19th July, we head off on our holls, first stop is Klagenfurt, we take the A2 past Wiener Neustadt, then the S6 to Judenburg, were we stop for food an drink, its a really hot day and getting hotter, I wore my sunglasses on the bike, but going through the tunnels I was almost blind, later I pulled them down to the tip of my nose so I could see better. Judenburg is a nice little town in the mountains www.judenburg-tourism.at , sorry the photos got lost I took, they had beach football on while we were there, after refreshments and a cool down we set of to Klagenfurt down the 83, its a really nice road lots of seanry and curves, we arrived in Klagenfurt in the afternoon, and we booked into
the first hotel we found, The Palais Porcia.

It was like some old gentleman's club in London, it was supposed to be some sort of palace at on time













This is the lounge bar










this is the view from the window, good isn't it













After settling in we went for a walk around the centre, its a very nice town and well worth a visit, but I would not stay more than a weekend, there is a lake that boarders the town but we did not go there.









The center is very much as it was many years ago, it seems to have escaped the wars of the past.
www.info.klagenfurt.at
this is a quote from the blurb on their site,
"This Renaissance gem on Lake Wörthersee will not only meet your expectations during your holidays, but will also offer many pleasant surprises with its rich diversity of cultures and life-styles as both an animated and historic place to visit... "
anyway it was nice
20th July we pack up and set off for Portoroz Croatia, we took the 91 out of Klagenfurt to the border crossing high up in the mountains, the road is great and twists and turns, no problems going through to Slovinia, it is now in the EU and are very relaxed.We then head to Ljubljana.Time is good so we decided to stop and have a look round, it is anothere very nice city, here are some of the photo's


www.ljubljana-tourism.si






























do you like my new hairstyle??????????????
or is it a tree growing out of my head!!!!!!!!!











Any way as you can see its worth a visit, after a couple of cokes we set off again to Portoroz down the E70. At Koper we get our first sight of the sea. Just after Izola, the right hand pannion decided that its off on hols by itself and makes a leap for it only to end up in the bushes, silly bag, we dust it down and re-attach it to the bike. it was a good job we were not doing 120K as before, I guess all of Brigitte's clothes would have been stroone all across Slovenia????????,
We arrived about 3 in the afternoon and soon find a Hotel with a gret view of the sea.
The Adriatic nice.....................................




This is the harbour









Pic of the bike from the hotel room, the hotel was ok, normal seaside type, the plastic chairs on the balcony were not up to supporting me and the back gave way and I kicked the table and all the drinks went crashing to the ground, all rather a messy business


21st July, we set off early in the morning to try to avoid the heat, we headed direction south down the 111 to the border of Croatia, there was a big queue but the best thing about a bike you can jump the queues, so we were across in minutes, no problems with the boarder gaurds. Now in Croatia we headed for the motorway A6, well it is not a motorway that we would expect but just a normal road, but by Croatian standards its a motorway, now things start to fall apart, our well laid plan went to pieces, we arrived in Rijeka no problems, Brigitte points out the signpost for Split that's about 200k south of were we wanted to be, so it was logical to go this way, but oh no, after almost landing up in Zegrab we pulled off the motorway and went to a small village called Delnice, stopped for a coke and a read of the maps. We should have headed down the coast road but we are now traveling inland. I will tell you now, if Michelin maps do not coulor the road don't go on it unless you have a off road bike or a 4by4. Tempers are at an all time high now, anyway after seeing some of the wonderfulll country side we were glad to get back on the A1 which took us to Senj, this brought us back to the coast road to Rab, you remember I like to top up with fuel every 200k, well from Senj to rab I could not find one filling station, the speedo K read 258, and at the turning for the ferry to Rab was the only filling station, phew it was hot, Lift the visor up and the wind dry's your eyeballs instantly. We head down the steep road to Jablanac, cars are parked up for about 3 kilometers for the ferry, but its a one way system, one road down and one up, so if you do not want to catch the ferry you can go down to the town, so that was our plan, but when we arrived at the front of the queue, a ferry arrived, so on we got, what a shame, he he he ,


While we were loading Brigitte managed to get a beer and water from a local shop to help us through the 15 mins sail, nice touch. (Croatia has a zero tolarance for drinking and driving, so I just drank the water, it was a strange golden coulor and fizzy, and in a can , strange that don't you think)





Hey its 35deg in the shade, full motorbike gear on what do you expect


The ferry did not take long, the island looks like some baron moonscape, but when you get to the east side it greens up a bit.








We found our Hotel in about 15 mins, it was sign posted very well
thats it in the distance, we were promised a sea view room but it was not one of those you see at the front but on the 2nd floor on the side to the right, I felt like complaining, but it was a long day and I needed to calm down, so I rested on it till the next day, then we saw that in fact it was the best place to be away from the nose and to be fair you had a good view.































So off for the explore, Rab is 15 mins walk or 5mins in the boat at a cost of about 1 euro each
ok Here are the fotos










































So here I am,










Rab very old, very old, ect, lots of old stuff, know what I mean




















So 10 days of just bieng lazy and we are back off, toured the island on the bike took just one hour, so parked her for the whole holiday.
So conclusions, if you like sunbathing, swimming, doing nothing, its great, hey we relaxed!!!!!













so now we are off via the ferry from Lopar to the island ok Krk, the trip takes about an hour, sails by some of the islands, very nice


As it turened out this was a far better way to go than we had came, Krk was very nice, off to Rjeka, where we went round in circles but eventually found the right road and headed to Rupa the border crossing, we were through in minutes and direction Ljubljana.It is now raining and I have to take it a bit easy, the road is very twisty untill we get to near Postonjna, then it was motorway untill we stopped in Maribor. We are now soaking wet, I needed food so we find a restaurant down town and in we go, they did not even flinch at the state of us and we had a great meal.


We had intended to stay the night here, but the weather was crap, so we went home, all motorway to Vienna, we were diverted on to the 54 for a while due to an accident but it was too slippy to have fun.
more pics of Maribor Slovinia




















So stay tuned for the next adveture of One Mad Man And His Bike