Packup day. Monday

Plan today is to get ready to fly.

Need bike boxes, but problematic in Budapest.  Long walk visiting bike shops. No joy. Concierge on the phone.  No joy. Mg on internet strikes it lucky and locates them at a bike hire place quite a walk away

Whilst waiting we give our steeds a wipe down. Tooth brush and wipes....dont want them confiscated as contraband carriers.

Lug the boxes back, dismantle and pack the bikes then reward ourselves with the local hungarian brew borsodi. Delicious

Goan fish curry

Ice cream for mg because the curry was so hot.

Pack bags.

Bed

Sunday in budapest

What a day. Bring on the blue sky and the 28 degrees.

Mark says i must be feeling better as i cracked my first joke in days. At his expense of course

Hop on hop off bus with a stop at the citadel.

Beer for lunch

Rest

Dinner at a hungarian restaurant with jazz band. Nice. Salmon followed by beef goulash

A beer too many i think

Travel by train damnit to budapest

After a review of my knee and of the traffic filled roads we would have to travel, we chickened out of the final section bradislava to budapest, and hopped a train.

Uneventful 2 hrs 45 then cycle to centrooms house our new home for 3 nights

Beer and a light hungarian lunch of sausage and salad...oh yes, and crackle pieces

Rest for me, more bookreading.

Then outdoor bar for hungary v iceland, a beer then goan prawn curry and chicken tikka. Great.

Saving the goulash for tomorrow.

Monday's challenge is to find boxes for the bikes

Friday in bratislava

Lazy breakfast at the urban cafe, smashed avo on bread then check out so that we can move 830 metres to a new hotel.

A brief cycle to the river and thru the old town before arriving at hotel saffron. A two hour wait before check in, so coffee, ice the knee and internet.

A restful arvo before the usual beers and chinese

Thursday to bratislava

Breakfast.
Pack
Flat tyre
Cycle to vienna hauptbahnhof.  Shit
Farewell mark who rides on
Train
Cycle to hotel
Carry bike up 500 fucking stairs
Slump
Limp down 500 fucking stairs
Restorative beer (for mark) on his arrival.
Marching band
Craft beers and endamame beans
Slav dinner
Noisy night

Wednesday in Vienna

Rest day today. So i did

Mark out and about

I had a massage on leg to see if it would improve.  It didnt

Beers dinner and and soccer at local restaurant. Tyroler rostl for me

Bed

Tuesday is pain day. .. to vienna

So, here we go again. Didnt think I'd get going today, lotsa pain and about 30 minutes to warm enough to pedal.

Lovely flat riding , some sunshine and again we dodged the thunderstorms.

Cake with my coffee today to cheer me up.  Mark very patient with the slow going but we still achieved 20kmph.

Cycling through vienna traffic to hotel lucia a bit tedious.

Hotel desk man fantastic with help to get a sports massage treatment.

Beers whilst watching austria hungry then you guessed it.  Chinese for dinner.  Thu usual fantastic crispy duck and the piece de resistance sizzling platter spicy fish. WOW

Cya

Monday to krems

Start the cycling with my now usual warm up difficulties

Beautiful scenery today, the prettiest being wachau wine and fruit growing areas with vines terraced high up onto the valley sides.

Today lucky. Cycled between thunderstorms and arrived in krems without getting wet.

Rest

Beer and pigs knuckle at hoffbrau house whilst watching ireland play sweden.

Bed

Sunday to Grein

A lazy 65 planned for today.

Delightful river side riding, a short visit to the local concentration camp, pass through a wet thunderstorm and a much needed coffee

Arrived nice and early in the quaint town of Grein to laze the afternoon away. Coffee in the sun, a rest, beers in the sun, dinner prepared by our host/cheff, Thomas , for me locally caught cat fish with white asparagus and for mark pork fillet with white asparagus.

Saturday to linz

Big day today.

712am train back to passau and 90 or so kms of riding

We sped along beautiful gorges on fine tracks.

Arrived inlinz amidst festivals and vintage car rally.

Staying hotel wilder mann close to the centre.

