All posts by Rosemary Kneipp

Cycling, Germany, Restaurants, Sightseeing

Cycling along the Danube – Regensburg and the Altmuhle

July 6, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 41 Comments

The only thing Jean Michel remembers about Regensburg when we went there about 15 years ago is eating sausages and sauerkraut in the oldest roast sausage restaurant in Germany on the banks of the Danube! He wants to go there again. I vaguely remember the restaurant episode but have no other images in my head.

On the way, we drive past the Walhalla, which we both remember, because we passed it several times on our previous trip. Built at the instigation of King Ludwig I of Bavaria between 1830 and 1847 overlooking the Danube, it is a hall of fame for distinguished people in German history.

We arrive in Regensburg late morning and park in Bismarckplatz where there is a fresh food market. We buy cherries, raspberries (himbeeren) and cheese and leave them in the car. Unfortunately no one is selling wine.

Following the Michelin Guide’s itinerary, we visit the town, as we no doubt did the first time. Neither of us remembers a single thing! What, you may wonder, is the point of travelling if you have forgotten it all fifteen years later. Yet we loved that trip and remember other parts of it, thank goodness so maybe not all is wasted …

The outside eating area of the Wurstkurchl

Our visit culminates in the famous restaurant, Historische Wurstkuchl, built in the 12th century to feed the local dockers and builders. Despite the fact that it’s 1.30 pm, the outside tables are crowded so Jean Michel suggests we eat inside.

Inside the Wurstkurchl with its enormous pillars — Inside the Wurstkuchl with its enormous pillars*

The menu is in German so with the help of my less than usefu dictionary on my l iPhone, we decide we’ll have the basic dish of six little sausages with sauerkraut and another dish which appears to include salad. The waiter, who speaks only very basic English, is rather dubious about our choice, but he checks we want everything at the same time and off he goes.

When four plates arrive, two with little sausages and two with two large sausages and a large amount of potato salad with a couple of leaves of lamb’s lettuce on top, I understand his reticence! We laugh and eat them anyway. We’ll just have vegetables and fruit for dinner.

It’s 2.30 by the time we leave to cycle along a tributary of the Danube, the Altmuhle. I doze in the car after the 25 cl glass of reisling and all that food. Between Kelheim, where it meets the Danube, and Dietfurt, the bed of the Altmuhle was straightened and incorporated into a canal connecting the Main and the Danube.

It’s a favourite with local Germans and tourists, so we aren’t the only ones on the bike path. We stop off at the pretty little village of Essing to see the wooden bridge and have a coffee at Gasthof Schneider, which is famous for its local beer.

We then push on to Riedenburg, which offers a plunging view of the Danube, after unnecessarily riding up a long hill due to poor signage again. Finding our way back is much easier.

We stop at least six times before Jean Michel takes what he considers is the definitive photo of Prunn castle we can see high up on a hill.

The little church at Essing reflected in the water

The path takes us past the bridge on the opposite side of the village of Essing and the six o’clock light gives a perfect reflection of the little church in the water. Once again, we marvel at how many different experiences our cycling trip along the Danube has to offer.

Cycling along the Danube – the Weltenburg Narrows

July 5, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 39 Comments

Every time we move onto a different section of the Danube, we tell ourselves that it can’t be better than the last one, yet we are never disappointed. After leaving the Austrian S-bend yesterday, we moved to a little village near Kelheim in Bavaria with the unpronounceable name of Niederleierndorf where we are renting an appartment for 5 days.

The little village of Niederleierendorf — The little village of Niederleierndorf

It’s not as conveniently located as our other accommodation has been, but it is quiet and comfortable (if you exclude the impossible down pillows and creaky floor) and at least I’ve been able to do my washing again!

We’ve been to Bavaria and Kelheim before – we can’t remember exactly when but we think it was in 1998 or 1999. In any case it was before we started our travel journal or had a digital camera which means that we don’t remember a lot of the places we have already been.

After unpacking the car and doing some shopping, we drove a half an hour to the Danube and cycled 15 kilometers upstream Kelheim, having a few problems finding our way as we got closer to the town. We’ve discovered that the Eurovelo 6 bike route isn’t nearly as well indicated here as it is in Austria and at the source of the Danube. We made a wrong turn and I misinterpreted what Jean Michel said and we both went off in opposite directions. Good thing we had our mobile phones.

