Somehow it’s been longer than we intended for an ‘update’ post. We’ve been very busy – battling the elements across Bavaria, Austria and now, amazingly, into Slovakia.
We arrived into Bratislava last night, the capital of this ‘new’ country for us both. We looked at a map (yes we have been looking at a map in the interim, but this time looked properly) – and realised how far we’ve come since we last had a break, in Ulm, Germany. We’ve had our biggest week from a mileage perspective, and because the route along the Danube has been fairly ‘straight’ we’ve travelled a long way East, and feel further from home than we have in more familiar places.
Our accommodation here in Bratislava is a bit of a step up from the tent. Somehow we’ve ended up in a two bedroom apartment complete with proper kitchen, balcony, bathroom with bath and washing machine.
It’s the first place since we left ‘home’ that feels like it could be ‘home’. Not having a home has been a bit unsettling at times. To the extent that getting into the safety and comfort of our sleeping bags has come to be a replacement for walking through the front door at home after work – that ‘sigh’ moment you get when you know you’re safe, comfy, at rest. This place ticks all of those boxes plus you can:
1.Get dressed standing up
2. Have a hot drink inside without worrying it’s going to fall over and wreck the tent
3. Use door handles rather than zips to transition from ‘inside’ to ‘outside’
4. Rest your head on a lovely soft pillow…. Mmmmmmmm
The city itself is also treating us well so far. We have spent the day (in the rain, of course) exploring the castle, the old town and visiting an all you can eat Asian restaurant (Matt has had this on his ‘list’ for a while, and we felt that Bratislava was the place to do it… no idea why!)
Last night Matt also finally got his much awaited stein of beer (a litre of the cold stuff). Bavaria and Austria had both let us down in this department. Slovakia clearly knows what it’s doing as the Bratislava Flagship Restaurant served them for €5, alongside dumplings, ghoulash and other local delicacies!
Getting here hasn’t been so straightforward though.
Weather
So I know we’ve moaned about the weather a lot on here, and on our Strava entries. But really – it’s been a bit grim.
We’ve had lots of rain.
We’ve had ridiculous wind – and by ridiculous I mean consistently coming from the East, and gale force at times. For anyone who enjoys cycling you will empathise with how irritating and energy sapping this is. Then add on the fact we’re cycling in one direction, with no payback… and yep. We’ve been moaning a bit.
And it’s actually been pretty cold too.
Not quite the vision we had of cycling along the Danube in May unfortunately. At times I’ve felt we’ve really been ‘tested’ and have found myself asking ‘why’. The same question I asked (and do continue to ask) when I’ve thought about our fertility journey which was also incredibly testing at times. Why us? Why can’t we have a baby and everyone else can? Why do we get the wind week after week from the East when it’s normally from the West? We knew this trip would be a challenge… but really… it would be nice if we didn’t need to constantly prove ourselves and could just ‘be’ for a bit.
Maybe the proving ourselves bit has been why we’ve ended up in Bratislava so quickly. Self-realisation time… but we might have a bit of a ‘we can beat this’ mentality, so here we are ‘beating’ something (not sure what, or why… but we can’t help it!)
Good things
Despite all of the weather moans there have been good things too. As well as kind people and some funny moments too.
Regensburg and Caro
Our route along the Danube from Ulm did include a couple of days of dry weather and a night in Regensburg, a really beautiful city around the size of Norwich and home of Caro, our Warm Showers host for the night there. Caro is a really special person who started hosting on Warm Showers last year. Since then she has had 27 stays including people from all over the world, all ages, all cyclists. She welcomed us into her apartment, took us up a very steep hill to a beautiful viewing point of the city (the hill wasn’t necessary after a long day but the view was worth it!) and we cycled into town for a delicious and absolutely enormous pizza. Another new friend, and a city we loved too.
A bargain
The night after we stayed in the cheapest and possibly best campsite yet alongside a Dutch couple – Max and Claudia. The site cost €9 for both of us and the tent (usually charged separately) – cold beers were €1 each (rude not to). It was in the middle of nowhere and just felt ‘right’ – even sheltering beside the loos from the rain (which started in the morning) chatting to our new Dutch friends over coffee – happy times.
The Danube
There have been some stunning sections of cycling which have made our eyes tired with all of the seeing again (and the legs of course!). The section from Passau (Germany) to near Linz (Austria) was really beautiful, including the section we did three times due to thinking we could be smart and get through the ‘closed to cyclists’ signs … only to have to turn around 7km later and take a ferry to the other side. And then another ferry back again (they’re really raking it in…)
The section from near Melk to Krems an der Donau was also beautiful and saw the return of vineyards rolling up steep sided hills running into the river.
And going back a bit… but the gorge just before Kelheim in Germany was spectacular, especially when viewed from the top of the gravel climb which we took, rather than the more popular boat option.
New friends
We had a whole (admittedly very short day) cycling with Americans Karen and Kevin in the drizzle. They are on a month long trip along the Danube and up to Prague – a bucket list thing for them which they had planned for some time from their home in Michigan. They also had the exact same very cool tent as us 🙂 It was brill to cycle in a little group and share tips/observations and talk of home/work/family without having to think about German words for things!
The kindness of strangers
The second best campsite yet (maybe actually the best now I think about it) was also discovered in Austria, about 20km from Linz. We arrived in very wet rain and after walking round saying ‘hallo’ a lot decided to attempt to dry our tent out from the night before in the covered seating area in the hopes that the owner would turn up at some point. He did turn up and on seeing our forlorn (but still very cool) tent immediately told us that we really shouldn’t sleep in it and for the same price should instead take over the renovated cow shed next to the loos which him and his family normally use for storage/for the kids to play in. We gladly accepted and settled in fully and completely for the night!
Oh Vienna!
And after possibly the soggiest day yet we arrived into Vienna, to our hotel hoping for an early check-in. No can do – but all was good as we requisitioned the coffee machine in the warm, dry lobby and bothered reception until they let us into our room where we peeled everything wet off, unpacked the wet tent and enjoyed the relief of arriving. Vienna itself was lovely (albeit rainy the whole afternoon/evening we were there). It’s somewhere we have been before but we saw it through different eyes this time somehow. We did nearly both fall asleep standing up in the exhibition at Mozart’s apartment but I felt I owed it to my Grandpa who grew up in Vienna and had a (‘small’..!) interest in Mozart to at least attempt to experience some culture whilst there.
Contrasts
So I suppose that’s the theme of this week… contrasts.
The highs are only highs when you’ve had some lows in between. The power of arrival and feeling comfy. Making new friends. The relief of feeling warm and dry. The belly laughs at something really not that funny in a kebab-haus in the quietest town in Austria (Grein). All made better for the cold, wet, windy and sometimes lonely bits in between.
Next stop… we don’t know! We are having a third night in Bratislava to work it out.
Thanks again again for all of the comments and humbling things friends, family and colleagues have said about our posts. They have at times been a real boost 🙂 We’ll try to update sooner next time (which means less than 10 days of cycling before we have a day off…)
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