We had just climbed a long hill in 40°C heat to get out of Belgrade when we hit the 3,000km mark. We had to have an ice cream to cool down, and followed up with two more later in the day before we wild camped in a field for a hot and sticky night. Luckily the temperature dropped down to 16°C a couple of day later for a short while – we forgot how much easier it is to cycle in cooler temperatures! ||…
Bratislava – Budapest – Hungary/Croatia border After recovering from the bed bugs, we were keen to go explore Bratislava. We had hooked up with a “free” walking tour of Bratislava which was run by a young Aussie who gave an interesting insight into its rich history and was keen to take us outside of the old town and talk about some of the darker days that other tours tend to avoid. || The cafe culture was certainly alive and swinging with a temptation around every corner of the old city. We found a nice terraced cafe overlooking the…
We lay on bed watching the television in Bratislava. I saw it very quickly, a shadow scurry behind the TV set, small in size, but distinct in movement and shape. In the walls of a Hostel this meant one thing, bed bugs! Irritating, blood sucking insects that love to nest in your clothes and get into the most unwanted of body regions.|| I informed the nice young chap at reception that our room was crawling with bugs. "We have no spray and all our rooms are fully booked. We do have some "stop-your-dog-pissing-here" spray",…
Coming into Vienna we clocked 2000 km. There was a welcome sign to Vienna so we thought we would take a picture to mark the two occasions. || 1000km ago we had just left the Black Forest before meeting up with the Danube in Ulm. Since then it has been our loyal travel companion as we cycled through beautiful river side towns of Ingolstadt, Regensburg, Passau, Linz and Krems. Castles, monasteries and beer gardens were never far from site along our dedicated cycle path. Our favourite part was from Passau to Vienna where the…
Ingolstadt – Linz Over the last week or so we have been following the scenic Danube cycle path through Southern Germany and into Austria. This is an extremely popular cycle path running from the source of the Danube in Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest, all the way to Vienna, and then onwards to the Black Sea, although after Vienna cyclists have to share the roads with cars. Germany has been a real luxury in that respect, as the last 700km of our tour have almost all been on bike paths. || Through…
Ulm – Ingolstadt There it was again, that unmistakeable sensation of floating on water. My heart sunk, I knew it was serious and we had to act swiftly; “Freddie get up, the water has come in, we need to get out of here fast”. Freddie sat bolt upright in the tent, my torch light glaring in her face revealing a look of confusion and disbelief. || * * * * * It was our eighth day in a row of rain. Riding into Donauwörth we were desperate to find camp quickly and settle…
Metz – Ulm “A stranger is just a friend I haven’t met yet.” – Will Rogers The last week has been a very sociable one for us. Last Monday we left Metz to cycle through the countryside for a couple of days towards Strasbourg. When we pulled into a tiny village to sit down on the local park bench and have a little rest, a passing car stopped and the couple inside asked us to come and drink something at their house.|| We followed them to the house and they invited us inside. The drinks were supplemented…
We took a photo when we reached our first 1000km. We were riding on a cycle path coming out of the Black Forest in Germany. ||…
Le Cateau-Cambrésis nach Metz Nachdem wir Le Cateau-Cambrésis verlassen hatten, fuhren wir für ein paar Tage weiter in Richtung Süd-Osten durch einen schönen hügeligen Wald, wobei wir über die Grenze nach Belgien kamen, und dann wieder zurück nach Frankreich. Wir hatten im Voraus einige Campingplätze ausfindig gemacht und fühlten uns auf den Rädern so gut, dass wir unsere 60-75km pro Tag recht einfach fuhren und normalerweise am frühen Nachmittag auf dem Campingplatz ankamen. Eines Tages kamen wir in Mouzon an und folgten den Schildern zum Campingplatz, bis wir in einer Sackgasse landeten. Wir fragten…
Le Cateau-Cambrésis to Metz After leaving Le Cateau-Cambrésis, we headed further South-East and cycled through a beautiful, hilly forest area for a couple of days, crossing into Belgium and then back into France. We had researched some campsites in advance and felt so good on the bikes that we covered our 60-75km per day quite easily, usually reaching camp in the early afternoon.|| One day, we arrived in Mouzon and followed the signs to the campsite, only to end up at a dead end. We enquired and were soon informed the campsite had…