I had absolutely no recognition of Kelheim and its four town gates. Otherwise there isn’t much to see. We had a giant diet coke at a riverside gasthof (all drinks are served in large quantities here: 50 cl for beer and coke, 20 cl for wine) and cycled back to the car.

Today, we drove to another town on the Danube, Neustadt an der Donau, to begin our cycling itinerary, this time downstream to the famous Weltenburg Abbey, founded by Irish or Scottish monks in about 620, and held to be the oldest monastery in Bavaria but nowadays more famous for its beer. We took the cycle path along the Danube which was mostly gravel and not very comfortable.

We did remember the Abbey from last time even though we’re not beer drinkers. It’s a very festive place with a big biergarten and much activity on the river. Last time we saw a sort of floating party boat with everyone singing and drinking beer.

We visited the abbey church with its many angels and cherubs and its ever-present gold, marble and stucco.

Pfifferlings und kalb — Pfifferlings, knodels und kalb

We had lunch in the beer garden, sharing a long table with a group of Bavarians, and selected two dishes from the menu, all in German, hoping for the best. Mine, which I had identified as having chanterelle mushrooms (Pfifferling), veal (kalb) and potato noodles (knodels), was excellent, but Jean Michel’s suckling pig turned out to be vol-au-vent and not nearly as good (I have a German dictionary app on my iPhone but it doesn’t run to such complicated vocabulary). We shared, which was a good thing because we had pratically finished my dish before his even arrived!

Weltenburg Narrows also called the Danube Gorge

We then took a 20-minute boat ride down the river to Kelheim, through the narrowest and deepest part of the Danube. River traffic is regulated and the engine makes very little noise. You feel as though you are gliding along the river.

After coffee at our riverside gasthhof in Kelheim we tried to find a wooden boat to take us back to the Abbey as the cycle path is not able to follow the river so you have to ride up a lot of steep, uninteresting hills on a busy road.

Boat with its silent engine on the Danube

No wooden boats were in sight however so we gave up and took the same boat back (well, a larger, more luxurious one). This time it took 40 minutes – we were going against the current – and we had more time to appreciate our surroundings. Jean Michel spied some cyclists on a path along the river bank and was starting to get upset that we might have missed out on something, but the path which in fact was an old tow path, petered out when it got to a large rock at the beginning of the gorge.

A smaller monastery on the banks of the Danube with a troglodyte church

Before engines were invented, horses on the tow paths used to pull the boats upstream. A rope bundled up in hay so it would float was attached to horses waiting on the other side of the rock, thrown into the river and floated downstream to the boats so they could be pulled around the rock. Now isn’t that clever?

To avoid the gravel road again, we chose another bike route back to the car but due to the deficient signposting and despite two different cycling maps we took a few wrong turnings through the never-ending hop fields. We got back to the car just in time to buy some more speisequark at the supermarket. Now I bet you don’t know what that is!

Cycling along the Danube – the Aussie Cyclists

July 4, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 5 Comments

Due to our change of plans because of bad weather near Linz a couple of weeks ago and our accommodation problems in Budapest, we have an extra two days after Wachau without any planned accommodation. The weather is looking much more promising and we’re planning to cycle around the S-bend or loop in the Danube between Passau and Linz.

We’ve narrowed down the possibilities to a couple of villages. I rule out the large hotel/camping complex in Schlogen and the first gasthaus in Wesenufer is closed no doubt as a result of the flooding. The next gasthof can only accommodate us for one night due to a seminar. So we cross the river to Niederranna where we come across Gasthof Dexler which advertises itself as a radler (cyclists) stop.

The young woman who seems to be looking after the restaurant as well says there’s a room vacant for 32 euro per person and I ask to see it. It’s spacious and has two armchairs and a low table. We later discover it has a terrace. We take it and ask if we can have lunch. As it’s already 2.30 pm, she says there is a small menu only. That’s fine by us.

As we walk out onto the terrace along the Danube, a man with an Aussie accent who’s with a group of 8 other cyclists asks me if I speak English. I say that I do. He explains that he has won his bet as the others were remarking on the absence of English speakers in this neck of the woods. “Not only do I speak English, but I’m also an Aussie”, I reply which is greeted with a round of surprised laughter.

