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Time stamp: Friday, June 3 7:30am Paris time

Another stunning day in Paris: there is hardly a cloud in the sky and the forecast is is calling for a comfortable 23 degrees. But, we will have to leave that for the Parisian’s and other tourists to enjoy. We are sitting at Charles de Gaulle airport Terminal 3 awaiting our 9:30 flight back to Toronto and the end of an awesome adventure.

Time stamp: Friday, June 3 12:30pm Toronto time

We popped out of customs at Pearson greeted by to the smiling face of our chauffeur -- and daughter -- Victoria.

Time stamp: Friday, June 3 1:30pm

Home to our humble abode. The pets are still alive, the kids survived without us, and the grass is desperate need of cutting.

Time stamp: Friday, June 3 11pm

All caught up with kids; grass cut; a few favourite TV shows watched; lights out at 11pm after being awake for almost 24 hours.

A wonderful adventure is now in the history books. It was truly a "once in the life-time" trip.  Thanks to all those who helped make it possible and cheered us on along the way. A special thanks to Wendy for her company on the trip and for her partnership over the past 30 years, it's been a blast!

In and around Paris - Day 2

The plan for day two was to see the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, the famous Pont Neuf bridge, Galleries Lafayette (a very high end department store so “window shopping” only please), do some final souvenir hunting, and take a ride from end to end on one of the elevated Metro lines.

Our research suggested that one of the best times to see the Eiffel tower was first thing in the morning so we got up early and jumped the Metro to the nearest station. From there we hoofed over to the site arriving around 9am. The lines were already well formed for the 9:30 opening. By 10am we had our tickets and 20 minutes later we were wobbly-kneed and taking pictures from the top of this marvellous structure.

Safely back on terra firma by around 11:30, we once again boarded the Metro and headed toward Pont Neuf and Notre Dame.

We arrived back at our hotel around 6pm, tired but satisfied that we had "done Paris": we successfully took in all the highlights we had set out to hit over the course of our two-day excursion.  We grabbed McDonald’s one last time (remember: because it was easy…not because it was good...although the “Frappé” – a kind of milk shake – was rather tasty), reorganized our luggage, packed, and hit the sack. We needed to leave the hotel by 6am the next morning.

Here’s the sights for the day.

In and around Paris - Day 1

We arrived in Paris on Tuesday evening around 6:30pm. Because time was not a factor and in order to conserve cash, we elected to use Paris’ world-class public transit system to reach our hotel. This entailed taking the RER (rapid, limited stop train) to an interchange with the Metro (subway, tram, bus). Only a little worse for wear and 20 Euros lighter, we made it to our hotel -- on the other side of the city -- in about an hour. Try doing that in Toronto during rush hour!

We headed to our room, organized ourselves, and walked next door to an adjacent recreation complex that housed, among other things, a McDonalds. (For those keeping track, we hit “Mickey D’s” only 3 times on our trip…once in Prague and twice in Paris…for convenience only I assure you! It had nothing to do with food quality.)

Our first full day in Paris started at about 9am. We headed to the Metro station closest to our hotel and purchased a day pass. (We did this both days and it proved to be a convenient and cost-effective way to move about the city.)

We popped up at Place de la Concorde and were immediately struck the by the immensity of the open spaces in this part of the city. Our biggest challenge was to get our bearings and orient ourselves to the map. (Note: there is a total lack of “grid layout” to most of the city streets -- check out the views from the Eiffel tower and you will see what I mean -- so it’s very easy to become disoriented; everything we read about getting around Paris strongly suggested having good maps and we concur!)

We wandered around a bit and then grabbed a late breakfast at Café La Coupe D’Or (“Or” is“gold” in French and gives one an inkling of the both the quality AND the price of the food). Afterward, we caught a noon tour bus around the city core (We did this in both Vienna and Prague and it is an excellent way to get a guided overview of sights after which you can focus more specifically).