A walk down the main drag, beers at cafe then beer hall then dinner of ribs at the local italian /mexican. Fantastic meal, but the combo? Go figure.

Friday in salzberg. ... a day off the bikes

For our day off, the weather has cleared and the sky is blue

Off to the bike shop to get marks bike serviced ( still got gear problems) and then coffee by the river in the sun.

Hop on hop off bus tour and a visit to the augustine brewery.

Dinner at the local chinese buffet, and yhats it for the day

Thursday. .... rain....rain....rain...attersee to salzberg

Did i mention that it rained overnight?  A lot

Woke to rain

Rained whilst breakfasting

Rained as we cycled

Stopped for early coffee after leaving attersee via the southern village of Unterach and heading for the western side of mondsee. Added a woolen top as quite wet. Think i lost my sunglasses here. Fuck it.

Rain

More rain

Beautiful riding lakeside,  but we.

Did i mention rain?

Arrived salzberg 65kms later, please we had found our way to airbnb flat of silvi for 2 nights.

Mark shopped for essentials. Beer, bread sausage. Great arvo tea.

Rest

Rain

Walk in rain

Beer.

Beer, Chilli sausage. Pringles. I love health food.

Bed

Good night

Wednesday to Attersee

Attempted to depart ried on bike paths and head for the roman road to attersee. Easier said than done.

Trying to read maps whilst riding. Stopping without warning  (me) disastrous.

Low speed crash and mark unable to unclip. Shins skinned by roadside post. Badly. Much pain, grimacing and some first aid. Then he soldiers on for the rest of the day. A machine.  Sorry mark.  His response "shithappens"

Finally found the cycle path to attersee.  Hallelujah.

Riding then improves as we are chased by a thunderstorm through rural austria.

Coffee and cake at Frankenberg, and on we go.

First sight of alps fantastic, overlooling the attersee. We made it!

Lakeside for supplies then 3km climb for chemist

Family run hotel Alpenblick, great for 3 course dinner culminating in sevings of homemade icecream.

Lights out

Tuesday to Reid Im Kriems.........lets try that again

Tuesday dawns and itis a beautiful blue sky day heading for the mid 20s

Passau looks fantastic from our 6thfloor breakfast room overlooking those parts of the town and rivers, congruence of 3 here dont you know. Overlooking might be a bit of a stretch when you consider the number of churches, cathedrals and castles etc towering over us.

Lashed out and had a boiled egg with by German bread and ham today.

So pack up and on we go. But first,  a small repair to marks gears, the lovely chap didnt even charge him. Such is the cameraderie of the cycling community.

Found the river Inn and headed south along its banks. Just glorious cycling conditions. And mostly flat, although we are heading upstream to salzberg, although with some inland diversions.

Arrived in Riechersburg for our coffee and cake, but oh no the bakery os closed until 2pm. Sitting there catching our breath the proprietor pops out to let us know that they are closed until 2 and would we like a cold towel to freshen up........ just joking she said in german and eventually english that we are sitting on private property and to move on. Fucking rude bitch.

Anyway, so on we move tothe most beautiful outlook over the river valley at the local monastery. Fuck you bakery nazi.....hmmm can Austrians be Nazis?  What does sound of music teach us..........

Branch away from the river now and head inland through mostly farmland on our cycle route which we later lose and ride the last few kms into town on the road.

Hotel Ried is a sight for sore eyes, oh and sore everyrhing and i shower and slump on the bed thankful that i hadnt chosen the fully catered and guided danube cruise. This cycling is som much more rewarding.

After a very brief rest, notneeded at all, but mark likes his afternoon naps, we headed out for a beer and dinner.

Short planning session for tomorrow as we dont jave very good maps and need to find the secret route between the alps rather than over them.

Oh, and did i mention, in the interest of full disclosure that i wasn't feeling 100% today ? No matter, soldier on without complaint. Thats what i say.

WTF ..... oh, its Tuesday

Once on the bike it seemed like every fucking thing hurt. Legs feel like big hunks of meat full of lactic acid and every time my quads meet a hill, they say ohhhh noooo you dont.