River traffic from the restaurant terrace at Gasthof Draxler

I explain that Jean Michel is French and that we live in Paris and that I have been living in France for 37 years. It turns out they all belong to a cycling club near Geelong and are either retired or semi-retired. They’ve just spent two weeks cycling in the Cotswolds in England and have started their Danube trip at Passau that morning. They’re going to Vienna.

They’ve organised their trip with an agency that does the hotel bookings, transports their luggage from one stop to the next and plans their route. After lunch, they’re off to visit the Donaublick (lookout over the Danube) which, unfortunately, they don’t find.

Freewheelling from the Atlantic to the Black Sea

Next day, we learn that though they are all Aussies, one comes from the Netherlands, another from Greece and another from the UK. Jean Michel shows them our Eurovelo 6 book so they can see where we’ve been and where we’re going. We highly recommended the Wachau Heritage site we’ve just left.

Jean Michel on the scenic ferry down the loop

They are off to Linz via the S-bend and tell us about a ferry that their agency has recommended, that offers a very scenic ride through one part of the bend. We decide to include it on our way back.

Perfect weather for cycling around the S-bend

The weather is perfect – about 22 or 23°C with bright sun. So much better than the first time we were here. I think of the Aussie cyclists. That is the only problem with a pre-arranged trip – what do you do if it’s cold and rainy?

Art, Austria, Cycling, Restaurants, Sightseeing

Cycling along the Danube – Wachau in Austria, a World Heritage Site

July 3, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 6 Comments

We nearly missed out on one of the highlights of our trip. If our home exchange in Budapest hadn’t fallen through, we would have passed over Washau altogether. It was Jean Michel’s fault, of course (he organised the itinerary and read the guide books!) but he he hadn’t realised it’s a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Melk and its famous abbey were on our list when we were in Aschach but in fact they were further than we thought – 125 K by bike – so after leaving Aschach early due to bad weather, I suggested we stop off at Melk on the way back from Budapest.

After consulting the Routard and checking the website, I phoned Weingasthof Donnauwirt at Weissenkirchen to see if they had a room for 2 nights. Bingo! As we neared our destination, we became more and more delighted. Quaint little villages, lovely scenery dotted with vineyards, panoramic views of the Danube. Exactly like the photos in our book and such a relief after the river banks around Budapest.

Our sunny terrace with a corner view of the Danube

Our room in the gastfhof is beautifullly decorated and has a table and chairs in one corner which is much better than the last one where I had to use the laptop sitting up in bed and we had to have dinner perched on one side making sure we didn’t get the sheets dirty, but best of all, it has its own terrace.

The village of Weissenkirchen from the ferry

Weissenkirchen is perfectly located. Just opposite the hotel is the ferry that takes you across the Danube. There are bike paths on either side which meant we could cycle along one bank and back along the other.

Since we arrived at the gasthof around 2 pm, we had time to book in, get changed, go across on the ferry and ride to Krems which is on the eastern tip of the Wachau.

The main entrance to Krems — Steiner Tor, the main entrance to Krems

The entrance to Krems is via the Steiner Tor, built in the late 15th century, the only one of the four town gates still standing. There are various other buildings of interest including two churches and a mediaeval quarter worth visiting.

On the way back, we visited Durnstein, one of the most popular villages in the area. By then we had completely fallen in love with the area.

On the banks of the Danube in the Wachau

Next day, we crossed on the ferry again and rode 26 kilometers west this time, to Melk. We were definitely on the right side of the river because the prettiest villages are across the other side.

At Melk, we rode up to the Baroque Benedictine abbey built in the early 18th century which overlooks the entire valley and left our bikes in a bike shelter that even had lockers to leave our paniers. The Austrians are very organised.

The entrance was expensive at 9.50 euro each and we weren’t that taken with all the religious exhibitions.

However, the library with its numerous mediaeval manuscripts, including 750 incunables (books printed before 1501) was very impressive, though not nearly as extravagant as the one in Wiblingen Abbey in Germany.

