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We wanted to make another crazy tour: With small (i.e. 50cc) vehicles quite far away, what most people think its unpossible.
Our meeting point was at 10am in Landau an der Isar.
But I couldn't leave until the evening before and so I rode 427km through the night. And still arrived on time.
In the meantime, 2 riders had withdrawn, the route was probably too long for them and they got scared.
(Notice the bulky luggage on the Piaggio Liberty! But he abandoned the matress in Austria.)
We set off with just 2 Apes (Ape is Italian language for bee, Piaggio is the original inventor) and 2 scooters.
First we went to Passau at the Danube and then to Linz and Ybbs.
http://www.youtu.be/GCGinnGI0p0
The Danube Valley starting at Passau is beautiful, but the Middle Rhine Valley is more beautiful.
As we weren't allowed to use the motorway with 50cc, but we didn't want to go through the big city of Vienna either, we had to go through the Austrian Alpine foothills.
The Apes could only manage gradients at 10km/h in first gear, which the scooters could climb easily at 20-30km/h. And finally not at all, their clutch slipped.
Now there were only two of us remaining.
But we moved forward more quickly. But the roads in Hungary are even worse than in Germany.
As in Hungary you are officially not allowed to spend the night on the side of the road and there are only 2 official campsites, we headed for an official shelter in the west of Veszprem.
There is also running water there from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
After that we went to Lake Balaton. There are lots of snakes there. We were able to watch two of them successfully catching fish. But that is so quick, that I couldn't take any decent pictures of it.
The Hungarian Puszta is rather boring. Not much forest, more steppe. Always just 20 or 30 km straight ahead.
At one point an employee at a campsite gave us a free overnight stay out of pity.
They were used to mobile homes and caravans from the Netherlands, not for poor Germans who only have a 50cc scooter and a tent.
We crossed Dunaujvaros and Kecskemet and wanted to end the day in the Romanian city of Oradea.
But at the border the Romanians turned me away. They wanted a passport from me, not just an ID card.
I didn't have my passport with me. I thought you don't need one in the EU. You don't officially need it either, but that's how the border guards demanded it.
It was 11:30 and my friend had to continue alone. I decided to quickly ride back home.
I rode roughly the same route back to the campsite near Veszprem. And the next day through Austria and back home all night long.
That was over 900km on the last day.
But I can't do a night trip like that in Hungary, because my scooter only has a 35W head light and 10-inch wheels. A surprise pothole can get me into a lot of trouble.
And not in the Netherlands either, with those stupid bollards in the middle of the mandatory bike path.
Our meeting point was at 10am in Landau an der Isar.
But I couldn't leave until the evening before and so I rode 427km through the night. And still arrived on time.
In the meantime, 2 riders had withdrawn, the route was probably too long for them and they got scared.
(Notice the bulky luggage on the Piaggio Liberty! But he abandoned the matress in Austria.)
We set off with just 2 Apes (Ape is Italian language for bee, Piaggio is the original inventor) and 2 scooters.
First we went to Passau at the Danube and then to Linz and Ybbs.
http://www.youtu.be/GCGinnGI0p0
The Danube Valley starting at Passau is beautiful, but the Middle Rhine Valley is more beautiful.
As we weren't allowed to use the motorway with 50cc, but we didn't want to go through the big city of Vienna either, we had to go through the Austrian Alpine foothills.
The Apes could only manage gradients at 10km/h in first gear, which the scooters could climb easily at 20-30km/h. And finally not at all, their clutch slipped.
Now there were only two of us remaining.
But we moved forward more quickly. But the roads in Hungary are even worse than in Germany.
As in Hungary you are officially not allowed to spend the night on the side of the road and there are only 2 official campsites, we headed for an official shelter in the west of Veszprem.
There is also running water there from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
After that we went to Lake Balaton. There are lots of snakes there. We were able to watch two of them successfully catching fish. But that is so quick, that I couldn't take any decent pictures of it.
The Hungarian Puszta is rather boring. Not much forest, more steppe. Always just 20 or 30 km straight ahead.
At one point an employee at a campsite gave us a free overnight stay out of pity.
They were used to mobile homes and caravans from the Netherlands, not for poor Germans who only have a 50cc scooter and a tent.
We crossed Dunaujvaros and Kecskemet and wanted to end the day in the Romanian city of Oradea.
But at the border the Romanians turned me away. They wanted a passport from me, not just an ID card.
I didn't have my passport with me. I thought you don't need one in the EU. You don't officially need it either, but that's how the border guards demanded it.
It was 11:30 and my friend had to continue alone. I decided to quickly ride back home.
I rode roughly the same route back to the campsite near Veszprem. And the next day through Austria and back home all night long.
That was over 900km on the last day.
But I can't do a night trip like that in Hungary, because my scooter only has a 35W head light and 10-inch wheels. A surprise pothole can get me into a lot of trouble.
And not in the Netherlands either, with those stupid bollards in the middle of the mandatory bike path.
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