Re: [ST] Ride Report - UK -> Slovenia

[Gavin Lawrie <gavin.lawrie@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 3 Jun 2005, at 14:51, iPat wrote:

> Gavin, the only thing i missed from the report was some of the  
> leglaities of
> teh trip. What did yo do for insurance, did you change the  
> headlight setting
> etc? Nice write up!

Hi

Insurance: just got a green-card for my UK insurance.  All the  
countries in the EU are covered automatically by UK policies now it  
seems - some EU requirement.  But Slovenia is a transitional member  
(i.e. will be one day, but may or may not be now depending on which  
bit of EU stuff you look at...) and so for there it was suggested I  
take a Green Card form - this was issued for free.  But probably not  
really necessary.  I also got an E111(?) form to ensure I could get  
health care in Europe on NHS should I need it, this too was issued  
for free.   I got some recovery insurance from AA (£42 for a week) -  
but have since changed insurer and this is now provided free with  
policy (a benefit provided by the broker Carole Nash) so in future  
will be free.  I also have absurdly comprehensive travel insurance  
(lost bags etc.) as side effect of my AMEX card.

Headlight: I was wondering about this, and did some research before  
the trip.  Turns out (on Dept of Transport web site) that bikes don't  
need to comply with the beam changing requirements applied to cars.   
So I didn't do anything...

In Austria I had to by a 'vignette' to allow me to ride bike on  
Austrian Autobahns - there is a booth set up by border crossing with  
Germany that you can get these from.  Cost about £10 for 10 days.

Other than that, border controls only apparent in / out of UK and  
in / out of Slovenia: all rest are covered by EU's open borders  
system.  In Italy you still have to give the Hotel keeper your  
passport overnight, but no one else wanted to see it.  I am told you  
need to take original ownership documents etc. with you, so had all  
those with me, but didn't ever have need to show them to anyone.

I booked the hotel for my first night away before I left, but after  
that just worked out where to stay evening before while planning ride  
for next day.  In Salzburg I got hotel from previous night to do  
booking for me, for Italy I did it via Internet from friends house in  
Slovenia, and in France I just turned up at likely looking hotel and  
asked.

Most of the trip I paid for things with mixture of Euros and Visa  
card.  Where these didn't work (for example, in un-manned fuel  
stations in France) I used my AMEX.  Slovenia takes Euros most of the  
time - so had taken a few Slovenian Tolars just in case but ended up  
giving them to children of my friend in Slovenia when I left.  But  
certainly worth having cash as well as cards, as now and again you'd  
find places that didn't do credit cards at all...  I kept a small  
amount of Euros with me all the time, topping up from cash machines  
as I went round as needed.

Regards

Gavin Lawrie
ST'03


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