Sep 2008

The morning was spent having our last breakfast with Susanne and Sabine before we caught the train into Vienna again, arriving around lunchtime. We checked in at our hostel in Vienna, as we wanted to spend a few days taking day trips, and hoping Vienna could redeem itself after the first day. After grabbing a quick lunch, we made our way to the bus stop to travel to Bratislava in Slovakia for an evening (as the bus only takes an hour). The next bus didn’t leave until 4.30pm, so we had a few hours to kill, and grabbed a coffee at a local café before lazing in the park until it was time to leave.

We arrived in Bratislava an hour later past the grey communist housing blocks and the castle set on the hill – such a contrast. It was time for yet another new language and a new currency. Walking up to the castle, one of Bratislava’s main attractions, we eventually found it closed for renovations… we could only walk the perimeter, but still got a great view from the top. The strange ‘UFO’ tower bridge hovers above the river, an odd architectural inclusion to the city. In the shadow of the castle lies the old town, which is a beautiful area, where we sat down to have drinks at a bar on the side of the street (everything was incredibly cheap here). We then found a place for dinner, which was a cave-like interior with a vaulted ceiling, where the noises of someone on the other side of the room circulate around you. It was a very cosy place, and perfect for our one night out here before catching a bus back to Vienna.

We shared a bottle of local white wine recommended by the waiter, which was absolutely delicious (and we should have written the name of it down…), and shared entrees of smoked trout, picked camembert and stuffed chillies – all fantastic. Our mains were all very tasty as well – the highlight was Andrew’s venison stew, which was impeccably cooked in a mouth-watering sauce. Slovakia is also a place where being a vegetarian is incredibly difficult. We had heard that adding bacon bits to a salad isn’t considered meat as it’s on a salad… hmmm…

Very full and satisfied, we strolled to the main street for one last drink before catching our 11pm bus back to Vienna. After waiting for a while, asking the ticket lady whether the bus was still coming (she said it was, but later packed up and went home, which had us a bit worried) and individually contemplating where to sleep should the bus not arrive, it eventually pulled in and we dozed along the way back to Vienna.

Okay, so we're very far behind. It doesn't help that after talking to the internet company in Amsterdam it may take four weeks to install. So bear with me while I try to "borrow" some internet for the next four weeks and catch up as much as I possibly can! So... back to the end of Ljubljana...

We left the hostel and bought some more tasty lunch supplies from the markets and made our way to the train station. Our compartment was shared with a guy from Ljubljana who had travelled quite a bit and was really into extreme sports. We had one change during the journey and ended up switching to first class (putting our good old Eurail passes to use), as the second part of the trip was very busy in second class, but first class was empty. I managed to sleep most of the way, despite the pash-happy French couple at the end of our carriage making slurping noises and sucking each other’s faces off. Josh got a bit fed up with it, and asked them to kiss a little quieter, which embarrassed them so much they gave it up.

An old colleague of mine from Wellington - Susanne, who worked for us on an exchange to New Zealand and lived an hour out of Vienna in an area called Traisen, had very kindly offered to have us for a few nights, and she and her sister Sabine picked us up from the train station, and we decided to go the famous open-air markets for a drink. The markets were near closing, and we decided to cook them dinner, and ended up rushing around the markets before they closed trying to put together the pieces for a great vegetarian meal for them. We ended up with a bucket load of olives - and I mean bucket load, as the woman at the market counter went a bit crazy serving them up. Josh and Andrew tried some stuff with incredibly spicy chillies, which had them in tears (and we ended up taking out the chilli to eat the rest and it was still very hot). We found some fresh haloumi, couscous and veges, and drove back to Susanne’s place into the country in the pouring rain. We met their gorgeous new kitten and cat, who provided quite a bit of entertainment for us all.

The dinner turned out to be a bit of a disaster, as the veges took forever on the bbq, and the haloumi turned out to be some strange variety that doesn’t hold it’s shape and melted everywhere (which was such a pity as it was really tasty!). It was safe to say it wasn’t our best work at all. At least the olives were tasty. Susanne’s mother’s partner had a keg in the basement of local beer from the local restaurant, so Josh and Andrew got to try some of that while Sabine made us a delicious traditional Austrian dessert, which is like a fluffy, eggy pancake with fruit on the side. It was very tasty, and put our dinner to shame. It was great to be in a real house again, and it was one of the best sleeps we’d had on the trip so far that night, reviving us for our adventure through Vienna.

