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Category: Europe Cycling 2015

Holiday cycling in Europe – Dresden to Orpington

Friday 12 June – a long hot day in Germany

Friday 12 June – a long hot day in Germany

Today was another heatwave – and we rode far too long looking for accommodation – We ended up doing 95km.

We had a good start to the day with a conversation with the husband of our inn-keeper. He works on the river enforcing regulations (like a traffic policeman). We learnt that the maximum draught on the river boats is 3m, although they can sometimes exceed this when loaded. The locks were built to only take draughts of up to 4m. The larger passenger boats are over 100m in length. They can still turn around on the river as it is wide enough.

boat               boat2 boat3             anotherboat

More than 100 metric tons of water flows by every second.

On parts of the river there are no specific rules for the side of the river boats need to keep to on. On other stretches they have to keep to the left.

We crossed over to Germany from Austria at the Jochenstein hydroelectric power station and locks. The border is in the middle of the river. Kris had to push the bikes up 90 steps to get to the other side (My bike is too heavy for me too push up the steps). Those steps probably help to keep the passenger and bike ferry at Engelhartszell in business.

germanborder       boatinlock

There is an education centre directly on the German side of the river, and a lot of children and their teachers were very involved in outdoor education programmes.

The next big town of Obernzell was very neat with paintings on many buildings and a lederhosen factory on the outskirts, reminding us that we are in Bavaria.

Another 20km along the river and we reached Passau. The city looks wonderful as it appears around the bend in the river with it’s various onion sharped turrets. Then you see a castle up on the hill to the right, with walls built along the cliffs. We entered the city via a bridge.

mermaid             passau

We obtained a basic map for the Eurovelo 6 route beyond Passau at the tourist information office, had a quick ride through the old town and an ice cream. We headed back onto the northern bank of the Danube by passing over the power station just beyond the city – this one had no steps.

bridge

Our next stop was Vilshofen, where we crossed to the south bank of the Danube over the bridge into town. The Vils river joins the Danube here, so the Danube is slightly smaller up stream.

vilshoven

We considered stopping here, but decided it was too early as it was only 1.30pm. This may have been a mistake. We decided to do another 20km to Osterhofen, the next big town. When we arrived at Osterhofen we found that the tourist information had closed at 12. It was unbearably hot standing in the town square trying to make sense of the information boards. There were signs indicating that some town celebration was happening over the weekend. Kris asked at one of the Pensions on the square and they were full. He was referred to another a few doors down, and it really didnt look that flash. I thought this would surely be reasonably priced, being in a small town and all. But they wanted to charge 90EUR – more than we paid anywhere else including Vienna and Budapest! So we decided to ride on.

We stopped and spoke to a man on the street who said that Moos was a good town, with a brewery where you can stay. We stopped at Moos – unfortunately the brewery was all closed up (with no sign that you can stay there), however the town had lovely gasthauses. We stopped at a promising looking one, but they had become only a restaurant with no rooms! It seems there were no rooms in the town. The proprietor was apologetic and even filled Kris’s water bottle up with soda water.

So we rode onto Plattling, another 10km in the heat – although it was already beginning to ease by now. At Plattling we got some help from the library (referred there as tourist info was closed) – they gave us the names of a few hotels that seemed affordable. When we got there the first one was expensive and didn’t have internet. We went with the second, which was also expensive but at least had wi-fi. So we felt we were overpaying for a very ordinary accommodation in the end – and we were exhausted.

We cheered ourselves up with some delicious food from an excellent supermarket. European supermarkets are like heaven when you have been riding the whole day in the heat – they are cool and full of great food – hovering near the fridges is a cheap treat. We had a picnic and then a couple of beer’s at outdoor cafe on the town’s main street.

wine

 

Thursday 11 June – Schlogener Schlinge

Thursday 11 June – Schlogener Schlinge

We started our day with an interesting discussion with other cycle tourists at the youth hostel breakfast. One was a German psychiatrist from Cologne and the other, from Berne in Switzerland, was on an open ended tour – going to Istanbul, then maybe further.

It was a cooler day again today, slightly overcast, so perfect conditions. Even so, we saw another snake warming itself on the cycle path – this one a little smaller then previously.