Furthermore my nose is sunburnt and getting worse and it feels like its going to drop off

Did i mention that my fucking left foot is stilll giving me trouble and that my right foot wants to go out in sumpathy. If this continues, i will run out of the great drugs that arent even working very fucking well.

And to add insult to injury, i cant get comfortable in the saddle, undercarriage issues and sore arsehole.

And speaking of areseholes, he continues to ride next to me as if this is his cfirst day riding!

I guess the last few days with climbing etc have snuck up and taken their toll.

On arrival in Reid Im kriems I intend to slam down a litre of fine german weiss beer and see if that helps

Blogs are meant to be honest aren't they?

Monday to Passau

Wow. What a morning.  Sunny, warm, and cycling through forest  firstly along the waters edge and then following the railway to the border with germany. This border crossing was closed for the entirety of the cold war.
So across the border into haidmuhle. Climed to our highest point today, around 900m

Uneventful trip through a beautiful small village and onto a rail trail for 25kms of downhill beauty through a tunnel of trees in a heavily forested area.

Arrved at jandelsbrun in no time, and decided to take the bicycle route to passau. Only 25kms 5he gps said.... oh yeah?

Avoiding a heavy shower of rain we retreated for coffee and cake

Then on we went. A lenghty detour with lots of uphill mea t ad day of 68kms became 98 and 1000m climbing. Rout into town was on roads mostly b7sier than we would lime. But we made it. Rooted.

Danube at passau full of cruise ships

Hotel Wildermann. Nice.

A rest, a walk around, a beer, dinner italian restaurant.  Nice.

Mark shopped for a map for tomorrow. Thank god. We know our route! Nice

Sleep.

Sunday..... should have gone to church

So we set off happy enough that a routine short day with some climbing would be over in time for lunch.

Its great this time that we have gos, gps maps, detailed cycle maps and reasonable route signs. I am pleased to say that we are never actually lost.

How about, not where we wanted to be?, damn how did we get here?, wrong fucking track........

So, wrong track, goat track through muddy wet farmland , 20kms away from where we need to be and cycling right into a thunderstorm. Did you see 80 injured in germany by lightning!

Unusally for us dumbassses, we sheltered for an hour whilst it passed.

Continued on with a serious 300m climb to 841m through a small village. Even had to walk the last bit as i didnt have the emergency no and certainly didnt wsnt to carry mark!

The amazing thing was that judging by the water cascading down the roads we had dodged a bullet and missed the major rains whilst hiding in the bus shelter!

Cold, soaked and wet we treated ourselves to coffee and pizza and then continued to our destination horni plana, our last stop before germany.

No photos by me today. Sorry.

Beer and dinner as usual and me still limping around.

Our host at the Happy Penzion is Vietnamese (Hence the name) and was happy to sell us beer and peanuts for our route planning session.

The horni plana square. Will be a foggy ride this morning.

Saturday. And now we feel fit!

Heading south west today, no real destination,  just winging it.

Commenced our challenges with a detour around a closed bridge causing some extra climbing . Then up out of the valley and into a light fog

Stopped in a small town at the coop supermarket for water and a banana. Shops few and far between, and usually we only top up on water when getting coffee.

2 water and 2 banana 36 crowns, about 2 dollars

Coffee at ... where we cut loose and had 2 coffees whilst mark tried booking.com for accomodation. Sunday night sorted, but still nothing for today.
Head for cesky Budejovice but there the inn is full.

We didn't want to go on as we already had 70 kms done and the next 30 involved climbing,  which we had read on a blog was not fun. Also only leaves 30kms for sunday

So, headed out of town. Serendipitously we stopped on the roadside and mark discovered recently released accommodation in cesky krumlov.  Thank you god.

Hills not as bad as billed, but tired all the same. 105kms on the legs  and 1100 meters of climb for the day. Bit tired now. But fitness level surprising and gratifying.

Find, accomodation, beers and dinner.

Wow what a spectacular town with the river curling around itself and throughout the town.

Weiner schnitzel for me, mexican chicken for Herr Gedye 

Friday. And on we go.....

Feeling sufficiently recovered to put my bike shoes on and continue. By breakfast mark has a new plan; to follow the czech cycle route 11 through rural czechoslovakia as it is more populous and thus easier to find accommodation or beat a retreat as necessary.

