Swimming with Swans

We are now back in Passau, Germany, having biked from Budapest along the Danube bike trail. The journey is great - I highly recommend it. In Hungary, the riding was not the best...we had to ride a lot on busy streets, but the countryside was lovely, and we spent a few days in a small town where we could swim and relax in the Danube. We also rode two days in Slovakia, which would have been nice (the bike path was pretty good most of the way) except for an incredible headwind. That was tough...like riding uphill all the time.

Back in Austria we stopped for one night in Vienna - the campsite was pretty international, and pretty expensive (20 Euros). We had fun in the city, though, visiting Matthias´favorite restaurant - in an historic keller (cellar). We also spent two nights in a campsite in Feldkirchen, a small town with a nice swimming lake, where we were able to cool off. The weather has been great - hot during the day and cool at night.

When we got to Passau yesterday, there was a festival, so we helped ourselves to some Maß (1 liter beers) and snacks and met some nice Bavarians. Now, we are trying to figure out where to go next. We will probably head up the Inn river back toward Austria and then head off to Munich at some point.

We have had our share of gear problems. The tune-up we wanted to get in Budapest did not work out (they wanted us to leave the bikes for 7 days just to fix a spoke! It reminded Matthias of the Communists.) So, Matthias had to ride with a broken spoke until we could find someone to fix it, but who then messed it up worse, so we had to go to another bike store in another town to get it fixed. Then, the day before yesterday I got a flat, and broke a spoke as well. So, our bikes are now in the bike shop getting new back tires that should be able to better handle the weight of our gear.

And, in Hungary, our tent broke, so we went out to buy another. The new tent was really cheap, but we should have known that it would not keep us dry. So, we tossed that one and went on a search for another, better tent, which we found in Slovakia. Once we figured out how to build it up, we were quite happy with it. Hopefully, this one will last until the end of the trip.

That´s all the updating for now. Internet places are somewhat scarce on the bike trail so I´m not sure when the next update will be. Until then, hope all is well wherever you are.