We had a lovely slow start to the next day began with delicious fresh breads for breakfast while it poured with rain outside. Deciding to go and see some of Vienna for the day, and then meet Susanne and Sabine there for dinner and a few drinks that night, we were driven to the train station about 20 minutes from their house by Susanne. Boarding a very crowded train that had come from Salzburg, there wasn’t a seat in sight, but we found places to lean for the 40-minute trip.

Emerging from the train station, the sun had arrived in Vienna just as we had. Our first stop was a traditional Viennese coffee house, which was apparently an essential part of a trip to Vienna, but we were warned about the possibility of bad service. Entering the dated original interior, with billiard tables in the corner and a host at the door (who doesn’t seem to do much but sit a bit higher than everyone else), we thought that the place might have been charming had we not been completely ignored. It was such a hot and humid place, bustling with rude, surly waitresses. We finally had three coffees dumped on our table, which were ridiculously expensive for coffee, and left with a slightly bitter taste in our mouths.

We decided to start to walk the ring road that surrounds the centre of Vienna, and first arrived at the cathedral and through the gardens (which lie next to an extremely dirty river with very low water levels and rubbish floating down it). We also wanted to spend some of the first day visiting the Kunsthauswien, which is home to the Hundertwasser collection. We should have taken a tram there, as the walk along the river to the museum turned out to be a decidedly bland route down a dirty river. A quick stop for some iceblocks in the courtyard, then into the museum with limited time, as there was only an hour left before it closed. With an option for two exhibitions, but only enough time to see one, Andy and I visited the permanent collection of Hundertwasser’s work, while Josh chose Jean Tinguely’s machine works.

The collection was very cool, especially his graphic print work, and I hadn’t realised he had such a connection with New Zealand and had visited many times, eventually proposing a redesign of the New Zealand flag in the 1980s. The building itself is also a work of art; its curves and mosaics echoing the nature of his work. Josh will have to fill you in on the exhibition he visited, although after the last time he took so long to do an entry I think it's best we continue so we don't get even more far behind...We were basically kicked out of the building as it closed, and made our way by metro to the city centre. Arriving at Stephensplatz as evening set in, we were hit with hoards of tourists crowding around street performers, the church, and there were far too many people for our liking. Susanne and Sabine were on their way to meet us for dinner, and we tried to find a place for a drink in the hour we had to meet them. It was a bit of a case of fruitless searching, as we were in the completely wrong area for bars, and the ones that were around were horrible themed places. We weren’t getting a great impression of Vienna so far, although we knew we weren’t in the right places. We finally found a tiny local pub that was the best of the lot of them, and had a drink served by the owner who, judging by the photos he had on the wall, had been there for many, many years. As Susanne and Sabine were vegetarians, their meal choices are very limited in meat-filled Austria. We ended up finding an Indian place that smelt pretty good, and settled there for dinner. It was quite a tasty meal, and we left extremely full afterwards. From there the girls showed us Museumsquartier, which is a huge square surrounded by museums, that sets up open-air bars in the summer. The entire square is filled with stylised blocks moulded as seating. We had a drink there before catching a tram to a different area, where rows of bars run under the trains but are still above ground. We had a few drinks there, and listened to their music set change from German hip hop, to rock, but called it quits when it ended up at emo… There was still an hour to drive ahead of us, and we made it back to Traisen at around 3am.

The next morning we were initially intending to take a day trip to Krems – a small university town that Susanne studies in, but we were drawn outside by the sun and drove to the nearby hills with Susanne, Sabine, and their mother. In winter you can ski down the slopes, but in summer the chairlift still operates to transport hikers up to the top. A 20-minute journey on single chairs to the top, surrounded by nothing but forest was a far cry from the tourist-riddled streets of Vienna. After Josh got a turn on the playground, we walked through some wide open fields that must be great for boarding down in winter, and ended up at the mountain café. Taking a seat outside, we had to hide under the umbrellas to shield ourselves from the sun, and took a look at the menu – or rather, had it translated to us.

Austrian food can be quite heavy, and hard to eat on such a hot, sunny day, but we sampled some local dishes. A huge roast meal for Josh (which he managed to get through somehow!), and two equally filling meals of dumplings with mushrooms for me and Andy, which filled me after a few bites, and left the table looking basically identical to when it arrived. It must be great food after a long day on the mountain though – in winter. We then trekked through the steep hills, down past small waterfalls, fallen bridges, and by the end we were exhausted, and a bit muddy. We stopped at a local icrecream shop for some scoops, and ate them in Susanne and Sabine’s old school courtyard before heading back to the house. After all that walking and such a big lunch it was a lazy evening, with a small bbq dinner (with proper haloumi this time!), a bit more trip planning, and then off to bed.

