The End of My EPW

The week went quickly. As I wasn't up to walking the 24 day trek to Italy, I decided to still go and get a taste of the EPW by riding a mountain bike as best I could along its way. There were a few sections where this was possible, and it was fun to ride alongside my fellow Walkers, chatting and getting to know them better.

But the organizer had done his best to make this an off-pavement walk and so I was left to try to mirror the route as best I could by finding roads that paralled the Way.

I actually rode through this for about 500m on the marked Walk until I saw a road and stuck to gravel & asphalt the rest of the day even though it took me into the wilds of Austria (no maps app yet) and added about 18km

I also tried to ride longer each day, partly for exercise and partly in commiseration for my poor companions who were struggling with the distances in the tremendous heat we experienced.

Twice I rode on ahead to the end of the next day's stage to deliver a forgotten object left behind by another Peacewalker, and another to sightsee a nearby town rumored to be a "don't miss" sight. 

Hungary has turned out to be a remarkable country. The first week's pancake flat terrain of cornfields and vineyards was slowly giving way to gentle hills and leafy forests. The Walk took us to some extremely minor villages with just a restaurant or two and a few homes, to one-street towns, and then small cities.

Ha! Bad example of local homes but I did go by the Esterházy palace in Fertod 

Everything seemed so much more prosperous than expected - perhaps because we were so close to the Austrian border there was a financial benefit to the locals? (I wouldn't blame the Austrians for shopping in Hungary, everything was so cheap! ie  €1 for a cappuccino vs. €2.60 in Austria). Anyway, the houses were large and modern and well-kept, the cars were mostly new & shiny, and the people unfailing polite and friendly, if perhaps a little confused as to what we were doing.

Our group with our 2 young college-aged hosts in Sopronkövesd as well as Lizzie and her mom from the night before.

The mayor of Sopronkövesd comes to meet each and every group of Peacewalkers!

But riding wasn't walking, and I was alone for most of the day, so a week was enough, and I'll go back another year and try it again. It was sad to say goodbye to my new friends but I'll follow their journey on Facebook and I wish them cool temps, shady roads, short distances, and fantastic times!

EPW: Open Borders

In the week I spent on the European Peace Walk I traveled across 3 countries' borders: Austria to Slovakia, which was unremarkable as I was on a hydrofoil on the Danube and the only notice was a quick automated announcement on the PA system.

The next was Slovakia to Hungary. There was only a small sign high in the sky that announced the crossing, so I made the men in our group close the gate for a more dramatic picture!

From Day 3 on the Walk crisscrossed the border dozens of times, sometimes it was noted by the omnipresent Hungarian flag sign (we rarely saw Austrian signs), and more somberly by gates or watchtowers. It was these latter structures that really strikes one as true symbols of the freedom the Hungarians earned when the border opened - it was as recent as 1989!

All along the two countries the fence is gone, but the crossings remain...

Kind of a scary sight, deep in the woods. The red arrows are our waymarks 

Brücke von Andau - more than 70,000 fled into Austria here during the Hungarian Revolution 

A welcome sight for me that day as I was lost in Austria, trying to get into Hungary! I then made sure to download the Austrian maps to my app!

A dramatic crossing just outside Sopronkövesd, left as a reminder 

And finally, it turns out the EPW closely mirrors a marked bike path called the Iron Curtain Trail. I tried to find out more detail online about its exact route but could only find very general maps; yet the signage seemed to dog me at every turn, even when I went off on a couple of sightseeing forays! It was comforting to know I was somewhere, even if I didn't always know exactly where. The maps.me app ended up being a godsend. I'd just head off in the right direction and check my position on it periodically to find which roads or tracks I needed to take me where I was going.

First Half of EPW

So, obviously, I decided to bike the EPW. Afraid of the rutted farm tracks and forest paths that I'd be traversing I cancelled my road bike rental reservation in Vienna, took the hydrofoil to Bratislava with half of my walking group and rented a mountain bike there the next day. Unfortunately this means I have to return to Bratislava after my portion of the EPW instead of continuing directly to the Danube Bike Path but that's okay, the fat knobby tires are proving invaluable.

The first day out of Bratislava was a lovely dedicated paved bike path all the way to the Hungarian border. It was a bit more effort pushing this heavy bike than I'm used to but the easy riding and great views of the countryside and bits of the Danube made it pleasant. It was frightfully sunny but I made my own breeze and the Walkers had a bit of relief from the intense heat by the path wandering in and out of the trees. 

