Drizzle

We started the day by going through every pannier and bag on the bike, unpacking it, reviewing all the gear, and then loading it up again. It was a good chance to make sure we didn't forget anything, get rid of a few items we didn't need, quibble over how to store things on the bike, and familiarize ourselves with where everything was located. We also weighed everything with my spiffy new hand-held digital scale and determined that we have a total of 62.3 pounds of gear. That's more than I'd want to carry on my back, but it is less than we've hauled in the past and seems reasonable for two people.

Once the bike was loaded we rolled it out of the garage, shut the door, and hit the road.





Our standard route for escaping the Seattle metro area is to jump on the Interurban Trail going north to Everett. Yesterday's sunshine had given way to a light mist this morning, so we started out the trip with our rain jackets on. Beth sits out front on our tandem so she catches most of the wind and weather, although the front fairings helps quite a bit. After a few miles the rain picked up to where she wanted her rain pants as well, so we stopped along the trail to gear up. I'd hoped to capture an action shot showing the excitement and drama of preparing for heavy weather on a bike tour, but while I was waiting for just the right moment Beth said "you know, you could be helping me with my rain pants rather than taking that picture.". Rather than risk the possibility of other types of excitement and drama I decided it would be best to put the camera away and give a hand.






From Everett we jogged over to Snohomish so that we could take the Centennial Trail to Arlington. We discovered that Snohomish has not one, but two cupcake shops. The cupcake was fine (albeit a little over priced), but the decor was a little too pink for my tastes.






The Centennial trail was great -- paved, straight, and mostly flat. The rain brought out the wildlife and we saw bunny rabbits, ducks (mother and babies), and 15 solid miles of slugs all trying to get to the other side of the trail.

By the end of the day we were soaked through so we grabbed a hotel room by the Arlington airport. On the way there we saw signs advertising "fly in" and we were fortunate enough to get one of the last available rooms. It was a good way to end the day - a warm shower, a place to dry out our gear, and a hot meal in a restaurant.

Day 1 Summary: Seattle to Arlington, 48.3 miles, 48.3 miles total.

Final Thoughts

We've been home for a few days now and are almost synced up with the local timezone, so it is probably time to call this particular vacation "finished". A few concluding remarks.

The trip did not play out as we'd planned (obviously), but it was still a good one and it may have even been a better one. We were able to spend two to three day chunks of time in ~8 different cities by relying on public transportation, and it would have been less than half that number if were were biking from place to place. We'd have seen more enroute, but we'd have visited fewer cities. Of course, as I looked out the window while riding on the train I was always noting the bike paths and wondering what it would be like to be riding along them. I would like to be able to do another European bike trip someday, but even sans bike (for the most part) this was still an excellent trip.

One of our motivations in visiting eastern Germany and Czech Republic was to see how they've changed since they moved away from Communism, but people weren't interested in talking about it. The few times we asked about the changes someone had seen in the past 20 years got a minimal response -- people were more interested in talking about today or the future than the past. I suppose that's a good thing, but it wasn't what I'd expected.

Our favorite cities were Cesky Krumlov and Heiligenblut -- we'd go back again in a heartbeat. It pains me to say this, but for Heiligenblut it might even be nice to have a car. Much of the park is far enough away that it isn't feasible to rely on public transportation for day trips -- having a car would have allowed us to visit some of the higher peaks and more distant trails.

The nicest surprise of the trip was the horse auction in Maishofen. We just stumbled across it and it was fun to be a part of a normal everyday activity for the locals.

One of the things we've enjoyed most about being home is our queen sized bed. Every single one of the hotels we stayed in used a pair of twin beds for sleeping. Sometimes the beds were on different sides of the room (literally as far apart from each other as physically possible) and sometimes they were shoved up next to each other, but there was always two beds. Even when the beds were next to each other there was a DMZ between them -- a dead spot where the mattress gave way to the hard bed frame. It wasn't possible to accidentally venture from one bed to the other; any territorial infractions had to be intentional. I think Europe's long history of fighting over turf and borders has found its way into the bedroom so that there's no ambiguity over what part of the bed belongs to who.