Modern painting on a side altar in Melk abbey church

The baroque church, whose renovation was completed about thirty years ago, is absolutely dripping with gold. There was even a lady polishing up the main altar to make it even brighter. There are also some unfortunate modern paintings on the side altars.

Wall paintings in the pavillion of Melk Abbey

We had a cold drink in the summer house with its beautiful frescoes and admired the view from the garden behind. The Benedictines certainly picked a wonderful spot.

The trip back along the other side of the Danube was not nearly as exciting. Most of it wound through vineyards and apricot and cherry orchards. We even bought some fruit from a sulky wayside vendor. While we were there, a man pulled up in his truck and got out, wearing ledenhosen! They were even better from the front but I couldn’t take a discreet photo.

In the evening we dined al fresco in the hotel restaurant. The meal was expensive and disappointing, except for the wine which was excellent, reinforcing our usual practice of eating in middle-of-the-range family-run restaurants that cater to the locals.

Hungary, Sightseeing

Budapest, the City of Baths

July 1, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 2 Comments

Everyone who goes to Budapest tells you that you have to experience the baths. However, there are so many that it is difficult to choose. Also, many seem to have separate pools (and even separate days) for men and women. Neither of us can see any point in going there on our own.

So I ask the lady at our hotel to recommend one that is mixed. She suggests Gelert built in 1918, which introduced mixed bathing at the beginning of 2013 which explains the contradicting reviews on Trip Advisor! I check out the Gelert website and learn that we can have a locker or a private cubicle. We can also have a tub bath for two for 63 euro or a chocolate spa (???) for 40 euro.

We manage to find parking in the street behind the baths, which has parking meters. We have enough coins for two hours. A man walks past and explains in English that our car is parked in the wrong direction and we could get fined. In Paris, all that matters is having a ticket!

We opt for a private cubicle for two for a total of 10,200 forints (about 34 euro) which is already quite expensive. We’re given a plastic watch each and told to go to the second gate on the right. There our watches which contain an electronic chip are scanned and we go through a turnstile.

Outside pools facing towards Gelert hotel

We follow a very long and winding corridor up and down stairs until we find ourselves in an area with private changing cubicles. A lady takes my watch and holds it up in front of a cubicle identifier and tells me it’s number 134.

The cubicles are actually very small but I’m reassured to see there is wire-netting above and I can leave my valuables there without having to worry about theft. We have to leave by separate doors but join up again outside.

There is a large pool in the middle at 26°C and a smaller one on the far side at 36°C. The air temperature has dropped to about 21°C and the sky is now overcast. The pool is lovely and warm. A group of American teenage girls decide to try out the very cold tub next to us. Just watching them is dissuasive. The Hungarians remain stoic.

After a while, we get out and go to the larger pool. It’s feels very cold compared to the 36° and we have to swim to keep warm. We’ve soon had enough and think it’s time to go. I’m convinced the same pools must exist inside so we go searching.

And they do. A few more corridors take us to the main inside pool. This time, I wear goggles and cap so I can swim properly. I do the first length and start swimming back again. There is pratically no one in the pool. Someone grabs my arm. I eventually realise what the man is trying to tell me. You won’t believe this but the direction in which you are supposed to swim is AROUND the pool and not up and down!

There is a smaller 36° pool so we try that for a while then get out. We can’t find the showers so we go back to our cubicle and get dressed. We make it back to the car just in time.

Great big fat raindrops start falling and don’t stop for about another hour by which time we are back in our hotel, having stopped off on the way at Auchan (one of France’s most popular hypermarkets!) to buy some tokai wine, cheese, tomatoes and bread for dinner.

However, I have to say that I much preferred the wonderful spa experience we had, quite by accident, in Switzerland a couple of years ago near Lake Constance. There were ten or so baths at different temperatures with lots of whirlpools and even one with rapids. We felt really great when we finally got out.

Architecture, History, Hungary, Sightseeing

Budapest – Beautiful Buda

June 30, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 5 Comments

Pest has not prepared me for Buda. Although we can see it from the other side of the Danube, I have no idea of what is awaiting us.

Unidentified church — Buda Calvinist Church

We park the car next to an unidentified red brick church with colourful varnished tiles, put our remaining coins in the parking metre and go off to find a café to get some more change. The Corvin Café on Corvin Ter is just opening and the lady is unstacking chairs and tables in one corner of a deserted square. She is obviously very taken with Jean Michel so I let him deal with getting the change.