Passing into Hungary from Slovakia. Open borders these days

There's been a terrible heat wave this summer and there's no sign of it relenting soon. We've been getting up earlier and earlier so the Walkers can get more miles in while it's still cool. Luckily our accommodation hosts have been kind enough to provide breakfast at the ungodly hour of 5am so they're not walking on empty stomachs. Some days there's been a village or cafe halfway, some days there'll be nothing. Tomorrow for example, it's 26kms total, with no civilization for the first 20kms. And it's Sunday (shops closed), and today (Saturday) the shops close at noon. So there's definitely pre-planning required.

                                                           5am brekkie 

I've alternated between riding with each Walker in turn, sharing conversation, as well as going on ahead and getting in some miles. I like to ride with the group when the route is on passable farm tracks or gravel roads. If not, I hit the asphalt. I put in a double day Day 3 as a previous Walker had left his iPhone charger behind so I rode ahead an additional 15kms to deliver it to the group ahead and back again. I didn't have a map, and was unsure my bike could manage the signed EPW off-road route so I just set off from the village in the direction I thought was correct and managed to go straight to the right town! I've now downloaded an app for my phone so I can preload a "road" route but I don't have data so once I set off, I'm on my own. More advance planning needed!

A Walker in one of the first groups is using a tracking app. I've taken pictures of each day so I've some idea of the right direction but this isn't great on detail as I can't zoom in further. I'm investigating other apps.

Our accommodations for the past few nights have fine. Very basic but this not a touristed area so we're lucky with a roof over our heads. 

Even a cloth one! Two of our walkers slept in a yurt

I shared a nice room

Comfy mats on the floor

In Transit

I'm back in Europe, sitting with a cappuccino in my Fiumicino hotel, waiting till it's time to head back to the airport for my flight to Vienna. My intention was to do a new long-distance walk called the European Peace Walk: 6 countries in 600 kilometers. Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy.  

It starts in Vienna and ends 24 days later in Trieste. It began last year, the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I and the route is meant to celebrate the open borders now shared between all these countries. Being so new it was a challenge for the organizer to find accommodation at appropriate distances and so it's a semi-organized walk in that we sign up for a start date so that for at least the first, more crucial week, our hosts will know how many walkers to expect.

So that was the plan. Except that my previously injured left ankle decided last week that enough was enough and it just didn't want to walk anymore. I was training, preparing for the Peacewalk, and doing so well. I'd worked my way up to 10 miles, 4.5 days a week for the last 2 weeks. It was just that 3rd day in a row (the .5) that it started to protest, and this past Wednesday it put its foot down, literally. No more walking without pain/limping. So that's another big setback in my rehab and the end to my Peacewalk.

I emailed the organizer to say I couldn't do the Walk; and he replied, "Sorry to hear, but have you considered biking it?" Well, that's a great idea! Tickets and trains and hotels and hydrofoil were already booked, so why not? I still would like to do the whole Walk one day, so the current plan is to rent a bike for two weeks - spend a week on the Walk and another week on the Danube Bike Path, then another week bumming around Italy. To be continued....

Day 20: Last Day

My last full day in the Faroes, and last full day of holiday before the 2-day trip home starting tomorrow. Today was also cold and drizzly so I made a short day of touring, even though I drove out to the furthest town possible. Viðareiði is purported to be the prettiest village in the Faroes but I didn't necessarily agree. I took a few snaps through the windshield and turned around and went back home to read the afternoon away with a cup of hot tea - it's the coldest summer anyone here can remember...

Old house foundations from....? Vikings?

There's a 6.5 km subsea tunnel that links the islands of Eysturoy and Bordoy - local artist designed these funky lights. Is it weird that even 152 meters under the sea there's still radio reception? And that I freak out just a little when water drips on the car? :-)

The afternoon turned out to be more pleasant so I went for a long walk, I had no destination in mind but ended up passing the culture center, and walked into Torshavn via a lovely little park.

Called the Nordic House - it's part museum, cafe, concert hall, & exhibition space. Cool architecture.

Art and sculpture found in lots of places

That's it! Till the next adventure - the European Peace Walk, August 5th. 

Day 18: Faroes: Fjords, Fishing, and (water)Falls

My trip to the Faroes is all about viewing - just driving around and seeing all I can. I don't have any big adventures planned here, and based on the mercurial weather I've seen so far - cold, drizzly, with spots of sun, I think I'll be inside behind the wheel most of the time.

Fishing is the dominant industry- with freshly flushed fjords running between all the islands, fish farms proliferate 

Rain fed waterfalls are everywhere 

Turf-roofed buildings also proliferate - churches, homes, even doghouses!

The only octagonal church in the Faroes

Torshavn, the capital. Hundreds of homes but tiny tourist area

Whale jaw-bones, I assume