Finally, thank you to those of you who've taken the time to read the blog and comment -- I've appreciated the feedback and encouragement. Part of my motivation in writing is to document the trip for our own purposes, but it was also nice to hear that one or two other people enjoyed it as well.

Europe by the Numbers

Both Beth and I have an analytical bent, so we tend to keep track of expenses on our various vacations -- we find it interesting to see how the cost of one trip compares to another and it is helpful in planning future trips. In the past I've used Quicken to keep track of the overall costs of the trip (e.g., the total of all credit card charges & ATM cash withdrawals), but this time I used an iPhone application (http://www.ixpenseit.com/ixpenseit.php) to record individual expenses as they occurred. Kudos to Bob Cowan for having suggested this to me. I wasn't able to capture every single expense, but I probably got 98% of them. This additional data provides some insight into the breakdown of costs within the trip -- fun stuff if you like numbers.

At a high level, we've found that the cost of an expensive vacation runs around $200 per day per person. In our family "expensive" is usually anything you have to get on a plane for -- Europe, Hawaii, Belize, San Diego. "Cheap" vacations involve cars, bicycles, or backpacking. The all-in cost for our four weeks in Europe was $360/day (total cost for both of us) -- less than our historical average. I think this is fairly impressive given the poor exchange rate and the obscene cost of our British Airways tickets.

If we ignore the cost of airfare and just look at what we spent while in Europe then our largest cost was lodging, and that came in at $83/day. That's more than Motel 6 (our el cheapo standard for when we're traveling and just need a place to crash), but still less than a nice hotel. We expected to be over $100/day for lodging, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Transportation is next in line at $32/day. This includes trains, buses, shuttles, ferries, subways, and trams. We knew that this would be a chunk of money since we were completely dependent upon public transportation, but the total cost was still barely more than $800. Nice.

Food came in at a mere $43/day. Breakfast was included in the cost of lodging on most days, and we usually ate one meal/day as a picnic on the go or from the grocery store in our room (e.g., pre-made salads). When we did eat out, some of the meals were in a nice restaurant while others were a kebab shop or beer garden. We don't drink a lot of wine or beer so that keeps the cost down, but I was still very surprised to see a number this low. We clearly didn't order enough desserts.

The last category that I'll mention was admissions -- tours, museums, bike rental, canoe rental, etc -- and it came in at $15/day.

We also spent some money on souvenirs, trinkets, and loot, but I won't get into the numbers. Still, they didn't seem out of line to me.

So the bottom line is that our European adventure wasn't nearly as expensive as I'd expected it to be. If our airline costs were a little more reasonable then we'd have been under $300/day, and that makes four weeks in Europe less expensive than a week in Hawaii (in terms of daily costs).

In terms of where we spent our time, we favored German speaking countries -- 12 days in Germany and 7 days in Austria. The balance (6 days) was in the Czech Republic. We also preferred smaller towns -- 9 days were in what I'd consider big cities (Berlin, Prague, and Munich), 9 in mid-sized cities, and 7 in small towns or villages.

Oktoberfest!!

We'd thought about doing a bicycle tour of Muenchen (similar to what we did in Berlin), but instead decided to focus on the Deutsches Museum and Oktoberfest.

We took the subway downtown to the Hauptbahnhof and then walked through the Oktoberfest area. At 09:30 in the morning it wasn't exactly running at full steam, but there was still quite a bit of activity.



Oktoberfest takes all the rides, food booths, and trinkets of a good state fair and adds huge beer drinking halls. As best I can tell, these buildings are set up just for the two weeks of Oktoberfest and then taken back down again.



On the far side of the Festwiese (where Oktoberfest is held) is the Deutsches Museum's transportation facility (Verkehrszentrum). They cover everything that rolls from yak carts to ICE trains.

Just inside the door was an early automobile with an engine with an exposed crankshaft and flywheel.



In the section on race cars was a racing Messerschmitt -- something of a contradiction in terms.



There was also a BMW Isetta that I could actually take a picture of.



They had a lot of information on trains along with several model train setups.



And we also found a motorcycle that was the closest we've seen yet to our bicycle. It was a tandem trike with the passenger out front and the controls in the back.


We spent several hours in the museum and then went back to Oktoberfest to grab a late lunch. By then it was quite a bit more crowded and all of the rides were running. We munched our way through the crowds and then picked up few last-minute trinkets on the way back to the subway.

