It was really windy out by the castle, and as we left, the rain came down heavily for about 2 minutes, then left this perfect rainbow.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Welcome to Ireland!
Just seeing if this account still works...
Here's a picture of Dunguara Castle:
It was really windy out by the castle, and as we left, the rain came down heavily for about 2 minutes, then left this perfect rainbow.
It was really windy out by the castle, and as we left, the rain came down heavily for about 2 minutes, then left this perfect rainbow.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Big Mick Bike Tour, Lead, SD
Last Saturday (6/18/11), I rode the Big Mick, a one-day bike tour that covers most of the Mickelson Trail through the Black Hills of South Dakota. The Mickelson Trail is a 109-mile rails-to-trails project that is built on the old Burlington-Northern railroad grade. The Big Mick starts in Lead near the northern end and ends 104.6 miles later in Edgemont at the southern end.
You can start any time between 5 and 8 AM - after riding uphill from our cabin to the start (the steepest climb of the day) I got started at about 615AM and arrived in Edgemont 9:35 later. Along the way, they fed us breakfast (pancakes, eggs, sausages, biscuits/gravy, coffee, OJ), lunch (sub sandwiches) and a few aid stations with the usual sugary goodies. At the finish, they had the chicken dinner, ice cream for dessert, and both kinds of beer (Bud and Bud Light).
This is billed as a mountain bike ride, but my teammate Al assured me that the cross bike would be fine, and it was. About 25-30% of the riders were on cross bikes, but there were also a few recumbents and tandems. The trail surface is a fine gravel, a bit looser than most of the hard-packed dirt roads that we ride around here, so 23-width tires wouldn't have worked, although a 28 might do (I was on 32 knobbies at 65 psi).
It's an old RR grade, so it never gets steep. I was able to maintain a steady 10-11mph up all of the climbs, some of which are over 10 miles long. On the other hand, my highest speed for the day was only 21mph, so the downhills aren't very steep.
I took a couple of diversions from the official route, backtracking at one point to make sure that I got to ride ALL of the trail (I'd done the 3 miles from Deadwood to Lead the day before), so I got in about 108 miles for the day, 105 of which were on gravel.
It's a pretty small ride - only 131 people were registered, of whom 109 were doing the full century - so I rode most of it alone. On one stretch south of Custer, I saw only 3 other riders in 12 miles. About 8 miles from the finish, I fell in with 3 other guys on cross bikes who I'd been seeing at each aid station and we rode in together.
The weather cooperated - I started with arm and knee-warmers, but stripped those off by 50 miles. Rain was in the forecast (but never appeared), so I carried a Gore-Tex jacket and a couple of extra tubes, but never needed them.
I'd recommend this ride for anyone looking to do something a bit different. We made a 4-day weekend out of it, but you could do it in 3. Be aware that next year's ride will end in Hot Springs, SD - they alternate finish locations between there and Edgemont.
My pictures here or here.
Two years ago, Al and Sharon did a multi-day tour of the Mickelson Trail, with Al pulling a trailer behind his cross bike. See his write-up here
Big Mick ride website
Mickelson Trail map: Mickelson Trail map
You can start any time between 5 and 8 AM - after riding uphill from our cabin to the start (the steepest climb of the day) I got started at about 615AM and arrived in Edgemont 9:35 later. Along the way, they fed us breakfast (pancakes, eggs, sausages, biscuits/gravy, coffee, OJ), lunch (sub sandwiches) and a few aid stations with the usual sugary goodies. At the finish, they had the chicken dinner, ice cream for dessert, and both kinds of beer (Bud and Bud Light).
This is billed as a mountain bike ride, but my teammate Al assured me that the cross bike would be fine, and it was. About 25-30% of the riders were on cross bikes, but there were also a few recumbents and tandems. The trail surface is a fine gravel, a bit looser than most of the hard-packed dirt roads that we ride around here, so 23-width tires wouldn't have worked, although a 28 might do (I was on 32 knobbies at 65 psi).
It's an old RR grade, so it never gets steep. I was able to maintain a steady 10-11mph up all of the climbs, some of which are over 10 miles long. On the other hand, my highest speed for the day was only 21mph, so the downhills aren't very steep.
