A trip for three

Motorcycle Trip in Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Austria

Your Travel

The desire to travel and to explore new places is always strong and even more so when you are young. I’m 21 years old; he’s 25.

We spent months planning our first trip abroad together with our motorcycle.

It wasn’t easy to make our schedules line up between studying and working. It was even harder to plan our route and decide which places to visit. In the end, we found the right combination, and the result was amazing. Our trip lasted 8 days for a total of 2467 km travelled and five countries visited.

On 5 September, we left from Senigallia around 14:00, for our first destination: Trieste.
We arrived in the provincial capital of Friuli Venezia Giulia in the evening. In the time it took us to have dinner, we were already immersed in the majesty of the city.
Piazza dell’Unità welcomed us in all of its beauty, which was further highlighted by the lights that make it even more magical in the evening.
The following morning, we visited Miramare Castle, a Gothic revival building. It overlooks the Gulf of Trieste and is surrounded by a wonderful park where you can admire a great variety of plants.

On 6 September, with the castle at our backs, we travelled towards Rijeka, in Croatia.
The city is very lively, the main road is sometimes crowded and full of tourists, and there are many sights to see. The Natural History Museum and the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral were waiting for us. The first is small but well curated and features a multimedia route with explanations, while the second extends over three floors where we could admire the main types of boats built over the centuries.

On 7 September, we left for Krk, a Croatian island in the Adriatic sea which is connected to the mainland by a bridge.
Krk is wonderful; the vegetation calls to mind the Maquis shrubland, and the sea is crystal clear. We decided to explore the length and breadth of the island, going to the main towns like Punat, Baska, Malinska and of course, to the city of Krk itself. These are small but clean and well-kept cities that are inundated by tourists. They are less than half an hour from each other and yet, over the short stretches between them, it is possible to admire changes in landscapes that go from green hills to calm sea.

On 8 September, we said goodbye to the island and arrived in Grabovac, where we stayed for two nights. It is a strategically located village, on the border with Bosnia and a few kilometres from the Plitvice Lakes, our destination on the following day. In the afternoon, we decided to cross the border, intrigued by the desire to visit Bosnia without really being aware of what awaited us. The cities we visited were Bihac and Cazin, which were very similar. Throughout the country, you can still breathe in the atmosphere of the war from the early Nineties. The conflict has not only remained in the history books, but can also be seen in people’s eyes, in the ruins of buildings and in those that are still being built. It was more a lesson than a visit. We set out carefree, but we returned with greater awareness.

We spent 9 September immersed in the nature of the Plitvice Lakes. The park is huge and can be visited by choosing one of the four available trails that are categorised by the amount of time it takes to complete them and their distance in kilometres. We chose Trail C which also included a boat ride on the lake. The park is spectacular and words cannot describe how beautiful nature can be.

On 10 September, we left for Slovenia: our destination, Ljubljana, the only capital city on the itinerary. The city is well organised and clean. We travelled the city far and wide in the afternoon, even taking a boat tour on the river, while we planned which places to visit the following day.

On 11 September, we visited the castle in the capital city of Slovenia. There is a museum in the castle where it is possible to retrace the history of the city and the country from the middle ages to the present. Throughout the route, there were screens located near photos and objects, so that you could read the description and the historical context in your own language. It is also possible to climb the tower and admire the layout of the city. There is a huge park surrounding the castle and that is besieged by athletes and sports and nature enthusiasts. Riding bicycles, we then went to the botanical garden and then the zoo, where you can see animals from all over the world. In the afternoon, we went to the House of Illusions and, in the evening, after dinner, we decided to ride electric scooters to explore every corner of the city centre that we had previously missed, to take in the city at 360 degrees.

On 12 September, we left for Austria: our destination Ferlach. The Pyramidenkogel Tower was our first stop. It is a wooden tower, with an observation terrace from which you can see and admire small villages with traditional houses, the Danube, the mountains and see all the way to the provincial capital Klagenfurt. The latter, together with Villach were the last destinations of our trip.

In fact, on 13 September, we returned to Italy, tired but satisfied.