Lets go to Romania...

Said and done. I started to plan the route in Mapsource and Google earth, and the goal was ofcourse gravelroads. Stumbled on a tread about " Grünes Band" and that looked interesting so I throw in some of that as well. We had no ide how it would work with hotels in Romania so we decided to bring sleepingbags and Hennessy Hammocks. Totally unesessary, as it would be no problem finding hotels. And when we arrived to the gravelroads in Romania we wanted good tires so we loaded a spare on the bikes and mounted a used one on the bikes.

Day 1.



Here we are at home, outside Kristianstad in south Sweden,at my place and ready to go. Me with my HP2 and Fredrik with his Super Enduro.



450 km to the hotel. We chose to drive over Danmark and it was chilly and very windy.

Day 2.



"Das Grünes Band" and the adventure starts.

Looks nice and easy to ride but the track isnt wider then what you see. It is made of concreteblocks and the different in height, to the grass, is often 10-15 cm. Can be tricky with a heavy bike. It was easy to hear the wings of history and see the old german panzer divisionen driving on these tracks.



We were happy and pleased ´couse we were on an adventur. But it would be harder than we expected to ride grünes band. Not because the track was difficult but because the track just ended all the time. Had to drive around and find the track again. Took us hours to go nowhere. And when we were far in on a bumpy track, looked more like a woopie-section on a mx-tack, my rear frame broke. Crap quality and german engineers that had to had hangover when they designed that peace. The 1 kg load limit is just crap. Fuck em all Loaded my tire on to Fredriks good quality KTM and started to look for someone who can weld aluminum, on a saturday afternoon. Was pretty hard but as on all good adventures a helping hand was reached out.



The man that came to our rescue was the man to the right, Uwe Haaker. He made a phonecall and said: follow me. I think we drove for 15 min. and then we came to an old industry area out in nowhere. Have to admit that scenes from the movie Deliverance was passing my mind. But his friend was a master on alu.welding.







We put the bike together and decided that the Grünes band could fuck off. We had a long journey in front of us and had only got to northern Germany. We hit the highway and aimed for Berlin. Its cold and its raining. We called home and asked for help to find a hotel just outside Berlin. Got the adress and we just wanted to get there.





The room smelled a little mold but it was nice and the girls working there was nice too.

Day 3.

Another bad day. We had a late start and we only get just pass the polish border before I felt/heard a play at the rear of my bike. First I hoped that it was the bad polish road but I couldnt fool myself for long. Guessed it was the bracket for the rear shock so we stopped at a road pocket. But it was the wheel bearings. Totally broke. At only 22000 km on a BMW? WTF?!





Called SOS International and asked for the closest BMW dealer. They where in Cottbus on the German side, 60 km from us.



But we were hungry so we stayed here for a while.



Forgot to steal a spoon on the hotel so we did it japan style.



Fredrik dont like the mosquitos as much as they like him.

We drove back to Cottbus and took the first hotel we found.



The old man that welcomed us had the worst breath we ever felt. Tried to keep the distance but if you back up for more than 2 meters you appear to be a little suspect. But 2 meters wasnt enough, the nauseating kept the saliva coming.



The room was fine and we both fell asleep for two hours.





Then we went down to the restaurant and after that we ended the day with some philosophizing on the entrance roof.

You are right. Never again :)

More please.

Day 4.

Up early and drove straight to the BMW dealer. They were the right man for the job and ofcourse they confirmed the play in the bearings. Just to put two new bearings in there, right? No ofcourse not, how could I be so stupid. You have to replace the whole "rear-axel-drive". 1320 € + work. WTF!? The trip expenses just dubbled. If the order was made before 09.30 the part would be at the shop 08.00 the next morning. Just hade to put the apple in my mouth and make that pig sound.



After breakfast we went to find a new hotel, closer to town, and then we just chilled.





















Getting hungry and Fredrik just had to have a kebab so we hanged with Alibaba for a moment.



Kids, listen to your mamas. Angel do exist.



What?! Is my car stolen?



Chilling in a park.





From the hotel window we saw the most beautiful roof.

May I have some more? Great Pics. Keep them coming.

I've got to get back over there to explore more. Really enjoying your RR.

Day 5.

Up early, left my bike at the shop and back to the hotel for breakfast. The bike was to be ready at 10.00 and we wanted to be there in time to speak to the mechanics.











Loaded and ready again. Felt good. But this is day 5 and we are not even in Poland! We dont need more trouble now.



Hungry somewhere in Czech Republic.





Today we have done 535 km. Through Poland, Czech Republic and now we are in Zilina in Slovakia. The goal was 100-150 km´s more today but we stopped to buy/find oil for my motor (leaking at the oil filter) and the break at the "ski place" took a little extra time. The driving today: Germany and Poland is the same exept that the highway in the beginning of Poland was a crap. Czech Republic was really nice. Like the alps but smaller, and alot colder than we thought when we drove over the mountains. About 550 km´s left to Romania . Easy day tomorrow.



Best Western Hotel in Zilina.





