Turning north

Five days is a long time when you are on the road, especially on a trip like this one. Now where were we? Ah yes, Salzburg. We had picked a hotel that was slightly further out from the city centre and although we were going to catch the bus in we ended up walking it. Sore legs later we had a good look around the city and the castle overlooking it. My recollection of when I was there forty something years ago was the shop signs in the old town and at the time the fact that McDonald's had not been allowed to put up the golden arches because they would have looked out of place. The street is still the same and brought back good memories.


Good street art on the way into Salzburg


The Scottish restaurant sign


Mozart Platz

We took the funicular railway up to the castle and had lunch up there overlooking the town and after all that hobbled back to the hotel.







Summer has arrived early in this part of the world. The last couple of days has been up in the 30’s, and with all the rain they get at other times it make for a very humid climate. It’s been alright while we are on the move but very hot and sweaty once you stop in all the bike gear.

Next stop the Czech Republic and new territory for me in Prague. We met some old friends of Claire’s for lunch, after a short walk around the town the night before. I

My boots had arrived and after using the box to pack the bike boots, we found the main post office in town and without much fuss managed to post them back to Paris. Time will tell how long they take to arrive. Prague is a wonderful old city, and one that I would like to return to one day, maybe in the winter when there are lees people there. I thought we would beat the summer rush but apparently not, or if we did then it must be an absolute bun fight at the height of the season.









The boots have made a big difference and I can now reach the ground again which makes getting on and off a lot easier. Again time will tell once I am on my own again how easy it will all be.

I made a bit of a miss calculation with the next days ride from Prague through to Krakow. We were due to have a stop halfway but in the end we did a big 590km day. We did have a look around the old square that evening, but took the decision to get back on the bike and backtrack a short distance to visit Auschwitz. I’ve been in two minds whether I wanted to go but decided that as we were so close I would regret not going. It’s a sobering experience and not something that is undertaken lightly so I’ll just post some of the photo’s I took. We ended up cutting short the tour which was far longer than we expected. We didn’t do the second half in Birkenau, one because of the time, two because it was 32 degrees and there is no shade there (and neither of us had a hat or sunscreen) and thirdly because it was probably even more confronting than Auschwitz.














Krakow is another stunning city and well worth another longer visit. The old square is alive at night with some very good restaurants where you can eat your evening meal and do some people watching.









Not being a Vodka drinker we decided it was time I tried it. I've heard tell that the one below is the best so we got a small sample bottle. We might get another larger bottle!!



So today we have had a very nice (and hot again) ride through to Warsaw. We have got a nice little apartment with good safe underground parking and nice facilities. Time will tell if we decide to do anything this evening or if we just get some nice smoked salmon and salad and a bottle of wine and just have a rest. We are going to be on the road for another three days straight before we get to Riga and have another day off.

Glad to see the comments from people that are managing to follow the spot tracker. One or two missed end of the day messages, and it’s not that I didn’t send them it’s just that the satellite signal was lost before the could get out. I’ll try to hit the button slightly earlier.