I took a couple of diversions from the official route, backtracking at one point to make sure that I got to ride ALL of the trail (I'd done the 3 miles from Deadwood to Lead the day before), so I got in about 108 miles for the day, 105 of which were on gravel.
It's a pretty small ride - only 131 people were registered, of whom 109 were doing the full century - so I rode most of it alone. On one stretch south of Custer, I saw only 3 other riders in 12 miles. About 8 miles from the finish, I fell in with 3 other guys on cross bikes who I'd been seeing at each aid station and we rode in together.
The weather cooperated - I started with arm and knee-warmers, but stripped those off by 50 miles. Rain was in the forecast (but never appeared), so I carried a Gore-Tex jacket and a couple of extra tubes, but never needed them.
I'd recommend this ride for anyone looking to do something a bit different. We made a 4-day weekend out of it, but you could do it in 3. Be aware that next year's ride will end in Hot Springs, SD - they alternate finish locations between there and Edgemont.
My pictures here or here.
Two years ago, Al and Sharon did a multi-day tour of the Mickelson Trail, with Al pulling a trailer behind his cross bike. See his write-up here
Big Mick ride website
Mickelson Trail map: Mickelson Trail map
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Summer 2008
After taking almost 4 months of vacation and unpaid leave this year, I'm sticking close to home this summer. But things could be worse - I live in a place where people come for vacations.
On June 15, I joined my friends Steve and Larry and a couple of others for a backcountry ski trip on Mt. Trelease, near the Loveland Ski area. Trelease isn't much of a peak - only 12477'/3803m - and when you're on top, everything around you seems to be higher. But it had a nice line on the northern side, and I needed to get one backcountry trip in this year.
I like to go as far as possible in my running shoes - this time I made it up to the base of the headwall before I had to put my boots on.
Steve and Larry hike in their ski boots.
Steve points the way.
Steve and Larry kick-stepping up the headwall
Yours truly heading down
I need to get some more weight on that back ski. But I've got some hamstring tendonitis, and I'm just happy to be out skiing...
I had some use-'em-or-lose-'em miles, so I took a quick trip back to Michigan over July 4th to see my parents and my brothers.
The next weekend, Sandy and I rode the Triple Bypass (120 miles with 10000 ft of climbing) for the third year in a row. It was a good ride, but we both agree that it's time to do a different ride next year.
On August 3, we had the High Altitude Hash at Berthoud Pass, so I went up early and tried to ride my mountain bike over Jones Pass.
I almost made it but was turned back by snow a few hundred feet before the top of the pass. 
On June 15, I joined my friends Steve and Larry and a couple of others for a backcountry ski trip on Mt. Trelease, near the Loveland Ski area. Trelease isn't much of a peak - only 12477'/3803m - and when you're on top, everything around you seems to be higher. But it had a nice line on the northern side, and I needed to get one backcountry trip in this year.
I like to go as far as possible in my running shoes - this time I made it up to the base of the headwall before I had to put my boots on.
Steve and Larry hike in their ski boots.
Steve points the way.
Steve and Larry kick-stepping up the headwall
Yours truly heading down
I need to get some more weight on that back ski. But I've got some hamstring tendonitis, and I'm just happy to be out skiing...
I had some use-'em-or-lose-'em miles, so I took a quick trip back to Michigan over July 4th to see my parents and my brothers.
The next weekend, Sandy and I rode the Triple Bypass (120 miles with 10000 ft of climbing) for the third year in a row. It was a good ride, but we both agree that it's time to do a different ride next year.
On August 3, we had the High Altitude Hash at Berthoud Pass, so I went up early and tried to ride my mountain bike over Jones Pass.
I almost made it but was turned back by snow a few hundred feet before the top of the pass. 
Post-Mortem
... and the mortem thing is almost right. About half way across the Atlantic, I realized that I was getting sick. I ended up with one of the worst summer colds I've ever had - nasty sore throat, and a cough that still lingers on two months later. Maybe it's the dreaded Luxembourg Lung Fungus.
The grass in the yard was about a foot tall in many places. I have a teen-age son who is blissfully ignorant about how to use the lawn mower, so I had to deal with it myself. It was way too deep for the mower, so I spent about an hour with my two-stroke weed whacker, filling up the neighborhood with purple smoke and making more noise that a motocross race.