We exited the bus at the Eiffel tower, walked underneath this impressive old structure, snapped a few pics and planned to come back the next morning. From there we crossed over the Seine, hopped the Metro, only going a few stops, and surfaced at the Arc de Triomphe. We then strolled down the Champs d’Elysee, “window shopping” at some of exclusive stores that line this famous avenue, continuing through the Jardin Des Tuileries -- where we stopped for a glass of wine and a rest – finally ending at the Musee du Louvre.

We had already decided to pass on the Louvre (we just didn’t have time to do it justice), choosing instead to take in the Musee D’Orsay which houses works from the mid 19th century to the early 20th. We are not “art people” but found it extremely moving to view the original works from Degas, Van Gogh, Monet, and many others; the creativity, passion, and variety of styles in evidence was truly awe inspiring.

We left as the museum was closing and headed out for a walk along the Seine. Getting a trifle peckish, we searched for a place to enjoy a “nice meal” (you know the kind: throwing the reigns off the budget a wee bit for a memorable meal). We found a nice little Italian restaurant just a few blocks off the beaten path that seemed, on the surface, to fit the bill nicely. When we arrived around 7pm, it was empty; by the time we left at 8:30 it was buzzing with obvious “regulars”. The meal was excellent both in value and quality. We clearly had stumbled upon a jewel.

Our day ended with a beautiful sunset cruise with “Bateau Mouche” along the Seine. I’ll let the pictures paint that part of the story…click here

In and around Prague

I'm a little behind in my blogging. We are actually just finishing up Paris and preparing to fly out first thing on Friday. More on that later. But, here's the scoop on the Prague portion of our journey...

We arrived into Prague shortly after 4:00am Monday. Struggling to shake off the cob-webs, we shuffled around the train station trying to figure out how to get to our hotel. We checked out the public transit but as good as the system is, it's not awake at 4am in the morning! So, we headed out the exit marked as the taxi stand. Same problem, no taxis awake either. But, we were "rescued" by a very helpful individual wearing a reflective vest and coveralls. Looking -- and sounding -- quite official, he assured us he would find a cab. Off he ran in one direction only to return a few minutes later and ran in another direction. Finally he beckoned us from yet another direction. This time, success! We tipped him and thanked him and learned in his parting comments that he "lived on the streets"...still not sure whether he was an employee of the train station or not. Regardless, he was a great help.

We arrived at our hotel about 20 minutes later. As you can image, our rooms were also still "asleep". So, we left our luggage with the front desk, sat down in the lobby for a bit then headed outside in search of Prague, a city just starting to wake up. We hit McDonald's (can you believe it!) a short time later around 7am. "Nourished", we began our touring of the city: a bus tour for the highlights, some time at the Prague Castle,  Wenceslas Square, Charles Bridge, the "Old Town", "New Town", and "Lower Town".We ended our very long day with an authentic Czech meal at a little restaurant in the old town.

We slept in a bit for our second day in Prague. We re-traced some of our steps from the previous day and picked up some souvenirs. Shortly after noon, Wendy and I bid goodbye to Warren and Jenny. We then packed up and prepared to head out to Paris.


Cleverly, we had redistributed our suitcase contents so the large case contained mostly bike stuff and souvenirs while the smaller of the two contained things needed for Paris. The small case crossed the airport scales at well under 23kg limit and it and trundled happily down the belt. The large case was up next: a shade over 26kg. With a punitive additional weight charge of 110 Euros and the small case gone, we had to figure out a way to lose 3kg into our carry-on. Wendy took some candy and her bike shoes, I took my bike shoes, a pair of jeans, and various travel-related brochures. Big bag up again: phew, 22.6kgs.

The next "challenge": get rid of 191 Czech Krowns (approx 8 Euros). Sadly, at the airport, this is not hard at all: 1 coffee americano (105 czk) + 1 chocolate bar (55 czk) + 2 little Moam candies -- Robbie, are you
reading?? (30 czk) + 1 krown into the tip jar. Voila! Poof gone! No more Czech currency. Paris, here we come.


