Thursday, August 31, 2017

Day 18: Cycling from Berlin to Athens

Day 18

Rest Day in Bad Gastein


We really needed a rest day after that long day of cycling yesterday and Bad Gastein was the ideal place, as a spa town! We spent the day relaxing at the thermal baths and even spoiled ourselves to a full body massage to really rejuvenate and it worked a charm. I almost feel as good as new, except my thighs are a little sore still.

Bad Gastein - a ski resort in winter

Bad Gastein waterfall


The Nude Area


Felsentherme Bad Gastein is a great thermal bath centre with loads of pools, waterfalls, jacuzzi areas, a slide, a diving board and a pool for laps as well. I swam a nice 1km whilst Shanky was getting a massage, we played table tennis and Shanky won :( but later on the way home we played mini golf and I won :) The funniest part about the spa was the nudist area up on the rooftop where they have a panorama view of all the mountain range, plus a range of saunas and thermal baths for the over 18's and strictly nudes only. We decided to go for it and enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere with mostly old men around us, but it wasn't crowded so it was fine!


Thermal baths in the mountains
Bad Gastein - through the waterfall

Day 17: Cycling from Berlin to Athens

Day 17

Salzburg > Bischofshofen > Bad Gastein


109,2km

7 hours 07 mins

2,654m elevation gain




Today had a lot of things - it was long, mountainous, beautiful and ever-changing. The tiredness was held back until we finally reached Bad Gastein - I had to push my bike most of the way up into the ski resort and then we truly were exhausted. We were pleased to make it though and the whole day had been a delight of riding. We also had a rest day either side of this long day, to reward ourselves.

See how pleased we are today

Mountains

The River Salzach we followed most of the day

Beautiful scenes on our route - no more rain today!

Sights of note

  • A horse and carriage 
  • All sorts of different pumpkins for sale on the side of the road
  • Long tunnels with extremely loud acoustics

The horse and carriage ahead of us

Day 16: Cycling from Berlin to Athens

Day 16

Rest Day in Salzburg


Salzburg old town and the castle
Salzburg - it's very photogenic


I was excited to finally visit Salzburg, I had always wanted to travel here since my friend Becky did her year abroad in the town and I never had a chance to visit her at the time. It really was a beautiful and the city has a romantic charm to it with its relationship to Mozart and The Sound of Music. The city also had a good variety of vegetarian and Indian restaurants, so that suited us well.


Relaxing in the Mirabell Gardens


Hellbrunn Palace 


Schloss Hellbrunn really is a great day out, especially because of it's trick fountains, which are really cool. They were built in 1613-15 for Archbishop Markus Sittikus and they involve a range of hidden sprinklers and fountains, for example, water comes squiring up between stone seats at an order dining table, inside a grotto with Greek Mythological characters, a musical playing theatre and a levitating crown, symbolising the rise and fall of power. Sittikus did seem to have a sense of humour - and so did our guide as we all got wet during the tour. The castle also had a great exhibition and the gardens are wonderful to walk around - at the back there is the Pavillion from the Sound of Music scene - "I am sixteen, going on seventeen..."

Levitating crown - the rise and fall of power 

An example of the musical theatre representing occupations

Unicorn in the grounds - Sittikus was a fan of the mythical

Apple Strudel at the palace cafe


Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Day 15: Cycling from Berlin to Athens

Day 15

Altmunster > Thalgau > Salzburg


90.1km

4 hours 43 mins

946m elevation gain




That's over 1000km of cycling completed on the trip so far! Today was a beautiful ride, as you can see in the map above, we cycled along lovely lakes, through some hills and into Salzburg. It was also our first real day of rain, which it did for about half of the cycle and quite hard too - when we stopped for lunch it even started hailing. We were soggy when we arrived into Salzburg and at the hotel - but nothing a hot shower couldn't fix.

Lake Attersee - a beautiful aqua colour

Lake Attersee

Sights of note

  • Hailstones
  • We cycled passed a cow shed and a bunch of them "moo-ed" loudly at us
  • A sports car from the 19th century, very low on the ground

Rain, rain, go away

Food truck for lunch in Thalgau

Shanky, river and hills



Sunday, August 27, 2017

Day 14: Cycling from Berlin to Athens

Day 14

Linz > Wels > Altmunster


86.5km

4 hours 41 mins

564m elevation gain




We have competed week 2! Today we were back along the river Traun on a lovely cycling path all the way from Linz to Lake Ebensee. I personally loved this as it was largely flat and I had a refreshing swim in the lake when we arrived, it's beautifully calm and relaxed here in the mountains. We had dinner in Altmunster and for the third night in the row our bill came to exactly the same amount! How bizarre.


My swim in the lake

Our room with a view

Sights of note

  • A long black snake - I caught the end in a photo
  • A model village with a railway
  • Quite a few food trucks with fish grilled on sticks - Steckerlfisch
The end of the snake - about two thirds and this lady who almost walked on it

Mountains ahead

A fun bridge

The River Traun as it opened out near the lake






Saturday, August 26, 2017

Day 13: Cycling from Berlin to Athens

Day 13

Rest Day in Linz



We took our rest day in Linz, our first stop in Austria. We needed a break after those Czech hills and before the Austrian Alps. We took this as fully restful day as there aren't too many sights in Linz but it is on the Danube and it was a nice place to chill. Everyone here eats ice-cream all the time, there were more ice-cream cafes than anything else!

