2018 Holidays - Part 1. The Balkans

Did you know that we are motorcyclists?  My husband loves motorbikes and rides every day to work.  I like to go on the back of his bike in the Summer when it is warm and hopefully dry!  Hence we mostly go on motorcycling holidays.  More recently we have joined organised guided tours and love them!  It is so nice to go with a group, and not have to worry about booking accommodation or choosing restaurants  for dinner.   In 2017 we joined a guided tour of Romania, and were keen to do more of Eastern Europe, specifcally the Balkans.  So last June we flew to Belgrade, Serbia to join a tour by 'Beyond Usual Motorcycles' .  The company is run by the fabulous 'Tosh.'  He couldn't have been more friendly and helpful!  It wasn't a big group, just us two and twin brothers from Canada, who interestingly had been born in Serbia and visited Belgrade frequently to meet relatives still there.  But they didn't know the rest of the country so had chosen the motorcycle tour.  Tosh provided the bikes and a back up van to carry our luggage (and for me to ride in if I needed to). 

 Here's Maurice on his bike:

And here are the group.  From left to right, Sam (One of the twins), Milan ( the van driver), Tosh (our guide and owner of the company), Mike ( the other twin) and Maurice ( my husband)

Here's the view from my seat on the back of the bike.  If you look carefully you can see my phone reflected in the wing mirror!

On our first day we rode along the mighty Danube all the way to the far East of Serbia to the town of Negotin where we spent the night.

The following morning our first stop was at a little village of wine cellars, called Rajacke Pimnice. Local wine was kept in these huge barrels in these old stone houses.  Sadly, they are falling into disrepair now, as the young people are leaving the village for the bigger towns.

The Serbian countryside was very green and picturesque.  The villages didn't look as poor as the Romanian villages we rode through in 2017.  Farming is more mechanised in Serbia -no horses and carts as in Romania, but the tractors were very old.

We crossed the border into Montenegro at Pjevlja.  It was cool to cross a border, and of course we had to take photos!  We carried on riding through the Durmitor National Park.

Lots of tunnels through the mountains!

We stopped for the night at Zlatar, and had a lovely walk around Black Lake.  So beautiful!

We came down to the coast of the Adriatic Sea above the Gulf of Kotor. Stunning view!

We descended and rode along this beautiful part of the coast until we arrived at the pretty old town of Kotor, where we had a couple of hours to look around, and have lunch.  It was really hot at this point, well into the 30s, which makes for very uncomfortable riding!

We stayed the night just along the coast in the town of Herceg-Novi, in a huge concrete hotel that definitely harked back to the Communist era!  The hot weather came to an end with a huge thunderstorm overnight that did a lot of damage to the town!  You can see the black clouds coming in in this picture:

And then we crossed another border into Bosnia-Herzegovina.  (Republika Srpska is one of two constitutional and legal entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina)

A popular meal is barbequed lamb.  We were very grateful of this yummy dinner after riding for miles in the rain!

 Our last night was spent in the lovely little village of Mokra Gora.  This is 'Drvengrad', a re-creation of an old village of this area by the film director Emir Kusturica.  It is set on the slopes of Mount Zlatibor, a most stunning setting.  All the little houses are wooden, and it has all the facilities a tourist could wish for: comfortable rooms, restaurants, swimming pool, cinema etc.

So that was it!  A week spent riding around the Balkans.  I am sure we will go back.  We didn't go to Sarajevo or Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina or Croatia.