Sister Adventures

Changing directions

j-a-z — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 15:54:00 GMT

July 28th,

The he wind is howling again and once again right in our faces. Time to take matters in our hands. We have decided to go to Munich by train. We bought the wrong tickets and pleaded our way onto the right train and headed off. Once again our Bromptons came in handy, no extra fee needed and hop on and off again in seconds. We tried to contact an airbnb while in Sollen, our last campsite, but were unable to get adequate cell coverage. So we figured that we would make it work and headed out anyway. Anna's phone died when we got to Munich, easily fixed by a trip to the cafe and a scouted outlet right by an available seat. Our airbnb guy texted back an hour later and said that he could meet us at five. With four hours to kill we went out to see the sites, bags and luggage in tow. Another great thing about the Bromptons is even if you can not ride them, they are great luggage carriers. We picked a direction and walked. We saw the cathedral, the rathaus, a few other churches and squares, some lovely monuments And a 700 year old market where we bougthe meat for supper.

Mario got to his apartment at about ten past five. The place is great and Mario and Thomas are very friendly. Bonus, the apartment is on the first floor, no dragging bikes up five flights! We had a yummy supper and shared a bottle of wine with our host, and laughed and laughed about how old we are and how different things are in our two countries. Sleep and then home...

Still riding

j-a-z — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 04:35:00 GMT

Monday July 27,

Today we had a rather long ride. We started out from Cheimsing at about 10:30 and rode around the lake to Gstadt. Our rides are always very difficult to judge. Our computer tells us that the ride should only be 35 km, but this only takes into consideration a direct route from one point to the next with no allowances for the path and how squirrelly it can be. I would definitely take an odometer next time. So today we figured we travelled about 45km, against a major wind with many uphill battles. Both Anna and I were spent when we finally arrived at our campsite at 5:45 pm. We stopped many times along the way to catch our breath, walk up a hill and to check that we were on our path. Despite our best efforts we still got slightly lost twice (I have no idea where that path went, but it sometimes appears and sometimes disappears).

On our way to the Munich Airport

j-a-z — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 04:33:00 GMT

Sunday July 26,

Our campsite last night was terrific, it had the cleanest, most beautiful bathrooms that I have ever seen. The people were very vigilant about having a clean and respectful campsite. They even instituted quiet times from 1-3pm and 10:30pm-8-30am, and everyone respected it! We made use of the windsurfer boards and kayak paddles, they use their boards just like we do at the lake, but no stand up paddles, and went for a trip on the lake. It was beautiful! Anna and I set off at 3 pm for our ride to Cheiming. The ride was only supposed to be 22 km, but in the end we did about 35km. We rode hard for about three hours and came to our site close to 7pm. It was a crazy site, with people in trailers packed in as close as you can get. Rather expensive site at 22 euros for our little tent. They offered a fresh bread service in the morning, orders in by 9pm. We stayed close to the beach and took out the paddle boat for a little doodle around the lake. I convinced Anna to come into town, 1km away, to see the oompapa band that was playing. People were dancing and eating and drinking these litre tankards of beer. We walked back, ate cake at the campsite restaurant and went to bed.

Leaving Salzburg

j-a-z — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 04:32:00 GMT

July 25 th

We left Salzburg this morning and headed down the Mozart Radweg about 30 km. It was a beautiful ride - flat and shady along the Salzach and rolling fields with mountain views inland. We are currently camped at Campingplatz Hainz am See- it is more of a resort actually. This is the cleanest and nicest private campground we have ever seen. Lovely spot on a lake too. We pulled in just as it was starting to rain, but got our tent up in time. Here is a picture of the picnic shelter

The washrooms and showers are to die for.
The only problem is that we are low on food and tomorrow is Sunday. The local supermarket closed at noon today so we missed our chance to buy provisions :(. Fortunately, we have carrots, salami, two nectarines and some instant oatmeal which means we will not starve.

Salzburg day three

j-a-z — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 04:29:00 GMT

July 24,

On the second night a funny thing happened. It was early evening and we were relaxing as usual after a long day of touring. The doorbell rang so we threw on our sarongs and answered. It was Sven our host's roommate home to pick up a bottle of shnapps. He introduced himself, picked up the bottle and left. Three minutes later the doorbell rings again. Sven is back. He asks us if we have tried hazelnut shnapps, grabs 3 glasses, sits down and pours us all a drink. He chats with us for a while then picks up the bottle and goes on his way. What a nice guy.

