A flavour of the Orient
Rai & Stephie in Asia

.....BREAKING NEWS.....After cycling more than 1300 km from Vidin in Bulgaria we have made it to the finish line in Passau, Germany! 

Our last cycling day was a piece of cake and quite slow as always!

Cycled 47.4 km.
Time: 2   hrs  55 min.
Max speed:  35.6 km/h.
Avg speed:   16.2 km/h.

We have really enjoyed following the Danube with its beautiful and varied scenery, splendid wildlife and great sunsets -  a nice change from carrying our backpacks in Asia. And this will certainly not be the end for Rai, Stephie and our Turkish bikes: in the near future we might do some cheeky biking in Bangladesh or maybe struggle with bits of the Himalayas or why not Northern Scandinavia (in the summer only..) or jungle cycling in some remote Indo islands.... We will seeeeeeee!

With the cycling episode over, we made the most of Saturday night drinking with this entertaining rasta guy in a bar in central Passau. Only after Rai finished playing the guitar and piano did he introduce himself as Mansur Scott, a famous percussionist from Harlem! Woooooooooow! What an honour!

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=83130

Soooo with time running out (yes Rai unfortunately has to go back to work....aargh) all we have to do is put the bikes on a train heading towards The Netherlands.....the dream is nearly over but that's a good excuse to come up with more brilliant and exotic travel plans!

And we have one young nephew and niece to visit in The Netherlands which were born while we were away, soooooo that's exciting stuff!

Stay tuned for photos from home sweet home!

We didn't cycle too much today with all the great scenery...instead we did a little hiking..check out the photo of the meandering Danube! And obviously we did some lazing around in the campsite grass and watched these bunch of Germans setting up their camp: 6 camper vans plus  speedboats, jetski, full size cinema screen to watch the football etc etc! Ridiculous.

Cycled 23.7 km.
Time: 1   hrs  40 min.
Max speed:  30.2 km/h.
Avg speed:   14.2 km/h.

With a huge, wonderful and tasty Austrian breakfast we cycled past apparently the oldest town in Austria (Enns) and onto the larger and far more industrial city of Linz. We found an idyllic swimming spot that seemed too good to be true so we obviously stopped for a swim and a snooze. In the afternoon Stephie showed all the passing cyclists her acrobatic tricks....zeer schun ! We pedalled some more and eventually found a nice quiet camping spot in a beautiful location opposite Neuhaus castle. Pity the landlady of the campsite was a grumpy old complaining fart living in something similar to "paradise"!

Cycled  79 km.
With regards to the rest of the stats we have no idea as the crappy speedo machine failed!

We continued to make our way up the Austrian Danube, getting ever closer to our final destination in Passau, Germany. Our cycling was interrupted by several interesting swimming spots and picturesque villages. We continued cycling late into the day  with menacing dark thunder clouds above us. The other cyclists were already relaxing in their campsites or gasthauses so we had the roads to ourselves. We just came across a large hunting group who were searching for a big wild animal and a good feed. We spotted two deers soon after! With tired legs and a beautiful late afternoon light, we cycled passed stunning scenery of wheat and corn fields and large farmhouses ...like a vivid Van Gogh painting. We decided to opt for a Gasthaus and soon after arriving the rain started and it rained rained rained....perfecto timing ! In the evening we were treated by some locals to some excellent acordeon playing.

Cycled  85.1 km.
Time: 5  hrs 16 min.
Max speed:  35.4 km/h.
Avg speed: 16.1 km/h.
Temp: HOT HOT HOT ! 

There was no way we were going to take cycling seriously today. Some cyclists are obsessed about clocking up the km; we were obsessed about having a good time ! As we were in the famous wine growing region of Wachau we took a break from cycling at 11am and did some wine tasting instead! Delicious and refreshing Riesling and Gruner Veltiner wines were "tasted". And we also did plenty of Danube swimming to cool off from the persistent heat. We then cycled towards the 13 century castle ruins of Aggstein high above the Danube. With a 20 percent slope lasting 3 km, we were soon forced to hide our bikes and our load in  a farmers field and walk the rest of the way up....definitely worth the effort ! With a little more pedalling we reached the famous town of Melk and its wonderful Benedictine abbey...and so did all the cruiseboats with loud American tourists !

Cycled  41.1 km.
Time: 3  hrs 19 min.
Max speed:  37.5 km/h.
Avg speed: 12.3 km/h.

You could tell it was Monday morning when we left Vienna. The waitress complained heavily that we were paying our breakfast bill with 2 cent euro coins...who cares was our response. A euro is a euro.....then a fancy landrover 4x4 forgot to give way to us and more cyclists and this pissed off dude gave chase to the car banging on the windows....!  

Once out in the nature and cycling along the Danube we experienced our first tailwinds....we were now cycling faster than the cruiseboats on the river. What slowed us down was the heat.... Wooooow...a naked swim in the Danube was compulsory and so was the lunchtime white wine which gave us the extra energy to complete the 97 km to the historical town of Krems.

Cycled  97.2 km.
Time: 5  hrs 48 min.
Max speed:  33.8 km/h.
Avg speed: 16.7 km/h.
Temp: HOT HOT HOT ! 38 deg C

We are now in the grand city of Vienna which has supposedly one the world's highest quality of life. If you are a cyclist then this is a gem of a city with kms and kms of cycle paths. But we did come across about 40,000 noisy motorbikes who were in town for a festival. And the vegan green festival was on as well and so was the annual gay parade and a fireworks show for a rich guy celebrating his birthday...And you have mr icecream man who scooters along the Danube offering you icecream while you sunbathe on the grass or take a dip along with the other 1 million Viennese who need a break from the hot summery weather. And then you can grab a bmx and fly it off a ramp into Danube or try some jetskiing without a boat...endless possibilities for some summer fun. And if you fancy a guide then our friend Immo and his young son Enzo do a great alternative cultural-eating-drinking-tour ...a big thank you guys !!!

And then you have Mozart, Beethoven, spanish riding horses, fancy palaces and churches and huge schnitzel but thats all standard guidebook stuff !