Running through Europe: Part 2

Prague

After a relaxing train ride where we were able to recover from Oktoberfest, we arrived in Prauge, Czech Republic.  Everyone raves about Prague, I thought it was nice enough but similar to most other European cities with an old town center.  My first impression was that it wouldn't be great for running and biking.  Hectic traffic and sidewalks crowded with pedestrians.  Not a lot of dedicated bike travel lanes.

I got up early one morning and headed out to the Vltava River where I found a running/ biking path that headed away from the city.  I actually like this course of action - I'll see the main sights on foot later, while I'm out running I prefer to see the real Prague and what the locals are up to (that is to say, the ones up at 7:30am).   I made my way down far enough to find a bride leading me to an island, Veslarsky Ostov.  It seemed rather deserted, but had the makings for a recreational area, with a few restaurants, park areas, and ramps for launching boats.  As I started to lose my bearings I headed back the same way I came.

This is a view of Prague from the extreme south end.  You can barely see
Prague castle on the rear right.  The tree lined path next to the Vltava River
was where I did most of my running.

I attempted a short jog through the old town area of Prague.  There were plenty of sights but also plenty of crowds, streets to stop at, and tiny hairpin turns so I soon discovered this area was better explored by walking.  It did help me build up a thirst though, a good thing because Czech beer is super tasty, and even better, its super cheap.  Beer is literally cheaper than water here.  Thanks to an already great exchange rate you could get a great, filling, meal for under $10.00.  A soda would run you about $2.50, a water around $2.00, and a beer maybe a buck if you go to the right place!  I loved the hearty Czech foods too.  After starving in Copenhagen, and quickly getting tired of sausages and potato salad in Germany, I couldn't get enough of the pork knuckle, potato dumplings, and sauerkraut in Prague.  Supposedly the Czech republic adopted hearty foods to feed the workers in the fields and later the Soviet era laborers.  Worked for them and it worked for a hungry runner!

Prague's old town - great to walk through, not so good to run through.

We used our full day to take a mega bike tour.  Figuring we would rather just hit everything we booked a bike tour of the city with a small group.  It was a 7 hour tour!  This sounded crazy but with a stop for lunch and another stop at a beer garden later it wasn't too exhausting.  As much as I enjoy walking tours you can just cover so much ground on a bike, and with such little effort.  My feet thanked me afterward.

Hiking in the cloudy, Austrian Alps

In a word: Steep!

Our next stop was Vienna, Austria, though we got in late in the evening and had a hike scheduled in the Alps the next morning.  We had a small group of hikers and a guide who drove us about 90 minutes outside of the city.  We were all disappointed to find out that it would be cloudy out all day, but made the best of it to experience Austria, make some new friends, and get a good workout.

The trails were insanely steep - we probably spent about 4 hours hiking up to our break point.  We made it to a mountain hut at around 1:00pm for soup, sandwiches, and (of course) beer on tap.  Along hiking trails in the Swiss and Austrian Alps its not uncommon to find fully stocked mountain huts, capable of preparing fresh meals and hosting guests overnight.  Europeans wisely don't tolerate crappy beer or coffee (2 of my favorite beverages), so these places are always equipped with drafts and espresso machines.

Of the 8 of us out hiking, 4 of us continued on a short route to the true summit as kind of a "just to say we did it" effort.  Once back at the hut we all met up again and hiked back down to the van in about 2.5 hours.  A cool experience, albeit a cloudy one.

Some excellent Austrian signage.

Vienna

That is to say, Vienna Austria - not to be confused with Virginia.  Vienna turned out to be a great place to run, with plenty of pedestrian friendly paths all around the city.  After arriving from Prague I was able to free up a few afternoon hours and put in a longish 15 mile run through the heart of the city, cutting through the Stadtpark, and into another huge urban park.  I ran along the Hauptallee, a stretch of road closed off to cars but full of runners, bikers, and roller bladers of all things.  I saw the huge Vienna ferris wheel here, as well as lots of kids sports games being played.  I was surprised to see a baseball game going on, with plenty of vocal spectators, a sport I had no idea of being popular in Europe.

Heading back I mostly stuck to a path along the Danube River.  The Danube is pretty fascinating to me - its the longest River in Central Europe (2nd only to the Volga on the continent), runs through or touches 10 countries, and has been crucial to developing civilizations throughout history.  The Roman Empire heavily utilized it before they died out, and now I'm using it to find my way back to my hostel!