We had planned to do a one-night trip to a small village of Bled, which we’d heard was an idyllic village with an unbelievably clear lake that was home to a small church on an island in the middle. We’d read that the place looks as if it was made for tourists, as every picture you take looks postcard-perfect, but it’s not overrun by tourists as many other similar spots are. About an hour and a half from Ljubljana, we decided to leave around lunchtime and spend a night there. Picking up some lunch supplies from the local market, we headed towards the bus station, and entered the ‘ticket office’ building and bought some tickets for the next trip to Bled. Waiting by the buses, we tried to board with our tickets once the driver arrived, and were told we had been sold train tickets instead for a train that was leaving about, ah… now. Running to the platforms (again! We were getting used to this…) we saw the train pull out from the station (again…). With three minutes to spare before the bus was about to leave, the ticket seller kindly gave us our money back, with an air of disapproval, and we made it to the bus on time.

An American guy, Brian, on the bus had overheard our mix-up, and started chatting to us along the way. He was currently living in Sheffield in the UK, and had broken up with his girlfriend at the airport just before they were supposed to travel together, so was doing most of the trip by himself, and going to quite a few places we were going to. He was only in Bled for an afternoon, and we invited him to join us for a few drinks on the lake, as we thought we’d hire a rowboat and head out to the island. After dropping our gear off at our hostel (which was quite lovely, with its own bathrooms, towels, and even a tv…not that we were going to be watching it), we headed towards the lake, a short walk away. Bled really is one of those ‘almost too good to be true’ sights. The entire area is immaculately groomed, the water so crystal clear that you can see the fish swimming underneath clusters of waterlillies. It was also one of the first places we’d been on the trip that was so peaceful and quiet that you could hear the birds singing in the trees.

The sun was still very hot, and we hired a rowboat to travel over the lake, looking forward to diving in for a swim by the island. We docked our boat, and walked the short track around the island and up to the church, which isn’t a spectacular sight inside, but legend has it that you ring the church bell three times for good luck, so we all had a go. After icecreams and coffees in the sun, we jumped off the dock into the crisp blue water, and floated and relaxed until we thought it was time to take the boat back and have some dinner.

We took some seats at a restaurant over the water, with a great view of the lake and island. A castle also hangs off one of the cliffs high above the water, at is another incredible sight (and postcard-worthy view). It was a tasty meal, lots of seafood on the menu, but I’m not sure Josh got the best dish. More often than not with our meal choices, there’s been a winner and a loser… the titles got shared around throughout the trip. The other thing we all lost out at was the awful cabaret entertainment, which was in essence a one-woman show of covers to a backing tape (although she did mix it up with her saxophone and keyboard from time to time). Brian escaped to go to the bus stop, and we lasted long enough to try the local dessert, similar to a custard square, before leaving saxophone lady to belt out her wedding tunes into the night.
From there we decided to try out a local bar ‘Devil’, which was decorated with organs on the wall, a mural of nymphs fornicating with ladies above the bar, and a heavily tattooed waiter… and also ABBA playing throughout the bar??? Not quite sure that Bled has their music scene sorted out. There was no one really there, but we had a quiet drink before heading back to the hostel.

The next morning, another stunning day was ahead of us, and after breakfast at the hostel surrounded by a lot of families and so many screaming children, we left for the peace of the forest to walk the hill up to the castle. We decided to forego paying the entrance fee, as we found a secret wee path off to the side of the castle, and climbed some rocks for a fantastic view over the lake and island. The perfect town for cycling around, we hired some bikes and took off towards another lookout. Josh had bad feet at the time, and couldn’t wear shoes, so we were both in jandals, but we didn’t quite realise what a climb was ahead of us to the lookout. A steep and rocky hillside awaited us, and we accidentally took the wrong path, and ended up climbing 100m higher than we intended to. I’m usually one to do anything in jandals, but this was a big mistake. Hours later, with strained raw feet and starving bellies, we managed to find a few great lookouts, and took a different route back, that included one of the steepest staircases I’ve ever seen.