I went back to work the day after I arrived, and hadn't forgotten too much of what I do for a living.
Cindi spent the next two weeks touring around Normandy, visiting monasteries, battlefields and cheese shops, sleeping in airports, etc. But that's her story...
The grass in the yard was about a foot tall in many places. I have a teen-age son who is blissfully ignorant about how to use the lawn mower, so I had to deal with it myself. It was way too deep for the mower, so I spent about an hour with my two-stroke weed whacker, filling up the neighborhood with purple smoke and making more noise that a motocross race.
I went back to work the day after I arrived, and hadn't forgotten too much of what I do for a living.
Cindi spent the next two weeks touring around Normandy, visiting monasteries, battlefields and cheese shops, sleeping in airports, etc. But that's her story...
Heading Home
Monday (May 26, Memorial Day for all you folks back in the USA) was another beautiful day in Austria, but it was time to head home. We loaded up the car
and headed out the autobahn into Germany and around Munich. Anyone who tells you that all Germans drive 100mph on the Autobahn probably has never been there. This is a typical scene on most Autobahns:
a line of semis (mostly from Eastern Europe) in the right lane, and everyone else in the left lane. And there's a general speed limit of 130km/hr anyway. (But I do know a couple of stretches of Autobahn with no traffic or speed limit - I got up to 180km/hr last year.)
After a few hours of this, we left the Autobahn at Karlsruhe and headed northwest into Saarland. There are some pleasant low mountains in this area, but it's not the Alps. Eventually we crossed the Mosel River at Schengen and we were in Luxembourg, a new country for both of us. Luxembourg is clean and boring in a Swiss kind of way (but without the scenery).
Diesel is cheaper than almost anywhere else in Europe, but everything else is on the slightly pricey side. We ate at an Italian restaurant on the main square (the cheapest thing except for McDonalds)
(yes, that's a Belgian beer - there is Luxembourgish beer, but they didn't serve it) and had some good but expensive ice cream. Then it was back to our Ibis hotel (a step above the Etap which is a step above the Formule 1).
The next morning we drove across the border into Belgium looking for breakfast (and keeping an eye out for ornery people).
We found a bakery with some nice waffles and pastries, but there was no way to warm the waffles. Maybe they don't do microwaves in Belgium.
We crossed back into France and drove the backroads into Riems, where we had coffee in a PMU (off-track-betting) cafe. (No, we didn't place any bets.) Then it was onto the Autoroute (expensive tolls) to Paris and our hotel near the CDG airport. We took the train into Paris where we visited a couple of bookstores and an internet cafe before dinner at a nice but somewhat touristy restaurant.
Paris is famous for Bertillon ice cream, but at $6 for a modest cone, I let Cindi enjoy it while I watched. After a bit of a battle to find where to re-enter the train station, we took the train back to the airport area and walked back to the hotel in the rain.
The next morning I packed everything I could into my two bags, and Cindi dropped me at the terminal. I must have triggered some kind of warning, because the security people grilled me for about 10 minutes about the contents of my bags (including the large black bike box) and how I had managed to arrive at the airport. Apparently the idea of being dropped off by your wife in your car was something new to them, but fortunately Cindi was back and had the car registration to show them. My flight was uneventful, and I got lucky on the exit-row seats again. US Customs in Dallas was slow, but they didn't ask any strange questions. Andrew picked me up in Denver, and I dropped him off on campus and managed to stay awake for the half-hour drive home. The house didn't smell too bad, so I said hello to the cats, unpacked a few things and got to bed around midnight.
and headed out the autobahn into Germany and around Munich. Anyone who tells you that all Germans drive 100mph on the Autobahn probably has never been there. This is a typical scene on most Autobahns:
a line of semis (mostly from Eastern Europe) in the right lane, and everyone else in the left lane. And there's a general speed limit of 130km/hr anyway. (But I do know a couple of stretches of Autobahn with no traffic or speed limit - I got up to 180km/hr last year.)
After a few hours of this, we left the Autobahn at Karlsruhe and headed northwest into Saarland. There are some pleasant low mountains in this area, but it's not the Alps. Eventually we crossed the Mosel River at Schengen and we were in Luxembourg, a new country for both of us. Luxembourg is clean and boring in a Swiss kind of way (but without the scenery).