Thursday July 23rd

j-a-z — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 04:28:00 GMT

July 23, 2015
We got to Salzburg around 10 and had no trouble getting in to our B&B. We ended up having the apartment to ourselves for the entire 3 nights, which was a real score as we were able to do laundry, make hot meals, and roam around in our underwear (the apartment was on the 5th floor and it was HOT!). That first day we were tired from having gotten up at 6 and Janet was feeling under the weather, so we decided to stay at the apartment and read/surf the net for ideas of what to do in Salzburg. Luckily we came across the idea of getting a Salzburg Card 36€ for entry into all the top museums and attractions and free use of all public transport. What a deal! Over there following two days we toured like mad: the Museum of Natural History, Museum of Modern art (including an elevator ride through a mountain), Salzberg Castle, funicular ride, boat ride on the Salzach, cable car ride up a very high mountain 2 k straight up, Hellsbrunn Place and Trick Fountains, Stiegl brewery tour with free beer and gift, and a tour of Mozart's home. We did not see everything but we did our level best.

Leaving Czeski Krumlove

j-a-z — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 04:26:00 GMT

July 22, 2015
We arrived in Salzberg yesterday after an anxiety provoking mix up with the shuttle company. Janet and I did not relish the idea of taking the train to Salzberg as the Czech trains were a lot of work and the journey required at least 2 transfers. We decided to take a door to door shuttle, but the van showed up at the the other end of our campsite and, thinking we were no shows, left without us. Fortunately, Janet saw the van go by and we called the shuttle company who had the driver come back for us.

The castle in Czeski Krumlove

j-a-z — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 03:30:00 GMT

Monday July 20th,

Today was our time to head up to the castle. They build these things up on the top of hills and it is quite the workout to get there. We headed up a million stairs and went through to check out all of the attractions. We chose to go into the cellar modern art gallery. The art was super weird, all sorts of deformed bodies with giraffe heads and fingers that represented ones affect of the earth. The location was very amazing, beneath the castle into the dungeons and cellars. It was also cool down there, which was a welcome break after all of the climbing and the stifling heat.
We walked through the rest of the castle, but the main part was not open, so we chose to come back the next day. We the. Walked through more of Krumlove and chose to go back to the campsite for a rest before our evening return.
Every evening while in Krumlove we returned back to the main share to listen to some lovely music. This time it was a man playing an invert steal drum, very neat instrument, with beautiful echoes in the square. We also went into a restaurant for a piece of Sachr torte and a glass of wine. The waiters thought that we were a little crazy when we asked if we could put our bikes beneath the table. They thought that we wanted them to carry them in for us. We protested and finally agreed to put them behind the main entrance. They were quite impressed by our little bikes. We have a lovely piece of cake and a cold glass of wine in a small courtyard and enjoyed our outing. We seriously considered going back to that restaurant tomorrow, but with so little time you have to try new things.

Czeski Krumlove

j-a-z — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 03:27:00 GMT

Sunday July 19th,
When the route says go up the hill and continue on for another 12 km, do it, even if the other route is only 8km with not apparent hill. Anna and I took the road less traveled and ended up on a most busy highway with cars passing at at 100+ km per hour. We were a little afraid for our lives! And guess what the hill was still there, just around the corner. Into Czeski Krumlove, we finally arrived. We found a campsite and plops our stuff down. We were staying for the night. It was another campsite similar to the previous one but this time we were not staying on a weekend. It still had a few people staying, but it seemed like it was not gowing to get very busy. We chose to pay one night to see how things were going to go.
Later in the evening we headed into Krumlov and had a walk about, listened to some lovely music and had a great meal. A lovely end to the day.

