The journey, initiated on June 7th, lasted for 14 days, 7 of which on the road, on our powerful motorcycles, crossing seven countries and covering an approximate total of 4660 miles (7.500 Km). For our final destination we have, as always, chosen an island, this time the heavenly isle of Brac, one of the most beautiful and sought after destinations in Croatia, where we enjoyed an unforgettable and relaxing week at the beach. Our trip also included, among others, visits to the Slovene city of Piran, a magnificent medieval city by the Adriatic Sea, and to the Croat city of Dubrovnik, which forced us to a troubled incursion into Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The adventure effectively begun with picking up the motorcycles at the transporting company in Lisbon, on the morning of June 7th. Yet, since on that day Portugal was under a heat wave, we decided not to initiate our trip until later in the afternoon. Even then, we suffered temperatures of nearly 108º F (42º C) while travelling through Santarém, which forced us to an unscheduled stop at a service area to freshen up and drink some water.

In spite of the intense heat, we were soon back on the road, towards Guarda and Vilar Formoso, through A23, crossing the Spanish border around 20:30, after what we followed to Salamanca, where we had dinner. Since we needed to make up for the time lost with our belated departure from Lisbon, we travelled another 50 mi (80 km) to Valladolid, where we arrived around 01:00 in the morning. We stayed at the Hotel NH Ciudad de Valladolid (which was expensive considering the quality of the service offered), having thus travelled the first 372 mi (598 Km).

We left Valladolid around 8:30, heading for France, attempting to reach Menton that same day, thus keeping with our initial schedule. And so it was. We went past Burgos, beginning the descent towards San Sebastian through a winding motorway that followed a stream and crossed beautiful landscapes. Around 12:30, we crossed the French border, past Irun, only stopping for lunch near Lourdes, at an excellent roadside restaurant, with a view of the Pyrenees, which were especially beautiful that day, still having some snow on the highest peaks.

At our first stop for refuelling, already in French territory, we were amazed at the price of gasoline – 1,27 € per litre!

Back to the excellent but expensive French motorways (on that day we crossed an excess of 15 tollgates, paying approximately 100 € in the whole), we went past Narbonne, Montpellier, Marseille and, towards the end of the day, Cannes, Nice and Monaco, with the sunset lending a golden hue to the hills that surround these beautiful cities in the French Riviera, or Côte D’Azur, as it is better known.

At around 21:00, we arrived at Menton, the last city in the South of France before the Italian border, where we had enjoyed staying during our trip to Sardinia, the previous year. We had an invigorating shower at the Hotel Princess & Richmond, which we already knew, trying to recover from the 800 mi (1.288 Km) we travelled that day, at good speed, and had dinner at one of the many seaside restaurants, facing the tranquil and mirror-like Mediterranean Sea.

We were tired but pleased to have made up for the time lost on our journey’s first day.

3rd day – June 9th – 473 mi (762 Km)

After a quiet and restful night at Menton, we were ready to begin one of the most anticipated stages of our journey: a visit to Slovenia, followed by Croatia.

We didn’t leave the hotel at Menton until around 10:00, crossing the Italian border 15 minutes later, at Vintemiglia. We followed the always beautiful but winding motorway that borders the Italian Riviera, with sumptuous views over San Remo, Savona and Genoa. If it weren’t for pollution we faced while crossing the many tunnels of this mountain road, I’d say it was one of the most challenging roads in Italy in terms of driving. Nevertheless, it was precisely on this road I had the first scare of the trip. An Italian driver nearly pushed me off the road by changing lanes, at a rather high speed, without signalling. It took the efficient performance of the ABS of my FJR to prevent the worst.

Unfortunately, as we were nearing Genoa, the blue sky that had accompanied us since morning became rapidly clouded and we even got some rain, with the temperature dropping substantially all the way to Venice. We had lunch on the way, at a restaurant near Cremona belonging to the Auto-Grill chain, we were already familiar with. Afterwards we stopped by the Lago di Garda to rest for a while and enjoy the grandeur of the scenery.

Between Verona and Venice the traffic was intense, which forced us to zigzag between the long rows of cars and trucks that sometimes slowed down to a standstill. We managed to make up for the lost time, though, on the motorway that connects Venice to Trieste, near the Slovene border, which we crossed around 17:00.

Unfortunately, my Garmin GPS wasn’t equipped with updated maps of old Eastern Europe. Therefore, just after crossing the border, we got lost in one of the many new motorways of Slovenia. It took the help of a border guard for us to find the right way to Piran. A small medieval town in the Slovene coast, where we stayed at the Hotel Piran, a very well-situated hotel, facing the Adriatic Sea, which had very affordable prices. If we were already impressed with the excellent roads of Slovenia, we were even more taken with them once we started descending towards the picturesque city of Piran, where we arrived around 18:00, after travelling another 473 mi (762 Km).

