Central European Rally with added bits and bobs.

[Cossie]

Six months ago SWMBO organised a trip to Vancouver to catch up with friends and relatives. I didn't want to crowd her space, so I was going to stay home with the boy.
Then an opertunity arose to visit a rally covering 3 countries in Europe. I contacted Per and Claudia at Rallytravels.com and that was sorted.
Max went to jail for 3 weeks, I flew Canberra/Sydney/Bangkok with Qantas using mostly points. In J class. Overnight in Bangkok, followed by Qatar to Munich via Doha.
There were several other good options available, but most were into Frankfurt. Ten hours in Doha went quite quickly using various lounges and quiet rooms.
All flights were ok, except for the IFE, nothing new appealed and I don't want to watch alleged comedies from the US. Without a doubt, Turkish has had the best IFE I've encountered.
I was concerned about going to Europe on the 12th Oct as that was the date the new immigration requirements were to be implemented, as noted in another thread, it was the old system and being an "other" there was a bit of a queue, but through in 1/2 an hour or there abouts.
Three nights at an Ibis close the the railway station in Regensburg. As mentioned in another thread, I had damaged my knee a while ago and a MRI a few weeks ago showed a few issues. I must have tweaked it again as it has had it's moments with pain.
Walking and standing at rallies hasn't been kind to it. I really I should have cancelled everything, but being a previous issus, I doubt my TI would have covered me.
Most the the rally photos are on my camera, so I won't be able to do anything with them until next week.

 

[Cossie]

Regensburg, home of Thurn and Taxis, I have seen Albert competing in a few rallies over the years and the name has always intrigued me. He wasn't entered in CER, unfortunately and it's not just money that buys his cars, he is quite a talented driver. The family is one of the wealthiest in Germany.

House of Thurn und Taxis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

On the Danube, very picturesque, particularily at this time of the year. I had an interesting encounter with a rather paranoid sad lady that I mentioned in another thread, so I won't repeat it here.

 

[Cossie]

The rally is based in Passau, we were staying about 20kms away in Austria in a town on the river Inn called Scharding.
Normally I would have a hire car, but this time I was using trains. If you book online you can get a seniors discount, if you are an old fart like me. At the station in person, not possible. I also booked a reserve seat in carraige 31, only problem was that there was no 31. Blast, that was 5.20 euro wasted. Train was continuing on to Vienna, so it was quite full. Off at Passau, local train to Scharding, no oldies discount,
Like a lot of places in Europe, the town is very pretty.

 

[Flyfrequently]

I really I should have cancelled everything,

Nah @Cossie
Am onboard and hope things settled enough to enjoy it

 

[GarrettM]

Nice. Regensburg was featured on Joanna Lumley's series about the Danube, which prompted me to add it to my one day list.
You're only making that worse

 

[OZDUCK]

Regensberg Old Town is truly lovely and well worth a visit. But I am surprised Cossie didn't make the short trip out of town to the Valhalla monument and walk up the extremely steep 358 step external marble stairway. It almost killed me doing it 3 years ago and there is no way I could do it now. I am sure it would have done his knee a power of good

 

[VPS]

Great photos. You’ll remember the places you visited but you will forget the dodgy knee

 

[Cossie]

Shakedown for the rally, cars are timed over a short distance, but this doesn't count to towards total times etc.
Just a few in sequence, otherwise I'll be here all day! This guy in one of the lower classes locked up under brakes, but corrected in time.

 

[Cossie]

This is Seb. Ogier, probably the best rally driver of all time, even better imo than Seb. Loeb.





The fuzzy bit on the side is another spectator!

 

[Scr77]

Impressive! Are you pushing the “shoot” button for each picture shown above, or have you set camera to shoot while holding button down?

 

[Cossie]

Impressive! Are you pushing the “shoot” button for each picture shown above, or have you set camera to shoot while holding button down?

It's on "high+" canon r6 mk II with a RF 70-200 lens. I set the shutter speed, push the button and let the camera do the rest. It will do video, should try that one day!
This was a good spot as I was able to get fairly close. Been too many spectator deaths in the last few years so spectators are kept well back.
The above have only been cropped. When I get home, I might fiddle with some using light room or similar.

