Most, at the heart of Mostar's old town

If there is one place in Europe that I have to suggest you visit it is Mostar, a truly Balkan town in every sense. Holding to it's Ottoman influences, mixed with Yugoslavic hotels and Habsburg government buildings, it is a microcosm of a thousand years of history all rolled into a beautiful stone core. There are Bazaar styled street markets selling Turkish carpets, riverside coffeeshops selling tar black coffee (our favourite type!) and bars, museums and galleries littering the small maze-like streets. It was our favourite place on the trip.

Mostar. 'Don't Forget, but Do Forgive. Forever.'

 The troubled recent history of the city is still prevalent today. There is an unofficial divide across the river between Croatian catholics on the west and Bosniak Muslims on the east, an echo of the devastating Jugoslav wars that ended up destroying the old bridge over the years of bloody conflict that ensued. It is a complicated conflict and I urge you to look it up to gain an understanding of this incredible region of the World. We also have to recommend staying at Hostel Musala as it is centrally located, quiet and private, and the host Sasha was both kind and informative. Also I feel that I have to explain a strange local oddity: There are a group of men who hang around on the bridge waiting for enough tourists to come. One of them goes around collecting money in a hat, and another will get into a wetsuit and stretch. When they have enough money, the man in the wetsuit will climb over the edge and jump from the top of the 24m bridge into the river below. They apparently can make up to £150 a day doing this.

A lightly cooked Sausage with a dash of drinkable monastery water

The next day was going to be a long ride back to Dalmatia, then up Croatia to the Plitvička Jezera National Park, but we weren't done with Bosnia yet. We set off early and headed for an old Durvish monastery in the town of Blagaj. This monastery is built into the cliff at the base of a river source. We arrived early so the place was nearly empty and it really is an amazing sight to behold. Sasha informed us that because the river source is so close, the water is delicious and safe to drink (something we bravely tried and can confirm!).

Počitelj, a small medievil town with literally nothing stopping you climbing sketchy half destroyed towers.

From here we followed a much easier main road following the Neretva river to a town called Počitelj. This town, literally forgotten by history, is much like it was during the Ottoman Empire. It was pretty stunning and the crumbling towers are climbable right to the top which gives you a view of the entire valley.

Sadly that was in for Bosnia, we had one final Bosnian coffee and crossed the boarder back into Croatia. The rest of the day was a long and arduous slog up the motorway to Plitvička Jezera. it took about five hours for us to get there and by the end of it we were pretty sore. The next day we explored the park.

Plitvička Jezera, Plitvička Jezera, The Wife, Plitvička Jezera

It took the whole day. Walking around the parks, on old boardwalk planks, through dripping caves and over deep valleys. The day was spent laughing about the future, enjoying the present and generally thinking on how the trip has been. I recommend spending a day here as it is pretty incredible (Although sadly you can't swim in these waterfalls! BiH 1 - Croatia 0 ).

The day after that was another long and difficult ride. This time 320 miles across the Slavonia region of Croatia and into the Serbian region of Vojvodina. Croatia's roads were in great condition for riding, but five and a half hours in the saddle was killer on both of our legs. The Serbian boarder was easier, but in hindsight that seems like a false sense of security as the roads were just awful. Honestly it was like the wild west. There were lorries on fire in the road, pot-holes the size of lanes, and a military convoy that clogged up the pay tolls. At one stage we were stuck in a line of 10mph traffic when a dump truck, tired of being a dump truck, decided it was instead a drag racer  and darted into the other lane, attempting to overtake everyone around a blind corner nearly killing literally everyone.

I have made Novi Sad look beautiful, it was not.

I will summarise the last part of our trip as it didn't have the same impact as the rest. But after a really bloody long drive he were in Novi Sad, another slight disappointment, the layout was not too different from Debrecen with bad conditioned tower blocks and endless 4 lane roads. There was a small centre street where we had a nice burger, but the highlight was our '5 star' hotel at a massively discounted price. 5 stars was a little stretch of the imagination but apparently Tito loved this Hotel so we would to. Plus there was a Sauna which saved our lives. The next day we rode into Hungary again for the final leg. The Hungarian Border guards were surprised to see English plates riding north from Serbia, and were even more surprised when they heard the journey we have done so far. In fact everywhere we went we garnered attention for our plates. British vehicles are not common this far into Europe it seems!

