So we’re off to the Muttiland again, this time to spend over a week in Kärnten, a southern state that borders on Slovenia. So yay, opportunities for even more border-crossings before we need visas. We’re going by train; even if we were fit enough to cycle, we’d have had to start back before we even got there.

Day 1: Saturday 5 July

We took a taxi to Waveley, then took the 11:30 to Newcastle, arriving on time at 12:54. Here’s the inevitable cyclemeter map. Then we had a couple of hours hanging around the station before we could get on the bus to North Shields. To my amazement, there was a proper luggage-space on the bus. It feels as if we had hardly got on the ferry when it sailed. The wait for dinner seemed endless but it was worth it: 3 platefuls of vegan dahl mixed with vegan korma and rice or chips. After that, there was intermittent sleeping and smoking, accompanied by Tim Shipman’s No way out.

Day 2: Sunday 6 July

At the end of the overnight journey we docked in IJmuiden, and were bussed into central Amsterdam. Elly sheltered from the rain in Starbucks while I went shopping. We still had plenty of time to kill before we could get our first train of the day to Frankfurt. (I have no idea why cyclemeter only recorded as far as Köln.) The train was full, and some people were trying to blag free rides.

We had our first encounter with Angular Merkin’s Deutsche Bahn at Frankfurt: our train was delayed by 20 minutes or so but would still arrive at the same platform, by which time another train would be there. Fortunately, AMDB realised that two trains at the same platform was an impossibility, so deiverted the other train to another platform. So now we are zooming through souther Germany as twighlight falls. Yay!

During our journey, the conductor and driver were showing some young girls the view from the cab as we sped along, sometimes up to 160 km/h. Because I was sat in the aisle seat just behind the cab, I got a view and lesson too. Our train was named after an Austrian town – was this a good omen?

We didn’t arrive until 9:20pm. Nürnburg city centre seems to be a pretty mix of ancient and modern, and our hotel was only 5 minutes’ stagger from the station. However, by the time I got to the room, I was quite hypo, despite having had off-the scale high blood sugar during the journey. I think holidaying somehow increases the potency of insulin. So as soon as I could, I scoffed the last of three Backwerk pane avocado-hummus sandwiches we’d bought in Frankfurt and noshed a few other snacks.

We then watched the highlights of yesterday’s opening stage of the Tour de France. Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard are up there again – I think it’s going to be a very exciting edition. I’m sad that Geraint Thomas is retiring. I wonder what he will do. It’s also a bit sad that two riders have had to retire without even completing stage 1.

My blood sugar was still quite low after this, so I meandered back to the station and bought a Burger King veggie burger – the only place apart from KFC and a kebab shop still open. That should have been enough to allow me to take my long-lasting insulin, hopefully without sending me sky high again. Time for zeds now!

Day 3: Monday 7 July

(I wrote this bit around 13:30.) I didn’t get to sleep until after 3pm, so didn’t surface until around 10. That put paid to any thoughts of hotel-breakfast and of visiting the German National Museum. Instead, we slowly meandered to the station, loaded up with Backwerk sandwiches (Elly got her first Semmel of the holiday), took a movie of the station entrance and refreshed our caffeine levels at Coffee Fellows. We both liked Nürnberg Hauptbahhof: it’s big but doesn’t feel unfriendly. Even though it’s right on the edge of the Alltstadt, from the little we saw, this doesn’t seem to have spoilt things. The only thing I’d ask is that Angular gets her mower to work on the tracks!

Well, I suppose it would help if our train hadn’t arrived 30 minutes late. We should arrive in Wien Meidling in time for our booked train to Klagenfurt. Even if not, there are other trains. Meanwhile here are today’s photos and videos so far, and here’s what passes for a cyclemeter record of the journey.

We didn’t get to Meidling in time for our booked train to Klagenfurt, so had an hour to refresh nicotine levels and buy supplies. Fortunately, there was plenty of space on the 6:25, which arrived and stayed about 15 minutes behind schedule. I slept through some of the journey, a pleasant relief from various aches and pains. There’s a lot of wriggling as the tracks pass through high river valleys – very scenic until it gets dark. Cyclemeter managed to capture most of this journey.

We’re now in our hotel on the lakeshore, listening to the rain and thunder. Sleep will happen soon!