Diesel is cheaper than almost anywhere else in Europe, but everything else is on the slightly pricey side. We ate at an Italian restaurant on the main square (the cheapest thing except for McDonalds)
(yes, that's a Belgian beer - there is Luxembourgish beer, but they didn't serve it) and had some good but expensive ice cream. Then it was back to our Ibis hotel (a step above the Etap which is a step above the Formule 1).
The next morning we drove across the border into Belgium looking for breakfast (and keeping an eye out for ornery people).
We found a bakery with some nice waffles and pastries, but there was no way to warm the waffles. Maybe they don't do microwaves in Belgium.
We crossed back into France and drove the backroads into Riems, where we had coffee in a PMU (off-track-betting) cafe. (No, we didn't place any bets.) Then it was onto the Autoroute (expensive tolls) to Paris and our hotel near the CDG airport. We took the train into Paris where we visited a couple of bookstores and an internet cafe before dinner at a nice but somewhat touristy restaurant.
Paris is famous for Bertillon ice cream, but at $6 for a modest cone, I let Cindi enjoy it while I watched. After a bit of a battle to find where to re-enter the train station, we took the train back to the airport area and walked back to the hotel in the rain.
The next morning I packed everything I could into my two bags, and Cindi dropped me at the terminal. I must have triggered some kind of warning, because the security people grilled me for about 10 minutes about the contents of my bags (including the large black bike box) and how I had managed to arrive at the airport. Apparently the idea of being dropped off by your wife in your car was something new to them, but fortunately Cindi was back and had the car registration to show them. My flight was uneventful, and I got lucky on the exit-row seats again. US Customs in Dallas was slow, but they didn't ask any strange questions. Andrew picked me up in Denver, and I dropped him off on campus and managed to stay awake for the half-hour drive home. The house didn't smell too bad, so I said hello to the cats, unpacked a few things and got to bed around midnight.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Mondsee 4-See Radmarathon
I've wanted to do one of the big European one-day bike tours ('gran fondos' or 'cyclosportives') for a long time, and as we plotted our route back to Paris, I realized that I could do the /Mondsee 5-Seen Radmarathon (Mondsee 5-Lake Bike Marathon) near Salzburg (on May 25, 2008). There are 4 different courses to choose from, and since I'd only gone 100km once this year, I passed on the 200km course and went for the 135km (900m of climbing and 4 out of 5 lakes) 'B' course. To prepare my bike, I'd taken off the 700x32/35 tires and put on my 700x25s (a lot lighter, but still not the fastest tire around).
The official rules for the event begin with "Der 5-Seen-Radmarathon ist kein Radrennen, sondern eine Rad-Touristikveranstaltung." (The 5-Lake Bike Marathon is not a race - it is a bike touring event.)
This is the only bike tour that I've been on that gives everyone a chip to determine their exact time, lines everyone up for a mass start, and gives awards to the top 3 in each class. But I guess I'll just take their word for it that it's not a race...
I got up a bit before 6 AM and headed downstairs to find almost all the guests at our pension already finishing breakfast. One of them explained to me that you had to get to the start at least 30 minutes early to get a good start position. I took my time and got to the start about 645, which put me slightly back of the center of the pack.
After a few speeches by local dignitaries and a blessing (including a reading from the Gospel!), they fired the cannon at precisely 700 AM and we were off. I'd expected mass chaos, but things were pretty orderly. After a kilometer or so we went through a large roundabout on the edge of town and the serious racing/touring began.
I was determined not to go out too fast, but it was easy to get sucked along by some of the more organized teams. Still, it seemed like many more people were passing me than the other way around. After about 10km, we hit the first hill: the Scharfingerhohe with a climb of about 130m. Surprisingly, many of the riders who had just flown by me seemed to be having trouble with this little hill. I cranked up at a reasonable pace and still passed a couple of dozen riders. Once over the top, we hit the rolling hills and relative flats and it was time to get in a group.