We just took the time to put away the motorcycles and our bags and to take an invigorating shower, before we started touring this little town, a veritable museum, with its narrow medieval alleys, crowned by the imposing St. George Cathedral and, behind it, a large castle. Fortunately, the sun was shinning again, which allowed us to watch, at dinnertime, a radiant sunset from the esplanade of a seaside restaurant.

On the following day, we got up early to continue our tour of Piran, climbing up to the cathedral, that has a superb view over the town and the interior of which we had the privilege of visiting thanks to a pleasant old lady, in charge of cleaning it. We also walked through the main square and the well-equipped marina, before going back to the hotel and resuming our journey towards Croatia (originally called Hrvatska), more precisely the city of Split, around 10:30 in the morning.

On our way to Croatia, we went past Portoroz, another well-known Slovene Summer resort, touristier, but very pleasant, full of wide flowery gardens.

We crossed the border between Slovenia and Croatia around 11:20, heading towards Rijeka, to take the beautiful but winding secondary road A8, which borders the Adriatic Sea up to the city of Split, where we took a ferry to the isle of Brac, final destination of our journey.

It was delightful to go through most of the Croat coast, only a few feet away from the sea and at a moderate speed, to better enjoy the rare beauty of the landscapes, composed by many bays cut into the coast and by the hundreds of islands we could see (from the 1.185 islands of the Croat coast, also known, for this reason as the Caribbean of the Adriatic), making us feel as if we were in an archipelago.

On that day, we had lunch at Senj, in a roomy restaurant by the road, with a veranda overlooking the sea, where we begun to grasp the tranquillity of the Croat way of life. The roar of the many motorcycles that crossed our path that day, especially belonging to German and Dutch fellow bikers, only occasionally interrupted the sound of the sea stroking the rocks.

In the afternoon, we continued our journey through the seaside, up to Split, even though the sky was suddenly cloudy and the temperature went down to 63º F (17º C). In fact, unstable weather, blue skies and almost unbearable heat alternating with dark, almost rainy weather marked most of our journey there.

Before we arrived at Split, we went past the coastal cities of Zadar and Trogir, the latter being qualified by UNESCO as World Patrimony. Unfortunately, we had no time to visit it because it was getting late to catch the last ferry from Jadrolinija headed to the isle of Brac. This we did at 21:00, after having travelled over another 303 mi (487 Km).

After a 50 minute voyage, we arrived at Supetar, on the isle of Brac, immediately following to the Hotel Pastura, in the quiet fishing village of Postira, where we were wonderfully set up for the invigorating week at the beach we enjoyed in Brac, interrupted only for a day for an unforgettable visit to the city of Dubrovnik, better known as "Pearl of the Adriatic".

After we had checked in to the Hotel Pastura, where we were wonderfully treated – thank you Toni Buljevic, Michael, Adriana and all the staff, who were so welcoming and made our stay in Brac even more pleasant – we spent all our first day in the beautiful beach of Zlatni Rat, an landmark of Croatia, an enormous triangular expanse of sand on the Adriatic. We needed to recover the energy expended over the previous four days of travelling, during which we had gone over 1948 mi (3.135 Km).

Although, in the following days, we had nearly always stayed in this beautiful beach, we took advantage of the afternoons to explore the beautiful isle of Brac. With an area of merely 154 mi2 (398 Km2), the island is replete of picturesque nooks and magnificent bays, surrounded by many villages and towns, with their white houses and, invariably, a lovely old church at their centre, which made them look like primly arranged nativity scenes. In fact, the white stone of Brac is famous. From it were built many monuments in Europe and the United States, such as the White House, in Washington.

Aside from the beauty and the stillness of the island, the hospitality, kindness and culture of the people, who nearly always spoke either French or English, was also a very positive point.

After another morning at the beach, we got once again into our biker gear to catch the 18:00 ferry to Split, from where we headed to the city of Dubrovnik, for a one-day visit.

From Split, we travelled some 124 mi (200 Km) south, always on the coastal road, with high stony mountain on one side and the still Adriatic Sea on the other. At 20:30, after a beautiful sunset, the sun disappeared, plunging abruptly into the island-strewn sea and emphasizing the contrasting outline of the continental mountains.

Unlike we had anticipated, it was already dark when we reached the Bosnia-Herzegovina border. There, the second unpleasant episode of this trip took place. While crossing the scarce 7 mi (12 Km) through Bosnian territory and after going though a very degraded and nasty looking town, I ran into a group of sullen policemen that made me stop because I had allegedly speeded through town. After a useless conversation (the Bosnians spoke little English), the three policemen, threateningly surrounded our motorcycle, asked for my papers and made us go to the police car, where they showed us an ancient speedometer, indicating 39 mph (62 Km/h). Since the motorcycle belonging to the Paz Ferreira couple was right behind us, as were other vehicles that weren’t “bothered”, I asked for a snapshot of my motorcycle, which they obviously didn’t have, and they ended up mocking my request.

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