The Hungarian roads were awful, the drivers were dangerous and it took hours. But through the literal tears we persevered until we saw the towers of the Nagy Templom over the long, flat horizon. We got home exhausted and before unpacking got straight into our PJ's. Another Grand Tour in the bag. Another adventure to remember fondly. And only four days before we returned to the UK for a week of chaos (which starts tomorrow!).

I shall keep you all posted, that is if anyone is still interested.

Thank you for reading, bro.

Puffer.

The Second Grand Tour Part 2: Rolling Down Illyria.

One of the few good spots we found on Slovenia's Coastline.

As said in the last post, we were a little disappointed with Slovenia's coast. For this reason we decided to head straight to Croatia the next day, as our original plan would have kept us in Slovenia for another night.

It wasn't a long ride to the boarder and the crossing was pretty easy. Before we knew it we were heading towards the Dalmatian coast and the sea again, this time hoping to actually touch the water. The view of the Adriatic on the Croatian coastal road has to be seen to be believed. Water and islands on your right, Mountains and seaside towns littered with orange roofs on your left, it really is quite the experience.

This was pretty much the entirety of the Croatian coastal road, not bad eh?

We stopped for lunch and a quick dip (finally) in the sea at a town called Crikvenica, which was nice but not quite as far down as we wanted to be. We reached the town of Senj that evening and found an apartment for the night before going on a little wander.

A few shots of Senj.

A lot of Dalmatia used to belong to the Venetian's at the height of the republic's power as it was a useful trade corridor between the east and west. Because of this, the main towns and cities of the Croatian coast have these beautiful Renaissance-era old towns at their centre. Senj had one such old town with a castle overlooking the bay. It was a nice starting point on what was to become welcome stops on our journey down the coast.

The next morning the weather turned. The coastal road was beautiful but not that easy to navigate on a fully-loaded bike, so we decided it was best to avoid it until the weather cleared. This may or may not have been a bad decision. The road to the motorway took us over a mountain just as the rain was coming in, which was exciting to say the least. After what seemed like forever climbing slippery and steep slopes, we finally found the motorway, just as the weather cleared for an easy ride through the Croatian mainland. Not as exciting as the coast but the landscape is still pretty breathtaking here, as desert hills and low shrub land stretch on as far as the eye can see.

We made it back to the coast before the afternoon was spent and hopped across a few island bridges to the tourist town of Vir. We were staying with a kind Hungarian man who Vanda knew through friends of ours and for the next day we stayed with him, exploring the islands around Zadar and Nin (the former being the local capital and the latter an ancient fort town. During this time we managed to get a bit of rest and relaxation by the sea, thinking this would be our only chilled out part of the trip (we were wrong).

Nin, Swans in the sea and Zadar...everyone was as surprised as you are about the swans

After saying our goodbyes in the mid-morning we left very refreshed for our next stop on the coast, Trogir. On the way we decided to stop at a sandy beach that Vanda had been to five years ago on a small island named Murter. Turns out that the tiny sandy beach is not that much of a secret as people lined it like sardines in a tin. We had a quick swim and left, somewhat disenchanted. This ride wasn't all doom and gloom though. The road leading into Trogir features a mountain decent where you can see the old town, a fortified island between two bigger islands, below. It looked pretty awesome from a distance. It was also alright close-up too, but at this point we got used to the fact that old towns were mostly filled with expensive Restaurants. So we decided to eat dinner and stay just outside Trogir. Our plan was to head to the bottom of Dalmatia and then up into Bosnia and Herzegovina to the old town of Mostar. So we figured it would be better to stay in one more place in Croatia before we did this to make the journey easier.

Thar she blows, fully packed and about to leave Trogir.

We settled on the tourist town of Makarska. Now for all intents and purposes it is just that, a tourist town, but with a reasonably priced Hostel, an abundance of coastal restaurants serving local food and a 5km beach we kind of had to take advantage of the time we had to spare. So we stayed there for three days (Not exciting to talk about I grant you, but even Motorcycing adventurers need a break!).