I found a decent pack of about 30 and just hung out towards the back - there were plenty of 'locomotives' up front so most of us never had to pull. In Bad Ischl, we went through the tunnel which was the site of many crashes in past years, but it was well-lit and I knew not to ride near the center line where the concrete barriers were. The pack was flying along at such a pace and the weather was cool enough that I skipped the first aid-station. The pace seemed to pick up gradually and we were shedding some of the weaker riders as we headed along the Traunsee. On a clearer day the views along the lake would be magnificent, but the slight cloud cover and haze did keep the temperature down.
Right in the town of Traunkirch, I decided to get something to eat and was rummaging around in my jersey pocket for my chocolate pastry. When I looked up again, I realized that I was all alone - the pack was receding into the distance and there was no one behind me. I pushed a bit harder and almost caught a guy whose bike sounded like the crank was about to fall off, but even he dropped me. It would have been a very discouraging spot, except for one thing: I knew from the map that the biggest hill was right around the corner.
Soon the route took a left away from the lake and the fun began. The first riders I caught were a dozen or so who were taking a 'natural break' along a hedgerow. Right after that, the road kicked up at about a 6% grade for about 170 vertical meters. I caught another 8 or 10 riders before the crest and then rode solo until the start of the steep part.
From here to the top, I must have passed another 20-30 riders, and no one passed me.
I stopped a few minutes at the aid station to cram down some bananas and Endurolytes and refill my bottles. Then it was a screaming downhill for the next 5 miles down to the Attersee.
Right at the lake, I got caught by another rider, so I jumped on his wheel and we started working together on the flats. Pretty soon we'd picked up another half a dozen, and within a few miles we had another pack of 20. I took a couple of turns at the front but I wasn't as strong as some of the others so I kept it short. By the time we'd rounded the north end of the lake, the pack was flying and it wasn't long before a couple of other riders and I were spat out the back. We got ourselves organized and rode together for the next few km to Nussdorf where the road left the lake and headed up the 13% grade. My riding companions decided that this was a good spot to back off to a conversational pace, so I took off on my own again. Soon I was reeling in most of the riders from the pack that had just dumped me. About halfway up, I caught one guy who then stayed with me for most of the rest of the climb, but otherwise I was passing people like they were standing still (and a few of them were).
Starting down the other side, my right leg suddenly cramped and I had visions of last year's La Veta Century where I had to jump off the bike before both legs cramped up. But this time I was able to unclip and work out the cramp. I must have really moved up on the hill because no one caught me on the 8km downhill stretch. At the bottom, I was just starting to grind out the last 5km into Mondsee when a pack of about 10 caught me. I jumped on the back and was surprised to find that the pace wasn't too bad - I even ended up taking a short turn on the front. By the outskirts of town, we were moving along at a good clip, even shedding a couple of riders off the back. The final turn into town came quicker than I expected and I was able to join in a modest sprint to the finish line. My official time was 4:24:26 (56 minutes behind the leader) for 329th of 452 finishers. I was a bit surprised to be this far down in the standings, but apparently there were many people who didn't wear the timing chip and therefore don't appear in the final results. I'll just assume that there were lots of them and that they were all behind me...
Post-ride refreshments were decent - a bowl of pasta with your choice of two sauces, and a drink of your choice. Of course my choice was the Frankenmarkter Hefeweisse - very tasty after a few hours on the bike.
Later we got some ice cream (much more expensive than in Slovakia) and watched some of the 200km riders come in.
In the evening, we headed up a tiny one-lane road through the forest to the Hochsernerhof, an inn perched at the top of a Sound Of Music meadow with fantastic views of the Salzkammergut.
I had some sausages and a big glass of home-made Most (a kind of hard cider) and Cindi had the Holzhackertoast (woodcutter's toast), complete with fried eggs. A nice change from the more touristy scene in downtown Mondsee.
The official rules for the event begin with "Der 5-Seen-Radmarathon ist kein Radrennen, sondern eine Rad-Touristikveranstaltung." (The 5-Lake Bike Marathon is not a race - it is a bike touring event.)
This is the only bike tour that I've been on that gives everyone a chip to determine their exact time, lines everyone up for a mass start, and gives awards to the top 3 in each class. But I guess I'll just take their word for it that it's not a race...
