Gay Paree, Magnificent Munchen and Aussies in Austria

Gruss Gott . (that's Bavarian/Austrian for G'day). I'm sitting in a hotel room with at the base of some stunning mountains in the Austrian Alps, a mixture of craggy rock faces, conifer forests and carefully positioned misty clouds to create the most scenic effect imaginable, straight out from the balcony of our hotel. More about that further down

From southern France we drove to Barcelona to drop off the van, but only stayed one night, as we had prebooked a cheap flight to paris. As you can see from the pics the weather was beautiful and we spent a couple of great days wandering around, soaking up the ambience, visiting art galleries and museums, etc and tasting some of the local culinary delights.



Me and Sama feeding the birds (again) at Notre Dame Cathedral
. The official bird feeding guy took the photo. He has been coming every day for the last 13 years.
 He has spoilt them a bit, so they prefer doughnuts to bread.



You've seen this building before, but here it is again.

Surprisingly you were allowed to photograph the Mona Lisa. We also visited the musee d'orsay, which has a great collection of Van Gogh and other impressionists, and all sorts of other interesting things. You couldn't take photos at that one, but it was great just to enjoy the art. But Paris is a work of art in itself and you hardly need to visit the galleries.

Another lady with an enigmatc smile emerging from the metro station. We had to get around on the underground rail system as our bikes were boxed up. We tried the Paris bike hire system, but it wouldn't take our Australian credit cards. Can anyone tell me why trains everywhere drive on the left even when all of the cars go on the right. (except in one strange paris metro station, which totally confused me).

Okay, Sama and I are just going downstairs for a Kaffee mit milch, so I'll finish this when I get back.

(...slurp, slurp, slurp......yak, yak, yak, ...)

Okay, back again.  The view is still just as nice, or possibly even nicer for having spent over 4 hours walking up and down it today.  From Paris we took a fast train to Munchen (Munich). They have some funny rules on trains. For example, on this one you couldn't take bikes, but you could take boxes, so we put our bikes in boxes and there was no problem (except for lugging them between platforms at the Stuttgart changeover).

In Munich we stayed with Tom (my big brother). It was great to see him and Sophie,  but his other 2 girls are in Australia. After a day or 2 in Munich Tom took us to the mountains. We climbed the one below.

Here's me and Tom at the top. Sama is behind the camera.  If you think I look like I'm shivering, you're right, as a cold wind was a blowing. It took us 4 hours to get to the top and another 6 hours going down (we went a different way).  By the time we got back the only food left at the inn was bread and cheese, but it tasted great (as did the Bavarian brew).

Here are some more mountains, they grow wild here in Austria.
Pity they are too big to fit in a backpack.

I actually went swimming in this stream, it's freezing!!!

After going back to Munich, Sama and I decided we needed a bigger dose of the mountains so we took a train to Mittenwald in Germany, then cycled 4 hours to Eng (in Austria). You can see the guest house we're staying in at the base of this mountain.

In a few days time we'll be flying down to Istanbul for a few days and then on to Nepal.

We will be in quite a remote part of the country so we may or may not be able to update the blog.

That's all for now.

Sean :)

Cycling in southern France

Hi Everyone, Sama here, back on line after a busy couple of weeks. I had a wonderful week in Cardiff staying with my grandparents ( who are both in their 90s and doing very well) and visiting lots of relatives. I also managed to do some lovely cycles around Cardiff and into the countryside, which is never too far away. As usual I got lost many times, but the Welsh people were extremely helpful in giving very detailed directions to get me back to my Nan’s. Then, with my parents we caught a ferry to Oostende and the next day took trip to Thiepval in France, this whole area of rural France seems to be full of memorials for so many wartime battles. It was a very moving experience and I was glad to have shared it with Mum and Dad.

We have just about completed 9 days of cycling through the Vezere, Dordogne and Lot valleys. The French countryside is simply enchanting, filled with crumbling chateaus atop sheer sided cliffs, meandering rivers, forested valleys and medieval towns. Our trip has taken us mostly on quiet country roads where you can still hear the sound of cowbells and people call out a lively “Bonjour!” as we cycle past.

We’ve been very fortunate with the bikes, with no punctures as yet and only a couple of cycling incidents. The first was a minor sight seeing accident, in which I was paying too much attention to the sights and ran off the road, into a ditch, went over the handlebars and landed on a blackberry bush, lots of scratches but it was more embarrassing than anything. We also experienced a slight case of hypothermia. After leaving Sarlat la Caneda very early one extremely chilly morning, we had the unusual experience of encountering a long, winding descent (most of our days seem to start with a steep climb) into a beautiful forested valley. By the time we reached the bottom over an hour later the mist was rolling off the river and we were both freezing. It took 2 cups of tea and half an hour of standing in the sun before I stopped shivering enough to get back on the bike.

My French is improving slowly, I now know when I read a sign pointing to <toilettes, eau potable>  not to go looking for a portaloo.  [translation: toilets, drinking water - Sean]

Au revoir.

Sama

Vezere and Dordogne Valleys

Hi Everyone, I uploaded the pics below a couple of days ago and was timed out on my connection before I could finish writing. Anyway, to back track a little, after Stonehenge we picked up Jim (Sama’s dad) from the airport and took him to Cardiff. The next days were spent catching up with relatives. I slipped off to Cornwall for a couple of days, where it rained continuously, and off to Berkshire for a barn dance with my cousins, the McGees (great fun), then back to Cardiff to stay with Len and Mary (Sama’s grandparents) for a couple more days, meeting some of the extended family members. We also did some nice cycling around Cardiff, which is a small enough city that you can be in the countryside in 15 minutes.


From Cardiff we headed for Ramsgate along with Jim and Moya, and took the ferry crossing to Oostende in Belgium, retracing the route Jim took as a baby when escaping from the Nazi invasion with his family. The following day we went down to Thiepval in northern France, to the war memorial bearing the names of the soldiers who were killed in the battle of the Somme in World War I, including Jim’s grandfather, who died on the first day along with thousands of others.

We are now in a very beautiful region of southern France and have been cyling throuhout the Vezere and Dordogne river valleys. Yesterday we took a day off cycling to do some sightseeing, as this entire area is full of prehistoric and medieval sites: cave paintings, castles, beautiful villages, as well as the natural beauty of the area. We will be doing some more cycling over the coming days.

A BIENTOT

Sean 

Hi Everyone

Here's a few pics from the last 4 days of cycling around the Vezere and Dordogne valleys in southern France. The whole area is just magnificent, with beautiful scenery, medieval buildings and prehistoric art and caves.

Vezere River at Montignac

Same river a bit further down 

When we got to Montignac they were having a festival celebrating traditional Aquitaine language that only happens once in a blue moon in any given village (the last one here was 1954) and the entire town, every building, tree, street and post, were decorated with these flowers made from plastic bags.

After a few days camping, we went for a hotel and a room with a balcony.

The medieval city of Sarlat la Caneda.

There seems to be a castle everywhere you look.
People go to great lengths to get a good view.

Sama stopping to collect some bush tucker to
put on our breakfast (blackberries, yum!).

Viva la France

Allo monsieurs et madames

....we are now in the south of France. We have just  completed the first day of a 10 day tour de France aux bicyclettes around an area that has lots of ancient cave paintings, beautiful scenery and castles, etc. So we will update with some pics and news soon. Merci beaucoup to those of you that have been putting comments on the blog.

Au revoir mes cheries
Sean

Stonehenge

From Wales we made a quick detour down to Stonehenge (we now have a rental camper van). It's amazing that something thousands of years old and so significant is still standing, we got there early before the first busloads from London arrived so it was nice to see it at a quiet time.

We tried cycling the backroads on the way back to the campsite and ended up getting lost again, this time in the middle of a military firing range with lots of signs warning us not to touch anything that looked like it might blow up.

Two lane traffic

NO  RIGHT  TURN!

It was interesting being in North Wales, the scenery was so nice and it was interesting to hear so many people speaking Welsh all the time, people in shops, families, everyone, switching seemingly effortlessly back and forth into English. All the signs are also in both Welsh and English. I picked up a few words:

Borayda = good morning (don't know about the spelling)
diolch = thanks
araf = slow
dim parcio = no parking
beicio = bikes

Tara for now
Sean

North Wales

Hi Everyone, Sama here. After our relaxing cycle tour of the fenlands it was great to be back amongst the mountains again, this time in the Snowdonia National Park. Initially we stuck with the bikes and enjoyed 2 days of cycling, starting out from the beautiful historic town of Caernarfon. Cycle ways are well established in North Wales, so much of our ride was traffic free. The difficulty of cycling in the mountains was offset by the breathtaking scenery and especially with Mt Snowdon as a constant backdrop. 

 

Caernarfon castle.

They have some excellent cycle paths in Wales

On the 3rd and 4th days we put away the bikes and embarked on 2 days of hiking. The walks took us through every changing landscapes from dense, dark woodlands filled with ferns, mosses and every colour of mushroom, to the bracken and heather covered moors where we encountered a family of wild Welsh ponies and then finally to the summit of Mt Snowdon.  We were fortunate the day we climbed to have clear views out to Anglesea and into the heart of Wales.

 

Back to Caernarfon, just in time for a quick cuppa.

We underestimated the impact of the climb however and we're still suffering 3 days later (after all the cycling I thouught our muscles would be well toned, but apparently you use a whole different set when climbing mountains!). Bye for now.

Beautiful views on Mt Snowdon

Sama makes friends with some wild ponies.

East Anglia

Hi Everyone. Sama here. We had a very enjoyable 4 days of coastal riding through undulating country side and quaint seaside towns.  I really like the way rural communities have developed in the UK, unlike in WA there seems to be no coastal sprawl.  Each village is compact and densely populated, but between them there are vast areas of pasture and woodlands, I'm amazed by the sense of space I feel cycling through this island of over 50 million people. The weather has warmed and we finally put our thermals away, Sean even paddled in the North Sea. I on the other hand am still wearing jumpers and scarves, while the locals soak up as much sun as possible wearing shorts and summer dresses.

North Sea coast at Hunstanton, Norfolk

Sean tries the British tradition of paddling (the water is freezing!)

We are also learning not to take too much for granted. After pre-booking most of our Scottish accommodation before leaving Australia, we decided to throw caution to the wind and just see where we wind up each night. This worked well the first night, but the next day, after a very long day's ride, we turned up at Wells-Next-The-Sea during carnival week, the busiest time of the year, and found there was no accommodation for 20 miles around.

Carnival day at Wells-Next-The-Sea

Also, after 3 beautiful sunny days we became a bit complacent about watching the weather and early on the fourth day, on our way to Ely, the rain set in and didn't ease all morning. After 2 hours we were soaked through and had to catch the train for the last section.

Cycling in the rain

The original part of this magnificent cathedral at Ely is over 1300 years old, but it was mainly built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion.

Peaceful spot by the canal.

We are now in North Wales and will be telling you all about that in our next update.

London

Hi Everyone. Sean here. From Scotland we took the train down to London for a couple of days. It was nice to cycle around without our bags (which we dropped at the hotel). There's so much to see around central London and the bikes are a great way of doing it...except for all the rush hour traffic (cough!!). We saw most of the places on the Monopoly board as well as St Paul's, Tower Bridge, Houses of Parliament, etc.

Sama visits the HP sauce  (sorry for this dated joke)

'Anyone home???'                                    'Just me, but I'm busy'

Here's a pic of Sama outside Buckingham Palace, the flag was flying, so the Queen was home, but she didn't come out to say hello, so we continued on to Hyde Park where we had the most deliciaous breakfast next to the lake.

After that we cycled east to Greenwich. This is me setting my watch to Greenwich Mean Time, which means it was an hour wrong as the British are on Summer time at the moment.

'Greenwich seems to be running slow today'

Once we were too pooped to cycle, we went back to the hotel (after getting seriously lost) then caught the tube down to Brixton. It was great to see that Trinity Gardens and our old house were still standing and the pub on the corner still open. We took a walk around Brixton Markets and up to Corpus Christi school, which is still there in 2 parts, but it was all closed up for school holidays. It was great to show Sama some of the places I've told her about all these years. Then, just to complete the London tourist experience, a red double decker bus back into London.

Sama feeding the pigeons near the River Thames

Next day we saw some of the museums. The British museum is just an amazing collection from all over the world. Sama has taught the Ancient Egypt topic so many times, so it was great to see the real mummies and the actual Rosetta stone. The museum of London was also excellent, entirely focussed on the history of London.

Later I caught up with Aunty Ann and with (cousins) Paul and John. They were all in great form, Aunty Ann is as bright and chirpy as ever and both Paul and John seemed to have aged well (their favourite subject is still Crystal Palace FC) although it's been 26 years since was last in the UK, it didnt seem that long, but it was great catching up and hearing about all the additions to the family in that time. Sorry, no photo, as I forgot to bring the camera.

From London we went to Acle in Norfolk to see Uncle brian and Aunty Barbara and family. This is them with their 4 granddaughters, Fenn, Kellie, Devon and Darra (sorry if spellings wrong).

Uncle Bobbie Gray was also over from the USA along with cousin Mary from Ireland, neither of whom I'd seen since I was a small child.

From there we started our Norfolk cycle, but we'll tell you about that in the next posting.

Sean :)

4 days in the highlands

Our highland cycle started with a very enjoyable (read 'no hills') 75km ride along the Tay Valley, which runs through the very pretty town of  Perth. The Scottish are very kind to cyclists and wherever possible they put in cycle paths, even through the middle of a golf course, there were plenty of people out for an early round the morning we rode through, so we had to be somewhat wary of stray balls.

From Pitlochry, we embarked on some muscle straining climbs and brake destroying descents for the next 3 days into the heart of the southern highlands.  At times the ride seemed to hard, however the ever changing and inspiring scenery made it all very enjoyable. Again Ican't help but feel that at times I'm in the middle of a BBC drama, this time think of All Creatures Great and Small. Narrow, winding country lanes, hardly wide enough for one car, then suddenly around the next bend it opens up into an expansive vista of mist-covered mountains reflected in the still, deep waters of the highland lochs.

The small Scottish villages are awash with colour at this time of year, as every pot and window sill are bursting with floweres, they are all vying to be the winner of the 'Scotland in Bloom' competition. My vote goes to the vast and silent moorlands with their display of wildflowers, reminiscent of southwest of WA.

The weather has continued to smile on us with cool and cloudy days and only a hint of rain, perfect for cycling. I can't help but feel sorry for the locals though, who are having a les than sunny summer after a very bleak winter. Rose, one of our B&B hosts, told us she didn't leave the house for 6 weeks during winter and the snow was so deep part of the roof collapsed under the weight. We've had some great accommodation including private hoems, old pubs and even a room in a grand manor house right on the loch.

The animals of the highlands are enchanting, lots of rabbits, squirrels running through the fields, serene black-faced and long-tailed sheep still thick with winter coats, and the most enchanting of all, the 'highland coos' (cows), the immense hairy beasties that dominate the landscape, and of course the dogs, the Scottish love their dogs and take themwith them everywhere, even onto trains where they are allowed to travel free of charge as long as they don't take up a seat to the exclusion of a human passenger.

I have come to realise that this part of Scotland is the UK's wilderness area and there are plenty of people taking advantage of it, cycling, walking, fishing. I've really enjoyed my time here and I'm already imagining future visits - next time involving some snow.

Bye for now
Sama

Sean enjoying breakfast on the road 










 

Scotland in bloom

Finally a picture of me not pushing my bike

 Two shots of the beautiful lakes, Loch Tay and Loch Rannoch