Here's the pics

In and around Vienna - Day 2

The weather once again was marvelously cooperative (I hear such cooperation has not been the experience of those left at home...). Our final day in Vienna started with a leisurely breakfast at a street cafe. Now, no longer cost-protected by prearranged tour meals (which, I will say again, were absolutely awesome!), we were shocked by the cost of some simple things one takes for granted at breakfast. Like butter: 1 Euro per portion! Yikes.

We headed out from there for a walk around The Hofburg Imperial Palace and adjacent sites. Once again, we were awed by the opulence of the Habsberg Dynasty. Here's a wiki link if you are interested in more details. The  Wiener Stadtfest 2011 was underway through the weekend so lots for festivities. Check out the beer-fest picture. I saw a sign boast something like beer from 20 different breweries and over 200 different beers (assuming I translated correctly of course...)

We took in St Stephen's Cathedral, walked through one of the main pedestrian-only thoroughfares, then hopped the underground to head down to the Prater: this is an absolutely enormous park that was once the hunting grounds owned by the Habsbergs but given to the city by Emperor Joseph II in 1766.

After a late dinner, we headed to the train station to catch a 10:08pm overnight train to Prague. 

Once again, here is selection of pictures for your viewing pleasure 

In and around Vienna - Day 1

After saying good bye to our cycling companions the night before, Wendy, her brother Warren, his wife Jenny, and I stayed on in Vienna. The plan was to tour around Vienna for a couple of days before heading northward by train to Prague.

Saturday in Vienna was a bit soggy and cold (once again we marveled at the fact that the cycling portion of the trip had such great weather). Not to be deterred, we bought a "hop on, hop off" tour bus pass ($20 euros each) to get a good overview of the city's core and some of the immediately outlying areas. One of the branches of the tour took us to Schonbrunn Palace, which was the summer home of the Habsberg's, Austria's ruling monarchy family until the early 20th century. Amazing opulence!   

About the time the tour bus dropped us off back at the town centre, the clouds started to clear and it was nicer walking weather. We dropped into the Cafe Dremel for some famous torte (this was a must-do according to Jenny who knows about such things!). We ended the day by once again enjoying some Italian fare in a ristorante close to our hotel. 

Here is a selection of pictures

Tulln to Vienna -- Last day of the Bike Tour

It's really hard to believe that we have come to the end of the bike tour portion of our adventure!

With weather forecast -- for the first time on the trip -- calling for afternoon rain, we elected to head out early from Tulln, around 8:30. With less than 40 clicks to go, that would put us into Vienna ahead of the weather shift. We set a leisurely pace, subconsciously I'm sure, not really wanting the trip to end. We reached our destination hotel around 11:30. To our surprise, our rooms were available so we checked in quickly -- more to see what the rooms were like than anything else because our luggage had yet to arrive.

Once checked in, as if we hadn't had enough riding, we headed back out for a bit of touring and some lunch. We found a great little Italian cafe called the La Piazza and sat down for a feast of thin-crust pizza. Yummy!

We rolled around town a bit more after lunch and then most headed back to the hotel. Warren and I rode to one of the train stations to get tickets for the Vienna to Prague leg of the trip and shortly after getting there, the sky absolutely opened. It poured down a deluge of Biblical proportions for about 15 minutes. Thank goodness we were under cover. Once the rain stopped, we headed back to the hotel.

All that was left to do now was wait for the luggage to arrive. And, without fail -- well almost -- it arrived as it had every other day. The small wrinkle this day was that Dave and Wendy's luggage had been left behind at the last hotel. Through Wendy's fast thinking, we caught the driver and explained the situation. He contacted the hotel and yes, our bags were still there. An hour later, he was back with our gear and we were once again smiling. The flawless trip had remained flawless.

