August holiday to Europe (A)
I left Galway on Thursday the 2nd for a week’s holiday, Matt had two weeks off and was to meet me in Munich in four days. It was such an amazing holiday and I had a great time, although things didn’t start well… I missed my 2 am bus. The bus left early, and it was the last one until 6am, which meant I missed my flight. This left me feeling somewhat upset, but after rebooking my flight and bus and spending a small fortune doing so it all worked out great.
My first stop was to visit the family in Starnberg that I lived with and worked for last year. I felt like a movie star when Kathleen and Julius first saw me, as they were so happy. For a trip down memory lane I made a cake with them and some marzipan animals. I think that the kids had as much fun licking the bowl as they did making the cake.
Julius and Kathleen baking a cake
and making marzipan "animals".
On Saturday afternoon I went into Munich and that night went out to a friend’s birthday party. Most of my friends that are still in Munich were there, which was great. I was staying with the birthday boy, I had to leave the house in the morning to escape the dry retching noises as he had a big night. I spent Sunday with the Touch Munich crew, I sat in the sun and chatted to all the people and then went to the Chinese Tower beer garden.
One thing I have missed a lot in Ireland is Japanese food so that night a group of us when to an all-you-can-eat two-tier sushi train place, and completely stuffed ourselves. I was hanging out for some deep fried bananas and had budgeted 3 small plates worth of them. I waited and waited and none came, I was pretty sad but my tummy was very thankful.
Keith and Erin eating sushi.
On Sunday night Matt arrived after his epic motorbike ride from Ireland. I don't think that he will be rushing to ride from one side of Ireland to the middle of Germany in two days again any time soon. Especially as his GSP crapped out in the UK and he had to rely on an A4 map of Europe that he printed off the internet with a line drawn from Galway to Munich. We were both really glad that he got to meet my friends there and we also had time to look at a couple of museums.
Surfers on a standing wave in the English Gardens, Munich
Before we left Ireland we had ordered some motorbike gear. But, it didn't arrive in time and we had to buy some in Munich. So I am now the proud owner of a mean set of leathers. Go half price sales! I guess that there isn't such a demand for women's clothing in non-massive sizes. Matt was pretty envious about my flash riding gear, but also pretty stoked I think. He got a pair of leather pants. He was riding in ski pants before that which is less than ideal. My friend Erin, who was with us at the time, named the bag full of riding gear we left with Daisy, as there is a cows worth of leather in the gear.
Abby in her new leathers, and Erin
Getting all the gear on is a bit of a mission. The pants and the jacket zip together for extra safety as apparently pants have a habit of slipping down a bit when someone comes off a bike, resulted in some rather unfortunate gravel rash. Then there is also the order of the gear to take into consideration, if it isn’t put on the right order it means starting again. So this is the order. Normal clothes, then riding pants, then put on boots, then do up riding pants, put on jacket, zip jacket and pants together. The next stages are best done quickly as the comfort level is not high off the bike. Put scarf thing on to stop wind freezing face, zip up jacket, put in earplugs, put on helmet, then gloves. By now you are stinking hot and need to quickly get on the bike. It took a bit of trial and error, frustration and foot stomping for me to get the routine down.
Rosenheim, enroute to Salzburg
Pretzel for lunch...
The last night I was in Munich I also found out that Dad was in hospital with heart failure so that was pretty upsetting. He is out of hospital now, but Mum and Dad won't be coming to Europe this year now. Hopefully he’s well enough to travel soon.
Our first stop was Salzburg. It was an amazing city, really beautiful. We bought 24-hour city tour cards, and definitely maximized the utility of them. It has one of Europe's biggest forts, actually it might be THE biggest, overlooking the city. So, we saw some amazing views from up there. We looked at where Mozart grew up and learnt about him a bit, checked out the historic sights, did a boat ride. I also got to see where parts of ‘The Sounds of Music’ were filmed which bought back a lot of childhood memories. Late on the second day there, we left Salzburg.
