Day 35 - Fly Reykjavic to London - Leaving the crazy Vikings behind

Waking at some terrible hour and a little hungover from the night before we said goodbye to Iceland and made our way to London. Arriving in Luton airport we assembled the bikes and made our way through peak hour traffic to our hotel in Shoreditch, a favourite little area of Reuben's.

Arriving at our compact little Hotel our plans to have a no drinking day were quashed when informed on checking in that the Hotel has complementary wine and cheese in the lobby from 5-8pm. Who could say no to that, not Reuben and Anne-Marie.

Silly hotel put us in the basement with no reception and no wi-fi so Reuben nursed his flu with BBC iPlayer.

Awaiting departure from Reykjavic.

Aboard the train to London.

Free cheese is best cheese.

Day 29 - Fly Berlin to Reykjavik, Iceland. Secret Solstice Festival - FUCKING ICELAND BABY!@@#@!@!

In classic Anne-Marie and Reuben style we nearly missed our plane. Reuben suggested the 80 Euro for a cab with our 70kg of wheeless baggage was a bargain but Anne-Marie insisted we catch a train and trust the exemplary German public transport system with our burdens. 

Much confusion ensued as Google's suggested train was not arriving as scheduled. Without fluent German the announcements meant nothing but the scrolling red text hinted at a problem. The minutes ticked down and heart rates rose until we eventually found a conductor who informed us the airport train was cancelled today, alternate routes must be followed. Running through the airport pushing our 70kg on a wobbly trolley in 30 degree heat is no fun.

Surprised by the extra leg room on our "Wow airline" flight our magenta coloured plane with magenta stewardess got us safely to Iceland. The walk to the bus a frightening indication of what Iceland might have to offer, 6 degrees and a cold sleety rain driven by a stiff wind, not ideal festival weather.

Arriving at our hostel we downed some sushi and vodka, dressed warmly and made our way to the 'Secret Solstice' festival. Two lines 150 people long waited to swap their tickets for a wrist band greeted us. To our delight, and for the first time ever the VIP tickets Anne-Marie purchased paid off immediately, the VIP line had no one in it. Two minutes later we were inside and the rest was history. Starting with an Aussie Duo 'Flight Facilities' we thoroughly enjoyed our first day, the music awesome, the lines for drinks and toilets short and the people very friendly and lively. 

Walking home in the sun at 3 in the morning a new and strange experience.

Made it to checkout sweaty and still nervous.

Icelandic chocolate milk and flat bread for lunch.

An acquired taste I'm sure.

Wine tasting in duty free.

These Icelanders love their duty free beer.

Our pinky-purple plane.

The dismal lava moonscape out of the window on the 80km drive to Reykjavik.

I'm a viking.

Into the Festival.

Flight Facilities.

It's almost dark inside some tents as it approaches midnight.

Festival time.

It didn't feel as cold as Manchester, 

or maybe we were just better prepared for it.

Day 27 - Cycle Torgau to Berlin, Germany

Waking early we tried to sneak out quietly without waking the funny German couple. Unfortunately Hanz locked our bikes in his garage and we had to wake them up to open it.

We went for one last ride around Torgau, stopping at a 'backerei' for a slice of apple strudel and coffee for breakfast of champions (europeans). Just as we set off we noticed the river cruise we had followed the day prior was also setting sail.

A glorious morning followed. Very little wind and lots of German couples out cycling too. The river cruise passing ahead of us as we waited for a ferry to cross the river. Before we knew it we had cycled 60km and needed something substantial. Stopping for an omelette and coffee we watched as the river cruise passed us again. The strong head wind had started to pick up and after our enormous day yesterday we called it quits at Wittenberg and "trained" it the rest of the way to Berlin.

We finished of the day with an extravant tasting at the michelin starred Fischers Fritz.

Germany gets a little more flat, windy and boring as we head North.

Our nemesis, the River Cruise we'd been swapping lead with for two days.

A Berlin bear outside our hotel

Anne-Marie celebrates the end of the last serious cycling day

 of our trip in our spacious and stylish hotel Catalonia Berlin Mitte.

Flowers at the restaurant.

Day 21 - Cycle Brno to Prague, Czech Republic - Well at least we tried.

Knowing we wanted to get to a town that would allow train travel to Prague we set out on a shortened version of EV9, a brutal climb and 10km on shoulder-less highway later and we called it quits preferring to return to Brno central station and drink cheap but great beer by the litre instead. Well until the 2:20 for Prague departed anyhow. 

Anne-Marie searching for hotels, "Everyone says old town is the place to stay, but it's a lot more expensive.", "I want to stay in FUNKY town" replies Reuben being his usual helpful self. 

The rolling farmland flashing past our train allaying fears that we'd missed an interesting day riding. Reuben taking the four hours to catch up on blog posts and his warm 2013 Frankovka Klaret appreciation.

Prague is another amazing European city with the most incredible architecture and history, It's old town something out of a fairytale with a history of ugliness and strife.

Finished off the day with some great Czech food and wine,

At the Entrance to last night's hotel Sono.

Angus Young in our hotel room,

Possibly they picked us as Aussies?

Ree "Relaxing" before the ride.

Ready for launch.

Bike parking on the train.

Four hour train ride with warm rose and blogging.

At least they had power.

The Prague train station.

Some funky Prague buildings and lots of tourists.

The day finished with a Czech specialty, 

Apple Strudel.

Day 18 - Fly Manchester to Vienna, Austria - Post festival flight and food

Sleep in, eat english breakfast, laundry, fly to Vienna, dry laundry, Austrian health food extravaganza for dinner. 

tl;dr Recover from 2 days of Festival.

Ree smiles outside the Russian orthodox church in Vienna

There's a melting boat on our hotel

Dinner is served to Reuben, who's busting out of his shirt.

After dinner cocktails.

Love Love Love.

Relaaaaaaxed.

Day 15 - Fly Vienna to Manchester, England - Sightseeing and separated seating.

After a good sleep in (these midday checkouts in Eastern Europe are appreciated), some panadol and a free champagne breakfast, we packed up our gear and hangovers to go in search for a bike store that would service (read wash off the mud) and store our bikes over the weekend while we'd be in Manchester.

Our search successful and some time for sightseeing before our budget airline JET2 got us there in different rows safely (No detours over Ukrainian air space or depressed German pilots) and we arrived in our hotel just before 10pm.  Anne-Marie was immediately happy to have an iron in the room and a kettle with tea and coffee, even a queen sized bed rather than two singles pushed together (it's the simple things). Reuben - "It's just because it's the Hilton :-P"

A quick walk through the decidedly chilly streets quickly confirming it is still the grottiest city we've ever seen in a "western" country.

A first sample of vienna's street art.

And a little more.

Cruising the streets on the way to hotel Daniel for bag drop off.

Photo op!

After dropping our cycling gear at our next hotel.

We get yelled at for cycling in the palace gardens.

Skinny trams.

Lots of amazing old buildings.

Go tram go!

(and Anne-Marie)

St Steven's cathedral,

unfortunately 1/2 way through cleaning.