Have cycled from Vienna, through Slovakia (Bratislava), Hungary (Budapest) and arrived in Romania yesterday. Today is a rest and tomorrow Peter will be flying in from England to join us.

Left 'civilized' Europe after Vienna, Eastern Europe is great, more calm & relaxed, people here friendly and down to earth, a great place for both locals and tourists. really enjoyed Bratislava, capital city of Slovakia, easy sit down for a drink on relaxed walking streets of the old town - service with a smile - fine buildings and all good feng-shui kinda feel to the place.

Budapest - beautiful city spread on each side of the wide Danube river - lots of old buildings majestically on hills, palaces, cathedrals, statues - fine river view - left Danube and now using normal roads. Haven't knocked over a motorist yet, they quite careful, so good. Great cycling heading through Hungary & it's hot and sunshine most of the time. I went to check out a naturalist camp-site (spent ages riding along a remote trail) thinking it might be a nature reserve or something. Yes, to my surprise, everyone was naked as I entered the camp-site gates. I was about to ride my bike around the whole place, looking for a suitable pitch to plant my tent poles, when the nice reception girl came, asking if I was a keen on naturalism. Of course, i tried not to look at the reception girls breasts as we chatted innocently for ages. Yes, of course there's a bar, all you have to do is take all your clothes off and ask for a beer. now, this would have been a real giggle, a dare, something to remember the trip by, not something pervy (they were nice breasts). Alas, Keith couldn't be convinced (who waited outside). We had extra km's to do, bit of a shame, but i enjoyed my visit. would have liked to played the ladies volleyball team.

Romania - arrived yesterday, now in Timisoara - where the rebellion against "chew-ches-cow" began - fountains, parks, old town squares with faded white/yellow/green washed facades, looks great. nice and hot now, this place feels like SE Asia so far - long roads through agricultural areas, spacious towns spread out every 10km, good water, food stops and countryside restaurants. very friendly here - roads are better quality than English roads (so far), no pot holes, good motorists.

Another rest day tomorrow - cycling out to meet peter at airport - and its 4 good cycling to Brassov, a popular Romanian mountain resort with count Dracula's castle - parents will be there with some good Romanian friends at a hunting lodge in the hills - should be good fun, local hospitality and all. take care you all:)

Started cycling the Danube from the spring in Germany - was a little twinkle & nows its enormous -dams and huge river locks (for big boats) every 50km or so - bridges becoming rare, river very wide.

In Vienna now - very good for classical music and fashion shopping, so i joined the "save the indigenous peoples of South America" protest march on a fine walking tour through the baroque streets of Vienna.

The music was outstanding, a Brazilian drumming band, loud and atmospheric, with everyone samba'in to the rhythm as we squeezed through the narrow cobbled streets. police lined the route and there was a helicopter above. Was fabulous, and many people will be disgusted at this :- was much better than all the classical music being hawked around here. Too many tourists here, bad service, not a friendly city. A rebellious street procession, just the right antidote - ooo, and had a good run in with a waiter too - Keith chased him back into the shop and gave him a mouthful - I just walked away - fabulous - Ok, I'm sure Vienna is very nice, will come back with my designer suit and $400 sun glasses & poodle. The parks in and around the city are outstanding, open and spacious, big wide sweeping paths, people out sun-bathing, frisbees, etc....

Also, there seems to be lots of people doing inline skating - which really looks like fun - you can do it for miles - the paths are so wide and incredibly smooth - some of them are pretty fast, have over taken loads of them all over the place.

An odd thing: there's a craze for "power" walking in Germany and Austria but with a subtle twist. They're using ski-poles! planting them at each step whist actually walking on level tarmac (in summer). There's quite a few, sometimes 4 abreast, and it looks just very stupid. the ski-pole manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank.

Cycling besides the Danube through Austria has been fabulous. The 1st day here, we came upon a weekend festival spread over 50km of Danube downstream. Lots of taverns, sausages, beer and oom-pah-pah bands - so thats we found our next camp-site - and hangover next morning. hardest thing is getting out of the tent for a wee in the middle of the night - can be cold outside and its hard extracting yourself from a small cosy tent, sandals en all - am tending to hold on till the morning - thought you'd like to know about that.

