europeblog

Rain today, decided to rest after yesterday’s mountain conquest, and — more importantly — stay dry.

No such comforts for the pair of becherovka drinking, smoking, Czech cyclists camped next to me. They were touring their way back to Prague, and on a deadline. So they set up their tent during the rain last night, and packed it up during the rain this morning. What’s worse, they only had a drop left in their bottle of becherovka, and 500km to go!

Not much of interest happened today, except during one of my rests by the lake, I couldn’t help noticing the various recreational sailors, clothed in burkas, repeatedly barging an giant innocent promotional wooden swan.

Read the rest of this entry »

No time to write any other entries, but here is the high point of my tour so far: The Großglockner High Alpine Road. As you can see in the photo, all bags bar one were off.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today, a food crisis, unpleasant slopes, and the initial psychological conditioning for Grossglockerstrasse.

Read the rest of this entry »

Honeymoon over, today was my entry into the alps. I saw snow-peaked mountains in summer for the first time, and almost wore out my camera snapping pictures of them.

This morning I awoke to the sounds of campers trying to unbog their caravans. For some reason I gained a small amount of satisfaction from this. There was one caravan, with German numberplates, which was actually as big as the flat I lived in in Wroclaw.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rain today, was stuck in my tent. Took the opportunity to do the washing, drink coffee at the campsite, write postcards. Also read some of Anna Karenin, my objective being to finish it for the second time, and mail it away to lose the weight.

Was somewhat distracted in the evening by the American couple in the tent next to me singing “Do, a deer, a female deer.”

Spent the day wandering around Salzburg. Woke up nice and early because I had picked the optimum position for my tent so that it would get the first sun in the campsite (this isn’t always successful for me). Coughed €7 and checked the castle. They don’t permit bikes on the cable car up the hill so I saved €3 by cycling/pushing/carrying my bike up. It is super awesome weather, no clouds at all, so the view from the tower of the alps, etc, was pretty good.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fine weather today, but cool. Ended up in the town of Mozart’s birth, but am still wondering about his connection to fairly ordinary tasting balls of chocolate.

Read the rest of this entry »

Went soft, succumbed to the weather, chose luxury instead of nature. Viewed the longest castle in the universe.

Read the rest of this entry »

Saw and heard the biggest organ in the universe, donned beanie instead of helmet, ended up in Hitler’s birthplace.

Read the rest of this entry »

After squandering two days of hot sunny weather in smokey Linz net cafes, the rain started as soon as I was back on the road.

Read the rest of this entry »