We cycled into Hungary on Sunday 19th August. Unbeknownst to us, the first king of Hungary was canonised on the 20th August 1083. We admired the quiet roads as we cycled along, then arrived at the spot where a ferry should be waiting to carry us across the river and realised it was a little too quiet. We nabbed a…
My first impression of Croatia was ‘wow, that’s a lot of bullet holes’. The Croatian war of independence was fought from 1990 – 1995 and the Croatian/Serbian border was a massive war zone. The scars from the war are still plainly visible in most Croatian border towns, we noticed it especially in Vukovar where there was heavy fighting and a…
The Eurovelo 6 route through Serbia starts at the Iron Gates. When I think of the Iron Gates I imagine the Black Gate in Lord of the Rings – a huge monstrosity across a narrow ravine. In Serbia it actually refers to the gorge that the Danube runs through. It has Serbia on one side and Romania on the other.…
Whilst resting at the Danube Delta I read about Eurovelo 6 through Romania and didn’t find it very exciting. Instead we decided to go into the Carpathian mountains and see Bran Castle. In doing so we crossed the mountain range and now have to find our way back to rejoin Eurovelo 6 at the Iron Gates… The route I decided…
When reading about Eurovelo 6 I found that the Romanian section of Eurovelo 6 is often described as “boring”, “arduous” or “repetitive”. So I investigated other options and decided that instead we would meander our way through the Carpathian mountains towards Bran Castle, home of Dracula! We considered catching a train or bus between Tulcea and Braila but the Danube…
The morning we left home was hectic. My brother has been away for 6 weeks and so we only had Saturday to pack up for a 10am departure on Sunday. Luckily you can rely on British trains to be running late and so we managed to catch it with plenty of time to spare. It was then a simple job…
Walking to the top of the world Vignemale and d’Ossoue Glacier The Vignemale Massif section of the walk was incredibly beautiful but also incredibly steep! We started in Cauterets, a tourist hotspot known for its spas and skiing. We joined the tourist crowd for an hour in the morning, whilst they looked at cheese shops and novelty stores, I was…
A slight detour due to misfortune After walking up the Aspe valley and over Col du Moine in my last post, we dropped down into the valley to shelter from thunderstorms. The tops of the mountains were quickly shrouded in cloud and so we thought it would be a good opportunity to buy some fresh food and relax. The following…
Up the Aspe Valley The holiday started with flying from Bristol to Toulouse on the 21st June. I arrived to find in typical French fashion that the train service up into the Pyrenees was on strike. The issue was quickly resolved by booking a lift on Blablacar. Blablacar is an app that let’s people advertise where they’re driving to and…
When people said ‘Tenerife’ or ‘Gran Canaria’ to me in the past, I’ve thought of towering hotel blocks packed to the brim with sunburned tourists who bake themselves on the beach all day. I’ve now come to the realisation that this is only a partly accurate image. Whilst the coastline of Gran Canaria is a heaving mass of holiday resorts,…