Our flight home is late-morning tomorrow. This evening we'll put up the final journal postings, check-in and get our seats assigned, and then start sorting stuff in preparation for tomorrow's packing.

Off to Muenchen

Today was mostly a travel day. We walked to the bahnhof in Zell am See and were able to get tickets for a train leaving for Muenchen in about 45 minutes. The train followed the north out of town that we'd ridden yesterday, so we were able to see some of the same territory again. The route to Muenchen was through more mountainous country, some with huge bare peaks that looked like nothing more than a single giant piece of granite. As the ground became more flat we passed through several large industrial areas.

Just outside of Muenchen we came to Beer Land -- acres (literally) of pallets stacked six high with kegs of beer, bottles of beer, and cans of beer. I'm assuming that this was an extra cache of beer just for Oktoberfest.

We got off at the main station in Muenchen (i.e., the Hauptbahnhof) and then transferred to the subway. The Muenchen subway differs from Berlin's in that all the different lines share a common platform whereas Berlin had a separate set of platforms for each line. I think this actually works better (less running around when you need to change lines), but it requires that you pay more attention to which train you're getting on to. It also makes for a busy station -- trains were going through every two to three minutes. When we got to Ismaning our hotel was right across the street from the station.

We had a bit of time left in the afternoon so we decided to go to Deutsches Museum's aviation facility (Flugwerft Schleissheim). That was on a different subway line, so we decided to ride out to the airport and change lines there rather than in downtown. Unfortunately, when we reach the airport I realized that our ticket was only for two zones and didn't cover the airport -- had we gone through downtown we'd have been fine, but at that moment we outside the valid range of our ticket. Rather than take a chance we purchased an additional ticket to cover the airport zone, but that was an expensive way to reach the museum.

The museum was smaller and less formal than the Smithsonian, but still had quite a few exhibits. As I looked around I realized that there's a lot about German aviation that I don't know -- very few of the aircraft were familiar to me.

One of the first planes we saw, and one that particularly impressed Beth, was a human powered plane that set a speed record in 1985.



In the spirit of cycling, I found an interactive exhibit that demonstrated the power of blowing air. You didn't actually go anywhere, but it was still fun trying.



I thought the most interesting plane was a prototype for a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) transport plane. It has two big jet engines for normal flight plus eight itty bitty jet engines (four to a side) stuffed in pods at the ends of the wings for take-off and landing.



Another one of the displays was a cockpit from a fighter that you could try on for size. I enjoyed checking out the various controls and switches. Contrary to what Beth might tell you, I was not making "swooshing" or "rata-tat-tat" sounds while sitting in the cockpit.



It isn't often that you find switches with labels like "Rockets", "Bombs", and "Arm Nose & Tail".



Another interesting item was a gas powered starter motor for WWII era jet engines. It sat at the front of the engine and spun up the main shaft until the compressor was going fast enough to start. You'd kick the whole thing off by reaching down the throat of the engine and pull-starting the starter motor -- much like a chainsaw or lawnmower. A rather ignoble start for the latest in jet fighter technology.



One of the later items we saw was a single-person glider used for training German pilots for well into WWII. The student would get a bit of classroom instruction then they'd strap them into the glider and shove them off a hill. I think this is the same training regime used by some birds with their babies -- probably with similar results.



After we finished with the museum we took the subway back to our hotel (this time via downtown) and then caught dinner in the associated restaurant.

The map below shows Zell am See in the lower right and Muenchen (actually, Ismaning, the suburb we're staying in) in the upper left.


View 2009.09.30.location in a larger map

Bike Ride to Maria Alm

We'd originally planned to take a ski lift to the top of a nearby mountain and hike around a bit, but we had such a good time biking yesterday that we're going to do some more riding. When we were here in 2000 we rode from Zell am See to Salzburg and passed through a small town called Maria Alm on the way that Beth particularly enjoyed, so we're going to try and ride there and back today.

We were riding by 9:00 and the lake was still shrouded in fog.


We didn't have a good map of the area but we'd seen one alongside the trail yesterday, so we took a few minutes to sketch out a few key town names and trail junctions.



