Blogs from Europe - page 11363

Lovely weather for our one and only cruise (other than bike ferries) along the Danube. A retirement age cyclist helps us keep on the route as we leave the Danube (we had cycled without a map for part of the Danube route since the river is an obvious point) but now we have a map and thus problems. The cyclist talks at length about the attractions of his "Heimat" as he calls the area in a 5 km radius of his home. We feel guilty as we don't appear to have recognized the depth and diversity of the attractions in the area as we just cycle through. ... read more

Hello all, After escaping in Mongolia, we forced ourselves back on the train for more fun... yes, the Mongolia-Russia boarder crossing is a minimum of 10 hours, and our train did not disappoint. We arrived at the boarder and having been wisely informed to pee before the arrival due to the provistas locking the bathroom doors for the entire duration, foolishly thought we were ready. Of course, having forgotten to pack enough food (time constraints and such) I decided to jump off the train and hit up the little vendor. I left my valuables... and I mean all my valuables... with my friends and jumped off the train, bolted into the store, grabbed an instant noodle package, and headed out to the train... only to find the train, and my friends, passport, money belt, etc, gone. ... read more

Despite the overcast skies, the 6 of us still decided to stick with our plans and head out into the wilderness for a day of sightseeing. WE crammed into our car like a bunch of sardines (the boys in the very back playing Yahtzee and Connect Four) and made our way towards the Mountains of Mourne. You can see the mountains from quite a ways away, and we decided to stop and have a quick snack in Newcastle, and then headed into Silent Valley - which houses a reservoir that feeds the city of Belfast. It is as big as our own Snowy Mountain Hydro System. Mum says it’s called Silent Valley because once you’re in the valley, you can’t hear a thing - not a bird, or a car - nothing. It was lovely driving ... read more

The train trip across to Copenhagen involved something unusual - the whole train boarded a ferry and made the crossing from Germany into Denmark then left the ferry and continued on its way to Copenhagen. The train sits in the cargo deck of the ferry along with all the other cars which we found looked kind of strange. In Copenhagen itself we were staying in what we thought was going to be a bed and breakfast but turned out just to be a room in someone's house where we had to share their bathroom and kitchen. Instead of being greeted by the host we were greeted by someone else who said that the host was asleep. We never met the host for our whole stay there! The worst thing about the place we were staying though ... read more

Travel Blog for August 1st: Today is our final day in Madrid with Deanna, Jesús, and the kids. Deanna drove us into Pozuelo (the suburb they live in) to get school shoes for the kids and haircuts for Lillie and me. Lots of hair dye in the shop, and lots of women having their hair dyed. All ages. I’ve never seen so many tubes of hair color in one spot. I suppose in U.S. salons the dye tubes are just kept out of sight. We went home and Lillie and I spent much of the time packing for train ride to Paris. We said goodbye to Deanna and the kids, and Chus drove us to Chamartin Station where we caught our train for Bilbao, and then transferred to the French train to Paris. The overnight train ... read more