Back from Croatia
Across Velebit In the small town of Obrovac I said goodbye to the Mediterranean and began to climb 1000 meters steeply up from the sea level to the Velebit range. At the top I as a paleface courageously spent the night in the main territory of the Apaches – it is here, under the peak of Tulove Grede a.k.a. Nugget Tsil, where the first 1960’s Winnetou western movie ends, where chief Intschu-tschuna and his daughter Nscho-tschi die and are buried, and a little further under Mount Alanac is where Winnetou himself dies in the third movie of the series. As soon as one traverses over the peaks of Velebit, there is suddenly in a completely different country – instead of the dry Mediterranean, in places affected by recent fires, there…
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Croatian coast

Croatian coast

Hvar As soon as I got to the coast, I recognised that I truly was in holiday Croatia – cars and buses with Czech license plates everywhere. I drove straight along the coast from the mouth of the Neretva to the north-west only to Drvenik, where I took a ferry to the island of Hvar, which I crossed along its length. Apart from the coastal towns is the Hvar island quiet, with almost no cars on the one main road and beautiful view from the island to both sides, ideal for a ride. From the local ridge, which runs through the middle of the prolonged island, I had a beautiful view both to the north to the coast and later to the island of Brač, as well as towards Korčula…
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To Bosnia

To Bosnia

Hungary My holiday this year is shorter, nevertheless I still wanted to see some hills and a bit of the sea shore. So I planned a trip to Croatia via Bosna. And to make it in time, I moved by train to southern Hungary, to the town Baja. From there I started going south, first nicely through the flat plains following the Donau river and around the location of the Mohács battle with Turks. And after just a day of travel, I crossed the EU border into Serbia.   Serbia I went through Serbia for just a short time, still following the left bank of the Danube. In some places I was in Serbia and Croatia at the same time – the Croats recognize the border according to the historical…
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Southern France

Southern France

From Pyrenees to the seaside It was very interesting to ride down from Pyrenees to France and observe the changes in the countryside: first clearly mountainous environment, which then changed into forests and fields that felt like at home in Czech. But after a while the countryside changed again into a typical southern French, sunny, full of vineyards, castles and the typical architecture. Through the vineyards I went to Carcassonne, where the famous fortress is actually a fortified medieval town rather than a castle. And from there I followed a very pleasant route around the astonishing Canal du Midi, which connects the Atlantic with the Mediterranian. I continued along the canal all the way to the coast. There I gave my last good bye to the sea at this trip…
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Andorra

Andorra

After reaching Andorra by passing through a still active border control post, everything started to seem being built vertically. The capital, Andorra la Vella, is in the main valley, which is narrowly squeezed in between two steep mountain walls. Lot of petrol stations at the border and luxury brands in the city indicate a different taxation than in Spain. Otherwise is Andorra prepared mainly for winter tourism and skiing. However, even in summer, when one leaves the city in any direction – and therefore up the mountains – there is a lot to see. The only trouble is that the Pyrenees are composed of long continuous mountain ridges with no passes or lower sections – so to get a nice view one has to get at the very top of…
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Murcia, Valencia and Catalonia
From Murcia to Valencia Starting from Almería and following the coast of Murcia and Valencia northeast one can find populated lowlands alternating with rarely populated places where the hill ridges reach all the way to the coast. First example of the latter is around Cabo de Gata, then in Sierra Cabrera, then in Calnegre etc. These areas have relatively low but steep ridges, where the environment looks once like in mountains, next time like in a different country altogether – making an impression of being in a desert or an arid steppe somewhere in central Asia. From Valencia to Catalonia Through Valencia I headed towards Barcelona. The countryside started to visibly change during the way: more of green colour, for the first time (with the exception of mountains around Granada)…
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Andalusia

Andalusia

Along the coast to Málaga Towards Málaga is the coast getting more and more crowded: first seemingly unending satellite settlements for the rich, with one way only or even private and closed streets, so the only way to go is the busy highway. Later, around Fuengirola and all the way to Málaga, kilometres and kilometres of hotels for the proper mass beach turism. So it was refreshing to turn from the coast into the inland countryside, aiming for Granada. The countryside here has an interesting profile: from the shore the way goes up 1000 m and everything around makes an impression of being in the mountains. This continues to the top of the Zafarraya pass, which from one side offers truly mountainous feel: rocks, peaks, bending hairpin road, views all…
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Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Over the border crossing and then by crossing the international airport I arrived to Gibraltar. The primary language changed, but also the architecture, or for example the city furniture (phone booths, postal boxes, litter bins all in traditional British style). The Gibraltar Rock is really steep and therefore offers beautiful views across the sea and into all directions. In this sense I was lucky already with my accommodation – which had a private terrace with a casual view at the entire city, two seas, three countries and two continents. The Rock itself is a natural park, offering all kinds of attractions: far views in all directions, forts and underground bunkers built since the Arab rule, throughout the Spanish-English wars all the way to the World War II. And off course…
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Southernmost Spain
I took a ferry again to get from Portugal to Spain, by a ferry over the river Guadiana. My goal was to thereafter continue south, to the southernmost tip of Spain. Theoretically this should have been easy: while compared to Portugal there were suddenly much more fields covered by plastic foil greenhouses, most of the way goes around river deltas, coastal lagoons and through natural parks. But the area of Sevilla turned out to be a major obstacle: in the whole are of approx. 150 x 150 km it is only possible to get across the local river Guadalquivir and the natural parks around it by bridges inside or very close to Sevilla city. There is no coastal track or e.g. a ferry connection by the sea. And Sevilla was…
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Portugal

Portugal

Southwards along the coast From Lisbon, I first crossed by ferry to Seixal, then crossed the peninsula south of Lisbon to its other end at Setúbal, from there again by ferry to the local Troy (Tróia) and over the 18 km long thin stripe of sand protruding into the see I got to a proper land. From there I kept going south and where possible I kept close to the coast. In some places there was a difference of up to 10°C between the coast and a place just 2 km inland – and the coastal temperature was the more pleasant one. This whole part of Portugal had a rather peaceful rural feel, especially compared to the overcrowded Costa del Sol which I visited later in Spain. Here the Atlantic…
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