Cycling in Europe and other adventures

  Ljubljana River flowing alongside the central market on the left   It was an early start as we had a 9am flight from Frankfurt to Ljubljana.   All went smoothly and before we knew it we were on an Embraer E190/195.   I have been in one of them before and I like the 2+2 configuration and they had a reasonable amount of legroom.   The plane was about half full or perhaps a bit more.     We flew over snow covered mountains (perhaps the Austrian Alps) before descending over tree covered hills that surrounded Ljubljana.   It was very green.   A nice introduction to Slovenia.   It was a forty minute transfer to the city on a bus that just happened to be ready to leave as we arrived at the bus stop.   It was a ten-minute walk to our Airbnb.   We were too early to drop our bags at the accommodation so we parked ourselves at the hotel over the road and had a coffee.     Our accommodation was in the...

  A Koblenz castle as seen through our hotel window   Our hotel was just across the road from the train station.   We had a leisurely start to the day as our train was leaving around midday.   After packing we checked out and wandered down to a nearby café for a place to wait and have a coffee.   It was a very cute place done out in pink with the tables covered in tablecloths.     The train left on time and in contrast to our trip to Trier there were plenty of seats available.   A good thing too because we had not seen where to put our luggage when we got on the train.     We stayed in a hotel near Frankfurt Airport as we were leaving to fly to Ljubljana early the next morning.     Here are a few thoughts about the ride in retrospect.   The bikes we had rolled well enough, but the bike seats were seriously uncomfortable.   None of us were impressed with them.   We were lucky with the we...

Deutsches Eck - we're there.    We left Treis Karden and continued along the left bank.   This involved about 15 kilometres on a cycle path adjacent to the road.     A few kilometres out of Treis Karden there is the “romantic” Eltz castle.   We chose not to go there as it involved going off the path for a couple of kilometres then a 45 minute walk.   Seeing yet another castle was not so high on our bucket list so we bypassed it.     The next place of note was Koburn-Gondorf which is the central cultural and historical town of the Lower Mosel.   It has five castles and two medieval chapels.   Trish called into the town and did a self-guided walking tour around it. This castle greeted us as we came to Koburn-Gondorf   We knew she was going to be there and coincidentally as we were looking for somewhere to have a bite to eat and a coffee, she was walking across the road.     jGraham bellowed at...

  Beilstein   It was our penultimate day on the cycle path.   After leaving Ediger-Eller we continued along the left bank before crossing over the river to ride on the right bank.   A few kilometres on from Ediger-Eller we encountered a swan nesting.   The locals had even put a screen around part of her nest.   Her mate was keeping an eye on her to make sure nothing untoward happened.   Then after a while the male swan decided he had had enough of us and in particular me.   Next thing I knew he was lunging at me.   I made a quick retreat but without my bike.   The swan was between me and the bike.   Graham manoeuvred his way behind a tree on which rested my bike and was able to retrieve it without the swan attacking him.   In the meantime, the swan kept a malevolent eye on us.   The swans One of the recommendations in our notes was to visit Café Klapperburg in Beilstein.   Apparently, it was ren...