On our way to Czeski Krumlove

j-a-z — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 03:25:00 GMT

Saturday July 18th,

Travel day...we left Prague on the 9:30 train to Czeski Budjovice. Today is another scorching hot day with temperatures tipping 40degrees. We have changed our plans to a more manageable cycle 30 km instead of 57km. We arrived at our destination at noon and thinking better of taking off in the heat of the day we stopped for a beer, Budweiser of course, this town is where they were first made, and a meal. Our food was excellent, from a restaurant that only served food from the farms in the area, with fresh vegetables and typical Czech dishes. In the end we paid a whopping 17$ for two meals and two beer. I think that we will eat out a little more. At 2 pm we started on our way. Just behind us was a massive storm...first clue to stop and stay. The second clue came in the way of a massive hill. Then about 20 km in we stopped by a farm house in the little town of Stekr and lucked into a cool refill of water and a man with a pump, our tires were quite low and we did a bunch of killer hills. They suggested that we stay in one of their empty pension rooms, but no, we pressed on... We even met another Canadian staying with her family and she suggests that it was too hot to continue and yet we still pressed on. We took a wrong turn, actually we went straight and should have turned, 4 km out of our way and headed back to Stekr and we still did not stay. We re routed ourselves back on the trail and passed a sign that said something to the effect of DO NOT ENTRE, RECONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS, DANGER, but you guessed it we still pressed on out of some insane will to get to Czeski Krumlove. After negotiating a crazy downhill 12% grade, washed out trails and rubble and rock we found a campsite and stayed...and it was camping hell! At least 2000 people, drunk out of their minds, sunburned and with no intention of sleeping. I couldn't stop laughing, I just about cried. Anna and I staked out a little plot of land about as far away from the action as we could get and with in 2 hours the entire place was filled to bursting. Someone put their tent 3 inches from our front door and all around us. The boys dropped their drawers wherever and whenever they pleased but mostly in a bush in front of our tent. Music blared and songs were sung, cigarettes smoked and people dropped and slept pretty much anywhere. Strangely they were all up by 7am to continue on their journey in dingy s down river. Wow what a night. I wished that we would have stayed in that little pension at the top of the hill.

The Jewish Museum and Quarter, Prague

j-a-z — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 23:34:00 GMT

Friday, July 17th,

Today we went to the Jewish quarter in the city. There is a whole section devoted to the history of the Jewish people in Prague. One would think that it would be all about the persecution during the Second World War, and indeed it was to a great extent, but there was a whole other story of living, dying and persecution prior to that horribly historical time. What I found the most difficult were the pictures drawn by children in Terazin, an enternement camp in Czech, close to Prague. There was also an entire synagogue devoted to listing all of the names of the Jewish victims of the second world war from that area. It filled all the walls and every room in small print...all perished between 1941-1944.

More Castle

j-a-z — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 23:52:00 GMT

Thursday July 16th

Back up up all of those steps and off to see the St. Vitus Cathedral, the Golden passage, the powde tower and the Rosenburg Palace.

The cathedral was amazing! The great number of massive stain glass windows and intricate patterns was awe inspiring. This church was very ornate! Oh never to be bored during Sunday mass, there would always be something to stare at.

The most entertaining area was definitely the golden passage. It told the story of the armour worn over the years and had a huge collection of arms. They included small little homes lived in up until 1952 and not really big enough for a mouse. The author Franz Kafka lived in number 22 writing at least one of his famous pieces of literature. The doors were so small that I had to duck and even then I manage to bonk my head a couple of times. Down in the dungeons were all sorts of nastiness. They showed where the forger lived, the chemist and even the mystic, who was tortured to death for predicting the fall of the third Reich. Just imagine the medieval feast that the grade 8 social studies class could have in this courtyard?

Back to the apartment for anothe beer and a rest.

More Prague

j-a-z — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 23:24:00 GMT

Thursday, July 15th,

Today we went to visit the John Lennon wall. It is a live piece of Art work that continually changes. It marks the end of an era, the death of John Lennon and a symbol of the freedom that the youth in Prague wanted. It was very cool. We were even seranaded by a street performer singing Let it Be.

We then hiked up to the castle bought our tickets ahd headed into the royal palace. It seems that all of those stairs at SMA prepared me for the climb to the castle. I did not have any difficulty getting up and Anna did. The castle was interested, but not what I expected. We toured the main hall and then found ourselves at the exit. When we realized that we had missed most of th visit we tried to go back. A lady at the exit would not allow it, but we outsmarted her by asking to return to the gift shop and then made our way upstairs. The royal palace was mostly about how the monarchy ruled. It included the great hall, the royal court and the area that the archives were kept. Not what I was expecting.

Our next place was a subterranean vault that described the history of the castle from 3000 yrs before Christ up to present day including the communist era. It was very interesting, but Anna and I were museum ex out by the end. We had a little break, ate our lunch and went to see the last monument.

St. George's Basilica of St. George the dragon slayer fame is a Romanesque church with little adornments in compariason with the cathedral across the courtyard. It is the burI'll place of many saints and bishops ano quite beautiful in a very serene way.

That marked the end of our castle visit for the day. We walked by the astronomical clock on our way home for our daily beer and rest, before the evening stroll.

Prague

j-a-z — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 00:30:00 GMT

Tuesday July 14th,

Up up late this morning and off to view the city. Once again it is a very beautiful city. There are many more people here than there seemed to be in the or citties that we visited. We decided to walk around and get our bearings. We hiked up to the castle and missed the changing of the guards by 5 minutes...oops. We walked through the palace gardens and onto all of the buildings, but did not go inside. Tomorrow we will buy tickets to see the place indoors and out. Today is a lazyish day.