Saying hi to Hostel dog, Makarska, beautiful wife and beach, saying bye to Hostel dog

While here, we cleaned all of our clothes, made some adjustments to our equipment and worked out the next leg of our journey. Little did we know that what was to come next would be the best part of the whole trip.

But you'll have to find out next time on 'The Adventures of Puffer and Sauce'(tm)

I will post the final part of this adventure tomorrow, stay tuned kids!

Puffer

The Second Grand Tour Part 1: To The Water.

Didn't take many pictures in Hungary, so here is a poppy field, ooh, ahh

The Summer has officially begun.

The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing and Londoners are explaining to bartenders that it is hot outside, remarking that it's lucky that they are working in a dark bar, possibly for under the living wage and for longer hours than is technically legal, because at least they don't have to sit outside and have BBQ's with their friends, god forbid.

Ask not for whom the cloud rains, it rains for thee

Here in central Europe, the weather will now be a consistent mix of sun, apocalyptic rain, then sun again, then 'seriously guys I see the horseman, the end is nigh' thunderstorms and finally back to sun. The summer hit us quite quickly after the excitement of getting married and all, and we realised it would go just as fast if we didn't hurry up and get exploring. We have an amazing opportunity this year to take time into our own hands and have real adventures before we head back to London to begin the next stage of our lives together. So Two days before we actually set out, we worked out where we could go for a two week period before we returned to the UK to finalise our affairs and celebrate our wedding with the Brits. We considered Italy, a bit of Eastern Europe and finally a trip to the Baltic sea and Scandinavia (which on second thoughts would take a really bloody long time, plus it was the summer and hot. So there was only one thing for it; we would ride to the Former Jugoslavia and travel down the Adriatic coast. It turns out that Croatia has a pretty nifty sea road that would keep the sea at our right hand side as we rode down to Herzegovina. So on Friday 2nd June, we decided to wake up early and pack our bags for the long ride across Hungary.

We super weren't ready so instead we left on Saturday 3rd. Now Hungary has a network of convenient Highways across the whole country, linking important cities and international routes. That being said Eastern Hungary's flat steppe landscape is really bloody boring after the first two hours. Budapest was exciting as always, our GPS suggested that it would be advisable to go through the city centre. Now you may not know this, but there are a lot of impatient Hungarian drivers, and driving through a city is the worst. We were nearly knocked off and flattened on multiple occasions, the most exciting of which was when a lady decided that there were two many people in her lane and instead she'd try her chances at not slowing down and flying into oncoming traffic, during this performance the part of oncoming traffic was played by us.

Nevertheless we made it past the city and across the Western half of the country to the Balaton (a giant lake, locally referred to as the 'Hungarian Sea'). We found a small town by the name of Zalakaros on the south end of the Balaton and stayed there for our night in Hungary. It may not be news to anyone but me, but Europe is ram-packed with apartment rooms available to people touring on the roads. These are basically cheap hotel rooms in people's houses with parking spaces or garages, perfect for riding a motorcycle. At this point I'd like to thank the ageing German camping community for this, it definitely made our trip easier.

The Istrian Coast in Slovenia

The next day we crossed into Slovenia and the landscape changed dramatically. Where there were fields, there were now mountains, where the green was deep, it was now light, and there are amazing vistas as you roll across the gorges and through hills. The road bent and twisted in pleasing curves as well. Slovenia is a Motorcycling dream. We stopped for lunch in Ljubljana (a pronunciation that I'm not sure is possible to get right). And explored the city a little. It is an amazing green city, with no cars in its centre, beautiful streets lined with trees and huge Habsburg buildings dominating the skyline. Sadly we didn't have a choice but to carry all our stuff with us, which was really heavy and hot in the midday sun. We left for the Slovenian coast after Lunch and enjoyed more of the highways that this tiny republic had to offer. The coast was a bit disappointing. The small old towns were nice but access to the sea was not really a thing, there was a small crowded beach, but it was packed and right next to a massive industrial shipping yard.

Ljubljana, heavy bags, cobbled hills and delicious overpriced refreshments

Not really summer holiday vibes.