I got up a bit before 6 AM and headed downstairs to find almost all the guests at our pension already finishing breakfast. One of them explained to me that you had to get to the start at least 30 minutes early to get a good start position. I took my time and got to the start about 645, which put me slightly back of the center of the pack.
After a few speeches by local dignitaries and a blessing (including a reading from the Gospel!), they fired the cannon at precisely 700 AM and we were off. I'd expected mass chaos, but things were pretty orderly. After a kilometer or so we went through a large roundabout on the edge of town and the serious racing/touring began.
I was determined not to go out too fast, but it was easy to get sucked along by some of the more organized teams. Still, it seemed like many more people were passing me than the other way around. After about 10km, we hit the first hill: the Scharfingerhohe with a climb of about 130m. Surprisingly, many of the riders who had just flown by me seemed to be having trouble with this little hill. I cranked up at a reasonable pace and still passed a couple of dozen riders. Once over the top, we hit the rolling hills and relative flats and it was time to get in a group.
I found a decent pack of about 30 and just hung out towards the back - there were plenty of 'locomotives' up front so most of us never had to pull. In Bad Ischl, we went through the tunnel which was the site of many crashes in past years, but it was well-lit and I knew not to ride near the center line where the concrete barriers were. The pack was flying along at such a pace and the weather was cool enough that I skipped the first aid-station. The pace seemed to pick up gradually and we were shedding some of the weaker riders as we headed along the Traunsee. On a clearer day the views along the lake would be magnificent, but the slight cloud cover and haze did keep the temperature down.
Right in the town of Traunkirch, I decided to get something to eat and was rummaging around in my jersey pocket for my chocolate pastry. When I looked up again, I realized that I was all alone - the pack was receding into the distance and there was no one behind me. I pushed a bit harder and almost caught a guy whose bike sounded like the crank was about to fall off, but even he dropped me. It would have been a very discouraging spot, except for one thing: I knew from the map that the biggest hill was right around the corner.
Soon the route took a left away from the lake and the fun began. The first riders I caught were a dozen or so who were taking a 'natural break' along a hedgerow. Right after that, the road kicked up at about a 6% grade for about 170 vertical meters. I caught another 8 or 10 riders before the crest and then rode solo until the start of the steep part.
From here to the top, I must have passed another 20-30 riders, and no one passed me.
I stopped a few minutes at the aid station to cram down some bananas and Endurolytes and refill my bottles. Then it was a screaming downhill for the next 5 miles down to the Attersee.
Right at the lake, I got caught by another rider, so I jumped on his wheel and we started working together on the flats. Pretty soon we'd picked up another half a dozen, and within a few miles we had another pack of 20. I took a couple of turns at the front but I wasn't as strong as some of the others so I kept it short. By the time we'd rounded the north end of the lake, the pack was flying and it wasn't long before a couple of other riders and I were spat out the back. We got ourselves organized and rode together for the next few km to Nussdorf where the road left the lake and headed up the 13% grade. My riding companions decided that this was a good spot to back off to a conversational pace, so I took off on my own again. Soon I was reeling in most of the riders from the pack that had just dumped me. About halfway up, I caught one guy who then stayed with me for most of the rest of the climb, but otherwise I was passing people like they were standing still (and a few of them were).
Starting down the other side, my right leg suddenly cramped and I had visions of last year's La Veta Century where I had to jump off the bike before both legs cramped up. But this time I was able to unclip and work out the cramp. I must have really moved up on the hill because no one caught me on the 8km downhill stretch. At the bottom, I was just starting to grind out the last 5km into Mondsee when a pack of about 10 caught me. I jumped on the back and was surprised to find that the pace wasn't too bad - I even ended up taking a short turn on the front. By the outskirts of town, we were moving along at a good clip, even shedding a couple of riders off the back. The final turn into town came quicker than I expected and I was able to join in a modest sprint to the finish line. My official time was 4:24:26 (56 minutes behind the leader) for 329th of 452 finishers. I was a bit surprised to be this far down in the standings, but apparently there were many people who didn't wear the timing chip and therefore don't appear in the final results. I'll just assume that there were lots of them and that they were all behind me...
Post-ride refreshments were decent - a bowl of pasta with your choice of two sauces, and a drink of your choice. Of course my choice was the Frankenmarkter Hefeweisse - very tasty after a few hours on the bike.
