Riding the Straight and Narrow

Friday September 30th
In Which we Ride the Straight and Narrow

Today marked the 25th cycling day of our European Odyssey. After 3 nights in Vienna it was time to get back on two wheels and resume our journey. I must admit that, while Vienna is indeed a lovely city, after two days of inhaling huge amounts of second hand tobacco smoke and jostling for survival among thousands of blank eyed shuffling tourists, we were all really glad to be back out in the fresh air and open spaces.

Our route out of the city took us across the river to the long island that splits the Danube into two major rivers. This gave us a quiet exit from the city and soon we were clocking up the kilometres as we cruised along a lovely series of bike paths that ran parallel to the Danube.

When I was planning this trip I estimated that we could reasonably expect at least 5 or more wet days. So far we have defied all the odds, with only 1 wet day out of 24 completed riding sections. Once again the weather was fine and mild, with a top temperature of around 25C. This weather has been almost too perfect. In some contrary fashion, I am almost hoping for a wet day, just to vary the pattern. No, on second thoughts I would be happy for this weather to follow us all the way to Budapest.

It quickly became evident that the cycling in this section was going to be different from the most famous section between Passau and Vienna. When I last rode this, back in 2009, I remember that the route was often ill defined and quite often rough. In the past seven years it was evident that much work had been done to improve the surface and signage. Even so, it is possible to ride for long distances without encountering other riders (or coffee stops).

On one such section we rode on the top of a perfectly straight levee bank over an hour. The path was smooth and completely straight, so much so that it actually became difficult to maintain concentration. I was also conscious of the fact that the seat on the new bike was causing extreme pain in my nether regions. Every couple of kilometres I had to lift up from the seat and have a few blessed seconds of relief from my anal anguish. It is not easy being a long distance rider.
In the small hamlet of Stopfenreuth we stumbled upon a lovely cafe, hidden away in the forest. It was a great find and the food was delicious.

The final challenge was to cycle across the huge suspension bridge at Bad Deutch-Altenburg. This bridge must have been close to 2 km across and the narrow bike path and extreme height gave us all a dose of vertigo. It required a lot of nerve and concentration to keep going, but we all managed to succeed in the challenge without falling over the barrier and down into the Danube.

Our stop for the evening is the Marc Aurel Hotel, situated among a cluster of Roman ruins in eastern Austria. This will be our final evening in Austria as tomorrow we enter Slovakia - the third country of our Danube ride. Already the chalets of Bavaria seem a very long way away. The architecture here is markedly different and gives a foretaste of what to expect as we enter the old eastern block countries of Slovakia and Hungary.Leer más