We started out on the north bank of the river and the ride out from Linz to Ottensheim had long stretches with the road into town between the cycle path and the river. We are becoming spoilt, so even though this is an excellent cycle path and totally separated from the traffic, our enjoyment really started when the cycle path went directly onto the river at around Ottensheim.

repairs

We back-tracked a little to cross to the south bank at the Ottensheim Wilhering power generator so that we could visit Erferding. This is because I read in the tourist brochure that “its’ main square is counted as one of the most beautiful in Upper Austria, as the houses haven’t really been altered since the middle ages”.

Anyway, we followed a detour off the river to visit this town, which was a big disappointment, seeming to be nothing special compared to all the other towns we are seeing.

specialsquare

We lost the cycle path trying to hunt fantastic old towns, and did a detour through some of the outskirts of the town and industrial areas before finally getting back to the river. We did find a nice cheap kebab shop though. There was a drive through cigarette shop right next to the kebab shop – the first time we have seen such a thing (photo below). This probably added about 20km to the day – so no more tourist brochure detours from now on!

driveintobacco

The following town, Aschach, was even prettier, just from the river bank. We stopped for a quick ice cream.

icecream

Next up were some bends in the river, called the Schlogener Schlinge, most of it part of a nature reserve. The river narrows and the sides steepen. It does a full S bend at one point. You ride along a bike path with the river on one side and a forest on the other for most of the time. The banks are at more than a 45 degree inclination at various points. There are cycle paths on both sides of the river. There are also castles visible every now and then up on the top banks and one or two small towns, such as Inzel. The whole section lasts about 20km. It was getting hotter at this point and there were lots of flying insects in the air too.

castle   bends1

 

bends2   bends3

bends4  bends5

There is a camp site, hotel and yacht basin at Schlogen at the end of the bends.

bends6  danube1

danube2

There is a bit of a hill climb just after Schlogen (we were on the wrong bank as it seemed flat on the other side) – up and down about three times until Wesenufer, where we crossed to the north bank along another power generator. A huge barge was going into the lock of the generator as we were crossing.

We stayed on the north bank until Engelhartszell – passing through a few small towns which seemed pretty dead. We wanted to stay at Engelhartszell so we crossed to the town on the south bank using a pedestrian/bicycle ferry. We had to ring a bell to summon it to our side of the river. It took us and another cycling couple over.

town         ferry3

ferry1         ferry2

 

The tourist information office was closed but there were brochures available outside outlining accommodation in town. The first place we tried was about 100m away and directly on the river. It is in a 400 year old house, with thick walls and a very friendly proprietress. Also good value. Only downside is no wifi, but we decided we could live without it for the evening. The house used to be a farrier shop, which shod the horses that pulled barges along the river. There is a museum in the house with a forge that is hundred’s of years old.

gasthaus

We had a picnic on the river and enjoyed looking at the tourist and commercial ships go by.

picnic

We then had some special beer from the nearby Trappist monastery. The monastery is struggling, but its beer is famous. It contains honey as well as hops and malt and is beautiful – kind of like drinking a liqueur. Obviously a change of the corporate mission statement is required.

monestary     trappistbeer

Wednesday 10 June – Rest day in Linz

Wednesday 10 June – Rest day in Linz

Good to have a rest day today – leisurely breakfast and meandering around the city. Catching up on the blog in the afternoon. Planning for our upcoming route.

linz1           linz4

 

Linz         linz7    linz6        linz8

 

linz3    linz5

 

Linz2

 

My hands were getting progressively more painful from clutching the bike handlebars – so we bought some beautiful new grips at a large sports store. Kris had cracked one of his pedals (too much standing pedaling up hills), so new pedals as well.

BEFORE

before

AFTER

after

Tuesday 9 June – a cooler ride to Linz

Tuesday 9 June – a cooler ride to Linz

It was a relief to wake up to a cool overcast morning. There was actually a very light misty rain as we left – but not enough to drench us. For a while we just cycled ahead of a dark rain cloud. The weather gave the river a moody magical look to it – you could imagine mythical Danube creatures lurking just under the water.

The first 25km or so of our journey was along the southern bank. There were stunning views of the towns on the other bank.

river1   river2

We crossed the river at another power generating station (at Ybbs – Persenbeug) – according to the info sign, this is the oldest surviving hydro generator in Austria.

powerstation

The weather cleared mid-morning but unfortunately a little head wind also came up, meaning that some stretches required a bit more effort.

