Reflections // Reflexiones

La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.

My uncle always does a wrapup on his blog after his trips. The trip to Czechia and Germany turned out to be one of my favorites in many years, and so it seemed reasonable to follow his example.

First off, I loved the balance between gentle exercise and inactivity. On a bicycle, there's time to watch life roll by- the mountains, castles, and churches or life in small villages. At the end of our one-way journey, we took a train back to Prague. A trip of six days on the bicycle was reversed in two and a half hours on the train. It was pretty obvious that I wouldn't have had such a relaxed but detailed experience on a faster trip.

It was also delightful to speak German. I hadn't known that my German was so much better than my Spanish, but this trip proved it. A few weeks ago, I took an online test which showed that my level in German is 5 (out of 6) in comparison to my level in spanish, which is 3.5. (For those who know the Common European Frame of Reference for languages, I'm a C1 in German and a B2.1 in Spanish.) The difference in how I feel when speaking the two languages is astounding. In German I can talk without looking at a dictionary, and I almost always understand when someone talks to me. On the other hand, if I would, for example, listen to two native Spanish speakers talk for an hour, I would understand about half of it.

The other thing that made this trip great was having a friend with me. For years I have been doing solo holidays. Sometimes I visit friends or family, but of course they still have obligations and are not on vacation with me. When you are vacationing with another person, you have someone who can appreciate exactly how great the cake is or exactly how strange that guys socks are. R and I like to spend money and time on the same things, which is probably critical in a travel companion. For example, both of us are willing to stop for tcoffee or beer at any time. 

So, for me, the perfect vacation clearly involves nature, food that I can actually eat trains, and a good friend. I will keep this in mind for the future.

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Mi tío escribe resúmenes de sus vacaciones en su blog. El viaje a Chequia y Alemania fue uno de mis favoritos y me parece que una reseña como esta será útil si quiero repetir algo parecido en el f uturo.

Por un lado, me gustó el equilibrio entre el ejercicio y el tiempo libre. En bici, era posible contemplar el paisaje con montañas, castillos e iglesias históricas o la vida en pueblos pequeños. Al final del viaje, volvimos en tren a Praga. Un viaje de seis días en bici equivalía a dos horas y media en tren, era evidente la cantidad de detalles que me perdería en un viaje rápido si fuera en bici.

Por otro lado, era un regalo hablar alemán. No me había dado cuenta de que mi alemán era mejor que español, pero era y es la verdad. Hace unas semanas, hice una prueba en línea que mostró que mi nivel de alemán era de un 5 sobre 6, en contraste con mi nivel del español, 3,5. (Para los que conozcan el Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas, tengo un nivel C1 el alemán y B2.1 en español). La diferencia en mi nivel de comodidad entre los dos idiomas es abismal. En alemán, puedo hablar sin recurrir al diccionario, y casi siempre entiendo cuando una persona me habla. Por el contrario, cuando escucho una larga discusión entre hablantes nativos, entiendo la mitad.

Al mismo tiempo, la razón más importante por la que disfrutaba de mis vacaciones era que me acompañaba un amigo. Hace años, viajaba casi siempre sola. A veces, visitaba a amigos o familiares, pero ellos no tenían la misma disponibilidad que yo. Era increíble tener a alguien que compartiera las experiencias conmigo. Además, él y yo quieríamos pasar el tiempo y gastar el dinero de forma similar, algo muy importante en un compañero de viaje. Para ilustrar, siempre teníamos tiempo para tomar un café o una cerveza, siempre estuvimos en sincronía.

En resumen, mi viaje ideal es el que abarca el contacto con la naturaleza, mucha comida vegetariana, trenes a nuestro alcance y un buen acompañante.

Saxony, land of cake and mountains

The second part of our trip was through the German state of Saxony, to Dresden. We planned some extra days on this part, because I didn't want to bicycle non-stop and I was looking for an excuse to use my German.

The food has been very good on the trip. I'm with someone whose culinary tastes roughly coincide with mine, which means he's willing to walk a bit further for a good restaurant or stop for beer at opportune times. Even more importantly for me, more than half of the restaurants we saw had at least one vegetarian option, which was a delightful change of pace from the situations I encounter in Madrid. 

I had realized it would be asparagus season in Germany, which is a really big deal here. Most restaurants had a special asparagus menus. The most innovative dish we had was a chicken burger overlaid with large white asparagus stalks and hollandaise sauce.

We had time for several hikes with excellent views. There is a huge national park that spans the much of the area. It's unique both for its sandstone formations, but also because of the huge swaps of dying spruce trees. They have a bark beetle invasion and the foresters have decided to let nature take its course, so that the native birch will replace the planted spruce.

One additional transportation system- a train that travels from suspended rails up a mountain. R has a special place in his heart for trams, but my favorites were the ferries.

As A noted on the last entry, we had great weather. Its probably best to do something like this in the shoulder season when it's not too hot or cold, but we had been prepared for a lot more rain. My opinion is that cycling in rain isn't too bad if you know you have dry clothes and a hot shower when you arrive.

I think the Germans make really good cake and torte, so it had been my request that we eat cake every day that we were in Germany. I am happy to say that we achieved our goal.

Czechia

 Sorry, no Spanish posts on this trip...

The trip from Prague to Dresden is 225 km, over about six days. We have added a few days on each end and one in the middle to stretch it out to almost two weeks.

Our requirements for choosing that location were that the route did not have mountains but did have good beer. Czechia (a name that is now an acceptable alternative to Czech Republic) and Germany have certainly delivered. There was one terribly steep hill the first day where I required multiple rest stops, but the beer has been uniformly excellent.

The path follows two rivers, the Vltava, and later the Elbe. We are mostly along the water, but sometimes go through small villages. I feel like we are doing a tour of alternative transportation options, as besides the bicycles, we have hiked, used trams, ferries, buses, and a cable car. Yet to come is the train.

Towns are safer from marauders at the top of a hill, but that makes them more effort to reach at nightfall.

The tour company booked our hotela, provides the bicycles, and transports the luggage. I would definitely choose this option again. Not only do I appreciate not carrying my luggage, they choose nicer hotels than I would on my own. Here is my bedroom with a 16th century vaulted ceiling. 

Vacation// Vacaciones

La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.

My summer vacation will be early this year. I need to renew my visa and I´m not allowed to leave Spain during the renewal process, which is probably includes July and August. (Honestly, it might also include September and October - government bureaucracy is real and byzantine here.)

So that´s the reason my summer vacation is happening now. My friend R arrived from the US yesterday, and today we are going to Prague. From there, we will travel to Dresden on bike. Two years ago, R and I did a similar trip in Pennsylvania. This time we´ll be traveling in luxury, because a travel company has booked our hotels and will transport the luggage each day. I am excited about bicycling and seeing castles, but equally excited to drink excellent beer and eat a lot of German torte.

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Mis vacaciones empiezan temprano este verano. Necesito renovar mi visado este año y no puedo salir de España mientras esté esperando la renovación, que en principio será en julio o agosto. (Sinceramente, es posible que este periodo también se prolongue durante los meses de septiembre y de octubre — la burocracia gubernamental es bizantina y deja mucho que desear).

Por esta razón, mis vacaciones están comenzando ahora. Mi amigo R llegó de los Estados Unidos ayer. Hoy vamos a Praga e iremos de allí a Dresde en bici. R y yo, hace dos años, emprendimos un viaje en bicicleta similar en Pensilvania. Esta vez, viajaremos de lujo porque una empresa organiza los hoteles y transportará nuestro equipaje. Tengo tantas ganas de montar en bici como de ver castillos; también, de beber buena cerveza y de comer mucho pastel alemán.