Finally at the bottom, we biked to a supermarket for some picnic supplies, which we devoured by the lake before continuing our journey further around the waters edge. Nearing our bus departure time, Josh and Andy squeezed in another quick dip while I lay in the shade and relaxed, and then we dropped our bikes back and made our way to the bus. It was a very full bus trip, and thankfully we managed to get some seats. A huge group of Irish teens had overtaken most of the bus, had spent too long in Bled, and were going to miss their train that night. Incredibly loud and annoying, most of the trip was spent listening to them trying to make plans, and I was glad I wasn’t travelling in such a large group – it’s hard enough to make decisions with only three of you. Dozing off, we awoke to a loud bang, as the driver hit some road signs or something similar, and he must have damaged the bus, as soon after he pulled over and we all had to quickly change to another bus, delaying the late Irish group even more…

From the bus station we made our way back to the hostel to drop off our gear, and then decided to explore the side of the river we hadn’t seen much of, which ended up being full of great little restaurants and cafés down small alleyways. We witnessed a fire truck approaching us at full speed as a building caught fire and black smoke filled the alley, but settled at a café for dinner once the smoke had cleared. After dinner we managed to squeeze in some dessert at a cake store, and then wandered back home via the riverside streets filled with buskers and artists (and a guy selling incredibly cool bikes). Next stop Vienna…

Our first early morning train of the trip meant an early start to get ready and out of the door to the train station. Here began our comedy of errors, as the tram arrived at our stop, but wasn’t the tram number we had taken before. We didn’t have enough time to check if it went to the station before it left, and couldn’t risk it taking us to the wrong place, so it left without us. We hadn’t realised that it was a different number running during the weekdays than it was in the weekend… As we sat down to wait for the next tram with our train tickets to Ljubljana to see what platform to go to when we arrived, we realised the departure time was 7.26am, 20 minutes before we thought we were leaving… Now it was panic time, as we had about ten minutes to get there, and the next tram was still five minutes away. Surely we couldn’t make it in time… We arrived at the station stop and made a run for it, sprinting with our huge heavy backpacks through the building to the platforms. Awaiting us was an empty platform… five minutes too late!

After a long time in an information queue, Josh failed to slip through by pulling the sick card, and we were forced to buy a replacement ticket. Thankfully it was only one ticket since Josh and I were travelling on the Eurail passes, but it did mean we had a few hours to fill before the next train. We then got lost on the wrong tram into town (the same number we had missed from our stop that made us miss our train, this tram number had it in for us!!!), but finally made it to a café for coffees and food. Determined to order in German, we didn’t do too badly at all. After walking some shops, and visiting the huge double-towered cathedral, it was time to head back towards the station, making sure we were very early this time.
We found some seats in a compartment which we ended up sharing with a funny Spanish couple with little English who chatted to us mainly through hand gestures, about their disgust at German food and their love for their home city of Seville in Spain which we had to visit ahead of Madrid and Barcelona apparently (which they also disliked immensely). Another girl was also sitting with us, who was from the north of Germany but studying in Munich (and shared the Spaniards dislike for German food).

It was evening by the time we arrived in Slovenia, and we left the train for the sticky intense heat of Ljubljana, heightened by the fact we were carrying all of our gear with us. Another language to try and learn the basics of, we were fooled by some of the pronunciations in the Lonely Planet but thankfully corrected by a guy at the information desk at the station. A lot of people spoke English, but we were determined to try some Slovenian. We walked towards our hostel through concrete streets where many building exteriors had fallen into disrepair. It was not too far from the train station, and was actually a school hostel that was a traveller hostel during the summer months.

We dropped our bags, then left the room to explore the city, and started with a meal at a restaurant serving traditional Slovenian cuisine recommended by the hostel. As they’re so close to Italy, Austria and Slovakia, their traditional food includes seafood, game meats, stews, pizzas, pastas… a varied range of things from many places. We had initially thought it would be interesting to go to a foreign restaurant, avoid the English menu, and point to a meal and order it without knowing what it was, but luckily we didn’t at this restaurant, as the Bull’s Testicles on the menu did not take anyone’s fancy. Josh and Andrew instead chose stag steaks, which they really enjoyed, and I had a whole trout baked in foil with vegetables, that I couldn’t finish. The wine was incredibly cheap – less than a euro a glass at some places, and actually pretty good.

