Thursday 14.8.2008
This day I got up very early, at about 6 a.m. I let Dimitra sleep and I got down to the hotel’s PC to navigate in the net. There I had the opportunity to get into the forum and to follow the others’ guys’ trips and to inform them as well about ours. Then I got back to room in order to prepare our stuff and to leave.
This day of was the only one of our trip that we didn’t have reserved our accommodation. Our next destination was Cesky Krumlov (in the South of Czech Republic) at about 500km from Zagreb. We wanted to be there on Friday, as earlier as possible, so as to have more time to see the city. That’s why today we would do a maximum of kilometers so as to be nearby the next day.
We got off and after loading the bikes, we checked out and we left. 13km later we got to the motorway, direction north, following the signs for Slovenia. The motorway’s conditions were perfect and the following 80km till the frontiers with Croatia were fast and relaxing. Unfortunately the situation changed dramatically when we got to Slovenia. The next 40km to Maribor was provincial road with many turns and such a traffic jam that made the overtaking difficult and in some parts almost impossible. As a consequence we got late and tired and just before Maribor we made a stop to a gas station to drink a coffee put some gas. Lots of time had passed and because of the last part of the trip we had only made 120km so we didn’t have enough time to visit Maribor, the second biggest city of Slovenia.
We took a rest for about half an hour and we started again. After passing Maribor we got into the motorway, following the direction to Austria. Some minutes later we crossed the frontiers and we made a stop to get provided with the Austrian motorway road tax. Taking advantage of the perfect condition of the Austrian motorway we started gobbling the kilometers and some moments later we arrived to the first toll station where we paid 4,50€ for the motorway tax (4.50€ + 7.70€ = 12.20€).
There we made a small stop to take some photos we made some photos as it the spot offered us a beautiful view to the lake.
We had passed the exit for Graz and decided to spend the night at Graz, quite norther so as to make the rest of the kilometers the following day. So we divided the next trip into two parts the first for a small coffee and the second for lunch.
We took our lunch to the natural park Kalkapen, after having seen many publicity signs on the motorway. We had already made a small research about this park before our trip and had seen some amazing photos. As it takes 2 days to visit it we were contented to see some pictures of the park on the top of a tower.
Finally, after 410km and 8h, including a 2hour stop, we arrived to Linz and we started looking for accommodation. In order to gain some time, as we were already tired, I got in the first hotel asking for information about the prices, even though it looked expensive. In the end we decided to spend the night at an IBIS Hotel for 78€. Not so cheap though.
After a small rest we took a short walk in the city. We didn’t have the opportunity to go very far as the weather became cloudy and a terrible storm obliged us to get back to our room. We decided to order pizzas, drink some beers and stay in the room. Although we couldn’t’t see the city very well we took advantage of the situation to take a rest as it was the most exhausting day. Linz wasn’t a programmed destination anyway and the next morning we had planned to visit one of the most beautiful places of our destination…
*The 10 day motorway tax costs 7,70€ and the 2 month costs 22,20€. You have to stick it the front part of your vehicle.
