My Five Acres | My Five Acres

2000 Kilometre Day!

Jane — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:00:07 +0000

2024 km so far. We both woke up tired after our 100 km plus ferry plus flat tire ride yesterday. But, with only 47 km to go to Pecs, we figured it would be an easy day. The room rate included breakfast, which is almost never a good thing. We’d much rather eat our homemade muesli and the soy milk that we’ve been carrying around with us. This morning’s breakfast, which read bread, jam, and cheese on the menu came served with some bonus slices of 1970s sandwich meat. It had little chopped up bits of red and yellow peppers sprinkled through it and the meat was a...

Ahead By A (Metric) Century

Stephen — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:50:42 +0000

1978 km so far. There I was thinking I would have nothing to write about today. We rode the short distance from Balatonfüred to the Thiany ferry, which would take us from the peninsula’s point across Balaton to Szántód. Taking the ferry meant we didn’t have to continue riding around the lake today, so we were only too happy to do it. We were joined on the ferry by a teenage couple with a small tent getting away for the Whit weekend (translations: UK: May Bank Holiday, Canada: Victoria Day/May Two-Four), a car of four teenage boys who were hoping (but had no hope) to find anyone of...

And Then I Ate Some Meat

Jane — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:09:39 +0000

1877 km so far. I awoke to sunshine, birds singing, and Stephen zipping and unzipping various zippers. Why do tents have to be so zippery? We set about our usual early morning routine of Stephen making coffee and me wandering around in a daze. As we were pouring our brew, a German lady came over to us and started talking. She spoke no English, but managed to convey to us that free breakfast would be served in the restaurant starting at 8am, with coffee! Oh yes, we had forgotten. This campsite has breakfast included. If ever in Lake Balaton, we highly recommend you stop by El Dorado, a...

The Road To Wellville

Stephen — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:05:03 +0000

1835 km so far. After taking in the outside of Keszthely’s only building of note that isn’t the giant Tesco, also known as Festetics Palace, which is a Baroque palace built beginning in the late 18th century, we headed to Héviz. A paved bike path took us the 4 km to town through swampland, and at the end of the path a small but bustling town appeared. Héviz is famous for its thermal lake, which is a lot like the indoor hot springs we have been visiting recently, except that it is a natural lake, and you bathe in the lake itself, outdoors, not in a man-made hot...

There’s No Place Like Home

Jane — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:55:46 +0000

1795 km so far. I didn’t like today. There, I said it. I did not want to be on the bike. I did not want to be pedalling my ass off against nasty headwinds. I did not want to be in Hungary. I wanted to be at home, in my bed, snuggled up with a good book and a cup of coffee. There was no reason for it, no explanation, just a bad mood that I couldn’t shake and an overwhelming exhaustion. Most of the day, I listened to music and tried to get out of my head and shake my funk. Most of the day, Stephen tried...

Through The Woods To Hungary

Jane — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:43:17 +0000

1721 km so far. This morning we said goodbye to the family Guilloteau, who, it turns out, met up with David and Collette back in Postojna (touring cyclists of the world unite!) and we headed out of Ptuj, towards Hungary. Just outside Ptuj, Pocket Earth was telling us to go one way, and the road signs were clearly saying to go another. I have become used to this because when PE is set to bike routing it sends us on the road less travelled. Often, this means a longer route, but fewer trucks flying past. It also means we tend to see things most car tourists miss. Riding...

Hot Tubbing And People Watching

Jane — Sat, 11 May 2013 18:34:49 +0000

1646 km so far. It rained all night last night, and it was still coming down when we woke up this morning, so that made our should-we-stay-or-should-we-go decision much easier. There’s nothing better than a thermal spa to take the rainy day blues away. Before we could relax though, we spent a few hours at the Hotel Primus getting our work done. This involved drinking a lot of expensive coffee as financial planning professionals attended a conference all around us. It was strange for me to see all these people schmoozing, talking business, and drinking coffee to get them through their sessions, since I have attended so many...

Heaps Good Day

Stephen — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:49:40 +0000

1640 km so far. When we toured Human Fish Brewing a few days ago, brewmaster Matt suggested we go visit his expat friend and wine-maker Nick, who has a winery just off our route east through Slovenia. I emailed Nick and arranged to meet up and have a look around his winery, Heaps Good Wine Company. Side note: Slovenian women must be something special. Both Matt and Nick moved here from far away, learned Slovene, left behind their salaried jobs, and started their own businesses – all after marrying Slovenian women Drink Some Wine Ere You Go We met Nick Gee at the Heaps Good Wine winery, just...

Youth Art And The Young At Heart

Jane — Thu, 09 May 2013 08:16:55 +0000

1575 km so far. We had a slow morning this morning, visiting Ljubljana’s daily market for some fresh fruit and vegetables and fresh pasta, and snapping a few more photos of the plentiful graffiti in Ljubljana. We also made a quick coffee stop at Cacao. We had the most delicious pistachio cake there last night (seriously, maybe the best cake we’d ever eaten), so we assumed their soy cappuccinos would be worth the stop. How wrong we were. The coffee was worse than the coffee in the hostel, which was brewed by youths on work experience. So, Cacao, we give you the award for the best cake and...

Day Tripper

Jane — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:31:38 +0000

1500 km so far. We are loving Ljubljana so much, we decided to spend one more night; we are not yet tired of great beer and great food. We don’t really go in for churches and museums, however, so we decided to take a day trip to Velika Planina, a plateau-ish area 1600 m up in The Alps, which, it turns out, are only 30 km north of Ljubljana. Riding out of Ljubljana was a minor drama. Pocket Earth, in its infinite wisdom, routed us along a ‘cars only’ freeway during rush hour, even though we had asked it for biking directions. We got stuck on the freeway...