We walk up a couple of quiet streets and a flight of stone steps and suddenly, Buda’s Castle District is before us, like something out of the Knights Templar. It is quite stunning.

As we climb, each step gives us an even better view of Pest.

View of Pest from the Fishermen's Bastion — View of Pest from the Fishermen’s Bastion

On the other side of the ramparts known as the Fishermen’s bastion, built in the early 1900s as a homage to the mediaeval fishermen in charge of defending this side of the ramparts, stands a white church with people milling around. There is something quite magical about the whole scene.

The inside of the church is something entirely new to us. Not the rococco style we’ve seen up until now. The colours are muted with intricately painted walls and ceilings of Arabic influence though very different from the Moorish art in Spain. Although the church dates back to the 13th century, it has been remodelled and restored over the ages.

When we come outside there are two men in mediaeval costume, one with dreadlocks, with hawks. There is Hungarian music playing somewhere.

One building stands out like a sore thumb – the Hilton Hotel, an entirely new construction whose presence is totally incomprehensible, despite the “integration” of a few mediaeval ruins. You really do wonder how it was every allowed.

We wander through the streets, delighting in the painted façades on some of the oldest buildings in the capital. By then we have left the tourists behind.

We loop back to the other side of the church, past Holy Trinity Column, was built to celebrate the end of the plague in the hope that it would provide protection from another epidemic.

Then we go back down to the Danube by the same route as before. I see a family with a little girl and boy looking at something on the ground. It turns out to be a hedgehog which, suprisingly, is not rolled up in a ball, and is coming towards us!

By then it is after one, so we feed the metre again and go to look for a fish restaurant with an impossible name indicated by the trusty Routard. We both order pike-perch (zander) prepared in two different ways. We’re not convinced it is the same fish on both plates.

Jean Michel has read that Hungarian tokay wine is worth tasting but the waiter says we can’t buy it by the glass and that the half bottles are too expensive so we order another Hungarian dry white instead which is very pleasant.

We decide not to visit the Royal Palace, which has been completely gutted and rebuilt over the years and now contains two museums.

Instead we move onto the next item on the day’s programme – one of Budapest’s famous baths which I shall tell you about in my next post.

Architecture, Hungary, Sightseeing

Budapest – Pictures of Pest

June 29, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 11 Comments

Once our accommodation and washing were sorted out, we were able to forget the hassles and get on with our holiday. Szentendre, the village where we are staying, is only a half an hour’s drive from Budapest – not a very scenic route admittedly, but a very convenient location if you don’t want to stay in the city.

Margit Bridge or the yellow bridge as i prefer to call it — Margit Bridge or the yellow bridge as I dubbed it

Parking in Budapest is more problematic as we have only found one underground parking lot so far and our GPS had a hard time finding the entrance. However, street parking is quite easy to find, mainly because it’s relatively expensive at 440 florints (1.50 euros) an hour and limited to 3 hours.

Budapest, as you may know, is the unification of two towns, one on either side of the Danube – Buda on the west bank and Pest on the east – connected by Széchenyi Chain Bridge. Not that I know how to pronounce it. In fact, the Hungarian language is a great difficulty for me. I can’t remember simple things such as hello, goodbye, please and thank you because they won’t stay in my head. So I nod and smile a lot.

Interior of Saint Stephen's Basilica — Interior of Saint Stephen’s Basilica

We started our visit of Budapest in Pest, simply because that is where the guide book began. We walked halfway across the yellow bridge (actually the Margit Bridge) and looked across at the iconic Gothic Revival Parliament building which, like a lot of Budapest, is undergoing renovation.

We visited Saint Stephen’s Basilica (also called Cathedral), the largest church in the city which can hold up to 8,500 people and was completed in 1906.

This was the saddest thing we saw in Budapest. The Shoes on the Danube Promenade is a memorial concept by film director Can Togay and was created by him and the sculptor Gyula Pauer on the bank of the Danube River in Budapest. It honors the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away.

Another Jewish memorial in front of the main synogogue decicated to the 600,000 Hungarian Jews who perished under the Nazis.