Later we got some ice cream (much more expensive than in Slovakia) and watched some of the 200km riders come in.
In the evening, we headed up a tiny one-lane road through the forest to the Hochsernerhof, an inn perched at the top of a Sound Of Music meadow with fantastic views of the Salzkammergut.
I had some sausages and a big glass of home-made Most (a kind of hard cider) and Cindi had the Holzhackertoast (woodcutter's toast), complete with fried eggs. A nice change from the more touristy scene in downtown Mondsee.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Leaving Slovakia
If you don't want to die in Slovakia, you have to leave sometime, and our time had arrived. Cindi's teaching was over and exams were here. I mananged to squeeze in another trip to the Slovak Paradise (this time the Velky Sokol (Big Falcon) gorge)
and to do some more bike riding into the Javorina Reserve, a huge former military training area that most people still think is closed to the public (it isn't). One of my colleagues at the University invited me along on their field trip up the tower of the cathedral in Presov, which isn't open to tourists yet. You can get some nice views of Presov from up there.
We finally made it into Spis Castle, probably the most famous castle in Slovakia (used in many movies for that authentic medieval feel). We'd driven past many times, but never been in.
One of the attractions during tourist season is the amusing display of martial arts.
After visiting the castle, I got my bike out of the car and rode home over some roads I hadn't ridden before, including the Branisko Pass (which isn't as steep as the sign says).
The last few days in Presov were pretty hectic, with packing, grading, throwing things out, trying to drink all the remaining booze in the apartment, etc. The US Ambassador to Slovakia was in town, and Cindi got a few minutes of one-on-one time with him.
Then it was back to cleaning the apartment. Here's an outside view - our balcony is the 2nd one above the 'V' in 'potraviny' ('groceries').
One of the features of the apartment was the Under The Sea toilet seat.
Our landlord came by at 1PM on Friday to check the place out and returned our damage deposit in the form of a large stack of Slovak crowns, which we then took to the bank and converted into a large stack of Euros. We actually made money over the last 4 months by having the money in SKK, which even increased in value relative to the Euro (to say nothing of the dollar).
By the time all the final details were taken care of, it was 5PM and time to hit the road. We headed south into Hungary and picked up the autobahn to Budapest. We stayed in an Etap hotel on the west side of Buda - Etaps have all the comforts of Formula One hotels, PLUS your own bathroom. The next day we drove across the western part of Hungary, skirted Vienna and arrived in Mondsee in the Salzkammergut region of Austria.
and to do some more bike riding into the Javorina Reserve, a huge former military training area that most people still think is closed to the public (it isn't). One of my colleagues at the University invited me along on their field trip up the tower of the cathedral in Presov, which isn't open to tourists yet. You can get some nice views of Presov from up there.
We finally made it into Spis Castle, probably the most famous castle in Slovakia (used in many movies for that authentic medieval feel). We'd driven past many times, but never been in.
One of the attractions during tourist season is the amusing display of martial arts.
After visiting the castle, I got my bike out of the car and rode home over some roads I hadn't ridden before, including the Branisko Pass (which isn't as steep as the sign says).
The last few days in Presov were pretty hectic, with packing, grading, throwing things out, trying to drink all the remaining booze in the apartment, etc. The US Ambassador to Slovakia was in town, and Cindi got a few minutes of one-on-one time with him.
Then it was back to cleaning the apartment. Here's an outside view - our balcony is the 2nd one above the 'V' in 'potraviny' ('groceries').
One of the features of the apartment was the Under The Sea toilet seat.
Our landlord came by at 1PM on Friday to check the place out and returned our damage deposit in the form of a large stack of Slovak crowns, which we then took to the bank and converted into a large stack of Euros. We actually made money over the last 4 months by having the money in SKK, which even increased in value relative to the Euro (to say nothing of the dollar).
By the time all the final details were taken care of, it was 5PM and time to hit the road. We headed south into Hungary and picked up the autobahn to Budapest. We stayed in an Etap hotel on the west side of Buda - Etaps have all the comforts of Formula One hotels, PLUS your own bathroom. The next day we drove across the western part of Hungary, skirted Vienna and arrived in Mondsee in the Salzkammergut region of Austria.
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