We spent the night in a coastal town called Portorož and decided to leave the country for Croatia the next morning. And this is where I will leave you in this part, stay tuned for the Dalmatian coast in part 2, which I'll post tomorrow!

Puffer

The Hungarian Wedding Celebration.

'Wow, it is very beautiful' - Everyone, to our faces

 We arrived back in Debrecen around 10:30pm, a little shaken and pretty tired.

Leonard Bernstein, the great American composer once said:

"To achieve great things two things are needed; a plan, and not enough time"

Now apart from his repetition of the word 'things' I love this quote, and it is by no means a stretch of the imagination to set it as the theme of our wedding week.

Vanda was busy over the few months leading up to the wedding with DIY decorations and cost-reducing ideas for the Hungarian celebration because, in case you don't know, weddings are expensive. The average cost of weddings in the UK has risen to £27,000 this year with London's average sitting at a whopping £38,000. Our wedding and the celebrations to follow were and are, of course, much cheaper than this as we couldn't even dream of affording such a thing.
Vanda is a vastly creative individual and once an idea pops into her head it is impossible for her to think of anything else until she has achieved it. This is great news for me, as it means that all I have to do is bask in her brilliance. I am the Sam to her Frodo. So with this in mind, I'll do a quick run down of what she managed to create for the Hungarian celebration:

Flowers in Baked Bean Tins, napkins wrapped in string, clothes pegs and seeds. Looks better than it sounds, no?

The Flower Vases were spray-painted Baked Beans tins. We had to devour quite a lot of this food of the Gods in the UK as they don't sell Baked Beans in Hungary (Just another reason to leave the EU eh?). In the picture above you can also see an almost complete Floating Candle which I will explain how to make in another post. Vanda had an idea for having the Menu placed neatly on everyone's plate as we were having a Buffet table. This meant that everyone could sit down for a drink and chat first then head to the food with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what type of salad-y gloop they are going to choose. She looked up on Youtube how to fold napkins, and after many different style choices we settled on this lovely little fold pocket design. One can also use this design to hold cutlery as well, if one is so inclined. The final little gift to our guests is a seed of an 'easy grow' flower. As we were having a spring wedding we decided to give everyone a flower to plant (with instructions, starting soil and a bio-degradable pot included for added sex appeal). All of this was designed by Vanda either by hand or with the help of Photoshop and we are extremely happy with the results.

Cake Trays, 'Piggy' Bank and classy Wedding branding

The Cake Trays made a welcome appearance and were just about big enough for the unholy volume of cakes that adorned them during the celebration. All of the different wedding accessories followed the same format, and we had two big posters made for the walls to fit in with the theme. In the centre picture you can see a sort of 'Piggy' Bank. In Hungarian weddings it is customary to give money to the newly-wed couple on their wedding to set them off to a good start in their life together. Usually this involves a little ceremony where everyone 'pays' to dance with the bride. We (somewhat sadly) didn't have this at our wedding as my Hungarian isn't yet strong enough to go through the motions of a traditional ceremony, but that didn't stop us from collecting our 'look at us, being all happy' tax from the poor guests, and that requires a money box. We also had Bunting made to fit in with the theme and the tables were littered with Golden paper cranes made by Vanda, a little signature of hers.

Bloody Lovely

The final DIY addition to our little celebration was a 'Polaroid' frame that Vanda's dad kindly built for us. This, with the addition of some novelty hats and accessories, led to much drunken hilarity, as showcased below:

There was drinking, there was dancing, there was more drinking and in the end there was a good time had by everyone. The next two days were spent basically sleeping, and now that this little part of our adventure has reached its conclusion, we are moving towards the beginning of our year in relative isolation by the river (with lots of Motorcycle adventures to fill the spaces between!). With two celebrations down, we have two more official and (hopefully) a big pub trip for all the London friends to go before we can truly say "OK WE'RE MARRIED NOW, IS EVERYONE HAPPY!?" But until all of this, I will leave you with a picture that sums up how that week of my life feels every time I look back to it:

'God I'm so tired, please just let me sleep'

- Puffer

Our Wedding Among the Spires

Dancing on Charles Bridge, as traumatic for Vanda as you can imagine

The weeks have passed, the dust has settled, and Rupert and Vanda are married. It has been quite an exhausting couple of weeks but we have made it here, into our pyjamas for the 4th day in a row (which is, I believe, the whole point of getting married in the first place) and I can now finally write about the whole experience.