Bee line to Linz

j-a-z — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 21:58:00 GMT

Monday, July 13th,

Cylcing to Linz was a pleasure. We only had 35 km to go thanks to my cracking the whip yesterday and insisting that we press on. Part of the reason that is was such a nice ride was that we met up wih a lovely German boy named Michael. He rode with us the whole way to Linz, chatting all the while. We made it to Linz with out even getting off our bikes, which for Anna and I is quite impressive. Michael is 25 years old and on holiday between his bachelors and masters degrees. He is travelling all the way down the Danube to the Black sea from a small town in the far west of Germany. He is riding alone and so was very happy to talk to us gals. He says that now he is good for another 5 days without speaking to anyone else.

The bike trail is fab in this part of the country, all flat and we had the added bonus of the wind, what little thee was, at our backs.

In Linz we found a cafe that served Lizertorte and the train station with ease, which is a great thing since we had no idea where we were going. We are now waiting for the train. Anna got her time wrong and we are 2.5 hours early. All is good, better early than late!

5 hours to Prague...

Off the boat and straight on the road

j-a-z — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 20:22:00 GMT

Sunday July 12th

We got off the boat with out incident ame left for our first campsite in a while. We decided to cycle 46 km to a place called Inzell and reevaluate to see if we could make it a little further. We pushed on for another 17km to Kaiserhof, another campsite. All was good, only 11 euro for the two of us for the night. We enjoyed a lovely supper with Lance from Newzealand and a couple,of glasses of Austrian wine.

The lady at the campingplatz was particularily nasty, but I think that she was just tired of English speakers, even though I was trying on my best German. I figured it all out anyways and the kampingplata was lovely and well taken care of.

The picture is of swans in the Danube River in front of our camp site. Across the way was a beautiful, still inhabited castle. Very picturesque .

Wachau valley

j-a-z — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 22:11:00 GMT

Today we cycled 42 kms through the Wachau valley. It was probably one of the most beautiful rides I have ever done. We started in Krems, where the annual apricot festival was in full swing.

From there we went to Durnstein which is a lovely medieval town. We sampled apricot shnapps and walked through the town.

From there we went to the Gelert Spa. It was lovely! The perfect way to spend a blistering hot day (40•C). There were 8 different pools of varying temperatures. My favourite was the ice cold tub outside the sauna. We spent 4 hours there soaking and relaxing in the shade. Photos were not allowed in the spa itself, but here are some shots of the hotel. It makes the hotel Fort Garry look like a shack.

We then headed for lunch and a glass of wine in the next town.

Just before we stopped for wine we had our lunch on the riverbank and we saw our "kids" paddling along in their long wooden boats- amazing!

Our final stop was at St. Michael's church, which dates from the first millennium (800 a.d).

Vienna

j-a-z — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 20:20:00 GMT

Friday July 10th

We sailed through the night to Vienna. Anna and I decided to take the tram into Vienna's downtown and sightseeing area. We walked all over the place from 1:30 until 6pm, when we got back to the boat for dinner. These are some of the things that we saw:
St. Stephen's Cathedral, the royal palace, Volk's garden, the Mozart monument, Theresa square, the natural history museum, the national Library, the butterfly garden, the parliament, called the Rathaus is German, how ironic, the national opera house, and too many other beautiful buildings to count or even to know what they were.
Take note: the gardens although beautiful were not what I would call manicured. The grass is always long and has multi species in it, weeds,clover etc. I think that herbicides are not allowed. The buildings are is such great shape, no damage from the war. Austria apparently surrendered before anyone could bomb them. Young adults were dressed up like Mozart and selling tickets for the shows- operas and symphony. They looked nonplussed. I can not imagine how they felt on those 40degree days.

After supper we went for a bike ride. Anna was not into it, but I forced the issue and we cycled around for about an hour. I wanted to go to the UN building, but we got a little turned around and ended up cycling on the island for a bit and turning around. It was a beautiful day.

Tomorrow we ride the Wachau valley, last ride before e get off the boat.

Vac to Esteragom

j-a-z — Thu, 9 Jul 2015 20:10:00 GMT

Thursday Juiy 9th,

The weather broke and it is 24 degrees to start our ride. We are heading into a stiff wind for 43 km from Vac to Esteragom. Both towns are in Hungary.

Vac is a quaint little town, with a church on a hill...of course. We cycled Round for a few minutes and then began our trip to Esteragom. The path was great although not as good as Austria, only a few more bumps. We took note of all the camping sites along the way. We stopped in a beautiful little overlook cafe and bar that turned out to be a camp ground. For only 4euros you can stay, have a shower and a beer. Not a bad deal. Both Anna and I were feeling that beer when we got back on our bikes. I just about pitched when passing some path resurfacing, but ,a aged to hold on and only had to put my foot down.

