HOLLAND
Well, nice and easy to start with. Customs is non existent, the immigration guy on the dockside peers through the gap in my helmet hopefully trying to gauge my likeness against the passport photo and waves me on. Terribly flat with long long dull stretches of motorway I drive southward toward Germany. It's green, farmed, tidy and the driving can be a little distracted with occasional strange weaves across the roads.
GERMANY
Almost immediately at the border the area get much more forested. The driving tends to be fast, predictable and controlled. It seems to me that there are so many motorways that you are never more than a few miles away from one. The people are always (on this trip and previous ones) terribly friendly and in no time at all I'm heading toward Switzerland.
There's a wide range of terrain, it is a big country after all, and goes from rolling forested hills in the north west and black forest areas though much more flat land elsewhere. Toward the south in hillier areas you find marvellous castles teetering on the edge of hills.
SWITZERLAND
For some reason I always approach Switzerland thinking it's about ten miles wide. The common result in all the times I've been there on two wheels is that I drive long distances on the motorway and fork out for the vignette.
Terribly pretty, very well organized and all the other Swiss cliches you can think of. Driving is ok, quite predictable and a bit non descript.
FRANCE
The border I cross mid way through Evian was a tiny post with a small cabin half way across the street. The cars suddenly all change to Citroen and Peugeot which is a change from most in Germany being Mercedes, BMW or Opel. I think back to the seventies - what I remember of it with Austin Maxis, Morris Marinas and the move in toward the demise of Rover later on.
Right, back to France. Again a huge wealth of terrain, fast and close driving in much less tidy cars and a friendly attitude which isn't always noted as bring French. I quite like France now and am a little sad that it's been so close and utterly unexplored by me until lately.
ITALY
A brief foray through the Mont Blanc tunnel towards Aosta, painfully beautiful and the French cars largely give way to Fiat and Alfa Romeo. Driving wasn't to dissimilar to the French but maybe just a little quicker and a little closer.
LEICHTENSTEIN
A token trip into somewhere almost indistinguishable to Switzerland. Not much to say really.
AUSTRIA
Picture postcard time again. I found Austria a strange mix, perfectly manicured towns and cities, organized amazingly. Driving in the west seemed to be very well controlled and everyone drove to the speed limit while toward the east the spews picked up and it was much like Germany.
People are terribly courteous and I enjoyed Salzburg. Vienna was just too organized, just too perfect to be real for me. It took me a day to realize this. Although Ive never been to Austria before it seemed just like other parts of Europe I've been to. The mountains are spectacular though, possibly more so than France or Switzerland.
HUNGARY
My first real border! Oh, no its not. Like the rest of Europe you just drive over the old customs plaza, note that there's nobody around and move on.
Visually an extension to Germany or Austria in so many ways the driving gets a little closer and Budapest has some amazing buildings. Everything looks a little older, a little rougher but beautiful none the less. There seem to be quite a lot of police around, all driving in new Skoda Octavia's and are badged "rendorseg" which takes a little getting used to.
I start to see my first signs warning of cows, and of horse and carts.
ROMANIA
My first real border! Oh, no it's not. A border post on the way in stops me and checks my passport. No stamps, little interest and Im off south. The roads are in surprisingly good condition and its obvious that the country is used as a corridor by southern European trucks. There's a lot of new money floating about and many areas have boards up announcing European cash coming in to buy or build things. You only have to look down the side streets and see them degenerate into dirt tracks.
Im supposed to buy a vignette for Romania although apparently this doesn't apply to bikes. The border guard pointed me toward the nearest petrol station to get one and the guy there wouldn't sell me one. Its never checked on the way out.
This is the land of Dacia. Most of the cars are Dacia. The older cars, and there are a load of them are Dacia 1310 which is to western European eyes a Renault 12. The later ones are Sandero which is a strange old generation Renault Clio thing.
In Romania I start to see not only the signs for cows and horse / cart combos but I see the real thing. And dogs. Hundreds of dogs. All loose and roaming without a care in the world. The sign placement and organisation is shocking, direction signs sometimes at a junction, sometimes before and sometimes just after. At least the roads I'm on are largely in good condition so I don't have to worry too much about them.
Police are absolutely everywhere in their little Dacia cars. Nobody pays much attention to the speed limits although I do spot a few speed traps. On the way south I drive through what seems to be a little used border posting south of Constanta where I get a cursory check of V5 and passport. I do get chased over the border post by a couple of angry looking dogs.
BULGARIA
Guess what? My first real border! Errr, no. There's nobody about. Again there should be a vignette but a guy in a distant cabin when I stop to check an information poster just shouts and waves me on.
Although initially the roads are a little rougher and I start to see old Lada cars. There seems to be much more money about here. Down by the Black Sea coast it's obvious that there's a load of money coming in from somewhere.
Most of the signs are in dual Russia and Latin fonts so it's nice and easy. police tend to roam in Skoda Octavias again though I barely see any of them.
The border on the way out is manned, I get stopped at the first post where my passport is checked. After ten minutes I'm allowed to drive round a corner to a customs post where an officer just comes to me, looks and then waves me on. Then it's up the hill a little and round another corner to where I really do have my first real border.
So far I've had no involvement with any authorities barring cursory border checks and thankfully no grief with the police.
More to come...
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