I wanted to take a "walkabout" but Fredrik wanted to stay on the hotel. WTF, are we on an adventure or home in your TV-sofa? He gave up

I love your pics along with your tone. You strike me as my exact opposite in that you don't seem to do a lot of preventative maintenance, relying instead on German engineering's reputation for durability and reliability. You charge headlong into your adventure, and it appears you then reap the benefits of this faux pas. I on the other hand go completely overboard with preparations to eliminate every last potential pitfall and yet even then can't enjoy myself but for worrying about this, that, and the other possibility of a failure.
Never-the-less, I'm enjoying your write-up and am learning from your pain.
Best of luck to you and I hope the rest of your Abenteuer works out better for the beemer.
Marc

Thank you Mark. Glad you like it. This is my first adventure. I dont think you should overdo with preperations. I mean you do 1 or 2 days "rally" at home for a whole year with now problem, so why should there be any problem just because you leave your own country? And my only problem so far is the beemer and that is easy to fix

Day 6.

Today we have driven through Hungary. No problem, for us, but worse for Hungarian farmers. Been raining alot this year (read 2010) and almost every field of corn was totally destroyed. Severe flooding in parts of Poland, Hungary and Romania. A lot of highways today but of course some small roads as well. A mix of big dirty industry cities and small villages. Very windy today.







The first brown bear of the day was released here in the corn field. Hope he dont get lonely.



Fruit is candy





Finally here. Oradea - Romania.

Met an Englishman in the restaurant when we ate supper. He drove an GS and said that he just came from the Transfaragasan, DN7c, and that it was closed. He had tried both from south and north but been stopped by police. He though it would be closed for 1 or 2 weeks more. Looser! No way anyone is gonna stop us, we been riding through half Europe for this.

Day 7.

Finally we woke up in Romania and not in Germany. But as it will turn out Germany will remind itself. First breakfast and then a few things to take care of.We have to find a T45 so we can change the oil in my final drive and then we will change the tires before we start to explore Romania. We find a place called Truck stop along the main road in to the city. They didnt have any T45 but we decided to change the tires here.



I had a ratchets and a T50 for this and the first thing I did was to wreck the T50. WTF?! Had the bloody Germans used a pneumatic wrench for this? The guy in the office was very helpful and lent me a new T50 and ofcourse I wreck that as well. Thank you and I am sorry. During this Fredrik had changed his tire without any problem. Our new friend made some calls and as new friend always do he said -Follow me and jumped in to his car. We drove only about 1 km to a little bigger garage with a few motorbikes and some tools. We didnt take any pictures here but we sure got the help we needed. It took them 15!! minutes with a pneumatic wrench , normal hobby size, to get the first bolt off. The heroes from Germany was now on my shit list and on my hit list. Bastards, they should stick to cars. Imaging me getting a flat tire somewhere along the road. The only thing that would have saved me would have been the mono swing. Then I changed the tire and Fredrik change the oil in the final drive.



Here I stand with Bogdan, owner of the garage and my hero! If anyone knows him please let him know about this tread. The next time Im in Romania I hope I can find him and drop by to say hello.



We were hungry so we started with a pizza before we left Oradea.











When we left town we passed our first, and only actually, gipsy camp. Felt a little weird to see sheds and boxes and more then a few dirty people of all age without shoes, along the road. I felt ashamed driving this 20´€ motorbike.



Then the roads started to be just what we came for. We stopped for the brown bears again. Had to let two of them out in the woods. They do like the wood best.





Looks wonderful doesnt it? But what you dont see is that this is wet clay and it would be hard even walk up there. It is steep. Now way that we will go upp there with fully loaded 200kg´s bikes. The next time I get here will at least be without all the heavy load. Checked the GPS for an alternative route.









Ofcourse you cant pass a big green hill and not stand on the top.





This we like.











Was time to end this day and we choose the first hotel on the GPS. Maybe we should have driven little more.

Today we have driven on sick, read wonderul, roads. Have been raining a lot here lately so it is very wet and slippery. Red roads are asphalt. Yellow/orange can be asphalt but is almost always very bad gravel roads. Brown is often asphalt. We use the map RO.A.D 2008 for our garmins. Impossible to drive todays direct-route. Trails outside the garmin map. Hope that not all of them are to hard.

too bad about your bmw.having trouble on a 20.000 bike is frustrating.good luck on the rest of your trip.

Great report and nice Giant Loop Bags! How do you like them so far?

Thank you, and I like my GL-bag a lot. Especial when I dont need to pack it full. Like that I dont need to have the load on top of the bike.

Day 8.



My heart still bleed every time I see this picture. He was their watch-dog and barked at everything. But I think it was to ask everybody to take him away from there. They were afraid of him, but when I sat down beside him he looked this nice and was very nice and really liked that I cuddled with him.



Ready for a new day.















This is my favorite picture and this is the one I look at when I want to remember our trip.







At this moment we started to talk about turning around and drive down again. But Fredrik wanted to at least try to ride up that wet and slippery hill. He got up but he had to paddle alot with his feet and I laughed to tears. It was good of him to make it but he came down again. After that it started to get serious.

We ended the day with some gravel roads and chose to find a hotel in Alba Iulia.













We have discover that the RedBullRomaniacs starts in Sibiu tomorrow so we decided to stay one more day and take the chance to see the prolog. Not much to do here but we took a walk and I bought new flip-flops from a gipzy in an alley.











A Porsche Cayenne Turbo rolled out in front of us and ofcourse we had to see where it came from and ofcourse we saw a Bentley Continental GT in front of the house as well. Land of contrasts. The only road this cars can/should be on from here is to Sibiu.

the Transfagarasan road it's closed for the winter
and normlly open on may, but two weeks ago up there was snowing hard, so is possible to be close for more time.
Have fun and enjoy Romania, my contry....

I love Romania and I will be back. This trip is from last year.