My dear readers/reader/no-one, I have been neglectful I am aware, but please understand that we didn't have pictures until now and felt that I couldn't share our blessed enshaklement and journey across Central Europe without them. I know that this could be interpreted as not caring or ignoring you all/you/literally no-one, but the truth is that my writing is arduous and long-winded without pretty photos to back it up and my sole purpose for writing about these adventures is to entertain the masses/that one guy/anybody, for the love of god. And so here I am now, your humble servant, explaining to you what went down on the 11th April 2017.

A beautiful sunrise over a poorly maintained highway

To start before the beginning, we needed a way to actually get to Prague, which turned out to be more difficult than we imagined.

The first idea was to ride the bike back up the continent. A romantic notion yes, but we also had all of our wedding stuff to bring, so that wasn't going to work. Next came flying, which we couldn't do for under £1000 apparently so there went that. The train would have taken two days so finally we decided that the only feasible way of getting there is by driving. This would be accomplished in a 1 Litre Toyota Yaris which added an element of 'CAN THIS GO ANY SLOWER FOR PETES SAKE' to our journey. As we had 500 miles to traverse we had to set out at midnight on the 9th. The roads were poor and long, the traffic inconsistent and at times terrifying, and the signposting left a lot to be desired, but we kept in high spirits by laughing and smiling and needing the toilet for almost the whole way up.

In keeping with the very un-Springy weather that this Spring has been gracing us with we were pleasantly surprised by the scorching hot weather. We met up with the wedding guests and went for a drink by the river at the Čertovka Restaurant which boasts pretty stunning views of Charles Bridge and is situated just behind the smallest street in the city (requiring a traffic light system for people to walk up and down, perfect for edgy instagram shots). Afterwards we decided to hunt for a dinner somewhere in the city. At this point Vanda and I were suddenly hit by the lack of sleep we'd had over the last 20 hours and decided that we needed to pass out swiftly and so we went to the flat and did just that.

Team prep

The sun rose, we awoke, fresh and ready-ish for one of the most important days of our lives. Vanda took the brave decision a few months ago to do her make-up and hair herself so she got to work as soon as she was up. The boys in the wedding party were tasked with collecting various important things, such as breakfast and flowers. My friends and male guests Jamie and Chris went for the breakfast, I went for the flowers. It had not crossed my mind but apparently there was a brief panic as they realised that they had left me alone and I had the chance to run to the nearest train station and high-tail it out of there. Thankfully for everyone else I didn't do this and we went back to get ourselves ready for the ceremony.

Bloody elegant flower selection if I do say so

We were all ready way too early. So instead of twiddleing our thumbs waiting, we decided to go to the tower where the ceremony would be held and have a glass of Whiskey in the Whiskey Bar there.
The tower is quite an amazing restoration. We were very kindly given a book about it by the manager of the building as a wedding present but sadly I have not had time to read it yet but if you would like to read more about it, you can here. Our photographers and most welcome guests Theo and Sophie figured this would be a good time to start the photography as Vanda and I looked ravashing while secretly feeling increasingly nervous. So the whiskeys were a wonderful and welcome little addition to the proceedings.

Hooray for Dutch courage and amazing photographers!

But soon it was time for the main event. With excitement in our hearts and a rye-based spirit damaging our kidneys we made our way to the top of the tower. This part of the day was a bit of a happy blur. As this was such a small event and our families would not be with us, we decided to be 'current' and live-stream the wedding on Facebook (an idea that I had witnessed previously on the wedding of an old friend who now lives in Hawaii, hi Jess!), this was a resounding success, and even though the quality wasn't great, it has now been watched nearly three thousand times and allowed everyone to witness our special moment, in a confusingly quiet array of Czech and English suddenly interrupted by violently loud bells to signal that we were married, playing the sweet chimes of a popular Enya song, because who wouldn't want an aggressively loud Celtic rhythm playing at their wedding.