The river began to narrow as we approached the towns of St Nikola and Grein, with steep slopes on either side.

stnicola    grein

grein2

 

After Grein the path took us away from the river again and through some fields. There were information signs about the work that had been done to contain the town from flooding as it was flooded in 2002. The vulnerable part of the village is shielded by a 7km wall and the main roads going through the wall have a metal frame that be closed when the water rises. The town wall protects the villagers from floods and not from barbarian hordes. We had to cycle up over some of the walls.

dyke

Parts of the cycle path were right up against the river, just about at the same level as the water. We noticed that houses we passed by were mostly built on stilts, so obviously the area is prone to flooding.

The route took us up and through town areas after Mauthausen, with a few little hills (had almost forgotten what hills are). Eventually we were alongside the river for the last stretch to Linz. There is quite a bit of quarying and other industry on the opposite river bank as you approach Linz (at around Steyregg) – not very pretty after all the beauty of the rest of the ride. The last stretch to Linz was a push, with head wind and at the end of a long ride (105km in all). When we got to the tourist information we were told that accommodation is in short supply due to a convention and the tourist season. However we were able to secure one night in the youth hostel (we wanted two). When we arrived here they told us that two nights were now available – so we can have our planned rest day.

Monday 8 June – Beautiful ride to Melk

Monday 8 June – Beautiful ride to Melk

The stretch we did today – from Vienna to Melk is the most scenic so far along Eurovelo 6. We had an early start (trying to beat the heat) and it took about an hour to work our way out of the city proper (around 10km). We were going against the Monday morning traffic.

We saw the place where the Danube canal joins the Danube. Also lots of street art cycling along under bridges – ranging from crude graffiti to sophisticated graphics.

Once out of the big city, the entire route was along dedicated flat bike paths, making for easy riding. The trail was generally along the river bank, but periodically meandered through small villages.

bikepath

There were hundreds of other cyclists. More than half are older then us and a lot look well to do. The Austrians have clearly put a lot of effort into the cycling infrastructure and it is paying off in attracting many tourists. Most seem to be German, but we also came across some British and American people.

There were many signs along the cycle route offering accommodation and some cafe’s geared to attracting cyclists – we stopped for an ice cream at this one and also re-filled our water bottles at a tap they provided.

bear

Tulln was one of the most attractive towns we rode past, with bright gardens along the river bank. It used to be the site of a Roman fort.

Tulln

We crossed the Danube from south to north bank at Altenworth, where there is a water turbine power station.

powergeneration

The ride from here to Krems is directly along the river bank. We had thought that Krems may be a good place to stay. It was still early, and some of the areas we traveled through were industrial, so we had lunch from a supermarket bakery and carried on.

Kris decided we should cross to the southern bank of the Danube at Krems, as would be more scenic (there were fewer cyclists on the northern side). We got directions on how to get across from a little man passing on an electric bike. He ended up riding ahead of us to show us how to get across the bridge. He was very helpful, evidently just cruising around on his new bicycle. He told us that the castle up on the hill is at least 900 years old.

directions

castle

The flat riverbanks began to give way to hills, dotted with vineyards and incredibly beautiful little towns every now and then. We considered stopping at one with a camping site and a castle on the opposite bank but decided to go on to find place with a better shop.

campcastle

This is such a scenic stretch of the Danube that there were a number of flat bottomed tourist boats going up and down between Melk and Krems.

pretty

In the end we went all the way to Melk (a 125km ride, our longest day so far).

Melk is very lovely, with a huge monastery up on the hill overlooking the town (it evidently has a library with 85,000 books).

melk2

melkoldtown

The old town has a lively pedestrian area with cafes. The town is clearly doing well from cycle tourists – there was a bit of a rush of cyclists to get reasonably priced accommodation (two pushy women that arrived with their husbands at the tourist center after us, managed to get to the pension before us, luckily there were enough beds). Our room has a view of the monastery (if you lean out of the window and look through the hotel sign!).

view  viewnight

The layout of the pension has obviously evolved over time. We had a bathroom on the other side of the pension corridor and the pension was obviously old as the outer walls were half a meter thick.

The pension has a large cellar (maybe an old wine cellar) with about 20 bikes parked in it.

bikeshed

We had our supper from the nearby supermarket – the quality of the food in Austria is excellent – we had freshly baked bread, cheese and ready made salads. Later on we had a beer sitting outside a cafe (it was still 26 degrees Celsius at around 8pm). We could identify the people walking past who had also done a long bike ride through their mincing walk and browned forearms.