After a quick clean up and change of clothes, we headed down for one last feast as a group.

What a trip! 6 days, 360kms. The weather was phenomenal; the country-side, exquisite; the food, outstanding, and the company, just a blast. The group is already taking about where to next...

Here's the pics from our final day as a group

PS. For Wendy and Dave, the adventure continues: a couple more days in Vienna, a day in Prague, and two in Paris. Stay tuned if you are still interested...;-)

Mitterarnsdorf to Tulln

We left our hotel in Mitterarnsdorf around 9am, heading back up upstream a bit to catch a ferry across the river at Spitz. Very cool ferry! Current driven. We had seen one before but this was the first time we had ridden one.  (here's a wiki link if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_ferry)

From here, we headed down the north bank to Durnstein, flanked on our left by majestic vineyards that climbed the hillside. Unable to contain themselves, the winelovers in the group pulled in to sample some of the local vintages. Following in their wake, we picked up a bottle as well. Another 6kms down stream, we stopped again, this time in Stein. No, not for wine, but for lunch. We visited a local grocery store, buying bread, meat, cheese, and fruit.  Sitting down under a huge tree in the town park, we relished our 6.50 euro feast.

While eating our lunch, we met Rene from Hamburg: he had just finished his masters and was doing some touring before heading back to do his PhD in September. Some touring you say? How's 3500 km from Hamburg to Istabul strike you?!? He figured about 35 days on current pace: he was 10 days in and averaging about 100km per day. Wow!

Now time for serious riding. We still had between 40-50 kms to reach our destination in Tulln. So off we went. We bumped into Rene a couple of times on route, at one point, I helped him repair a pedal that had gone bad. (A happy "People Powered Motion" service customer!). Despite some stiff headwinds and heat, we finally arrived happy and ready for dinner around 5ish. All told, we did around 65kms and 3.5 hours saddle time. Oh ya, Wendy added to her "things I don't like" list: hills was already the reigning champ but to this she added, wind. Notwithstanding, she did a great job again.

Check out today's pictures.

Grein to Mitterarnsdorf

You will recall that our hotel was up the mountainside at Grein. So, some elected to take the bus back down but others -- myself included -- decided to do the descent in the saddle. Yippee! What a blast! We had a bit of hill to climb to start but then it was pure joy screaming down the mountain road for about 4 clicks. Thankful that the brakes worked!

We met up with the rest of the group at  the designated meeting spot on the south bank of the river just upstream from the town (yup, we had to backtrack a bit to get to the bridge but no big deal). We set out for Ybbs, about 15kms downstream. After grabbing a coffee, we resumed our ride: locked and loaded for 27km ride to Melk, the site of the famous Benedictine Abbey.

We arrived in Melk around noon, grabbing lunch a the Post Gasthaus (great food, terrible service) before heading up the Abbey. We wandered around the Abbey for about an hour and then hit the trail again around 3pm. This time, our last destination for the day, the little village of Mitterarnsdorf (literally: Middle Arns Village...and it was surrounded by no less than 3 other "arnsdorfs": Ober-, Hof-, and Bach-arnsdorf)

We logged about 75km and 4.5 hours of saddle time. Temperatures were in the low to mid 20's. Excellent weather for riding. And yes, Wendy did great again today!

We had a great dinner on the patio -- the proprietress, our server, was a blast-- and turned in early again, anticipating 60kms for Thursday. Also much anticipated for the wine lovers in the group, were selective stops along the way to sample the wines of the "Wachau Region" in which we were riding.

Here are selection of pictures for day

Linz to Grein

We left our hotel in downtown Linz around 9am, looking forward to a 57km ride for the day...but hey, let's round it up to a nice even 60km . Not to be! Construction related detours (yes, even on bike paths !) and side trips drove that number to a borderline unpleasant -- and unexpected -- 80km! But enough moaning, here's how the day unfolded....