One of the many large ornate buildings in Budapest that have been renovated, on Szabadsag Ter, the largest and most representative square in downtown Budapest.

I thought this was a wonderful example of recycling in the Jewish quarter of Budapest which still has many dilapidated buildings.

The Michael Jackson tree in Vorosmarty Ter just behind Saint Stephen’s Basilica

An example of art deco architecture — Gresham Palace

Gresham Palace, a beautiful example of art nouveau architecture in the manner of the Vienna Seessionists, now the Four Seasons Hotel.

The Széchenyi Chain Bridge, inaugurated in 1849 and the first bridge to connect up Buda and Pest. The architect is said to have committed suicide when he discovered the two lions had no tongues.

An amazing security check on vehicles entering the Bank of Hungary. The security guard walked around the car with a large mirror on a stick so he could look underneath!

2013 is not the only time that the Danube has overflowed its banks and flooded the city. This plaque commemorates a previous flood in 1838!

Accommodation, Cycling, Home exchange, Hungary

Budapest – more accommodation problems

June 27, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 10 Comments

We’re driving along the motorway to Budapest pleased to have our Aschach and Bratislava accommodation experiences behind us.

This time, there should be no problems. We have organised a home exchange with an American couple who have a well-located apartment in the centre of Budapest which they let and exchange. They have kindly agreed to our arriving ahead of schedule because of the bad weather in Aschach. We can arrive on Wednesday around noon and L. will be there to give us the key.

We leave Aschach on Tuesday and stay overnight in Bratislava which is a two-hour drive from Budapest. We arrive about fifteen minutes ahead of time, park right in front of the appartment, get some florints out the bankomat, buy a couple of things for lunch and feed the surprisingly expensive parking meter.

L. arrives on cue, very apologetic. There is no electricity. His father has been looking after the apartment for A. but is now in hospital after major brain surgery and the last electricity bill has not been paid. He takes us up to the apartment, which is spacious and has everything we need, in particular a washing machine which is starting to become a major preoccupation.

Jean Michel goes into panic mode, much worse than in Bratislava and is looking furious. Neither L. nor I has A’s phone number unfortunately but L has sent her an email. Apologising profusely, L. goes off to look after the electricity problem saying he’ll be back in an hour or so.

We decide to have lunch in the meantime. Jean Michel is very pessimistic but I try to stay calm and be as nice to L as I can be. It isn’t his fault, after all! He soon returns with bad news. Even if he pays the electricity bill in cash, the electricity company will not put the power back on unless the owner of the apartment is present. L’s father has an official proxy but he doesn’t and A. is in the US. We’re in Hungary, he says.

Jean Michel wants to get out of Budapest as soon as he can. He looks up the Routard and finds an appartment to rent in Esztergon, a small town on the Danube an hour’s drive away, where we will be able to do our washing*. I have a look but am not convinced. I suggest Szentendre which is closer to Budapest and seems more promising but no apartments are listed. Jean Michel is adament, particularly after he discovers he has left his photo-grey sunglasses behind in the appartment.

Basilica in Eztergon — Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Esztergon

About a half an hour out of town, we enter a forest and the road starts winding up a small mountain. We finally come down the other side and into the very dismal little town of Esztergon. We pull up at the address in the Routard and I have another look at the description. I quote, “We don’t know why anyone would possibly want to stay in Esztergon, but if you do, here are a few addresses.” Jean Michel had not read that bit.

I start laughing and Jean Michel at last joins me. We park the car near Hungary’s biggest building, the Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so we can visit it before going to Szentendre. It is certainly huge but not particularly attractive.

We drive along the Danube to Szentendre, stopping off on the way at Visigrad and driving up a hill behind it from which there is a breathtaking view of the Danube.

The main pedestrian street in Szentender

Szentendre turns out to be a pretty little town with a pedestrian area in the middle and no fewer than five churches. After calling in at the tourist office for local bike maps just before it closes, we go to Roz Panzio the first of two hotels listed in the Routard under the prix moyens et plus chics category. We are shown two rooms and choose the largest. Then I ask about washing. The lady takes us to the hotel laundry, then phones someone on her cell. “No, I’m sorry”, she says, “not possible”.