Sunday 7 June – Exploring Vienna

Sunday 7 June – Exploring Vienna

We had a full day to explore Vienna today. First we went to the Shonbrunn Palace – about 5km from our hotel and a bit out of the centre. This used to be the Emperor’s summer residence and is huge. It was already too hot to walk around the gardens at 9.30am in the morning. I admired the Japanese tourists enthusiasm as they gamely snapped photos and rushed around in the sun (many with sun umbrellas). When we were leaving hundreds of tourists were streaming in the gates.

palace1    palacefountain

palace3     palace2

We decided to escape to the Danube island – about 6km across the city – a favourite spot for the Viennese on a Sunday. It is a long skinny island (21km long) in the middle of the river. As we made our way there on the bike paths, we noticed many other bikes heading in the same direction – people with summer clothes, mats and small small children attached to their bikes. The island is only accessible by bicycle, on foot or roller skating. Once we were there we saw lots of people swimming and sunbathing (also topless) all along the banks – you are allowed to swim anywhere. There is also a big children’s playground with paddling pool. There is a water ski lift, which we had never seen before – it pulls people along on ski boards through a pulley system. The pulley system is in a large square with the track elevated about 10 metres above the water. There are markers, a ramp and a few other items on the track. Some of them could do tricks, such as jumping into the air or going over ramps.

skiing     skiing2

It was incredibly hot so we found or own little stretch of river and had a quick dip – wonderfully cool. The bottom was squishy but the water was so clear that you could see your feet. There was also a curious swan which didn’t seem to like the people swimming on the next cove but left us alone.

swimming1    swimming2

 

We headed back down town in a cooler state (wet underclothes) to the tourist info taking in some of the fabulous architecture on the way (and also this cool boat on the canal which has a swimming pool on it).

swimmingpool

sights3

 sights1       sights2

Soon we were too hot again, so we went for a beer at a cafe on the university campus.

krisbeer

Then back to the hotel to rest out of the sun. In the evening we emerged again to walk around. It is still hot at 10 pm.

Saturday – 6 June – Bratislava to Vienna

Saturday – 6 June – Bratislava to Vienna

We were back on the Eurovelo 6 today, with a fair number of other touring cyclists. The start of the route was alongside the river and periodically through wheat fields. We watched the Hainburg castle up on a hill coming closer and closer.

castle1      castle2

As we passed through Hainburg Kris realised we were in Austria. We hadn’t noticed a border – but the road signs were different and the cars had mostly Austrian number plates.

We also noticed an increase in the quality of bike path signs – with a number of routes referred to in detail.

comprehensivesignage

Just outside of town, we were surprised by a long snake (at least 1m in length) lying sunning itself on the bike path. Some local cyclists (young sporty ones in lycra) coming the other way also stopped and turned to take a look, but it had slithered into the grass before I could take a photo.

We stopped to talk with a cycle touring German couple who had been riding in our direction for the past 10km or so. They had left their car in Vienna, toured to Budapest on one side of the river and were coming back on the other. They advised that we could do a side trip to see old Roman ruins if we stayed on the south side of the river instead of crossing over to the north side as per the usual Eurovelo route. So we decided to see the ruins.

There is an old amphitheatre in Petronell, built in the first half of the 2nd century, which was well worth seeing. The Austrians still put shows on in the theatre.

amphitheater                   plays

There is also the ancient city of Carnuntum which extends over an area of 10km2 – only part is visible today.

ruins

We had thought we could continue along in the same direction on the south of the river, but after a bit of to and fro discovered that we had to turn back and cross the Danube at at Bernstein Straße bridge – so that added about 20km onto our journey, extending it to a 98km day. The bridge is amazingly long (1.88km) and has a good cycle track on both sides.

