It's been so long since I visited the RR3 blog that it took a few tries to sign in. Edith wondered/suggested about the blog's use as a way to share stories of this summer's adventures. I'm game to try and resurrect it.
We just returned from a 3.5 week adventure in Central Europe. After nearly a year of planning, our group of friends (ten in total) met at Passau, Germany to begin a week of cycling along the Danube River. Our destination was Vienna. We had a blast. The Theodor Koerner served as our floating hotel. Our group was the largest subset within the group of 135. The oldest biker was a 90 year old man from Italy. He rented an electric bike, but still....
The scenery was awesome. The meals were terrific. We couldn't keep up trying different local beers. In addition to soaking up the obvious assets of the Danube, we also made a side trip to Masthausen, Austria's largest concentration camp. Very sombre. We swayed to the music of an operetta in the Vienna royal palace. (It had a proper name, but the tour book is beyond arm's reach.) Esther took hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pictures. No major issues with the bikes. One of our friends collided with a bike illegally parked on the side of the pedal path. No one was injured - just a bit of pride perhaps. Another friend, on Day 1, accidentally hit a parked bike and set into a motion a domino effect that sent a dozen or so bikes towards the Danube. That'll teach the crew to line them up so close to the water's edge when Henry Daniels is around.
This was our second cycling adventure in Europe. We're ready for the next one.
The group of ten became six for the second week of our adventure. We travelled to Prague, Cesky-Krumlov, Bratislava, and Budapest, - all by rail. Again, great scenery, good food, friendly people, and lots of fun. Cesky-Krumlov is a medieval city in the Sudetenland. A treasure.
Week three saw the goup of six become three subsets. One person went home to work, two joined a bus tour of Bulgaria and Romania, and Esther, her brother Rick, and I headed to Ljubjlana and Lake Bled in Slovenia.
These were relatively unkown to us. We went there on the recommendation of others. They are hidden gems - perhaps the highlight of the adventure. The world meets at Bled. It was Tito's resort when he ruled Yugoslavia. It's a scaled down Banff. While enjoying the incredible views at an outside cafe one afternoon the calm was broken by a busload of tourists descending on the cafe. Apparently this tour company brings Israelis to Bled every Tuesday for coffee.
Our last stop on the way was in Willenbach and Lautenbach, Germany. Throughout my growing up years my mother shared many many stories about her time living at the home of the Landes family - as war refugees. The stories were always happy ones. The Landes family and the farm estates of Willenbach and Lautenbach had clearly been special to Mom. It was high time for me to visit there. We had a wonderful experience. The grandson of the family that took Mom in showed us around and told us stories of the glory years of the two estates that have recently gone into some decline.
There is much more that could be shared, but that's a good start. It's good to be home.
Ted
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