But first. Breakfast and mark discovered triffle amongst a vast array of cakes. As well as the usual.

We also decided to exit prague by train to avoid the urban sprawl and to make up some time from the lost day caused by my weakness!

Geared up and set off for the station into a light drizzle.  Oh thank the lord. They have cycle maps and mark has purchased enough to get us to bthe austrian border. Tickets x2 and bike tickets, 256 crowns, about 10 euros ( less than the maps, a shit cup of coffee and an hour later we are on the 10.24 to Sedlcany with a change to a local line in Olbramovice. Good decision to exit sprawl.

So off we set into the rain. Lotsa rain. It wasnt cold, so rugging up into raincoats made it unpleasantly hot. The riding was undulating so over 55kms we climbed and descended around 750 meters.  Thankfully, i was on fresh legs but mark suffered a little from his vigorous sightseeing.  He blames the triffle!

Arrived in tabor to our quaint penzion jana and as usual off for beer and dinner. Traditional roasted pork ribs for mark and a pork stew with peppers and red beans for me. And oh, finally a restaurant with vegetables.  We had the green beans with bacon and garlic and the roasted potatoes,  yes... of course with bacon.

Breakfast cooked by fritz or mrs fritz.  Lovely.  Scrambled eggs with bacon pieces for me. The usual european for Herr Gedye.

Farewell fritz and tabor.

Note to self. Can only remember the name by the rhyme "the whore of Tabor" .... and no I did not meet her.

Thursday. Misery in prague

Mark must have been prescient when alleging that i had over indulged and was not well.

Well Thursday night gout slammed me to prove him right. Was it the czeck beer or the pigs knuckle? ..... or permitting ourselves a day off the bikes?

Laid up in bed in prague for an unplanned day. I hope it improves so that we can leave tomorrow,  but after 12 hours of drugs no improvement. Dang.

Book reading, surfing, drinking cup after cup of water, soaking my foot in cold water, pissing like a horse.........repeat. ..... repeat. ......  you get the picture.

Mark arrived at 4pm with lifesaving bread sausage and cheese. Hmmmm . Pretty close to a plowmans lunch?

Also taunted me with tales of markets and beer and the kgb museum.

Back to the routine. ...... book readin blah blah blah

Mark back at 7pm and hobbled out for a dinner of crispy honey duck and pork stir fry . Also allowed myself ome naughty beer. Sure hope that doesnt back fire.

Hoping to be well enough to ride tomorrow.

A little apprehensive about this czech stage as europe is facing on going  flood causing storms and our route has constant thunderstorms forecast.

Also we are under prepared and pretty much have no fucking idea where we are going and there will be limited opportunity to escape by train.  Oh well.......

Mark says  suck it up

Off now to continue the routine. Untill tomorrow.

A fine day in Prague.... The town of breweries and beer

Thursday, and Mark helpfully took over the blogging. See comment section. 

I will add some photos later.

Dinner at a local restaurant and served the biggest roasted pork knuckle you have ever seen. Enough to feed four. Of course had to leave plenty. Only one beer with dinner for me, none for mg as we dont want to over indulge!

To prague by train

What a relief to extract the bicycle seat from my arse and have a normal day.
Headed to the station and tickets to prague 25 euro for me, 10 for the bike.
Crappy station coffee then 4 hrs on the train. Beautiful green scenery and obvious difference when we left germany and entered czech republic.  Not as manicured and nearing prague, lots of derelict buildings along the track

Arrived in prague in the middle of a thunderstorm and got wet riding to the rubicon old town hotel. Which was a bugger given that the later afternoon turned out to be sunny and warm.

Load of washing to laundry around the corner for 244 whatevers. Around 10 euro.

Then off to walk the town. Amazingly beautiful. Waylaid of course by a dark beer and bratwurst snack, mor walking,  a local pils, more walking to st wensalaus square and a wiess beer.

Now for dinner. Chinese of course. Crispy duck and spicy pork with cheap cab sav then wine bar for a pinot and pretzel.  Ouch. Good night irene