Daphne's Drivel

 Days 4-7 on the Alpes to Adriatic have offered a terrific variety of scenery and some of the best cycling infrastructure that we've seen on this whole trip. Temperatures were in the mid 30s from Sunday to yesterday. Today's cooler temperatures with lots of cloud cover was a welcome change. That was the temperature on Sunday at 7pm in the town  of Villach where we camped! I think pictures will speak louder than words here as the scenery has been magnificent. We thought we had reached the nicest possible point on Monday evening when we landed at our hotel outside the tiny village of Valbruna, just slightly off the main route, but the scenery continued to wow us the next day too. View from our guest house by the village of Valbruna, Italy Valbruna. Going up the road for dinner at a nearby restaurant. Notice I do sometimes change my clothes 😃 We crossed a into Italy on Monday afternoon through the old deserted border checkpoint. Immediately after that, the route uses a disused r...

 This cycle route has not disappointed! Three days in and we love it. Almost immediately after leaving Salzburg, we were surrounded by mountains, with lush, steeply sloping meadows dotted with farmhouses. The route was fairly flat on day one, but day 2 and 3 have had lots of climbs. And we've been so lucky with weather. We had heavy rain and wind during the night last night, but the days have been dry and sunny. The Salzaach River shortly after Salzburg Our new signage - the Ciclovoa one on the left is the route we'll be following until we reach the sea. We overlap with EV 7 for now but in Italy we will part ways.  Typical quiet cycle path Castle above the path  (we didn't visit it) Mountain views We were the only tenters in this quiet campground at St Johann on Thursday We had a very stiff climb up from the town you see in the distance (yesterday Friday) We rode through its 1.5 km long tunnel yesterday. Fortunately the cycle lane is separated from traffoc by a barrier, a...

 Cycling into the city of Salzburg yesterday was really easy. The path from Oberndorf took us through shady woodland along the Salzaach River right into the heart of the city. You immediately notice the commanding 900 year-old castle (Festung Hohensalzburg) on the top of the cliff overlooking the very Baroque old town below. Last night we attended an evening of Chamber music in Schloss Mirabelle in a most ornate room called the Marmorsaal (Marble Hall). Near the end of the performance, the lights went out - the whole of Salzburg experienced a power outage for about an hour. It didn't affect the concert but it was an odd experience. Restaurants had to close and we returned to the sanctuary of our guest-house with our solar camping lights! Prior to the concert we admired the beautiful gardens around the palace, and we didn't realize till after that the garden was where the young Von Trapps practiced Do-Re-Me in The Sound of Music. Today we attended a short organ recital in the Ca...

 The short trip to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Rep worked out perfectly and was the change and rest we both needed. We picked up our car rental on Thursday morning in Passau and headed northeast two hours through the rolling hills of southwest Czechia to the UNESCO town of Cesky Krumlov. I had never been there before and Frank knew it from a very different perspective when he was stationed there during his military service back in the day. Cesky Krumlov is set on an S-bend in the Vltava river and is dominated by it's 13th century castle (photo taken from the castle) One of our favourite Czech traditional meals - svickova, which is beef in a special creamy sauce made from vegetables, and of course served with dumplings The "Five Petal" Renaissance Festival provided all kinds of entertainment. Great street food and drinks, music, elaborate costumes and actors strolling the town, in this amazing setting of cobble-stoned streets and narrow alleys Frank's brother and sister...