The Ceremony and drinks

After the ceremony we went for Lunch (still in the tower) at Restaurant Zvonice. Which was a truly hilarious treat. Even with the short notice I gave them about our arrival, they had a candle-lit table on a floor just for us, as well as some interesting Czech wedding customs to share with us. Such as the newly-weds having to spoon soup into each others mouths from one bowl with one napkin, which I'm still not convinced is a real thing.

Dignity utterly vanquished

 I cannot recommend this restaurant enough as the food was delicious, the service was phenomenal and the restaurant itself was stunning. And so we left full of food and still jittery from the ceremony to go and shoot some photos across the city.

If you ever want to know what it feels like to be a celebrity, wear a wedding dress and walk across Charles Bridge in the mid-afternoon. Me and Vanda were met with all sorts of responses, from cheering, clapping and oral blessings to groups of men wearing the same T-shirt drunkenly yelling at us that we've made a terrible mistake (this happened so often that I was wondering if it was a part of some pub crawl itinerary) and I am now convinced that we will be featuring on holiday albums around the world for overly keen Aunts to show their wholly uninterested nieces and nephews. But we persisted on, stopping at a lovely little café for a couple of beers before heading back to get ready for the evening.

Yes of course we gave him another little rub, we are young and in love we need all the luck we can get!

The evening was another pleasant surprise. As we ended up at Blues Skelp, a cosy local music venue with big beers and ridiculous vibes, a little early we decided to eat at the restaurant just above the venue. Now sadly I can't seem to find it on a map but it is the most understated and charming eatery we could have hoped for. They had had a rush during lunch and had all of nothing left to feed us, but the soup, which we all had in abundance. They were kind, friendly and gave us a  hand-sketched picture as a wedding gift. If you can find this little gem please tell us what it is called, as we would love to give them the praise they deserve. After that we went downstairs and watched a band that was so drunk they kept forgetting which solo they were supposed to be playing at any one point, resulting in Jazz that was so experimental that even the musicians had to guess where they would end up. It was an experience unto itself. After this performance staggered to an end we went home with a couple more drinks and danced the last few hours away to various nostalgic tunes until we could stand on our own two feet no more.

It was perfect. Not in the sense that nothing went wrong, or that it couldn't have been improved with anything, but in the way that everything just stuck together into a perfect little gift just for us.

Happy as Larry...and Larrina.

We spent the next day relaxing and exploring and yet again eating at Vanda's favourite restaurant in Prague (again I cannot find a link to it but it is opposite Mosaic House on Myslíkova Street, it is a tiny Czech pub with the most amazing duck in the city and a seriously modest price) before we slept for the last time in our dream-like experience in this ancient city. The next morning we set off back to Debrecen to get ourselves ready for the next wedding celebration (the day after). The drive was much less pleasant on the way down as it was apparently Easter weekend and everyone had gone crazy. It took 12 bloody hours but when we got back we were still happy, laughing and ready to kick the second receptions' arse.

I would like to thank our guests Jamie, Chris and Freya for coming to the Czech Republic and celebrating this intimate wedding with us, you guys made it what it was and we couldn't have asked for better company. I would also like to thank the photographers Theo and Sophie, who were just as much guests as shutterbugs and documented the day so honestly. They are quite fantastic at what they do and they photograph some pretty rad stuff so check them out! I would also like to thank Ladka of Wedding in Prague and Leo for introducing us and helping make this whole trip possible (I still owe you drinks Leo, I know!). Finally I would like to thank everyone who watched the live stream or just sent us messages of congratulations. I still cannot fully believe that we have managed this and we are so thankful for everyone's support and love. So to leave you, here is a short video of the day (again, by Theo and Sophie) You lucky things.

Oh and thank you Vanda for marrying me and now being my wife, may we spend the rest of our lives living out a great adventure.

Right, now that this is done I can return to Netflix and tea before the next phase of our journey begins. Thank you for reading, idiots/idiot/me, checking for spelling mistakes.

Puffer

The End of the First Grand Tour.

The oh so Reichstag.