Walking around Salzburg
The view from the Salzburg fortress
And another veiw of the fortress
and another
Gardens in Salzburg. Abby tells me they dance around the fountain in this shot in "The Sound of Music"
Wax museum in Salzburg, and the cast from "Sound of Music"
We went into the Austrian Alps and over the Grossglockner pass which is one of the highest in Austria. Austria is an amazingly beautiful country and most of the houses we saw on this trip were chalet style, which I have a wee soft spot for. This pass is also Marmot country. Marmots are big rodents, but cool. The place we stayed at, at the top of the pass, had a pet Marmot, but I don’t think that that is usual. I think it would be like us having a pet possum, the rest of the locals would think that you are mad but the tourists would love it.
Riding in the Austrian Alps
I'm trying to attract Marmots here, I think you have to imitate the sign
Unfortunately we couldn’t see much at the top of the pass – at 2650 m it was a bit foggy. It was crazy to think that it was the equivalent of biking on the top of Mount Ruapehu. The bike didn’t like the altitude much. Putt, putt, putt, putt, was the sound it made in the higher bits. Fortunately it made it, although we were both a bit nervous.
View from the top of the Grossglockner pass, we stayed at the place next to the lake
Found a Marmot! Outside our accomodation for the night.
From here we made our way to Venice. Matt thought the trip would take 5 hours but it was actually 9, but that did include an hour for lunch. We ran into a wee cash problem where we planned to have lunch. Matt and I use the same Irish bank. His card told him that it was not internationally recognized so we couldn’t get any money out. I left my Westpac card in Ireland, thinking that I have more than enough money in my Irish one. Matt’s Visa card wouldn’t let him withdraw any money, and I have no idea what my Visa PIN is. We literally had €6.30. We were hungry and we didn’t have that much petrol. Fortunately I ignored Matt telling me to not bother trying my Irish card and tried my card anyway and it worked. A word to the wise: Check the back of your card for Cirrus or Maestro labels. If there is nothing you can’t get money out overseas and are screwed.
On our way to Venice
We were lucky enough to get into Venice only to not be able to remember where we were staying. So we went to a camping ground that we remember the name of, unfortunately it wasn’t ours. They were kind enough to let me use the internet to check where I had booked. Pretty much as soon as we were back on the bike it started raining, the first of many thunder storms in Venice that we saw. I was convinced the place we were staying had a pool. The whole way down I was talking about how I was going to go for a swim when I got there. You can imagine my disappointment when I got there and there was no pool. Another kiwi couple ate at the camping ground restaurant the same night as us and they were also convinced there was a pool. I was also a bit weary when I saw two Contiki buses parked outside. Fortunately they were kept in their own special part where they could only inflict harm on each other.
Venice!
We caught a boat over in the morning to Venice. Venice is a pretty crazy place. Not many people would move to a swamp, well they didn’t have so much choice at the time, on the ocean and set up. There are hundreds, probably thousands of big wooden poles stuck into the swamp, with some stones on top of them and a city on top of the stones. There are some pretty huge and impressive buildings in Venice. The place could really do with a good scrub with Jif, a lick of paint and some odor-eaters. But once you get past that it is grand.
The central plaza, in Venice
Ah, Venice
The first day we did a huge amount of walking. It was good to get away from the main tourist areas and see how the real people live there. We skipped doing a Gondola ride as we felt €100 for half and hour was a bit of a rip, but we saw plenty of others who splurged on it. We had lunch at the South Easterly part of Venice where there wasn’t so many people. I ate possibly the world’s best Lasagna for lunch, it was amazing. Fresh pasta, fresh mozzarella cheese, with a fresh tomato and meat sauce. I still smile when I think about it now.
We came across a pretty hard case statue that had a few families of turtles living in the pond below. I think we must have spent 20 minutes watching a big turtle try to get out of the water. He just kept falling back in. I think that he would have gotten on better had he not insisted on getting up where other turtles were already sitting. When we left he was still only half way up, but I think he realized that he wasn’t going to make it all the way up so to save himself any further embarrassment he stayed put.
