From the European luxuries to the Balkan fields

Sunday August 18, Top of Austria (360 km)
We get up early in the morning and after a good breakfast we load our bikes and get ready to depart.

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We head back to Hallstatt to fill up our tanks (forgot to do it yesterday) and then head up to passo Gossau. The Alpine peaks at the background look like a drawing, with us moving in it…

After the pass we hit the A10, south of Salzburg, until we reach our first today’s attraction: the Eisriesenwelt (translation: World of the Ice Giants). It is the largest ice cave in the world with a length of approximately 42 km!

During the way up to the cave, the view to the Hohenwerfen castle is stunning

The tour in the cave lasts about an hour, but you need about 40 minutes to reach the cave entrance (lots of walking and a funicular). Temperatures inside are VERY low. While we wait to get in, we see some people running out the cave freezing. Unfortunately photos are prohibited and what you see below is captured illegally, so it lacks in quality…

Inside therefore, we have to walk up and down 1400 steps!, while learning the history of the cave. It was formed by the underground river Salzach, which found a way out through the mountain. The ice formations are created by the snow, which melts in the cave and freeze due the colds winds of winter.

As the cave is open to the wind, in winter, the cold streams freeze the snow. Unlike in the summer, cold air from inside is leaving preventing the melting of ice.

The tour was completed and we headed back to motorcycles to find Stratos. He has seen the ice cave in past, so he stayed back avoiding the expensive ticket (20€). Meanwhile he managed to get some information from a taxi driver about Grossglockner and it seems that we are lucky and a sunny weather is waiting for us.

The stunning view over the caves

The traffic is really heavy until we get to the mountain pass. Fortunately, because it’s late afternoon, the pass is almost empty. We pay the expensive tolls (23€) and begin enjoying the magic route.

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We reach the peak, at 2405m, and continue to the highest point of the pass, the Edelweissspitze, at 2571m, to enjoy a panoramic view. The atmosphere is so clean that we can see the famous lake Zell am See in the background.

It’s my 3rd time visiting this place and I really do not regret it at all. Tolls are expensive, but the combination of the landscape, the perfect tarmac and the continuous curves, makes it worth every penny.

At the top, we meet two Austrians with two KTM Adventure 1190. Dimitris asks them about the oil problem and they confirm that this happens to lots of new KTM motorcycles. The Greek importer said that this will stop after the motorcycle reaches 5000 km and that was the case…

Back on the road again, heading south to the glacier Pasterze…

It is the largest in Austria with a length of about 8 km. The measurement may not be accurate because the length of the glacier is reduced about 10 meters per year! In 1851, when it was measured for the first time, it was twice as long!

And while we are enjoying the spectacular scenery and slowly approaching the souvenir shop, we suddenly see the door rolls closing. Sorry! It is 17:30 and the store closes. Not even a minute more…
There are more than 50 visitors outside who apparently will not have the opportunity again to visit this place… And they just lock the door leaving everyone outside… Behind the window we are watching shop owners measuring a huge pack of bills, which was their profit of the day…

About 6:00 in the afternoon, we get back on the road again. Our final destination for the day is a bit far away . For sure we will be there at nighttime, but we don’t care. It was a magnificent route and it isn’t over yet…

First Gailberg pass (981m), with the Dolomite Alps in the background. Great tarmac, no traffic and with the sun heading to hide behind the mountains…

A few km later we approach the Nassfeld pass (1552m), just over the borders of Austria and Italy. The passage in Italian is called Passo di Pramollo. The landscape is great, but the tarmac is crap (oh yes, there are bad roads at the Alps).

We make a stop at the top beside the lake, saying goodbye to the sun and welcoming the almost full moon.

We stay in Italian territory for about 50 night km…

Before we head to Slovenia and more specifically to the village Podkoren which is very close to the borders, a few km west of the well known Kranjska Gora. Finally we reach to our hotel (Vitranic) at about 10 o’clock at night.

In the restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel -which is the only one in the village- the tables are almost full. The friendly waiter, Marco, prepares a table for us and asks if we are hungry in order to prepare the food until we get settled. Needless to say what we answered…

Our room is a traditional and beautiful apartment for ten persons. Two double bedrooms, one single, one loft with 5 twin beds and an area serving as kitchen, living room and dining room. We will take a better look in the morning, because now we are hungry like horses. Some inappropriate scenes follow of the attack in the dining area during which a bunch of bikers, mangled a variety of animals…

To celebrate our victory we collapsed in our beds.