The rest of track was along the stop bank, which had no shade and was very hot in the sun. An outdoor cyclists pub near the end of this stretch was a welcome sight, as we were running low on water.

hermis

We stopped for a beer and a conversation with a Viennese cyclist who we had passed on the track a few times. He told us how Vienna is numbered in an onion-like structure, with district one in the middle and 23 radiating outwards. Once we had cooled down and refilled our water bottles we set off again. Unfortunately we didnt look at the signs closely as we came out of the pub, so set off on a secondary path trough natural parks. We were feeling light-headed from the beer and the heat (a legal high) – so we ate lots of chocolate. The road eventually dumped us somewhere on the outskirts of Donaustadt. From there we made our way into the Vienna central city and eventually found the tourist info at around 4pm. We stopped at several hotels along the way and asked for tariffs and they were surprisingly expensive or full (we were discovering that Austria is comparatively expensive). We were happy when the tourist info could provide a booking for a reasonably priced place 5km from the centre (in district 7). It took quite a while to navigate there – the city is so big that the map they give you only names every fifth street or so.

Vienna is a huge city with amazing buildings throughout. It is so large that you cannot cover all the sights in a day – even on a bicycle.

We rode around in the evening a bit.

vienna2        vienna1      roof

 

monument      monument2     vienna3

Kris spoke to some people at an open source stand at a Vegan fair. We had a pizza and found the night life along the Danube canal. There was a football match on and lots of fans watching and cheering periodically. No more cheap beer here – they cost around EUR3.80 each, compared EUR1.20 in Slovakia. The prices for food are similar to what we would pay in Wellington. There were lots of young people sitting along the banks of the canal. Here is a photo of me sitting on the canal and drinking a beer.

 

canal1     canal2

Friday – 5 June – Bratislava

Friday – 5 June – Bratislava

Today was the first day we had to do some maintenance on our bicycles after about 1,400km, and it was not a broken spoke! Luckily the problem was solved without too much pain.

We had an early start and a relatively fast 43km ride to reach Bratislava along route E575, arriving before 11am. The road was very flat but had lots of cracks running across the tarmac (maybe worse for fast cars than bicycles) and there was a bit of traffic.

Our first views of the city were of soviet style apartment blocks. We struggled a bit to find the the river bike paths to enter the city. Kris’s chain began slipping, and he thought it was probably the chain but worried it could be the sprocket, so we needed to find a bike repair shop as a first priority. We negotiated around road repairs and traffic in the center to find the tourist information office and they gave us a map with locations of a couple of bike shops. Luckily the first shop confirmed that his chain had stretched after measuring it, and could replace it right away.

After that we rode around a bit looking for accommodation. Bratislava is not an easy city to navigate around with on bike. There are lots of curbs and crossings to negotiate, plus some streets have trams running down them (lethal if you get your bike wheel stuck in the tram track). They have however begun to make an effort with some bike lanes at least and there are clearly some cycling enthusiasts around. We met one of them (who runs a website called warm showers where individuals host touring cyclists). He recommended a local pub frequented by cyclists and we went and had a beer there (it was very hot). Eventually we went back to the tourist office to get a recommendation for overnight accommodation and were advised of a “very cheap” 4 star hotel. It was the most expensive place we have been in so far. It was good however, the best thing about it being the breakfast (which included apple strudel).

We rode around in the evening, which was more pleasant once it began to cool down. The main tourist site is the castle, there are some great views of the city and the river from up there. If you look in one direction you see the beautiful old town, in another direction the soviet style apartment blocks, then industrial chimneys and again soviet style apartment blocks. There is also a fancy bridge which has a restaurant built over the top of it.

castle

town

sovietblocks

riverview

We had some street food in the old city, but felt it was a bit of a tourist rip off place. There are some quirky statues there that all the tourists stop to photograph.

statuesnail      manatwork

statue

We ended up doing a bit of a pub crawl – including a craft beer pub near the bridge restaurant that had an interesting dark IPA. Then we went to a tourist cafe next to the Danube and then back to the cyclists pub – which has good beer, was buzzing with locals and cyclists and has a view of the castle, even though it is near a motorway.

pub

Thursday 4 June – Slovakian flats

Thursday 4 June – Slovakian flats

Today we departed a bit from the standard Eurovelo 6 route, which requires you to cross over again to Hungary on your way to Bratislava.

Our first 20km was along the Eurovelo route and was a gravel road on top of the Danube stop bank. We stuck with this for about 20km but it was slow going.

stopbank

We decided to leave the trail and go inland and north at Veľké Kosihy along tertiary roads. (our original plan was to overnight at Gabčíkovo and then cross over to the Hungarian side, however we suspected that this part of the river would not be very scenic in any case due to industrialisation).