On our way into Spitz, where the ferry was there were trees full of fruit, my favourite thing! There were plums and cherries mostly.

We arrived in Esteragom at 2 pm and went sightseeing. There is a basilica in this tiny little town that rivalled the Vatican. The inside is all. Made of marble and the basilica is huge. Any and I went up to the look out where you could see the entire country, or so it seemed. We then were on a mission to spend the rest of our Forents, we failed, but gave it a good college try. The cruise director told us to have 5000 Forents or 15 euros for the day. In reality we only needed 1100. 310 Forents = 1 euro.

Back on the ship at 4:45 and sailing by 5:30.

Budapest

j-a-z — Wed, 8 Jul 2015 22:44:00 GMT

Wednesday July 8th

Today we spent the day in Budapest. There are two sides to the city, Buda and Pest. The Buda side is more touristy, but the Pest side is the real centre of the town. The buildings were amazing and once again was the heat. 42 degrees by mid-day. Anna and I walked down Vaci street, lined with shops and cafes. We met up with some Spanish women who asked for directions and I was able to help them in Spanish, that felt good. We saw the market, an old train station building with high ceilings and a lot of natural light and the square. We bypassed the upper square, basilica and parliament building and went straight to the Gaelert spa and thermal baths. We spent the entire afternoon there, out of the sun and in the cool pool. The baths were quite amazing with 8 different pools ranging in temperature between 15-40 degrees. They has a wave pool and many terraces with lounge chairs galore. As we were deciding to leave we noticed that the sky was clouding over. We made our way back through the streets and all of a sudden the wind whipped up ant signs fell, pieces of metal were flying. Down the street, windows breaking and then the skies opened up and it started to pour. Anna and I ducked into a shop and waited out the storm. When we thought the worst had passed we continued on our way. It kept raining but at the least the winds had died down, unfortunately as we were crossing over the bridge, the wind started up again and we were pelted with rain and Gail force winds. I would say easily 100 mph plus. We took shelter in the lee of the wind behind a large bridge standard and got soaked as we waited for the worst to pass. We made it across the bridge as the lightening and thunder started. I ran and Anna, holding her hat, walked somewhat lacsidasically on. I reminded her that being on a bridge during a thunder and lightening show was not a good idea and she quickened her pace. We got back to the boat wet, but cool and none the worse for wear.
In the evening we were treated to a cultural show on the island park- happily out of the rain. The event boasted music and dancing, goulash, brandy and all the wine you wished to consume. The dancing was fun, it felt like a slightly more authentic version of Folklarama. The wine was very watered down, the brandy tasted more like rubbing alcohol. The goulash, however was exceptional and so was the bread. The dancing was good, lots of knee slapping and jumping around and bending their knees in unnatural positions, but very fun. We finished the evening off with a city tours by night and rain. The buildings in Budapest are exquisite, even the MacDonald's had a place of honour in a building built by the Eifel company. Back to the boat at 11 pm. We were tired so straight to bed.

From Anna

On the way back to the boat, we got caught in a violent rainstorm. The wind came up suddenly blowing over signs and sending large sheets of metal slicing through the air. Tree branches and broken glass littered the street. It rained buckets. We took shelter in a shop but eventually decided to take our chances and make a beeline for the boat. In the process we got utterly soaked. Because of the heat the puddles on the road were as warm as bath water. I had a bit of fun splashing through them in my sandals. Note to self: when traveling always take water friendly shoes and clothing.

In the evening, we went on an excursion to a Hungarian restaurant where we enjoyed traditional bread, goulash and wine. We watched excellent dancers and listened to traditional Hungarian musicians. It was very lively and reminded me a lot of Folklorama back home.

The outing concluded with a short city tour by bus. It was good to learn a bit about the history of the place.

This morning we woke to much cooler weather - thank God! After the last several days 24C felt fantastic. Today's ride was 42 km through the Hungarian countryside. It is clear that the people here are much less wealthy than their Austrian neighbours. Prices are relatively low - Janet and I enjoyed a beer on a lovely terrace for the equivalent of 1$ each.

Today's destination was Estergom - a small city near the Hungarian -Austrian border. It is the home of the largest basilica in Central Europe- a giant Romanesque structure.

We climbed up the spiral staircase to take in the view of the city.

We finished the afternoon with ice cream and souvenir shopping.

We are now cruising to Vienna. We plan to tour the city on foot tomorrow.

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