The little turtle that could, almost
Mid afternoon we went back to the camping ground for a sleep before dinner, and came across a couple that had biked over from the UK, they were on the boat back with us. We shared a few similar stories of motorcycle mis-adventures.
I had a great idea that we should see Venice by water. So, we jumped on the first water bus that came by. I wanted to buy a 24 hour pass for €15, but no, the deckhand onboard would only sell us a 1 hour single trip pass for €6, which wasn’t that good. But worse was yet to come. Turns out one of the bridges were being repaired so the bus didn’t do its normal route. So we got dropped off at the other end of Venice and he wouldn’t let us come back with him. We then did some walking through the ‘industrial’ area of Venice to try and find where we could get another bus. We had planned to have a romantic dinner somewhere, but in the end we had a take-away sandwich and an ice-cream just before catching the last boat back to the camping ground.
Abby and I, in Venice
Riding on the water buses in Venice.
In hindsight we should have gone to the beach and relaxed on the Sunday, but there was still parts of Venice unexplored so off we went back to the Island. We had bought a 3 day unlimited travel pass the first day, and got to the dock early. Unfortunately, the ticket fell out of Matt’s wallet and we had to buy a new day ticket. I was a wee bit grumpy about this. At lunch time I learnt something new. It turns out that Scallape in Italian is not scallops in English, it is veal. You can imagine my surprise, I was sitting there waiting for a big plate of seafood pasta and I was delivered two thin white pieces of meat and some chips.
The airport provided us with another adventure. The cafeteria has a system where you go and look to see what you want to eat, go to the other side pay for it (assuming you remembered what you wanted) go to the counter and get your food. So the ice creams and drinks were in some ways a free for all. It is just assumed that you have a ticket to be taking one. I also think Ryanair in Venice is some sort of social experiment into how much people are prepared to endure just for cheap travel. It was a long, slow and stressful experience.
I arrived home to Galway at 3am, pleased to be home, wishing Matt all the best for his next week of travels, and wondering what my next adventure will bring.
My first stop was to visit the family in Starnberg that I lived with and worked for last year. I felt like a movie star when Kathleen and Julius first saw me, as they were so happy. For a trip down memory lane I made a cake with them and some marzipan animals. I think that the kids had as much fun licking the bowl as they did making the cake.
Julius and Kathleen baking a cake
and making marzipan "animals".
On Saturday afternoon I went into Munich and that night went out to a friend’s birthday party. Most of my friends that are still in Munich were there, which was great. I was staying with the birthday boy, I had to leave the house in the morning to escape the dry retching noises as he had a big night. I spent Sunday with the Touch Munich crew, I sat in the sun and chatted to all the people and then went to the Chinese Tower beer garden.
One thing I have missed a lot in Ireland is Japanese food so that night a group of us when to an all-you-can-eat two-tier sushi train place, and completely stuffed ourselves. I was hanging out for some deep fried bananas and had budgeted 3 small plates worth of them. I waited and waited and none came, I was pretty sad but my tummy was very thankful.
Keith and Erin eating sushi.
On Sunday night Matt arrived after his epic motorbike ride from Ireland. I don't think that he will be rushing to ride from one side of Ireland to the middle of Germany in two days again any time soon. Especially as his GSP crapped out in the UK and he had to rely on an A4 map of Europe that he printed off the internet with a line drawn from Galway to Munich. We were both really glad that he got to meet my friends there and we also had time to look at a couple of museums.
Surfers on a standing wave in the English Gardens, Munich
Before we left Ireland we had ordered some motorbike gear. But, it didn't arrive in time and we had to buy some in Munich. So I am now the proud owner of a mean set of leathers. Go half price sales! I guess that there isn't such a demand for women's clothing in non-massive sizes. Matt was pretty envious about my flash riding gear, but also pretty stoked I think. He got a pair of leather pants. He was riding in ski pants before that which is less than ideal. My friend Erin, who was with us at the time, named the bag full of riding gear we left with Daisy, as there is a cows worth of leather in the gear.