Doug and I decided to log some fast clicks and agreed to meet the rest of the group in the small town of Mauthausen about 25km east of Linz. Above the town stood the remains of "KL Mauthausen", a concentration camp from WWII. The exhibit and the memorial was billed as an important sight to see. One minor problem for the group: it was a 1.7km ride up hill with 500 meters or so at 14% grade. At least that's what the book said. Since Doug and I arrived ahead of the group, we dicided to set out on a little recon mission.  Up and up and up went. With each switch back, the hill continued before us...or as Doug said, "it's the hill that just keeps on giving!" (By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with grades, 14% sounds friendly enough but let me tell you, that's hard to walk let alone bike!) But we made it without dismounting. Upon cresting the hill at the camp, we turned and headed back down.

After waiting for 10 or 15 minutes for the rest of the group to arrive, we reported our findings.  Some decided that they would pass on the opportunity, willing to accept our second-hand account of the trip. So, six of us headed up -- for Doug and I, this was now the 2nd journey -- to see what lay in store for us at the memorial.
Words can not express the horror and depth of human depravity embodied in that place. Not only were the "experiments" and acts of humiliation and degradation carried against the captives beyond belief, but the levels to which the prisonsers themselves stooped in order to ensure their own survival. It not only brought tears to my eyes but caused me to ponder to what level I might stoop if found in such a place. I can only hope that by God's grace I would not have sunk to the lows that some sunk. They say some 100,000 people died at Mauthausen.  May this memorial -- and others like it -- remind us that we can never allow such a thing again.

While we were at the memorial, the rest of the team forged ahead. We caught up with them a few hours later and 20 kms downstream at Mitterkirchen. And here is where the trip turned a bit nasty: construction detours added another 15 extra kms onto our journey! So, needless to say, when we arrived in Grein, our destination for the day, we were hot, tired, and a bit irritable. We had logged almost 80 kms under a relentless sun in the high 20's. We were especially relieved to learn that the last 5kms -- up hill! -- to our hotel was via bus, not bike! Phew!

Wendy and I took a swim, had and enjoyable dinner with the gang and hit the sack at 9:30pm! We were starring down another 80km day for Wed.  By the way, for those keeping track, I promised Wendy at the outset that we would probably do an average of 50 km a day...easy riding. To her credit, no complaints and frankly, I must say, she did AWESOME!

Check out the pics.

Brandstatt to Linz

It's 7:30am here in Linz. After a very restful sleep (the last two haven't been good), I was up early so thought I'd flip out a quick installment before people got going....

In was another picture-perfect day yesterday. We took a short ride from Brandstatt to Linz, only 35km. It took us through more gorgeous country-side and the small town of Ottensheim. We stopped here for a bit, taking in some sights, coffee and tasty treats at one of the many outdoor cafe's, before moving on. We ended our day in Linz. Historically, a city known for it's marketplace.

We stayed at a hotel downtown that was way too sterile...just like any other hotel in any other city. Hopefully others will be be a bit more interesting.

Well, gotta run. It's 7:45 and we need to pack up and grab some breaky. We head out in 45 minutes for a 57km ride today.

Here are yesterday's pics

Passau to Brandstatt

Our first day "in the saddle" was absolutely spectacular: the weather was picture perfect (literally...you'll see) and the temperature was a very comfortable mid-20's with low humidity. We made our way from the hotel around 8:30am to pick up the bikes. After a casual 15 minute walk to the Ober Osterreich Touristik (Upper Austria Tourism) bike depot, we learned that something got fouled with our bicycle order and they had no record us. Argh! Cycling trip without cycles. "Haben Sie noch endere?!? Nehmen Sie Kreditkarten? Bitte?" (Do you have any others? Can we pay by credit card? Please?) Phew, we really didn't have work that hard. The operator spoke English very well. And yes, they had plenty of other bikes but No, we would have to pay by cash: 550 Euros for the 10 of us (we will settle up with the tour operator later...hopefully).