After we’d finished our meals, we walked through the old town, which is centred around the river that you can row down, many bridges connecting both sides, lovely old architecture and a growing café culture. We stopped at a studenty, artsy café/bar, described in our guide book as somewhere that you never get served at, where everyone is ultra-cool and snobby in an artsy kind of way, but we didn’t find that on this particular night (or maybe we are just so ultra-cool we didn’t notice), and ordered some Mojitos to sip away at outside, under a veil of mismatched umbrellas. A few drinks later, and we set off in search of the highly recommended Jazz Club Gajo, where there was an open-jam night on that night. It was a few blocks away from the main square, and we weren’t entirely sure we were heading in the right direction, but were soon led by the distant sounds of saxaphones, piano and drums, which guided us straight to the garden bar of the club. The exterior stage was alive with young musicians mixing together jam after jam while small tables crowded with people tapped their feet to the music – drink in one hand, smoke or cigar in the other. By some stroke of luck, we found an empty table and sat down for a drink. I got my first taste of what seems to be an Eastern European oddity – chilled red wine. I warmed the glass in my hands until it was relatively normal, and sipped away. It was a fantastic night, and the place had such a buzzing, electric atmosphere. We stayed until the musicians packed up, before walking back to the hostel along the river.

The next day we started with a great cheap breakfast at the hostel, with everything we needed for a great start to the day (expect perhaps some very good coffee…). A short walk into the old town, and we headed up to one of the areas biggest attractions – the castle on the hill, which is now mainly an exhibition space. It was a short but steep walk to the top on a pretty dry and hot day. We had read that the castle is a bit of a mishmash of different styles, which it indeed was – a puzzle of bricks. Apparently it has been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times due to earthquakes, different political leaders and so on, and it definitely shows.

Not entirely sure what sort of exhibitions we were going to see, we entered a room with some bizarrely bland, and quite honestly bad, paintings. We weren’t quite aware of the context of the works, but were left a bit confused. The main reason for going to the castle is to see the view over the city from the top of the castle tower, so we climbed the steep spiral staircase and took in the view over Ljubljana, extending far beyond the limits of the old town. Back down again, we were really hungry by this point, and Josh and Andrew decided they just had to try the local delicacy – horse. There’s a few burger joints called ‘Red Hot Horse’ serving up huge burgers, which the boys described as gamey (if a little chewy), but pretty tasty overall. Not sure they could have one every day of course… I refrained altogether.

We were joined by another traveller from Manchester, united by the fact we were carrying the same guide book and had ended up at the same restaurant described in it. He gave us some tips about where he’d been and what he’d enjoyed, and said he hadn’t really enjoyed Krakow in Poland at all, as it seemed like a bit of a farce designed for tourists, and wouldn’t give you any experience of what real Poland was like. It had been on our list of future destinations, and we decided to read up a bit before choosing whether to go or not. Josh left Andy and I in town to go back to the hostel and rest his feet, so we relaxed with another coffee before attempting a museum, but it was about to close. Instead we took a look inside St. Nicholas Church, through the entrance of intricately moulded brass doors that become sculptural works of art. It was a stunning interior, shimmering with gold from ceiling to floor. We happened to get caught in a private prayer ceremony halfway through our visit, and as we couldn’t understand a work of Slovenian prayer, we left the locals to it and walked back to the hostel.

Intrigued by a recommended Bosnian restaurant, we set out to the opposite end of the river for dinner, but sadly discovered it was closed (when we finally found it). It was getting late by this stage, and a lot of restaurants close around 10pm in the area, so we found a pasta place (Slovenia is supposed to have great Italian food as it’s on the border), and took a seat outside to eat. A bit of antipasto to start (again accompanied with a chilled red wine???), and the food was initially good, but the mains we weren’t all as lucky with. My seafood risotto was quite tasty, but Josh and Andrew’s ravioli meals were pretty awful. Dry, bland, and Andy’s was a strange, almost Asian flavoured, concoction. It was quite funny despite, or perhaps because of, the taste. I tried to order a glass of rose instead of more chilled red, as apparently the area is known for them, and the waiter smiled and nodded, then brought over yet another chilled bloody red. I really did not understand. I guess the upside is they’re insanely cheap. During our meal the rain had begun to pour, and luckily this time we were more prepared than our biking experience in Salzburg, so we zipped up our jackets, got out the umbrellas, and walked back to the hostel.

Awaking from the very wet night before to another grey day, we had brekkie at the hostel (why do they put chocolate chips in the fruit muesli over here??), before returning our bikes and getting saturated along the way... We then had to decide what to do before our 1pm train, and as the rain began to pour even heavier, we decided Salzburg wasn't the most exciting place to be in this weather. Josh had a brainwave to try and change our train to an earlier one so we could spend more time in Munich, so we boarded an 11am train, which also meant we had an extra two hours with Patrick - Josh's family friend who was kindly offering up his place for us there. And to make things even better, we arrived to sun in Munich...