 

[Cossie]

Back to Scharding, I wanted to eat traditional German/Austrian and had heard about Bums'n (Wirtshaus zur Bums'n in Schärding). It was full, so I had a beer and went round the corner to Limincello where I had spaghetti marinara, not what I wanted, but it was quite good..
Having mentioned Scharding elsewhere, @daft009 mentioned I should eat at Bums'n.
What a coincidence, a person on a forum based in Australia recommending somewhere to eat in a small Austrian town.
I went back the next night and was able to share a table, I tried to explain the coincidence but wasn't sure if I was understood.



Shot the corner I was at for the shakedown.



These should have been posted earlier, more Scharding.




I have to mention that the shnitzel was quite good!

 

[Cossie]

To be continued when I'm home.

 

[Cossie]

I have to backtrack to Regensburg as these were on my camera and being a nupty, I have only just realised how to get them here.
Bluey on TV. Then various buildings in the old town.
It was getting dark and being a Sunday i missed out on what had been happening in the square during to day, lot's of food stalls, etc.
The first building is the Hotel Maximilian.




Fairly brutalist architecture for the Schreiner kitchenware shop. I met a couple from Melbourne doing the river cruise, luckily neither were Carlton supporters.. one Geelong, he wasn't so happy and his wife was a Bulldogs, in old talk Footiscray.

 

[Cossie]

I was sad to see that all the Karstadt/Horten department stores are closed, I have fond memories of being a poor backpacker in Europe eating at their restaurants as they were always good value. Some photos displayed on the wall of the closed Karstadt.

 

[Cossie]

More Scharding, as stated earlier I couldn't eat at Bums'n the first night, so I wandered around the corner to Limoncello,which i might ad was quite good as well.

Not sure of the meaning of this naming! The Marinara was very good.



I didn't eat out again as we got in late, our digs didn't serve food besides breakfast and my knee was playing up, anyway I could do with loosing a few pounds!
No kangaroos in Austria.

 

[RB001]

Not sure of the meaning of this naming!

Literally their surname. As for the meaning of the surname...

Poxrucker Sisters – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

 

[Cossie]

Rally over, it will take some time to sort those out, I may post some good ones later. I had wanted to go to Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia back in June/July, but the Croatian rental company (Sixt) wouldn't allow that. Anyway in a way I'm glad we did go to Bulgaria and Romania.
Rental company in Albania was again Sixt, unfortunately I was given an upgrade, unfortunately as it was a full size sedan, being a Skoda Octavia. I would have preferred something much smaller.
I flew to Tirana from Munich with Lufthansa, paid for all the extra gubbins, so it was fairly painless, I also had access to the lounge through my Turkish miles and smiles.

I think in the second photo, that is Dubrovnik up towards the right and Kotor in the third.



Online there are some very cheap rentals to be had, but I wanted something I knew, so I paid more.
Tirana airport is a shambles, there is a lot of construction work happening, couple of interesting cars parked up when I got mine. W12, hate to be putting petrol in that at over $3.00 a litre.
Picking up the car was an interesting experience, in a very serous voice I was asked if I had ever rented a car before, I remarked, once or twice, in a more serious voice I was asked if I had ever rented a car before, sigh, just a couple of hundred times, I guess.

 

[Cossie]

It's not an overly gig country and I did want to drive the State Highway 21 up to Theth as seen on the "World's Most dangerous Roads", this episode didn't seem to live up to the name, came across as more of a travelogue.; Plus it is a dead end unless one has a proper 4x4. The scenery at the end is stunning (as seen on that show), save it for next time.
Popped onto booking.com and chose a hotel up on the coast at Velipoja, very easy drive north, part motorway then reasonable minor roads.
Got there, hotel closed as was everything else, checked my email, said hotel was closed for the off season, which speaking to a local is 9 months of the year!
Next biggest town was Shkoder, google maps said about an hour. Quite flat agricultural land, Shkoder was larger than I expected, it has an castle and recorded history of over 2,200 years, bit older than Canberra then.

Shkodër - Wikipedia I wanted to visit the castle, but the knee was uncooperative, so it was just a gentle wander around town. A lot of people and the place seems quite affluent, a local told me that this is the time of the year when Albanians working overseas tend to come back to visit family etc.

 

[Cossie]

Quite a lot of rejuvenating has been going on as can be seen from comparable shots on each side of the street.