Too Damn Hot

Hello from Hungary. I just looked back at my journal and counted 10 days of uncommon heat here in Europe. Yes, hot and humid...just like New York...so not so fun for camping. But anyway, it still gets cool at night....but now around midnight! Today (17 July) is supposed to be the last day of the heatwave. I can't believe I'm looking forward to rain!

So, since the last time I wrote, we rode through Austria and Slovakia. We had done the route before, but liked it so much that we wanted to do it again. And it didn't disappoint us. Our favorite campsite in Passau, Germany is still great (though a bit more expensive, but with upgraded bathrooms) and the ride from Passau to Feldkirchen in Austria was just as spectacular as we remembered. But this time we knew what Jause (pronounced: Yowsah) was, so we stopped at all the "Jause Stations" for delicious Austrian snacks and apple wine spritzers. Then we kind of rushed through Austria so we could make it to Budapest for Matthias' birthday, which we have pretty much done. We're about 60 km from Budapest, and 30 Km from the campsite where we're going to stay (instead of riding into Budapest) so unless there's some kind of hailstorm tomorrow (which I wouldn't rule out at this point) we're going to make it. After a few days of touring Budapest, we're going to head back along the Donau toward Germany (more slowly this time) and try another bike route...we're thinking of catching a train from Linz to Innsbruck (Austria) and riding along the Inn river back into Bavaria. We'll see...