Abby in her new leathers, and ErinGetting all the gear on is a bit of a mission. The pants and the jacket zip together for extra safety as apparently pants have a habit of slipping down a bit when someone comes off a bike, resulted in some rather unfortunate gravel rash. Then there is also the order of the gear to take into consideration, if it isn’t put on the right order it means starting again. So this is the order. Normal clothes, then riding pants, then put on boots, then do up riding pants, put on jacket, zip jacket and pants together. The next stages are best done quickly as the comfort level is not high off the bike. Put scarf thing on to stop wind freezing face, zip up jacket, put in earplugs, put on helmet, then gloves. By now you are stinking hot and need to quickly get on the bike. It took a bit of trial and error, frustration and foot stomping for me to get the routine down.
Rosenheim, enroute to Salzburg
Pretzel for lunch...
The last night I was in Munich I also found out that Dad was in hospital with heart failure so that was pretty upsetting. He is out of hospital now, but Mum and Dad won't be coming to Europe this year now. Hopefully he’s well enough to travel soon.
Our first stop was Salzburg. It was an amazing city, really beautiful. We bought 24-hour city tour cards, and definitely maximized the utility of them. It has one of Europe's biggest forts, actually it might be THE biggest, overlooking the city. So, we saw some amazing views from up there. We looked at where Mozart grew up and learnt about him a bit, checked out the historic sights, did a boat ride. I also got to see where parts of ‘The Sounds of Music’ were filmed which bought back a lot of childhood memories. Late on the second day there, we left Salzburg.
Walking around Salzburg
The view from the Salzburg fortress
And another veiw of the fortress
and another
Gardens in Salzburg. Abby tells me they dance around the fountain in this shot in "The Sound of Music"
Wax museum in Salzburg, and the cast from "Sound of Music"
We went into the Austrian Alps and over the Grossglockner pass which is one of the highest in Austria. Austria is an amazingly beautiful country and most of the houses we saw on this trip were chalet style, which I have a wee soft spot for. This pass is also Marmot country. Marmots are big rodents, but cool. The place we stayed at, at the top of the pass, had a pet Marmot, but I don’t think that that is usual. I think it would be like us having a pet possum, the rest of the locals would think that you are mad but the tourists would love it.
Riding in the Austrian Alps
I'm trying to attract Marmots here, I think you have to imitate the sign
Unfortunately we couldn’t see much at the top of the pass – at 2650 m it was a bit foggy. It was crazy to think that it was the equivalent of biking on the top of Mount Ruapehu. The bike didn’t like the altitude much. Putt, putt, putt, putt, was the sound it made in the higher bits. Fortunately it made it, although we were both a bit nervous.
View from the top of the Grossglockner pass, we stayed at the place next to the lake
Found a Marmot! Outside our accomodation for the night.
From here we made our way to Venice. Matt thought the trip would take 5 hours but it was actually 9, but that did include an hour for lunch. We ran into a wee cash problem where we planned to have lunch. Matt and I use the same Irish bank. His card told him that it was not internationally recognized so we couldn’t get any money out. I left my Westpac card in Ireland, thinking that I have more than enough money in my Irish one. Matt’s Visa card wouldn’t let him withdraw any money, and I have no idea what my Visa PIN is. We literally had €6.30. We were hungry and we didn’t have that much petrol. Fortunately I ignored Matt telling me to not bother trying my Irish card and tried my card anyway and it worked. A word to the wise: Check the back of your card for Cirrus or Maestro labels. If there is nothing you can’t get money out overseas and are screwed.