We try the second address, Mathias Rex Panzio, which I actually prefer. Yes, there’s a double room for 50 euros including breakfast. Wifi? Yes. Parking? Yes. Washing? No. So I explain about the apartment falling through and our 10 days’ washing. “OK”, she says. “You can use our private washing machine.” I thank her profusely. The room isn’t very big, but it’s clean, it has a comfortable bed and a very interesting bathroom, that appears to be all moulded in one piece. We take it. Dinner? At Movies (actually Muvesz) down the road.

We change, take the bikes off the back of the car and off we go. It’s amazing how quickly the annoyances of the day disappear. From the height of the water in the Danube, we are lucky to be cycling at all. The whole area was obviously badly flooded.

Muvesz turns out to be an excellent address and for the equivalent of 30 euros for the two of us, we have two courses and a glass of red and white wine each. Tomorrow, we’ll visit Budapest.

*We have been unable to find a laundromat in either Germany or Austria despite a lot of time spent following up non-existent addresses.

Mathias Rex Panzio, Kossuth Lajos utca 16, Szentendre 2000, Hungary. www.mathiasrexhotel.hu info@mathiasrexhotel.hu

Accommodation, Slovakia, Travelling

Bratislava, a Memorable Experience

June 26, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 4 Comments

We leave Aschach for Bratislava in pouring rain, shortening our stay by 3 days. After a picnic in the car in a desolate rest-stop about 20 minutes out of Bratislava in what must be the windiest part of Austria, in the middle of an immense field of wind turbines, we follow the GPS instructions to our hotel, that we reserved with booking.com the night before and which is supposed to be ten minutes from the historical centre.

“I don’t like this at all”, says Jean Michel. “We’re not even remotely near the centre”. “Vous êtes arrivé”, says the GPS with not a hotel in sight, just sad-looking low-income high-rise buildings. I get out and go to Zadunasjska cesta 12, after checking it’s the right address, and a helpful lady speaks to me in Slovak. I show her the address on my iPhone and she tells me in rudimentary English that it’s on the other side of a flyover.

The high-rise buildings where our GPS took us

I get back in the car, doing my best to calm down Jean Michel. He’s convinced we’re the victims of an Eastern European con trick. We try to follow her instructions. At last, we spot the name of the hotel and eventually arrive in a parking lot in what seems to be a small shopping centre. We park the car and follow the signs, up a pedestrian footbridge and into the hotel.

I explain to the hostess that we thought the hotel was close to the historical centre and that we want to cancel. The manager comes out and says that we just have to walk across the bridge over the Danube and we’ll be in the centre – 10 minutes. She explains that with booking.com we have to cancel 24 hours in advance.

Jean Michel is looking furious so I smile and say that we’ll take the room. The hostess says there is a bus that takes 5 minutes, just two stops, to get to the historical centre. I hear a groan next to me. She gives us the key to the room. The interior is fine, if a little dark and taupe. It has good soundproofing and a decent shower. Unfortunately, I don’t recognise the stale smoke smell straight away. We go down and bring up our small overnight bag and other necessities.

In the meantime, the hostess has written out the bus instructions and shows us out the back way, where we have to negotiate a couple of broken planks at the bottom of the stairs. Thankfully, Jean Michel has now decided to make the most of the experience.

We arrive at the bus stop almost immediately, get tickets out the machine as instructed and wait for the n° 88 which pulls up within a couple of minutes. We go under and over a couple of flyovers, then across the Danube and down into a grotty terminus under the bridge.

Tree-lined pedestrian street at the entrance to the old town of Bratislava

Within two minutes, we are in the pretty though small historical centre of Bratislava. We wander around admiring the various buildings reminiscent of Austria and eventually have hot chocolate and cream cakes at Kaffee Meyer one of the city’s most reputed establishments. I figure we can give dinner a miss!

It doesn’t take long to exhaust the historical centre so we go further afield and are struck by the general grime and dereliction. We follow some people into a large church and are introduced to Slovak baroque, much darker than its Austrian and German counterpart.

Bazilika Kincstar baroque church in Bratislava

We choose Le Monde opposite the Carlton for a glass of local wine. The waiter who takes our order for a dry local white is very off-hand, almost insolent, but the waitress who brings our wine is friendly and professional. The xxx is enjoyable.

