HobbesOnTour
Guru
- Location
- España
Fantastic!
The Big Tour of '24
- Thread starter roubaixtuesday
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Emanresu
I asked AI to show the 'real' me.
Just a heads up for you on the Rome - Naples section. If you’re travelling from Sperlonga to Gaeta, that section has 4 tunnel sections where you share the road with lorries. Drivers on the whole are considerate considering the number of cyclists in Italy.
Another top tip is to take the sunglasses off before you get into an unlit tunnel.
Another top tip is to take the sunglasses off before you get into an unlit tunnel.
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
Where are you, @roubaixtuesday?
roubaixtuesday
self serving virtue signaller
roubaixtuesday
self serving virtue signaller
Today we're having a rest day at the Laghi di Monticchio in Monte Vulture national park, in Basilicata in the South of Italy. As with all of Italy, it's amazingly quiet out of season, and we've basically got an entire lake to ourselves.
It's starting to get hot, particularly in the middle of the day, but we're still on track for our ferry to Albania on June 13th.
Italy has been more of a cultural tour than France was, with medieval towns and Renaissance art, but also some lovely countryside too.
Some highlights and pictures:
-Milano Duomo
-Peschiera del Garda
-"Lamentation of Christ" sculpture, Bologna
- San Gimignano
- Siena
- Bagnoregio
- Lago di Vico
- Tivoli, the gardens at Villa d'Este
- Paestum
I've just been booking border permits for Kosovo and accommodation in Tirana, so the next section is starting to feel very real, and a bit scary to be honest
It's starting to get hot, particularly in the middle of the day, but we're still on track for our ferry to Albania on June 13th.
Italy has been more of a cultural tour than France was, with medieval towns and Renaissance art, but also some lovely countryside too.
Some highlights and pictures:
-Milano Duomo
-Peschiera del Garda
-"Lamentation of Christ" sculpture, Bologna
- San Gimignano
- Siena
- Bagnoregio
- Lago di Vico
- Tivoli, the gardens at Villa d'Este
- Paestum
I've just been booking border permits for Kosovo and accommodation in Tirana, so the next section is starting to feel very real, and a bit scary to be honest
roubaixtuesday
self serving virtue signaller
Albanian cycling roadside finds...
Exhortation to cycle rather than drive hung over a very busy road in Tirana, I think something like "You'd be there already if you'd cycled"
And memorial to Bilal Agalliu atop a mountain road "A legend of Albanian sport. Champion for 11 years". Google revealed almost nothing about him other than his dob (1935)
The view from the memorial
Exhortation to cycle rather than drive hung over a very busy road in Tirana, I think something like "You'd be there already if you'd cycled"
And memorial to Bilal Agalliu atop a mountain road "A legend of Albanian sport. Champion for 11 years". Google revealed almost nothing about him other than his dob (1935)
The view from the memorial
roubaixtuesday
self serving virtue signaller
Currently sitting out a rest day storm in Montenegro, so time for a Balkans update.
Albania:
Lovely landscapes and people, some surreal experiences too. Here, the fish processing plant visitor attraction we stayed at, and lovely Lake Ohrid.
North Macedonia:
Incredible mixture with religion and language changing at every corner.
Sveti Jovan Church in Ohrid, and the painted mosque in Tetovo:
Kosovo:
Feels like a young country going through a massive change. Construction projects and memorials for the recent war are both ubiquitous. Also some wonderful landscapes.
The war memorial in Pejë and the Rugova Canyon:
Montenegro:
Alpine beauty. The clouds breaking after a storm on the Čakor Pass, and our swimming spot in the Tara Canyon:
The Čakor pass over the Accursed Mountains is unique; the road is closed to vehicles at the border but cyclable, with ~2km push on a dirt track. The climb from the border to the summit is on perfect tarmac but utterly deserted. It's the most perfect on road cycle climb, a steady maybe 6-7% and you have it entirely to yourself, the verges strewn with wildflowers. Less than 100 ascents are recorded on Strava. If you ever have the chance to be on a bike in Kosovo or Montenegro, take it. You need police permits from both jurisdictions, though ours weren't checked, but we're told sometimes people do get turned back without them.
Next up: highest road of the tour over to Bosnia, then Sarajevo, Serbia and Hungary.
Albania:
Lovely landscapes and people, some surreal experiences too. Here, the fish processing plant visitor attraction we stayed at, and lovely Lake Ohrid.
North Macedonia:
Incredible mixture with religion and language changing at every corner.
Sveti Jovan Church in Ohrid, and the painted mosque in Tetovo:
Kosovo:
Feels like a young country going through a massive change. Construction projects and memorials for the recent war are both ubiquitous. Also some wonderful landscapes.
The war memorial in Pejë and the Rugova Canyon:
Montenegro:
Alpine beauty. The clouds breaking after a storm on the Čakor Pass, and our swimming spot in the Tara Canyon:
The Čakor pass over the Accursed Mountains is unique; the road is closed to vehicles at the border but cyclable, with ~2km push on a dirt track. The climb from the border to the summit is on perfect tarmac but utterly deserted. It's the most perfect on road cycle climb, a steady maybe 6-7% and you have it entirely to yourself, the verges strewn with wildflowers. Less than 100 ascents are recorded on Strava. If you ever have the chance to be on a bike in Kosovo or Montenegro, take it. You need police permits from both jurisdictions, though ours weren't checked, but we're told sometimes people do get turned back without them.
Next up: highest road of the tour over to Bosnia, then Sarajevo, Serbia and Hungary.
Slick
Guru
Class pictures.
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
Those photos!!!
T4tomo
Legendary Member
it all looks amazing. Enjoy!
RyanFrog
Well-Known Member
Enjoy your journey! I loved touring the Balkans, I travelled very slowly through the region as I wanted to explore as much as possible. I highly recommend setting up camp (and perhaps taking a rest day) at the lagoon of Narte, north of Vlore in Albania if you pass the region. The road south of the Accursed Mountains on the border from Albania to Kosovo is unbelievably beautiful with plentiful out-of-this-world camping spots. It's a hell of a climb though! Safe travels 
P.S. I believe your Eastern Europe leg is almost exclusively considered Central European.
Edit: I see you are in Montenegro already, so you can ignore my tips. Great photos, looks like you're having a whale of a time, fantastic to see! I didn't even hear about the cycling permits in Kosovo / Montenegro? We certainly had no problems though, they hardly even glanced at us on these borders! (Although on second thought, we did get police ID'd shortly after the Albanian / Montenegran border while eating on a backroad by an abandoned church). Rock on 🤟
P.S. I believe your Eastern Europe leg is almost exclusively considered Central European.
Edit: I see you are in Montenegro already, so you can ignore my tips. Great photos, looks like you're having a whale of a time, fantastic to see! I didn't even hear about the cycling permits in Kosovo / Montenegro? We certainly had no problems though, they hardly even glanced at us on these borders! (Although on second thought, we did get police ID'd shortly after the Albanian / Montenegran border while eating on a backroad by an abandoned church). Rock on 🤟
Last edited:
