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What I Did This Summer – Part 3

Friday, October 26th, 2012

For the last post on our summer travels I have to mention a long weekend that we spent in Budapest.  It’s about a 5 1/2 hour drive from our house.  The city is really lovely, reminding us of both Vienna and Prague, but unique as well.

We saw most of the “usual” sites – the castle hill, the cathedral, and of course took a boat down the river.  We also got to enjoy two special events that were happening while we were there.  The first was a weekend long series of horse races call the National Gallup.  Every little town in Hungary sends a horse and a rider, dressed in traditional uniforms and they race around the Hero’s Square in the city.  The races are fun to watch, but the food stalls that accompany it were a treat too.

The next day we day headed to the Castle which was hosting a national wine festival.  The entire area was filled with booths from all over Hungary offering up wines we had never tasted before.  Some of them were very good, but unfortunately not found very often outside of the country.   If you happen to find ones from Villanyi in your local stores, give them a try.

Here’s some of the famous Hungarian paprika in action:

It’s hard to believe, but this is the same Danube River that we cycled along the month before!

What I Did This Summer – Part 2

Friday, October 26th, 2012

This is the second part of my attempt to quickly catch up on what we did in the last 2 months.  Just across the border in Italy there is a region called Süd Tirol (South Tyrol).  It used to be part of Austria and they still speak a lot of German there.  However, the big attraction is the mountains,  an extension of the Alps called the Dolomites.

The rock formations are very unique and, for me, rival Yosemite or the Torres del Pine.  It’s become one of our new favorite spots, especially because it’s so accessible, just a 2 hour drive from home.

Last year we visited the area for a couple of quick hikes and couldn’t wait to get back there this year to explore the region more.  On my last trip to London I managed to find an English version of a book called “Short Walks in the Dolomites”.  Equipped with this, a map, and our backpacks we took off into the mountains.  There might be something missing in the translation because 9 hours and 1300m of elevation later we finally made it back to the start.  I would hate to see one of the “long” walks.

The hike may have taken all day, but I can’t think of a better way to spend the time.  If the beautiful views weren’t enough, the hardy food at the huts along the way might alone be worth it.

Here’s the first of the 3 huts we stopped at:

And another view along the way:

What I Did This Summer – Part 1

Sunday, October 21st, 2012

I can believe it’s the middle of October already!  After Kirchtag we had a realization that summer was going to be over soon. We quickly made plans to fill up just about every weekend for the last 2 months with things that we thought we would have done earlier.  Of course that also means that I haven’t had much time to blog about any of it, so I’ll try to catch up with the highlights over the next few posts.

One of our favorite things from last summer was an overnight bike trip on the Danube cycling trail (Donauradweg).  The trail follows the entire length of the river from it’s start in Germany all the way to Black Sea, but some of the most popular stretches are right here in Austria.  We decided to try a new section of this year.

The area from Passau, Germany to Linz, Austria is especially nice, well equipped with cafes and guesthouses just for cyclists.  We rode it over 2 days staying overnight  in Schloegen, a place where the river makes two 180 degree turns to form a giant S curve.

The trail switches occasionally from one side of the river to the other (and sometimes there is a trail on both sides).  There are very few bridges, but there are ferries along the way.  Some take both cars and bikes, but others are small and only for bikes.  It’s a fun way to see the river and the countryside, as well as cross the border from Germany to Austria (there are no customs anymore, by the way).

Here’s a view of me and Danube.  More soon about the rest of our late summer adventures.