After walking along the Danube to the bridge (and incidentally not regretting that it is too chilly to cycle, as there is nothing much to see apart from the high-rise buildings opposite), we decide to walk back to the hotel since it is only supposed to be 10 minutes from the historical centre.

A half an hour later, after walking through a shopping centre full of the same middle-of-the-range shops you find in French shopping centres such as Camaieu and C&A, going over a footbridge, up and down as few staircases, under a couple of flyovers and along an overgrown path, we finally arrive at our hotel.

Jean Michel on the path back to the hotel

That is when the stale cigarette smell hits me. We keep the window open until we go to bed despite the cold outside and the noise of the expressway but I feel slightly nauseous and headachy all night. Two women talk in piercing voices somewhere until about 3 am. A sort of whining noise is repeated at regular intervals, probably due to the wind on the pedestrian walkway.

By 7.30 am, doors are banging, showers are running and toilets flushing. After breakfast, where there is only herbal tea but very good bread, we leave the Hotel Esprit and Bratislava without regret!

Accommodation, Austria, Cycling, Germany

Rain on the Danube in Austria

June 25, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 7 Comments

When we leave Andelfingen after six wonderful days of cycling along the Danube, the weather forecast for our next stop – Aschach in Austria – is not promising. As we’ve never been to Munich, we decide to stop for a couple of hours on the way.

Marienplatz in Munich during the Stadtlaufmüncher marathon

Unfortunately, there is a big annual sports event on – 10,000 people running a marathon or semi-marathon – and the main square, Marienplatz, is chock-a-block which somewhat detracts from the historical ambiance. We see the main sights beneath an overcast sky, have a picnic lunch on a bench (it’s a fast day) and continue on our way.

After leaving the motorway at Passau at the juncture between Austria and Germany, which we visited on another occasion, we drive along the Danube, much wider and navigable here, seeing the aftermath of the recent floods. The river looks muddy and there is silt on the edge of the pavements and piles of debris everywhere. Nothing like the bucolic scenery we have left behind in Germany.

At the turnoff to Aschach, large production installations loom on the right and I begin to worry about what we’ll find. From the internet photos, our hotel, Gastof zür Sonne, seemed to be right on the water but, in fact, it is across the road. A not-very-friendly young man gives us a key card and sends us up to room 4 on the second floor.

Gasthaus Sonne in Aschach — Gasthof zür Sonne in Aschach

As we walk into the room, I see the wash basin is in an open area on the left ; the shower and toilet are behind a frosted glass door on the right. The room is small with dark furniture including an open wardrobe and a view of the Danube. I go into complaint mode and Jean Michel says I have to make up my mind whether we are staying or going. By then it is 6 pm and looking for another place to stay seems a bit daunting. I go down to the desk and ask if there is another room that doesn’t have a wash basin in the entrance. It seems they are all the same.

An iron door inside the Gasthaus Sonne — An iron door inside the Gasthof zür Sonne

We bring up our luggage and bits and pieces and I empty our small case into the wardrobe so we can change into our cycling clothes, pointing out all the negative aspects of the room as I go. Jean Michel understandably starts to get annoyed so I stop complaining. It is then that I realise that an automatic light comes on over the wash basin/entrance each time you go past which means that when I get up in the night, the whole room will be flooded with light.

Even Jean Michel sees the impossibility of that! We go back down and I put on my best smile to ask how to stop the light coming on automatically. The young man comes up reluctantly to have a look. However, he immediately understands the problem and says that unfortunately all the new rooms are like that but we can have the “old” room next door. Not only is the washbasin inside the bathroom this time; the open wardrobe is hidden behind the door, the room is much bigger and we have a sofa from which we can comfortably see the Danube.

An enormous cruise ship on the Danube at Aschach

This time my smile is not forced. “Perfect”, I say. “And look, the washbasin is not in the entrance”. The young man then explains that he thought I was objecting to the bathroom being on the left, not about the washbasin being in the entrance (he didn’t know the word in English). We rapidly change into our cycling clothes and get in an hour’s cycling before dinner.

Swans on the Danube at Aschach am der Donau

That, however, proves to be the last time we cycle for several days. It rains all night and next morning, it’s 12°. Change of programme.

Aussie in France