The last week of our 'European tour' was spent in northern Germany and southern Denmark. Our three days in and around Lubeck saw us cycling along the Baltic coast taking in the harbours, cliffs and beaches to the west of Travemunde. The beaches were full of brightly coloured 'Strandkorbe' - cane/wooden chairs with sides and a small roof - don't know why we don't have any to keep off the wind on the UK beaches. Unfortunately, you had to pay to go onto the beach (3...

We enjoyed Krakow so much that we spent a week in and around the city. It's been a Polish city for centuries and has a huge medieval square (apparently the largest in Europe) and impressive cloth hall. It was surrounded by cafes with lots of street entertainment and wonderful architecture from across the ages. A trumpeter still sounds the 'hejnal' (a short tune) on the hour from one of St Mary's basilica towers (with the last note cut short in memory of the trump...

We spent a week in the Tatra Mountains which straddle Poland and Slovakia. The weather has been all over the place ranging from full sun and 30+ degrees to snow, sleet and hailstones. Admittedly the latter weather was at 2,000m when we were on the Polish side of the Tatra. We did get some views of the peaks and valleys but quite a bit of the hike on that particular day was spent in swirling cloud whilst protecting our faces from the hailstones. It was odd having ...

Having driven up the edge of the Great Hungarian Plain with its vastness spreading eastwards, we found Budapest with its mix of plain and hills to be very alluring. It helped that the temperatures have become increasingly balmy. Budapest felt like a mix between London and Paris (for its architecture and streets) with southern Italian weather. We loved it but were very aware that some (8,000) people are homeless in this city. The parliament building was very remi...

For a capital city, central Ljubljana seemed compact and easy to gets to grips with. We stayed out in a rural suburb with Robin, a Slovenian touring cyclist who we gave accommodation to when he was en route to Ireland last year. It was lovely to see a familiar face and to relax in his apartment which had a view of the Alps (which we drove out to the foothills of). We had a lovely time roaming the streets of the old city with its castle perched on a hill in the ...