Albania to Germany

The short detour back to Greece had the positive effect off allowing me to ride over 200 km of twists along the Albanian coast.

I had no plans to stay in Albania but the heat and all the nice beaches with clearest water were far too tempting to just drive by.

The Llogara pass is one of the most beautiful I have ever ridden, climbing up to 1.000 m with a constant view to the Adriatic Sea.

Had a light lunch on the road the guy selling the cherries spoke perfect Italian and asked me if I wanted them washed, I said yes but while I was eating them I started to get some concerns about where the water came from as we were in the middle of nowhere but all went well.

The goal for the day was to stop in Montenegro for the night, but the town I chose, near to the border, was very small and didn't have any accommodations.

On the Serbian border I was once more asked for the insurance green card, took my copy out and the officer asked for the original, I said that I don't have it with me and he went away with my papers. Minutes later he came back and told me I would have to go back to Montenegro and cross the border to Croatia.
I thought, "wait, what?!!!" I looked at him with an incredulous look and the SOB winked at me and let me go. Didn't new that the Serbian officers were able to make these kind of jokes at the border.
I've been to Serbia before and it didn't have a good impression of it but the road I took was really beautiful.

My memory of Croatia is spending hours ridding very slow behind cars, campers and caravans along the coast so this time I went for the highway. It was cold and there was a strong wind blowing but it all went well until shortly before the Zadar exit, there I bumped into a 10km traffic jam, very lucky to be on a motorcycle. For some reason they closed the highway forcing everyone out, meaning hours of waiting to pay your way out. Just 3km later the police was sending everyone back to the highway and shortly I got on it there was a sign forbidding motorcycles to continue, not really something I wanted to see so I just ignored it and I wasn't alone on that. Then the speed on the traffic control system displays was reduced to 80, 60 and then 40 km/h with the wind getting stronger as we climbed the mountain. I far as I can remember this was the strongest wind I had ever to face on a motorbike and the hardest part of the whole ride so far. The speed reduction may be a good thing for cars but it certainly isn't for motorcycles so I ignored it to save my life, it may sound strange but it is a lot easier to control such an heavy bike ridding fast than slower. I saw a lot of guys in trouble along the way, some had stopped others were paddling they're way up in first gear. Next I crossed Slovenia to Italy, I haven't been to Italy for a while and was impressed how beautiful it is, have to go back soon.

In the morning I checked the weather and saw that it would be stable the all day, being so near to the Großglockner I thought that it would be a nice end to this long ride to cross it again.

My trip was almost over when just 50 km from home while rolling to an intersection my clutch cable broke forcing me to stop for a last repair before I could get home.

Back home.