Three days ago, we got up, got on our bikes, crossed the Rhine and after 15 minutes found ourselves in Germany where we got onto our first train of the day. After a beautiful ride through the Schwarzwald, we changed trains in Donaueschingen where (as you will no doubt have guessed from the name ) the Danube river has its source...(Eran can still not pronounce the name of this place despite numerous attempts to learn it).
Five trains later, we finally arrived in Salzburg where by one of those strange coincidences that happen only on trips, Chloe's aunt was staying for a few days, and friends of hers invited us to stay in their pension situated 5 minutes from the train station, which proved to be extremely convenient to catch our 4.15am train the next day...But, before that, we went out for a stroll in Salzburg old city, passed by Mozarts house, learned that the name of Salzburg comes from the salt mines that used to be around (which according to Eran should be highly interesting to the tour guides out there...), ate some Wiener schnitzel and drank austrian beer with the friends of Chloe's aunt.
The next day (or rather, a few hours later) we got onto a train to Budapest on which Eran lost the last shreds of his blind admiration of European railway network....but we got there eventually, and have spent the last two days wandering around the city, lazying around in the bath houses, visiting the jewish quarter, drinking more beer and trying our palates with hungarian food (actually being about to start a three week bike trip might be the only way to enjoy hungarian gastronomy without a hint of guilt).
And today we will start for real to pedal our way across Europe...We do not promise to write here frequently, and maybe not always in English, but we'll try. We have 1600 kilometers ahead of us, through Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, and Romania along the Danube, and then head south through Bulgaria and Turkey to Istanbul.
Wish us luck, and we'll be in touch!
