Good Morning Passau!, Long Walk, Yummy Food X2 (Passau, Germany)

Passau view

Good Morning, my sweet Passau. 

I walked for many miles today…covered a huge chunk of this magnificent little corner of the World.  During my walk I did do a practical thing…. I found a long sleeve button up shirt that won’t show sweat for the Africa portion of my trip.  I know it sounds odd to hunt for a sweat hiding shirt but dude Africa be HOT!  Actually the heat in Europe right now is more intense than the Ghana temperatures I dealt with two months ago.  I also found a huge electronics store in the mall while trying to get to the train station.  A super helpful guy helped me find a SD card converter, a case that actually fits my dual Sim phone and a micro SD card for the dual Sim phone.  Quite successful housekeeping outing if I do say so.

Finally made it to the train station and scooped up a ticket to Vienna for tomorrow.  Hopefully I meet up with the family for a few minutes before I leave town.  I have no clue what time they dock in Passau so fingers crossed we can get some hugs and coffee in.

Tasty Salad

I ended up walking along the waterfront for quite a while to the University of Passau.  I discovered a lovely footbridge and decided it needed to be crossed but the smells wafting from a tiny café at the foot of the bridge lead me and my empty tummy inside to investigate.  Cappuccino to accompany my vegetable quiche and salad was a much-needed sidebar to my fantastic but hot day.  The quiche was absolutely amazing and the salad was picture perfect (8.80 Euro).

I took some great pictures as I crossed the bridge and a tiny nun with a beautiful smile said something wonderful to me in German.  No clue what she said but it made me very happy. 

Quiche Baby!

So, who knew, but the other side of Passau is just as picturesque as the main part of town but very few tourists cross over.  It always amazes me how quickly you can get out of the tourist mass even in the high season.  I managed to wander away two hours on the ‘other side’.   There are churches, a cemetery, gorgeous streets and a brilliant view of the main side of Passau. 

I headed back to the Wilder Mann to rest my toes after 4-5 hours of straight walking.  Rested up and hungry again I head back to the restaurant I visited on my first night here where Weiner Shnitzl.  Just to let you know Weiner Schnitzel is the national dish of Austria...I guess I had better eat some when I'm there eh?  Sat outside again to people watch and ordered a beer and Gulashsuppe (Hungarian Goulash).  I am almost certain it is illegal here to NOT have a beer with dinner and I like to follow the rules.  I often see people having beer with breakfast in Germany.  The soup was outstanding and I am quite certain that pretzel bread should be served at every meal.  Germany has made the short list as a top contender for favorite food destinations. 

Footbridge, Passau

I had the amazing

Tamale, Bad Biking, Coconuts and Getting Drunk with Crazy Dutch Dudes!

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Laura biking in Tamale, Ghana

Today we got take away breakfast of rice and beans with hard-boiled eggs.  The dry heat of Tamale was actually refreshing and we decided to walk the 5 KM into town.  The last version of Bradts travel guide to Tamale referred to it as a dry backwater not worth going to.  That has all changed.  The roads have been greatly improved and are some of the best I have seen in Ghana.  Most people ride bikes here so there are few cars on the road.  The new roads that have been built here include double bike/walk lanes with a half-foot concrete guard against traffic. 

On our drive in I saw tucks carrying hundreds of bikes.   Every 5^th store seems to be a bike shop too.  It’s like the Amsterdam of Africa.  The folks at the Moon-Light Lodge let us borrow their bikes to ride the neighborhood but said we were not experienced enough to ride into town and navigate the traffic.  I took no offense and they are 110% correct.  My Magic Road Safety Stone doesn’t protect against crappy biking skills. 

Machete Wielding Coconut Dude

Wandered town a bit before moving towards the National Cultural Center, which they say, has some wonderful art stalls around it.  Along the way we stopped to have a coconut from a Machete Wielding Coconut Dude (discussed in a previous post).  So good. 

Not terribly impressed with the art stalls so we start to head out when Mother Nature decides to open up.  With little warning we ran to the closest place we could find…. a Rasta Bar.  The pounding rains lasted for hours.  Many drink with crazy Dutch Dudes later we taxi-ed  home.