Vienna, Austria to Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria; 32.8 miles (52 km), 2 hours and 41 minutes, 599 feet (182 m) of elevation climbing.
We had a very interesting start to the day. First, we had to retrieve our bicycle from the hotel's underground garage, which was like navigating a maze down into the basement garage to the locked storage area to retrieve our bike and then ride through underground garage to the exit two blocks away. Then back to the hotel to turn in our room key and check out.
While I was waiting by the bike for my husband to check us out, there were a bunch of tourists, who appeared to be retirees like us, standing around talking and when they saw our bike began taking pictures of it. Some of them were extremely curious and came over to stand and stare at it. It was obvious they'd never seen a bike like ours before. At first, I thought they were Spanish, but one of them spoke one or two words of English and I discovered they were from the Lake Como region of Italy. By that time, my husband had returned and started practicing what we call "recumbent evangelism" which is talking about the bike and inviting people to sit on it.
Those tourists who wanted to sit on our bike were all women and others took pictures of them on our bike. An older gentleman came up to me and asked if I spoke Italian. I said "no American" and he said "No Italiano?" I confirmed "no" and then I threw out "Je parle un peu de Francais" which sometimes works, and I speak enough high school French to get by. He said "no" and then he repeated his same phrase again and I realized he was not asking if we spoke Italian, but if we had ever rode our bike in Italy and I told him no, not yet, but hoping to later. I have no idea if he understood me at all. The ladies were so friendly, saying 'grazie' and 'ciao' over and over. Such a lovely encounter even though we didn't understand what we were all saying. I jokingly said "Bon Voyage" and they took it upon themselves to teach me the Italian version "Buon viaggio." What a great encounter with some lovely people! It was such a delightful start to our day, and I got to learn a little Italian as well.
I was able to recall this so clearly because I recorded the whole encounter on my phone. If I could figure out how to upload a video here I would but I haven't figured out how to do that. The thumbnail of this post is a still from the video I took on my phone.
I noticed a Hoffer (Europe's version of Aldi) as we rode into town and was determined to stop there on our way out to get some snacks to carry on the bike. It was glorious to be able to do some guilt-free snacking as we were riding. In the US, Aldi is one place we like to shop at, so I had to go to Vienna's version of Aldi. I walked out with some extremely expensive peanut M&M's and trail mix to snack on. My only regret is that we had no room for me to buy anything from the Aisle of Shame (if you are an Aldi shopper you know what this is) and in THIS Aldi, there were AISLES not just one AISLE. We were really at our weight max for our luggage so I couldn't buy anything else to pack.
The weather was gray, and it seemed like the threat of rain followed us in the morning. It was a really boring ride. We rode out of Vienna on a peninsula in the middle of the Danube that was a beautiful park and had nicely paved wide paths. After that we rode along the river beside fields and a one rutted track through a field. Really not a very scenic ride with interesting terrain.
We did cross over this bridge to get into town. This bridge was probably the most interesting thing we saw this day. It had a dedicated bike/walking path so that was nice. However, when we stopped in the middle to take pictures, we could feel it rippling.... a lot....
Carnuntum is an ancient Roman city and our hotel was in easy walking distance to the museum, so we decided to tour the museum and the city the next day on our way out of town.
Our hotel was nice and we were able to eat dinner right at our hotel, the Marc Aurel. They had garage storage for our bike, too.
Thus ends day 14.
If you would like to read more about our three week-long bicycle tour starting in Prague, Czech Republic and ending in Budapest, Hungary, here are the links to our entire adventure:
Day Zero in Prague (Weather or not I wanted to)
Day One.... The Hills are Alive .... and I am not
Day Two....Vistas and Grocery Stores (and an angry cashier)
Day Three.... Are we Hiking or Cycling? (Today it was hard to tell....)
Day Four.....My Favorite Place on the Entire Tour (and a nod to the Beer of Kings along the way)
Day Four and a Half (I couldn't do it justice in one post)
Day 5 ...... Will This Day Ever End???
Day Six... Pausing in Passau (AKA This is the way we wash our clothes.....I think....)
Day Seven - Off down the Danube (If we'd only had that meeting.....)
Day Eight - We needed a day like today.....
Day Ten Cycling the Danube - Cloudy With a Shot of Melk
Day Eleven Cycling the Danube... A rare short mileage day!
Day Twelve Cycling the Danube - Aahhhh Vienna!!!
Day 13 - Our Day in Vienna (It's not supposed to be this HOT)
Day 14: Vienna to Petronell-Carnuntum (Apparently, I can speak some Italian.....)
Day 15 Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia (Rain and broken Chain...)
Day 16 Bratislava, Slovakia to Gyor, Hungary (There's a snake in the grass....)
Day 18: Komarno, Slovakia to Esztergom, Hungary (A tense tummy and a tense moment......)
Day 19: Esztergom to Budapest, Hungary (A long ride for the last day)
Day 20: A Day in Budapest (We had to see the last of the "Stevens/Stephens")