Some fabulous scenery - castles on hills - mountains - vineyards on route - bought a bottle of white wine one vineyard for 2 euros (and cheese and bread from petrol station for 8 euros) - polished off between the 2 of us (Keith and I) on a bench looking at the, yes you guessed it, the Danube. Big boats plying the river now, barges and floating restaurants, gigantic river locks too. some forest trails, loads of 'levees', forest trails with the odd deer and hare (or rabbit) scampering away. loads of swans & ducks along the river banks too.

Camp sites easy to find - enjoying the camping and cooking our own food - have just used the last gas cylinder - found them at the last stop in Germany, but cant find them anywhere here in Vienna! Remember, its only fashion shops, theatre tickets and coffee shops here - so now we're going to use Keith's superb petrol burner - sounds like a jet, works only at full blast, boils water in a minute - so no more gentle simmer and delicate cooking, textures and tastes. no more lemon marangue pies by the tent.

My indestructible "carbon fibre" tent pole snapped a couple of days ago - taped some spare spokes around and tent held up for the night- situation saved, visited a scrap-yard (one always turns up when you need it) and cut a broom handle down to size. Capped tooth fell out - again - easy to find a dentist - who charged me nothing to glue it back in - thanks - just say you cant afford the plane to Istanbul.

So, its been a "relaxing" couple of rest days at the campsite by the motorway, but well its near the Vienna central - wouldn't do it any other way. should be Slovakia (Bratislava) tomorrow evening - looking forward to some good riding and a little more chaos downstream - Istanbul here we come.

It's all very nice going though Europe - noticing the changes as we go further East. Have toured the far-east a lot - am missing the attention that one gets when you're of the beaten trail in some far flung far eastern place. Especially the women, they like my big western nose out there - but here, I'm just normal - pah!

Its been great so far - comradeship of being with all my cycling friends - me and Keith now, will meet Peter in Romania. England, France, Germany & Austria done - coming up: Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria & Turkey.

18 days into a bike ride from doorstep (London) to Istanbul (Turkey). Hot and sunny here in Germany today ve are having ze rest day - walked around Dillingen today, Bavaria charm, ... tent planted by the river, plus a marvelous washing line of 2 weeks dirty laundry. Looks good from the other river bank.

1600km so far, all cylinders firing. Tough to get fit at first, carrying 4 bags on a bike takes getting used to, but don't notice it now. Good to set up camp and cook our own meals. Naturally, we have cheated and used the occasional hotel. Have used gas cooker to make dinner on bedroom window sill, so hotels need not be that expensive.

England & France done, now following Danube river downstream to Budapest, going though Austria and Hungary. then its Slovakia, Romania and finally turkey.

To re-cap on last 2 weeks:-

Had a marvelous send-off at my house with cycling friends and parents - Keith, Gavin, Maree, Ray, Rhona and Rod - lots of nosh, easter egg hunt (well done Maree), a little beer.

Beautiful weather in France and enjoyed all things French. Saw the northern part of France where the WW1 graves are. Verdun was great, then over the Vosges hills to the "Route du Vin" where we had a few gustations (free wine tasting). This a fabulous part of France with beautiful villages. Champagne was very cheap, so naturally we used it like water.

Gavin have to leave early, but expect he'll be back here to complete the journey.

The Danube bike path is excellent and all cycling is virtually traffic free. camping most of the time now. pitched our tents next to a "mayfest" one night with German beer hall music oom-pah-pah, followed by an excellent rock band. Keith is now really into rock. we were the guests of honour with a presentation of gifts, free entry, and food and beer vouchers!!!

Another day stopped at a 'biergarten' where there were dozens of cyclists. the weather has been a mixed bag with deep snow on one mountain road, a heavy frost with frozen bikes, but plenty of sun, tailwinds and not too much rain. glad to have a warm comfortable sleeping bag and lightweight tent.

The Danube is at a very high level and we have ridden through some flooding. So we are riding into the unknown as we are not sure how the flooding is going to affect us lower down. We are missing Gavin, Maree, Ray and Rhona, Rod but are looking forward to Peter's arrival.

Off to buy some more soap now - and cigarettes - catch you later.