We never actually ended up consulting the map -- the signs alongside the trail were excellent. The first town of any size we came to was Maishofen and it was warming up for a horse auction. Lots of traffic, guys in uniform directing people on where to park, horses, horses, and more horses, people selling tack, and a meat and cheese vendor. Everything seemed to be horse-related except for that last one, and I chose not to examine the meat too closely lest there be a equine connection that I didn't really want to know about.









By the time we'd finished with the auction I'd acquired a little more stuff to carry. It wouldn't fit inside my backpack, so we just hung it from the back. I fear that by the end of this trip I'm going to look like the backpacking equivalent of the Beverly Hillbillies, with a bloated backpack decorated with dangling bags of stuff. Just as long as there's not a rocking chair strapped to the top.



We passed through a small town along the way that was little more than four houses and a church. We were able to peek inside and buy a candle to light.

Maria Alm itself was a bit of a disappointment. Either our memory is faulty or it has grown up a lot in the past ten years, but it wasn't the small village we remembered.



As we road out of town it quickly became much more rural -- more like the Maria Alm we remembered. There was a steep section of road that eventually had both of us walking our bikes, and at the top we took a break on some convenient benches to eat a snack and drink some juice. While we were there a decorated tractor pulling a trailer full of Austrian tourists came around the corner and we all waved to each other. We were glad they arrived after we'd made it to the top of the hill and not while we were still walking the bikes.

Just past Maria Alm we came to the village of Rain. Since each village marks its entrance with a sign bearing its name and its exit with the same plus a red slash, we paused to take a picture of the "No Rain" sign.



The bike path forks in Rain, with one branch heading north and the other (eventually) going back south. We took the southern branch since we needed to go back toward Zell am See, but I took a quick photo of the one going north. When we got back to the room I checked our photos from the 2000 trip and realized that we'd stopped for a picture at the same place. The first photo below is from nine years ago and the second is from today.





We continued the ride back to Zell am See, and as we passed through Maishofer around noon the auction was just finishing up. One section of the bike route was along a gravel path next to the river (below). The ride today was a mix of dedicated bike paths, gravel paths through fields, one-lane paved roads, and an occasional two-lane highway. All of it had excellent signs with snippets of maps saying things like bear left, turn after the church, sharp right then quick left. It was very easy to find and stay on the route.



Later in the day we took a walk along the lake shore. At one point someone had thrown out some feed on a boat ramp and the pigeons, ducks, and swans were swarming around to eat it. One rather large swan positioned itself in the middle of the pack and chased off anyone who tried to eat "his" feed. Eventually the entire boat ramp was barren of feed except for the patch around the swan. The swan would alternate between nibbling at his feed and snapping at the ducks who dared to encroach upon his reserved table. Oinker.



The lake shore at Zell am See is lined with rock -- more like a pond in a park than a natural lake. At various places there are stretches of boats docked on floating boat ramps, each with corresponding numbers on the lake shore, boat ramp, and boat. All very orderly.



The map below shows our track for today's bike ride.


View 2009.09.29.track in a larger map

Bike Ride to Kaprun

Our pension has a couple bikes that are available gratis, so today we decided to visit a car museum in Kaprun via bike and then loop the lake.

We followed the lake shore south out of town and passed an old chessboard in the park. When we were here with our daughters in 2000 we stopped here to play with the chess pieces. I showed Amy how to position the pieces on the board, and while were were there a collection of old men gathered around to watch us. Amy would start to move a piece and they'd say "Nein, nein!" and then point to some other piece and direction. When I'd make my move they wouldn't say a word (although I think I detected a few snickers). Needless to say, Amy whupped me in short order.



The bike paths around Zell am See are marked extremely well, so we had no problem finding our way to Kaprun. We were less sure how we'd find our way to the car museum, but when we got into town there were large directional signs saying "Museum" that seemed to be worth following. In short order we were at Votter's Museum. Note that in the photo below "Oldtimer" is part of the museum name and has nothing to do with anyone who might be nearby.