Chilled out and ready for brunch on the Danube

The Danube

There were a few bike shops in town but we had to rush as they closed at midday on a Saturday, but we had our bikes checked over and we bought some more padded shorts for ourselves. In the evening we tried an East African restaurant, Tamu Sana, and it was great. We sat out on the terrace and we had delicious fried plantain, okra and I had spicy marinated lamb. Good vegetarian options and nice vibe.


Linz main square by night

Sights of note:

  • A chill out zone in the middle of town with bean bags, hammocks and a mini library
  • A man on the bridge was eating an ice-cream and the scoop of ice-cream fell onto the floor and he bent down and picked it up and put it back on the cone and carried on eating!
  • A group of four grown men who witnessed the ice-cream incident who were laughing so hard they had to stop and hold onto the railing


Linz - some of the chill out area

Day 12: Cycling from Berlin to Athens AUSTRIA

Day 12

Cesky Krumlov > Rožmberk nad Vltavou > Austrian border > Linz


90.5km

6 hours 35 mins

1,824m elevation gain




We made it to Austria! Today was a much better day of cycling and we were surprised that we made it all the way to Linz in one day. The promise of a rest day in Linz made it all the more tempting to get there. The day was another hilly one and they were such steep hills that we mainly got off the bikes and pushed them up, to try and conserve a little leg energy. It still took a lot of effort as the bikes with the bags on the back are pretty heavy. However, this worked well and we had a lovely lunch stop as well as a few breaks. 

As you can see on the map above we took a wrong turn as we carried on following our Cycling Route 7 when we should have transferred to the 1033, but it was actually a nice flat section along a stream, so it was a relief to go along the route for a bit, even if we had to turn back. You can see in the elevation above that once we were in Austria, after a few hills, we just cruised down into Linz, which made it easier to meet our goal and get into the city before sunset.

Saying bye to Cesky Krumlov

Cesky Krumlov


Along the way


Whilst pushing our bikes up the huge hills coming out of Cesky Krumlov, we bumped into a German family also pushing up their bikes. It turned out that they had also travelled our route from Berlin but they had started in Hamburg. Later on after another huge hill we turned a corner which opened out to an amazing view over the town of Rozmberk, we weren't even expecting to travel through such a nice town and we were glad to have a delicious lunch along the riverside.

The view of Rozmberk we came upon

The view of the castle from the riverside - Rozmberk


The detour


We did go off course for a few kilometres as we carried on following the signposts we had been all day, Cycling Route 7, when we should have switched to get across the border to Austria. The path was a nice one, along a railway track and therefore nice and flat, and then along a river in the woods. We took a break where some cyclists were having a swim and that is where we realised that we had gone the wrong way, but it made for a pretty stop. Whilst there taking a photo, the water suddenly started coming down faster than before, I thought this was very strange and couldn't be possible. As I was thinking that the water rose and my foot almost went underwater! Soon after, a group of kayaks came down the rapids and I assume that they have some sort of control over the water level and they had pushed some extra down for them to paddle down.

The beautiful river which rose!

Sights of note


  • Gunshots in the woods in Czech Republic
  • Two guys in Rozmberk in pirate outfits, one even had a toy monkey around his neck 
  • A sign telling us to watch out for tractors - and it was right
  • Two friendly ponies who walked along with us we pushed them up a hill
  • A funny cow bench outside a house in Austria 

Watch out for tractors!

The friendly ponies
The cow bench outside an Austrian house


Friday, August 25, 2017

Day 11: Cycling from Berlin to Athens

Day 11

Tyn nad Vltavou > Ceske Budejovice > Cesky Krumlov


69km

4 hours 22 mins

1,112m elevation gain



We thought today would be a short day of cycling but it didn't quite turn out that way. The morning started out well, we stayed on a more main road which later turned into a nice cycle path along the river and into Ceske Budejovice. There wasn't even many hills which was great. Then later we were back on roads and it got hilly and busy and we were exhausted by the time we arrived in Cesky Krumlov.

Rest stop in Ceske Budejovice

A colourful bridge on our route

Cesky Krumlov


Luckily Cesky Krumlov is a beautiful UNESCO world heritage site and we headed straight for the vegetarian restaurant to rejuvenate. We were right on the riverside which was great and we saw all the rafting boats go by and two SUPs. Again there didn't seem to be many Rapids but perhaps they were further down the river.

Cesky Krumlov castle

Cesky Krumlov town

Cesky Krumlov castle by night


Sights of note

  • A guy in his pants on his rollerblades
  • Another canoe slalom
  • In Cesky Krumlov, a dog jumping between boats and a constant stream of tourists on rafting boats and the two on SUPs.
  • A huge number of Asian tourists
Canoe Slalom 
SUPs on the river from the veggie restaurant