So as it turns out it is not too easy to keep a travel blog when the movement starts picking up as the days go by. As of now I am sitting in Debrecen, Hungary organising the final parts of the first two wedding celebrations and for the first time since my last post I have the time and energy to write this post. You are all welcome, drones.

To begin this where we left off. We came to a realisation in Maastricht that we were fast running out of time on our tour across Central Europe due to unfinished wedding preparations before the big day/days. So we had to re-organise the rest of the trip to get down to Debrecen in five or six days. Not an easy task as this didn't just involve cutting out days in places and destinations (sadly only got one day in Cologne and we had to miss out on Vienna which I was devastated about) but also spending much longer days in the saddle as we had over a thousand miles to cover. Motorcycling is a fantastic hobby and gives you a large amount of emotional freedom, but it is not without its downsides as will be explained in this post.

Two little dogs enjoying the sun with a third even smaller dog close to the camera.

Up until now we had been riding for 3-4 hours a day, stopping at various points of interest along the way, but now we had to cover too much ground and also fit into good weather days as riding in the cold and rain can range from a tad uncomfortable to downright impossible. So to start off easy, we took the quick trip between Maastricht and Cologne. Although the transition between countries in Europe is no more than a blue road sign these days, it has to be said that there is always a subtle change of scenery as the landscape unfolds in-front of you. I can't say that we saw a lot of the real Germany, even if we crossed everything except Bavaria, but there were two things of note:

1.) Germany is a giant forest of Conifers, a little like that sad part of Lord of the Rings when Sean Bean gets pin cushioned.

and 2.) The Autobahn is the most convenient and yet boring road ever.

Honestly this cathedral is bigger than Kanye, and only slightly more religious.

But anyway, Cologne is a pretty amazing place. Our host, a friend of ours who we met in London, was a local through and through and showed us some of the amazing things this Rhineland city has to offer. FYI: It has a bloody massive cathedral that you can see from pretty much everywhere, along with a bridge with so many love locks it makes Paris look as romantic as Staines. But the greatest feature of Köln is its breweries, which will keep supplying you with fresh glasses of beer until you physically stop the waiter by either placing a beer mat on the glass or wrestling them to submission.

We kind of had to didn't we?

We had a few technical problems with the bike in Cologne which delayed our departure (wouldn't complain after that hearty German Breakfast mind you!) but finally took the first long ride across the country to it's capital. It was gruelling and didn't get easier at any of the re-fuel stops but finally we made it on a beautifully warm evening to Berlin. We were kindly put up in Berlin by an artist friend of mine who is doing exciting things with reclaimed bones, if you would like to see her extraordinary work you can find it Here. Now we didn't get to experience Berlin to its full extent.

Motorcycling is a deeply personal experience. You must both fight and embrace the road simultaneously while navigating across landscapes and your own perceptions. You find that there is a lot of time for thinking sitting in the bucket that is your helmet, and between the two of us we thought both great and terrible things. But I digress, it was thanks to Vanda's patience that we found what was lost and moved on from the stunning but small town of Brno, which we didn't see enough of to write meaningfully about so here are some pictures:

Brno in its melancholy twilight.

We decided to stop off in Budapest to split the last journey in two and make it more bearable, like every other night we had been blessed with on this trip, it was a hot evening and we had a beer with a Hungarian friend of ours at the Akvarium bar. It was a cathartic experience having come so far to know there was only two hours left and we enjoyed the night with understated revelry.

Budapest of the bright lights.

The final ride was the worst, we were nearly run down by at least two impatient drivers and literally no-one was indicating or giving us any idea what they were doing, paired with strong winds it was a ride I would rather soon forget. But finally, we came into Debrecen with laughter and smiles having traversed Europe on a big bastard of a motorcycle, carrying way too many things over a route that was way too long and having all the ups and downs of a real adventure. Our first one. All in all we enjoyed the experience and are looking forward to our next 'Grand Tour'. But first we have to survive the greatest adventure of our lives, our wedding...in three days...god help us.

What pretty, exhausted mugs we own.

I shall leave you with the route map and hope that you can find it as impressive as we do, we are very impressed with ourselves.