The roads were good and the countryside is very flat, productive farmland. There are many wheat fields, and also some corn.

wheatfield

We passed through a number of small towns. It was very hot again and we stopped for some ice cream at a small outdoor bar/cafe in one of the towns. Three worn men were sitting outside drinking beer and chasers (at 11am), another arrived by bicycle with his little grandson as we were leaving.

A headwind came up after lunch and I rode in Kris’s slipstream so that we could make good progress.

At one town we stopped to eat some cherries from a tree at the side of the road (they were nice and tart).

The first things you see when approaching Dunajska Streda are high rise (Soviet style) apartment blocks and stacks of shipping containers. It seems that this may be a midway point for transporting goods.

The main attraction for tourists is evidently a big spa and pool complex.

We found our way to the centre of town just after 1pm and began looking for hotels. This time we found the tourist office without looking (we just rode past it in the centre). They recommended the pension Villa Archa. We had to wait for the owner to arrive so had a quick picnic in the park opposite. It was very hot.

The Villa Archa turned out great. We are the only people in the house (the owner just showed us around, gave us the keys and left) and it is very smartly furnished – so as well as our room with en suite and huge shower, we have the private use of a kitchen and living area. This is only EUR35. It almost seems that the accommodation gets better in inverse proportion to what we pay.

pension

Later in the afternoon we had a ride around town, did some shopping and ate at a nearby pizzaria. Then we had a couple of beers at a outdoor beer garden near our pension – one half is a children’s playground and the other half is a kiosk where you can buy beer, cold drink or ice cream. There are tables where you can sit under the trees and drink. Lots of the patrons were also smoking and most seemed to know each other. They were a very sociable bunch, greeting each other as they came and went.

beergarden

Wednesday 3 June – Heatwave on the Danube

Wednesday 3 June – Heatwave on the Danube

Today was our shortest ride yet, only 56km. We are slowing down a bit to savour this journey along the Danube.

We crossed over the river into Slovakia again this morning, travelling back on the north of the Danube. We crossed at an attractive old bridge and admired the view of Estergom from across the river.

leavingbridge    leaving

The first part of the journey took us a bit away from the river, over flat fields fringed with poppies. There were also some fields that were just poppy’s, an amazing red display.

poppies

We bought watermelon at a roadside shop – which was wonderfully refreshing in the oppressive heat. They agreed to sell us half a watermelon and cut that into quarters for us, and we managed the rest with Kris’s pocket knife.

There were a few other cycle tourists, all coming the other way (it seems most people go from Germany or Vienna to Budapest and then take a train back).

The last stretch of the ride was around ten km along the stop bank – it was lovely riding side by side without any traffic, but also very hot (no shade).

A point of interest along this section was the ruins of an old Roman fort (called Celemantia) – clearly visible from the cycle path with an information board (unfortunately not in English). You can make out parts of the main gate from the ruins.

ruins1  ruins2

When we came off the stopbank near Komarno (at around midday) we saw a pub with people sitting outside in the shade and stopped for a drink. The heat was stifling. When it gets this hot many of the men here take their shirts off to cool down and two of the men were sitting shirtless. They also had a (cute) dog with them.

escapingheat

We crossed a bridge and found the Komarno town centre (still on Slovakian side). As we rode in looking for accommodation, the proprietor of the Hubert Varga Pension and Restaurant saw us and ran out to offer us a room. We were drawn in and the room is great value for money – larger than the standard hotel room with a little sofa, fridge, kettle and computer. Kris didn’t like all the stuffed animals hanging on the stairs and passageway (there is a large stuffed hare just outside our door) – but I would recommend the place for value and customer service. The restaurant specialises in venison and the owner seems to have a passion for hunting. There is also a zebra skin on the stairwell with a photo of him and freshly shot zebra!

pension

We had plenty of time looking around Komarno, which is actually two towns spanning the Danube – one in Slovakia and one in Hungary. The Slovakian side is much prettier. 

We went to a large Teskos on the Hungarian to try to spend our remaining Hungarian currency – Kris got a replacement bike helmet and I got some replacement shoes (my old shoes were pinching my toes). We had a couple of ice creams and some beer at a pub with spray misters outside for the heat. We finally returned to our pension and had a meal in the restaurant (not venison), which was very hearty and good.

It is incredibly hot into the evening, only beginning to cool down after 10pm.