Happy 2020 from Jonas and me! We hope you had a wholesome new year’s eve. I hope you’ll have a good start of the new decade with lots of adventures (small and big), fair winds, good hitchhiking road karma, or a strong but not scary current to paddle in. Jonas and I are currently in Chiang Mai (Thailand), but we took this photo at the Austrian Danube. At the town of Spitz an der Donau there’s a ferry to cross the Danube to the right-hand side where the signs 2019, 2020, and 2021 are very close to each other. It’sContinue reading
austria
Paddling the Morava River – A Day Trip from Bratislava
We finished our kayak trip down the Danube in Mohács. After that, we traveled back to Bratislava – our favorite city on the Danube – to work for one month. One day, we wanted to do a day trip with our kayak named Zucchini. We chose the tributary to the Danube named the Morava. Here’s the story of how we paddled part of the Morava River on Friday, October 4th (2019). Want to do it yourself? Here you can find the route details and the interactive map. Contents1 Plotting and Planning a Kayak Trip around Bratislava1.1 The Idea1.2 About the Morava/March River1.3 DoingContinue reading
Danube Kayak Trip Interactive Map
This is the fully-operative map of our Danube trip so far! You can use the left-side panel to summon or dismiss the information you’re looking for. I included information about the route, the distance, the obstacles in between, the places we’ve stayed at, which stretches require a permit, and which parts we (had to) skip on the Danube. Each paddle day has its own related blog post you can read. I’ll update this map the more we travel this majestic river with our inflatable canoe. Click in the upper right corner of the embedded map to open the map in GoogleContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 34: Haslau to Bratislava – Austria to Slovakia
Events described… happened on August 2nd, 2019. We paddled down the Danube river from Haslau an der Donau in Austria to Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. This is the third country we’re paddling in on our long-distance kayak trip. Unfortunately, when editing the videos for this post and the previous one (Day 32), I accidentally deleted all of them from the tiny camera’s SD card. Yes, we’ve tried every recovery program in the world. Yes, I am angry with myself. So all the videos (if any) for this post come from my phone camera. Our Stay in Haslau WeContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 33: Vienna to Haslau – Birthday on the Danube
Events in this story happened Wednesday the 31st of July, 2019 – a.k.a. my birthday. We paddled our adorable yet fierce inflatable canoe named Zucchini from Vienna (Wien) to Haslau on the Danube river. Vienna is the capital city of Austria and Haslau is a village en route to the Austro-Slovakian border and Bratislava. This is how I spent my 28th birthday. Unfortunately, when editing the videos for this post and the next one (Day 34), I accidentally deleted all of them from the tiny camera’s SD card. Yes, we’ve tried every recovery program in the world. Yes, I amContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 32: Langenlebarn to Vienna
Events in this article happened on Wednesday the 24th of July, 2019. We paddled our sturdy inflatable boat Zucchini from Langenlebarn in Lower Austria to Vienna, the capital city of Austria. Vienna is also the first capital city along the Danube river. Contents1 Between Langenlebarn and Tulln2 The Coffee Fiasco3 Leaving Langenlebarn for Vienna4 The Beavers5 Arriving at Greifenstein Dam6 Portaging Zucchini7 The Oxbow Lake8 The Second Portage and Compliments9 The Return of The Current10 The Speedbumps, The Ghost Ship, and The Ferry11 A Brief History of the Danube in Vienna12 The Final Stretch to the Donaukanal13 Arriving at Our Airbnb14Continue reading
Kayak Trip Day 31: Zwentendorf to Langenlebarn
Events chronicled in this story happened on Monday the 22nd of July, 2019. We paddled our inflatable canoe from a village called Zwentendorf to another village called Langenlebarn in Austria. That was a relatively short distance of 15.6 kilometers. Our Stay in Zwentendorf Airbnb was very nice. Our host had told us the story of “the world’s safest nuclear power plant”, which has Zwentendorf as its home. We walked there on our off-day after work to learn about it. The nuclear power plant never got turned on, hence the safety. It’s also being used nowadays to train nuclear power plantContinue reading
Kayak Trip Day 30: Stein to Zwentendorf
Events of this story occurred on Saturday the 20th of July, 2019. We paddled our inflatable kayak Zucchini from Stein an der Donau (near Krems) to Zwentendof an der Donau, both in Lower Austria. That turned out to be a distance of 29.1 kilometers on the Danube river. Leaving Stein an der Donau for Zwentendorf We only stayed in Stein an der Donau for one night. None of the accommodations near the river had more than one night available. With this reality, we decided to just hurry up with our paddling progress. So today, we paddled from Stein to Zwentendorf.Continue reading
Kayak Trip Day 29: Spitz to Stein an der Donau
Events in this article happened on the 19th of July, 2019. We paddled our inflatable kayak from Spitz to Stein an der Donau in Austria. That’s a distance of 16 kilometers. Two Nights in Spitz After our arrival in Spitz, we still went out to dinner and hiked up the Burgruine (castle ruins) Hinterhaus. I highly recommend going up the tower there for a very nice view. On our off-day, we wrote and coded like we usually do. Then in the afternoon, we took the ferry across from Spitz to Arnsdorf to take photographs of the kilometer signs 2019, 2020, andContinue reading