Vienna had a bikeshare a lot like DC Bikeshare!

Vienna also happened to have a very cool bikeshare system a lot like the one in DC.  The main advantage though is that the Vienna BikeShare was virtually free - just 1 euro to register and each first hour of your ride was free.  How is that for encouraing bikes as a means of transport?  This meant endless self guided bike tours of the city, as well as extra workouts here and there.

These were great for exploring the pedestrian only streets of the inner stadt, plus, once you dock your bike and grab a few beers you can always take the subway back!

Exploring one evening I even managed to find an organized race - too bad I just ate and drank or I would have considered signing up on the spot! It looked like just a 5k.  A European Bank, Erste, sponsored this evening series popular with locals that starts and ends at the impressive Rathaus (Vienna City Hall).


The nighttime running series with city hall in the background.

As great as exploring the inner stadt was, the real standout in Vienna was the incredible grounds of the Schönbrunn Palace located on the outskirts of town.  Rivaling Versailles,  Schönbrunn was a massive complex of ornate residences that members of the Habsburg Monarchy used as their summer residence, complete with opulent gardens, fountains, and miles of crushed gravel paths.  The rear side (pictured below) starts with a garden, then as you pass the Neptune Fountain on either side appears a steep, zig-zagged path up a hill.  After a steep 200 foot climb you end at the Gloriette, a decorative pavilion like building, that gives way to the best view in Vienna.

Running here from my hostel was about 1.5 miles, then with a little work on the flats and a couple of ascents up the hill got me breathing hard.  I then explored some smaller, single track trails through trees before popping back out by the Roman Ruin - a gate and statue fountain typical of the Romantic movement meant to commemorate the Roman Empire.

The incredible Schönbrunn Palace and the rear gardens observed from the Gloriette high on a hill with the city of Vienna in the background.  The steep climb is well worth it for the view!

Vienna was an incredible place to run.  I'm not going to say it was my favorite spot of the whole trip since everywhere is so different and hard to compare, but if I had to pick one must-run, can't miss area this is it - with the palace being the top priority.

Budapest and Bratislava

My last two stops of the trip were kind of on a whim.  I had a few spare days left before I needed to head home and being a short train ride from Budapest I decided to make the most of my time.  I only had a day and a half and didn't manage to sneak any running in.  After a lot of walking and a low-key night out I was planning to wake up super early the next day to run.  By the time dawn came though I was exhausted and opted to sleep in until my late morning train to Bratislava.  This was a similar situation, only having about 24 hours I just wanted to see the sights and be ready for my flight the next day.

Budapest was a really cool city, big enough to spend a few days in if you have the time.  I was bummed that I never made it to any of the city's hot springs, supposedly a must-see.  They even host a marathon in Budapest so that might be cool someday!  Even though time was short, I was glad I stopped in Bratislava since you really only need a day to see all the sights.  All the old Soviet style buildings, which are incredibly plain and mostly abandoned, were really neat to walk past even if they aren't exactly a tourist attraction.

The Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest - an example of Gothic Revival architecture.  It was built in the 1800s
but made to look much older (and kind of scary), similar to Westminster Abbey in London.

Back to Reality

It took a little time to adjust back to reality, it always does.  Once I return from a 3 week mega trip I always have a few days where it just feels like I'm listening to static, lost and moving through the rat race of everyday life.  My rule of thumb is that it usually takes about 1/3 the time of your trip to feel back to normal.  As much as I want to take a leave of absence from work and explore Asia over the course of a few months, the ensuing adjustment back to normal life scares me.  There is so much the world has to offer, so much energy in so many places - maybe its better to just not know about it and not know what you are missing? Too late for me.

Naturally I wanted to jump right back into ultra training (and I did for the most part), but I knew I would need to spool back up some too.  I was able to jump back into it pretty well, running almost daily and doing longer runs on the weekends, however my lower leg muscles started screaming at me after a couple weeks.  I was at least able to get a few long road runs and a mega trail run in (oh, and even a cold weather cycling day!) before I backed off the gas a little.  After a [sometimes] painful massage, a rest day, and a day of easy cross-training I headed back out on a 5 mile fun run and felt back to normal.  I'm certainly not in peak shape but feeling healthy and confident for JFK.  I'm dreading winter, not so much for the cold but for the lack of light.  Running in the dark, often solo, get old soon - but it makes you stronger mentally.  The next 2 weekends will be key so I'm hoping everything holds up.