The museum was lots of fun, but like many other museums in Europe they don't allow photos. I found that rather frustrating. They had the largest collection of Messerschmitts I've seen anywhere, along with a bunch of BMW Isettas. There was also a Zundapp Janus which has doors at the front (similar to an Isetta) and back of the car. The driver and front passenger face forwards and the rear two passengers face backwards. They also had a very nice Triumph TR-3 and a good looking MG-TF.

Beth was surprised when I said "Oh look, there's a Haflinger!" and pointed to a miniature military truck in the back corner. She couldn't understand why anyone would have ever heard of something like a Haflinger before. Common knowledge. There were several late 50s and early 60s VW bugs and a Kubelwagen.

My favorite vehicle was a Unimog snowblower. It was a fairly small Unimog (narrow with a short wheelbase) with a huge secondary engine in the back to drive the blower. My first thought was "How do they deliver the power to the blower?" and then I noticed that there was a drive shaft running from the engine in back straight through the cab (and windshield) to the blower out front. Very clean design, but not one I would have thought of right off.

We spent an hour or so in the museum and then headed back toward the lake. We were on a dedicated bike path that was flat and ran through pasture lands, so it was very easy riding.



The east side of the lake wasn't quite as nice. The bike route was still very well marked, but it ran on a two-lane road so we had to content with traffic. Not a huge problem, but not as nice as a dedicated path. Near the north end of the lake we were back on a bike path and Beth was able to try her hand at taking photos while riding.



The final section of the ride was along the lake and beneath the trees. It was extremely scenic and enjoyable, but we also had to content with clouds of gnats. They didn't bite or do anything particularly nasty, but if you weren't wearing glasses then you'd end up with them in your eyes. You also didn't want to smile while riding. When we'd stop you'd have to take a few minutes to brush them off your cloths and out of your hair. I'd always thought Zell am See meant "Zell on the Lake", but maybe it is really "Swarms of Gnats".



The map below is a track of our ride to Kaprun and around the lake.


View 2009.09.28.track in a larger map

Off to Zell am See

Today was a day of surprises, once again pointing out the need for flexibility when traveling.

Our original plan was to catch a bus over the pass and down into Zell am See, the most direct route and one that would allow us to see a part of the park we've not been to yet. Unfortunately, the official tourist season ended a week ago and with it the bus. Instead, we're going to backtrack the way we came in (i.e., Postbus to Spittal) and then grab a train to Zell am See. Not a big deal -- just a little more time in transit.

The Spittal bus leaves Heiligenblut at 8:18 and it takes 25 minutes to walk the trail into town, so we left the pension shortly after dawn. We enjoyed seeing the valley in a different light (literally) than before.



As we approached the village there was a break in the clouds and we could see the morning sun shining on Grossglockner.



We had enough time to quickly check email at the hotel before jumping on the bus and found that our Zell am See lodging had fallen through. The pension said they had a room in response to our initial inquiry, but our response was slow enough that they'd rented it out by the time they heard back from us. The folly of having intermittent Internet connectivity. We didn't have time to work on new lodging before the bus came, so we decided to punt -- show up in town and see what we could find. This late in the season there's sure to be some rooms available; so it is really a question of how much it will cost rather than whether or not we'll find a place.

The bus arrived on time and we had a pleasant ride down the valley. I should probably point out that riding the bus in Austria isn't like the gray dog back home -- the buses are clean, quiet, and comfortable. It isn't necessarily the fastest way to travel and you have to adjust your plans to fit their schedule (as we found out), but it is completely viable.




While riding the train to Zell am See we found a German language newspaper with an entire section on Project Management. Beth was delighted -- clearly an enlightened newspaper.

When we arrived at the train station we dropped our backpacks in a storage locker and walked through town looking for likely places to stay. We found a hotel with very nice rooms at 108 Euros/night and used that as our baseline. No one answered the door at a pension we stopped at, and the next one had a room for 35 Euros/night per person. That was still a little more than we were used to paying, but it was close enough. We picked up a key to the room and then retrieved our packs from the bahnhof.

We dropped our packs in the room and then walked around town to take in the sights. We passed the Haus der Begegnung -- a pension that looks suspiciously like a poorly disguised CIA listening post.



We also passed an entire store devoted to feminine beauty products. It was large, well stocked, and thankfully, closed. Per the photo below, I really don't think their marketing is aimed at the men.