Patrick met us at the train station, and we caught a tram with him to his place to drop off our things, (he had decided to stay at his girlfriend's in a nearby city rather than try and share his one-room flat with three others) but we did have a few hours to spend with him around the city before he had to leave. Tramming back into the centre, we were hit with hoards of tourists; crowds we hadn't seen since Paris. In search of food, we went to the food markets, and had to squeeze ourselves onto a table with about ten others to eat. The rough Bavarian German server at the food stand threw ketchup at the boys for taking too long to order (it was thankfully packaged), and then we sat down to try some Munich specialities - weiss wurst, more sauerkraut, Bavarian potato salad (yep, just my kind of food, but Josh and Andy were loving it!), and some meatloaf thing that you have in a roll. We did learn you could take your own food to the beergardens though which is pretty good. This is also where we coined the term 'wursty' rather than thirsty... when you just really need some wurst....

Wandering through the city, we passed through some of the massive beerhalls than span different levels and huge rooms that open out onto gardens, filled with people eating and drinking. So much beer, so much space, so many people. Past the Opera House and through some gardens, we walked towards the University Biergarten. Here we tried the German version of a shandy which they call the Radler, but I was still failing a bit with the whole beer thing (which I'm totally fine with!). It was then back to Patrick's so he could pack and say goodbye. We had a meal at home, cooked by Andy (yay for veges!) after I'd managed a quick nap. We were all quite tired, but dragged ourselves into Munich since it was a Saturday night, and headed towards a beerhall.

What an incredible sight to behold, as butch muscular beer ladies dressed in traditional attire lug trays of about 12 litres of beer, and then there's the weight of the glasses.... Some of them look as if they've been doing it their whole lives, and possibly have been, but one woman in particular had arms as big as tree trunks. I was feeling like more beer wouldn't go down with me so well, so left Andy and Josh to it while I sipped on a red wine instead. A huge 0.25L glass of it, you really needed to watch how much you were drinking. We left there after a few drinks, but most of the other beerhalls were closing by then, and we were dying, and Josh was nodding off while we waited for the tram to take us home.

The Sunday morning was spent trying to find a hostel for our next destination - Ljubljana in Slovenia. We finally caught a tram into the city around lunchtime, and strolled back past all the food markets (sadly closed on a Sunday), and then Josh and I climbed the church steeple for a view over Munich and particularly of the Rathaus (town hall), though we had seen more picturesque city views. Andrew stayed at the bottom as he'd done the climb before, and then we were off in search of a Biergarten for lunch. Apparently all that the local Munich people do on a Sunday is eat and drink beer, as everything else is pretty much closed. We ended up at the huge beerhall we'd passed through the day before and took a seat outside. Still not able to face beer, I stuck to an apple juice, which the Germans do very well, while the boys downed a litre of beer each with selections of more wurst, more sauerkraut, more potatoes... I was very much in need of salad by now, so thankfully most beer gardens include a great big salad on each menu which is also very tasty.

After the food we left the main centre for a swim in the Munich river, grabbing some icecream cones along the way. Bathers lined the sides of the river, which was made up of large stones (not so good on the feet). The river was quite fast-moving in parts, and we tried to cross through the current with all of our gear, making it to the middle before seeing a guy fall into the rapids on the other side, so we left our things in the middle and floated down instead. Freezing cold, and quite shallow, we lasted a few rides down the rapids, then attempted our crossing back. It was touch and go, but we made it in the end with all of our gear still dry. Just. After a competitive stone-skimming competition, where Andy took an eight-skim record, we lay down in the evening sun to dry off and ended up all dozing off...

We woke up dry, and took the underground to the English Gardens. A huge expansive garden filled sparsely with groups of people - the nude side of the river had a couple of nudist men playing a fast-paced game of squash... which we didn't stay around to watch. A group had congregated around some drummers, dancing and clapping along to the impromptu beats that echoed through the park. Making our way to the Chinese Pavillion in the centre, we sat down at a table in the huge Biergarten, filled with people eating and drinking. A horn band played from the pavillion above us, and we sat down to some beers (half a litre was the smallest served of course...), managed to order some plates of food to share from the huge stalls - so much meat it's scary! It started to get a bit dark, and we had one more Biergarten to see by the lake further down the gardens, so it was one more beer there before we made our way home - full and tired.