Into Asia!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but we have now reached Istanbul and our final destination, things that have happend since the last post include:

Meeting Marco in Belgrade
Staying in yet more empty ex-communist hotels
Getting sick
Meeting a group of Canadians doing the same thing as us (but slower and with a car...)
Meeting Bulgaria's self confessed best cyclist
Having an in depth Bulgarian history lesson
Lots more cycling...

We are now in a plush hotel thanks to the Mountain family, enjoying some well deserved rest. Off to a Hammam now to get properly clean for the first time in 6 weeks!

Further past the iron curtain

We just passed the boarder into Serbia today, the first passport check since Dover. The last few days have been pretty eventful, including.

Our first serious rain, (combined with first stack)
Bowling then clubbing in Baja
Attempting a covert boarder crossing, ending up with another 40km that day instead
Some serious pot holes
Directions from 2 shirtless farmers


Off towards Novi Sad then Belgrade tomorrow, and meeting up with Marco for a (possibly not that well earned) rest day. It's coming to the last 1000km of the trip, which weirdly feels like the home straight!

Into eastern Europe

We are now in Budapest, and well into eastern Europe now. The roads have changed to tracks in some places, and we have had our first (and hopefully last) broken spoke.

After spending a day touring Vienna, we went to Slovakia to Bratislava, then along the Hungarian boarder into Budapest where we will be spending another rest day. There has been a marked increase in the number of goats around, much to Joe's dismay...

The planning is going as usual, planning the next few days from a rest day, we have managed so far without speaking any Hungarian! Should be in Belgrade this time next week, then the real adventure starts, climbing the mountains over into Bulgaria then dropping down into Turkey.

Half way through

So, now we have reached Vienna, what we think is the half way point of the trip. We are taking a well deserved rest day touring the city tomorrow. The last part of Gernany and Austria has been really good cycling. The route was almost exclusively on a well surfaced cycle path fololwing the river. We crossed the Danube for the 50th time today!

Off to Bratislava on Sunday, then into Hungary and then Serbia (although that is looking quite far in advance).

Week two

So, we are almost through Germany now, in the town of Passau. The last week has included:

Climbing up a mountain to have to turn back because of serious logging on the path
Sampling several german mini golf courses
Mountain cycling off with our room key (and halb 7 means 6.30 in german)
Beer being considerably cheaper than coke

Just watched an open air opera in the street, off to Austria tomorrow, I imagine we'll be seeing a bit more of that.

Into Germany

So, we are now in Germany, having crossed the border on Sunday. We have reached the Danube, which we will follow for over 1300 km into Austria then Hungary. The town we arte in now is Ulm, the birthplace of Einstein, and have decided to take a well deserved rest day.

Five days in

So, we are now in the town of Nancy, relatively near the German border. This is by far the biggest town we have been through, hence the first post on the blog.

The cycling has been amazing so far, beautiful weather and even better countryside. The last few days have topped 30 degrees, which is a warning of what is to come! We have tried to avoid cycling in the middle of the day, so have had pretty chilled out lunch breaks.

We had planned a 170km day for today, but that distance combined with the gradient towards the end meant we had to split it in two, so have some (well deserved) time off at the moment. Tomorrow will be our last whole day in France, then over the hills into Germany and onward!

Hopefully we'll be updating this more regularly from now on