Below is a location map showing where we were today. Heiligenblut is in the middle and Zell am See at the top, so clearly the shortest path was due north. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option at this time of year, so we took the bus southeast to Spittal and then the train in a counter clockwise arc to Zell am See. Not the most direct path, but we're not in a hurry.


View 2009.09.26.location in a larger map

Up, up, and up

I started out the day by dropping a Nalgene water bottle on the middle toe of my (bare) left foot. Under normal circumstances anyone who is even half as manly as me would have waved this off as a mere trifle, but with the Austrian gravity the water bottle must have weighed at least ten pounds and it nailed the little guy square on. It was not a pleasant experience. I did a bit of hopping and strutting and after a quick massage (with no crepitus) I decided that I could probably make it through the day.

Our plan was to go to Bricciuskappelle -- a small chapel east of Heiligenblut that we didn't make it to on Thursday. Our route took us all the way down to the valley floor below town where we crossed the river and then started up the other side. The first thing we came to was Gossnitz Falls -- one of the largest water falls in the area. We hiked up a slippery trail to an overlook near the top of the falls.



We dropped back down to the river and then started up the side of the valley again, but this time on a road that was every bit as steep as the trail to the water fall viewpoint.



The road clawed its way up through several switchbacks, quickly leaving the top of the waterfall far below. We came to an open point in the trees that allowed us to look across the valley and see the chapel (not Bricciuskappelle) that we'd found on Thursday.



The road continued up the "Gentle Incline" and eventually reached an open meadow that was "Fairly Flat". The meadow contained several small cabins and looked like it was used as pasture for cattle some of the time. While Beth was bending over to look at some thistles (smaller than the ones we'd seen yesterday) a wild animal charged out at her from the brush. Fortunately it didn't press the attack, but it gave her quite a start.



When we reached the top of the meadow we looked back and saw a family walking their toddler up the road we'd just struggled to climb.



After climbing seemingly forever on the road we switched over to a trail that continued on in the same vein. Up, up, up. The map promised that at some point we'd fork off onto a trail on the right while the main trail continued on to the stars. When the air started getting thin I began to fear that we'd missed the trail junction, so we spent a lot of time looking at the map debating our location.



We did eventually find the trail junction and then started sliding down the hill. As rugged as the terrain is, it is still being used as pasture land for cattle. We'd often see cow manure along the trail and there were regular fences with gates or stiles for us to get through.



There was lots of water coming down the valley at this point, so we passed many waterfalls (large and small) and crossed several bridges. We also passed a snow cave over one of the creeks.



Finally, we came to a meadow containing Bricciuskapelle.



We stopped at the chapel and ate a snack while sitting on the benches out front. It was wonderful to be able to rest in the warm sun while munching on nuts with the meadow and waterfalls to look at.



For a while the trial out of Bricciuskapelle was "Fairly Flat" as it wound down through the meadows. There were many small creeks trickling through the meadows and they reminded Beth of hiking in California's Marble Mountains with her Aunt Binny as a teen. She also saw flowers similar to Blue Bells that reminded her of her Grandma Carpenter.

There's a bit of a cliff before the trail drops into the valley and it has an overlook cantilevered out over nothing. While I generally have a high regard for Austrian engineering and construction, I wasn't too keen to walk all the way out to the very end.



We'd enjoyed yesterday's lunch so much that we were hoping for a repeat performance today, but as we approached the trail-side restaurant at 15:02 we saw the proprietor scurrying down the path toward home (and the restaurant was locked up tight). Poor timing on our part -- maybe we shouldn't have spent quite so long eating nuts in front of the chapel.

On the way down to Heiligenblut we passed several barns with cables for gathering hay. The barn is situated at the top of the field and has one or more cables running from the hay mow down to the bottom of the field. They presumably run a hay hook on the cable and use it to pull the hay up into the mow. I wasn't able to see anyone actually using the cables, but it was a very common feature on the barns.



We stopped for an early dinner in Heiligenblut and then hobbled back to the pension when we were finished. It was a great hike, but we covered a little more distance (and elevation) then we'd planned. We spent the balance of the evening resting and reading in our room.

Below is a track of today's hike.


View 2009.09.26.track in a larger map