Blogs from Austria, Europe

Yesterday, Zori came to pick us up from our Prague apartment and drop us at the train station. Then we were off to Austria! The train ride was around 4 hours, and uneventful. I read for most of it. Once we arrived in Vienna, we found where Gaby was waiting for us. It was so great to see her again. We had spent months working together on a dive boat in Australia when I was 20, then a few weeks traveling together a couple years later in Spain, and I'd gone to visit her in Austria after that, and then she had come to Canada for a visit the following year. Since then, I hadn't seen her- 25 years! She took us to her apartment, we dropped our bags, and then we headed out to go ... read more

Yesterday we spent most of the day at the Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna's answer to Versailles. Originally the emperor used it as a summer palace, but the last few lived there full time, right up to the abdication of the last emperor in 1918. We toured the state rooms, which are highly decorative in an 18th/19th century way. Unfortunately, no photos allowed inside. Like Versailles, the palace is surrounded by huge, beautifully designed grounds. We spent a couple of hours exploring the paths and looking in bemusement at the faux Roman ruins and strange fountains. Back in central Vienna we had our best dinner yet at a (mainly) vegetarian restaurant. They did veg variations on some standard Austrian dishes, such as the mushroom schnitzel I had. Very delicious! Today we took the train to Salzburg and spent ... read more

Our last full day in Vienna. We have plans to do lots of things both ride related and leisure related. I doubt we'll get them all done. I'm fast out of the blocks, up early to have breakfast and work on the bike. It needed a good clean but I also needed to swap my front and back tyres around as the front tyre has a wider profile. I was done and dusted by 9:00am, a good start. Jeff had on his list to get some rim tape at a bike shop, patch a couple of tubes and rotate his front and rear tyres to even out the wear - none of which was done before we all left for the city about 10:30am. Tom, having just arrived had nothing to do on his bike. What ... read more

A couple of hours to the southeast of Innsbruck lies Hohe Tauern NP - the largest protected area in the Eastern Alps. Many of Austria's highest peaks rise amongst this mountainous wonderland, including the country's highest, the Grossglockner (3798m), and its fourth-highest, the Grossvenediger (3660m). Though I harbour no interest whatsoever in scaling any such ice-clad peaks, my passion for wandering amongst lofty mountains combined with my newfound love for staying in alpine huts had found a perfect outlet in the form of the Venediger Höhenweg: a 5-6 day hut-to-hut walk curving around the southeastern slopes of the mighty mountain. Unfortunately, though the weather forecast was predicting mostly sunny weather for the Saturday, Monday and Wednesday (my first, third and fifth days on the trail), the same could not be said for the Sunday and Tuesday ... read more

We strolled into the modern part of town for dinner last night. We found an outdoor restaurant that was packed. There was an Austrian band playing, with lots of brass instruments included, they really had the place engaged with everyone clapping along. As it was so busy we were seated at a bench table with 3 others who also happened to be cyclists. The pertinent information we found out from them was that August 15th is a public holiday and everything will be closed. This was significant because we planned on going past the supermarket on our way out of town in the the morning to pick up our days supplies. We scoffed down dinner and made it to the supermarket before it closed - disaster averted. Another short days ride so there's no rush in ... read more