Our final day of cycling today began early in order to beat the heat. It actually turned out to be a very good ride. The path had been recently resurfaced and was very flat. We stopped a couple of times to take in the water side views of the Danube which we've become accustomed to seeing every day. The people around here are so lucky to have such a scenic bicycle path for their daily use. We arrived in Klosterneuburg by nine o'clock to drop off our bikes at a prearranged hotel location. With that business completed we moved on to make our way to the city of Vienna. Sometimes it's best to follow your intuition but no we asked directions and what should have been a one hour commute took us three hours. We originally ... read more

No early start this morning since the baker doesn't deliver the breads, rolls and cakes till 7:30. the wait paid off because everything was delicious. Our hostess again prepared a great meal for us of those bakery goods, lunch meats, cheeses, vegetables, jams and other spreads for the rolls, cereal, juice and tea. We enjoyed breakfast with the other family and learned that they too are traveling to Vienna by bike. It's always good to meet people who share your interests. Now to the mountain descent. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. With the brakes on we were able to walk down without a problem. It's not that often you go down a hill not riding but walking But the steepness of the hill dictated it. Once we reached the ... read more

A sunny day and temperatures this morning in the mid 60's makes for a very good start. We began with a traditional European breakfast at the guesthouse. There were cereals to choose from, hot rolls and fresh baked breads, boiled eggs, meats and cheeses, butter and jams, coffee, tea and juice. After some nourishment we were ready to go. We started out on the south side of the river again but were advised to switch over to the north side at some point because there was a five mile stretch on the south side going into Linz that we would have to ride the road with busy traffic. The decision to switch to the north side was not a difficult one since the traffic around here travels with some fast speeds and the road portion we ... read more

It was an early start to our day when the alarm rang at 5 a.m. We had to pack our bags and walk to the train station to catch a train to Passau. We left early enough to get a quick breakfast in the train station. We arrived in Passau at 9:30 a.m. Unable to check in to the hotel yet we did make our way there to drop off our bags before touring the city. Our first stop was at St. Stephen's Cathedral which is located at the Old Town's highest point. The Cathedral is home to the world's largest cathedral pipe organ with 17,974 pipes and 233 stops. The interior of the church was closed due to an upcoming organ concert. In many spots the city streets are constructed of cobblestone and are quite ... read more

Our Trip to Europe began with a one day stop in Toronto, Canada. Since we had some time before our flight we were able to see a couple of sights around the city. The last time we explored Toronto was in the 1980's so we decided to visit a couple of attractions. The first thing we noticed was how built up the suburbs were. There are many high rise buildings and shopping malls and restaurants outside of the city. Traffic on the freeways is extremely busy even with five and six lanes in one direction. Our shuttle driver today told us the population here is over 7 million people which accounts for all the traffic. The downtown streets were crowded with pedestrians both tourists and locals. Our first stop was the harbor area adjoining Lake Ontario. ... read more