Onto the next!

Puffer

The start of our adventure.

Well folks, here it is, the post you've all been waiting for! Maybe! Maybe you didn't care but also didn't have anything better to do today! Either way THIS post I'm posting is here!

And we're off!

So last Saturday Vanda and I said our final goodbyes to our flatmate and my family, packed up the last few bags of our life, realised we had packed too much and had to unpack a few things, repacked and THEN finally got on our still yet to be named Triumph Bonneville T120 and set off. We have been planning ("planning") this trip for a couple of months with a relatively open route between London, UK and Debrecen, Hungary.

"But Rupert, how has the trip gone so far?"

A little Sausage and a big bike.

I'm glad you asked hypothetical avid reader, it started in a relatively scary fashion with the coastal winds of the English Channel blowing us every which way but loose on our trip to Folkstone. We took the Eurotunnel at around 2:30pm, and managed to get our own compartment (probably because our bike looks miraculously unstable). If you are considering a trip to mainland Europe at any point soon I would highly recommend using the Eurotunnel train, before we knew it we were already in the subjectively beautiful Hauts-de-France. The wind decided it wasn't done with us and threw us from lane to lane for the rest of the day until we hit Bruges, which was our stop for the night. We had a wonderful Belgian meal and beer in the main square to celebrate our first successful day on the road and headed to bed, excited to see the city the next day.

"Maybe that's what hell is, the entire rest of eternity spent in F*@king Bruges"

Bruges is an interesting place, there is no doubt. But it is interesting in the way a toddlers first word is interesting. At first it is a little miracle, an exquisite experience that changes your perception of life's very meaning. But soon the novelty fades and you realise this word is all you'll hear for a little longer than you anticipated. Basically go see Bruges for a day or so. Any longer and you may go crazy.

Our next destination was Amsterdam. But on the way we decided to stop at the bizarre town of Baarle-Nassau/Baarle Hertog, a small Belgian enclave in The Netherlands. The town is split by such odd borders that they have had to draw dotted lines across the entire town. This has caused a number of funny situations, such as a house having two addresses, a shop having to have two separate tills and house numbers reverting half way down the street. At one point me and Vanda were in different countries 5 times in a minute, a new record for distance in our relationship.

The logistical nightmare of Baarle Nassau

So after a spot of lunch and a coffee on the Belgian side of the border (before paying in The Netherlands) we moved onto the Dutch Capital. We decided to stay at a location named Campsterdam on the north side of the river Amstel where we rented a vintage camper that opened onto the river. This was a beautiful location and in high summer I would definitely recommend a stay here, unfortunately for us the weather didn't hold at night (along with the power) and we ended up freezing on our first night there. Amsterdam is a mixed bag. I have been many times before but this was a first for Vanda. Surprisingly she was a little disappointed. I think we all build up ideas of places before we experience them, or even after we experience them, and we both felt a little let down by the Amsterdam we saw. It is a beautiful and vibrant city sadly let down by its in-your-face tourist trapping and brightly lit debauchery. That being said we also met up with some Italian friends of ours from London and had a great time relaxing by the canal with them, so I believe it is the city you make it to be, definitely a place you have to see.

Bikes, Check. Canals, Check. Wonky Buildings, Check.

Vintage campers allow for instagram like goldmines

After Amsterdam, we decided to visit an old friend of Vanda's in a town in north Holland named 'Lelystad', interestingly this town didn't exist before 1967, when it was built on land reclaimed from the North Sea. Even more interestingly we decided to take a northern route there, which required crossing the North Sea to get there. Anyone who finds themselves in Holland on a Motorcycle absolutely has to drive the Houtribdijk road. Pictures can't do justice to how magnificent the open road is with the sea on both sides.

Chilling in the sea...kind of.

After Lelystad we stopped off at Utrecht before the longest journey so far down to Maastricht to stay with a friend of ours. Maastricht is another town that you have to see if you can, a small student town with mixed German/Dutch architecture and an all-round friendly feel. Our next trip today sees us leaving The Netherlands for Germany and the start of our great European crossing. As soon as I get a chance again I will update you all on where we have ended up. But for now, ta-ra!

Puffer