The deeper I go into Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary the more old cold war bunkers and military outposts I find. Wish I had more time to explore some of the remnants which are both fascinating but also exceptionally “creepy”. Without exception they seem to be in excellent preserved condition with little signs of vandalism and just succumbing to the ravages of nature with tree roots growing through feet think concrete walls enhancing the dereliction. I could spend weeks in these areas alone, just meandering through the countryside and borders, looking at these historic sites but sadly time in limited – and the west is calling me again.
Category Archives: Travel Blogs
Jungfernsprung
The story goes that a young maiden ventured into the Forest of Dahn to pick berries when a man with ‘dishonourable intent’ thought to be Hans Trap from Berwartstein Castle chased her down to take her ‘innocence’. The young maiden gathered up her skirts and took to flight but in her panic she did not watch where she was going and found herself at a cliff edge – without stopping to think, the young maiden fell over the cliff and because her skirts ballooned out she floated down gently and survived the leap unhurt – ever since at the spot of her leap a spring has flowed. All I know is that stumbling across this set of waterfalls on a bimble around the Austrian and German border was amazing.
New friends
Riding the mountain roads near Cerknica I came across another GS rider with 500,000km on his bike – through broken French and German we agreed that these are the best bikes in the world… and after coffee and lunch and exchange of stories and tribulations we clattered off in our respective directions leaving just a trail of dust behind… 
Goat in the road
Riding the Grossglockner enthused me to try the Nockalmstrasse in the pouring rain… this is a ‘lower alpine pass’ which turned out to be a good move as it was a quieter yet much more technical ride and apart from the usual cattle and horse hazards new ones on me were little tubby Marmots and these youngsters oblivious to the traffic…
The Alpine Wall and the Woods
Riding off the main highway today around the back roads on the Slovenia / Italian border I came across an abandoned fortification which was once part of the great Alpine Wall. This fortification was built in the lead up to WWII at the order of Benito Mussolini to protect Italy from her neighbhours the defences comprises two central areas with bunkhouses and kitchens and two opposing circular machine gun posts with metal fixings for heavy machine guns giving a possible almost circular field of fire. Although the main doors had been removed to this Type A Zone of Resistance fortification I could clearly envisage the determination required to get through the two blast doors and the meters of reinforced concrete.