On our way to Venice
We were lucky enough to get into Venice only to not be able to remember where we were staying. So we went to a camping ground that we remember the name of, unfortunately it wasn’t ours. They were kind enough to let me use the internet to check where I had booked. Pretty much as soon as we were back on the bike it started raining, the first of many thunder storms in Venice that we saw. I was convinced the place we were staying had a pool. The whole way down I was talking about how I was going to go for a swim when I got there. You can imagine my disappointment when I got there and there was no pool. Another kiwi couple ate at the camping ground restaurant the same night as us and they were also convinced there was a pool. I was also a bit weary when I saw two Contiki buses parked outside. Fortunately they were kept in their own special part where they could only inflict harm on each other.
Venice!
We caught a boat over in the morning to Venice. Venice is a pretty crazy place. Not many people would move to a swamp, well they didn’t have so much choice at the time, on the ocean and set up. There are hundreds, probably thousands of big wooden poles stuck into the swamp, with some stones on top of them and a city on top of the stones. There are some pretty huge and impressive buildings in Venice. The place could really do with a good scrub with Jif, a lick of paint and some odor-eaters. But once you get past that it is grand.
The central plaza, in Venice
Ah, Venice
The first day we did a huge amount of walking. It was good to get away from the main tourist areas and see how the real people live there. We skipped doing a Gondola ride as we felt €100 for half and hour was a bit of a rip, but we saw plenty of others who splurged on it. We had lunch at the South Easterly part of Venice where there wasn’t so many people. I ate possibly the world’s best Lasagna for lunch, it was amazing. Fresh pasta, fresh mozzarella cheese, with a fresh tomato and meat sauce. I still smile when I think about it now.
We came across a pretty hard case statue that had a few families of turtles living in the pond below. I think we must have spent 20 minutes watching a big turtle try to get out of the water. He just kept falling back in. I think that he would have gotten on better had he not insisted on getting up where other turtles were already sitting. When we left he was still only half way up, but I think he realized that he wasn’t going to make it all the way up so to save himself any further embarrassment he stayed put.
The little turtle that could, almost
Mid afternoon we went back to the camping ground for a sleep before dinner, and came across a couple that had biked over from the UK, they were on the boat back with us. We shared a few similar stories of motorcycle mis-adventures.
I had a great idea that we should see Venice by water. So, we jumped on the first water bus that came by. I wanted to buy a 24 hour pass for €15, but no, the deckhand onboard would only sell us a 1 hour single trip pass for €6, which wasn’t that good. But worse was yet to come. Turns out one of the bridges were being repaired so the bus didn’t do its normal route. So we got dropped off at the other end of Venice and he wouldn’t let us come back with him. We then did some walking through the ‘industrial’ area of Venice to try and find where we could get another bus. We had planned to have a romantic dinner somewhere, but in the end we had a take-away sandwich and an ice-cream just before catching the last boat back to the camping ground.
Abby and I, in Venice
Riding on the water buses in Venice.
In hindsight we should have gone to the beach and relaxed on the Sunday, but there was still parts of Venice unexplored so off we went back to the Island. We had bought a 3 day unlimited travel pass the first day, and got to the dock early. Unfortunately, the ticket fell out of Matt’s wallet and we had to buy a new day ticket. I was a wee bit grumpy about this. At lunch time I learnt something new. It turns out that Scallape in Italian is not scallops in English, it is veal. You can imagine my surprise, I was sitting there waiting for a big plate of seafood pasta and I was delivered two thin white pieces of meat and some chips.
The airport provided us with another adventure. The cafeteria has a system where you go and look to see what you want to eat, go to the other side pay for it (assuming you remembered what you wanted) go to the counter and get your food. So the ice creams and drinks were in some ways a free for all. It is just assumed that you have a ticket to be taking one. I also think Ryanair in Venice is some sort of social experiment into how much people are prepared to endure just for cheap travel. It was a long, slow and stressful experience.
I arrived home to Galway at 3am, pleased to be home, wishing Matt all the best for his next week of travels, and wondering what my next adventure will bring.
posted by matt at 12:11 PM
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