Bikes acquired, paniers filled, seats adjusted, we set off to catch a 10:30 tour boat to take us from Passau, 17km downstream. We disembarked at Kasten an hour later and pedaled to a monastery which dated back to 1293. We poked around a bit, took some pictures, pedaled back a few clicks to grab some lunch. Around  2:30pm we set out again for a picturesque 55km ride which included two ferry crossings and some gorgeous vistas. 

We arrived at Brandstatt -- our destination for the day -- about 5:45pm. It had been a  beautiful ride but we were truly ready stop. We rested a bit, cleaned up, and headed down for a 6:30 dinner. I won't bore you with the details but we had a fantastic meal, lots of laughs and finally called it quits at about 10pm. Just enough time to post the blog and upload a few pictures before turn in around 11pm. Gotta get the requisite 8 hours sleep. Day two starts a 8:30. 

Here's a few pictures of the day. Click here and enjoy

In and around Passau

What a great day! The weather was fabulous and we simply wandered around the town and took in a few sites and picked up a few small mementos. We closed off the day with an excellent meal provided by the tour company and back to the room to prepare for "Day 1 in the Saddle".

Here's a few pics from the day. Click here

Toronto to Frankfurt to Passau

The clock in the town hall just chimed 6pm. Three couples are here, the other two are arriving momentarily (in fact, they just "BBM'd" to say they are minutes away...technology...amazing stuff!) So, I thought I'd rip of a quick update on our journey to this point.

We flew out Air Transat around 11pm on Thursday night. First time on AT. Inexpensive but great service. We  had upgraded from Economy to something they call "Options Plus". Definitely worth the bucks: it privided priority checkin (5 minute line vs. 2 hour line!), upgraded meal and bevvies, and a comfort kit (headphones, blanket, eyeshade, ear plugs - all the stuff one used to get included on trans atlantic flights years ago).

We arrived into Frankfurt shortly after 1pm local time (6 hours ahead of Toronto). After a long wait to go through customs (a frequent traveler's lament), we finally connected with our friends, the Blacks. We loaded happily into our Mercedes E220 CDI from SIXT car rentals. (For you motor-heads out there, it's sporting 2.1L Centre-Rail, Direct Injection, Turbo diesel. It turns out 168hp but a whopping 300 lb/ft torque with claimed fuel economy of 5.9L/100 kms. All that translates into really a really quick, fuel sipping, luxury ride.)
Onto the fabled Autobahn and looking for an asphalt burning pace set to have us arrive in Passau in under four hours. Not so! Just like home, trucks, traffic, construction...oh yes, and a few terrible drivers...conspired to make our journey "challenging". We finally arrived a weary 7 hours later. Having said that, we saw some beautiful country and did get up to 180 Kph on a few stretches. At one point when, I was lolly-gagging along at a mere 160, I got passed by a Ferrari like I was standing still! Ok. There you have it: the fabled Autobahn.

Gotta go. The other couples are here and I'm being beckoned for bevvies. Pictures and more stories on the next installment. Later!

The Adventure Begins!

Well, it actually began many months back when we started to consider what to do to mark our 30th wedding anniversary this year. Travel is almost always the defacto response. Although we have had desire to travel over the years, time, resources and responsibilities have imposed limitations. Although 25 years is more often the milestone to celebrate, it just wouldn't work for our clan. But I digress...back to "The Adventure".

On Thursday, Wendy and I depart for two weeks in Europe with some family and good friends. More specifically, we are going to enjoy a 7 day bicycle trip across the top of Austria along the Danube river. This part of the adventure will be spent with 4 other couples. At the end of the cycling portion, Wendy and I will take in  a day in Vienna and a day in Prague with Wendy's brother and his wife, Warren & Jenny. The last part of the trip will just be Wendy and I enjoying two days in Paris.

Sound like fun? Join us along the way. I will update this blog frequently throughout the trip with pictures and stories.