Traismauer to Vienna, Austria, 44.6 miles (72 km), 3 hours 13 minutes, 550 feet (167 m), of elevation (climbing).
As you can tell it was a very flat ride today. I was so happy about that given how long a ride it was. The weather was fabulous and there was little wind.
However, it was a Sunday, which meant there would be a lot of people out cycling, walking or riding around in their cars. Our route started out rather quiet and we passed and were passed by the occasional cyclist. Almost halfway to Vienna, we rode into the town of Tulin, Austria. The bike path passed through this awesome park that had food stands, a coffee shop and a public restroom. I was very happy to see that. There was also a stage with some seating. I would guess it was used for outdoor concertsand other events. I decided that this would be a great place to take a break so we sat in a pair of Adirondack chairs where I enjoyed my kaffe latte. There were lots of people about given what a great place this was. In fact, we ran into the German couple we met while we were waiting for our forgotten luggage to arrive on our first day of riding the Danube. We chatted with them for a few minutes. Then we saw Don Johnson's body double from his Miami Vice days... That just cracked me up.
As you can see. this was a popular stop for cyclists.
We got back on the trail and noticed we were being followed by a cyclist. I was surprised that he stayed behind us for so long because he looked like a hard-core, road cyclist, and we were not going that fast. He was passing us every so often, then slowing down where we would have to pass him and then passing us again. I had no idea why he was doing this. He finally came along beside us as we rode and started chatting with us. He was intrigued by our bike and started asking questions about it. As we chatted with him, we learned that he was a 2007 world champion cyclist. Wow! He was using us to practice his sprinting. As we approached this big dam on the Danube that we had to cross, he slowed and asked us if we were riding to Vienna. We said 'yes' and he said this was where he was stopping as we approached the trail head near the dam.
It was pretty cool to ride across and there were lots of people walking and cycling across it.
We continued our ride and several miles later we were looking for an opportunity to use nature's water closet. We found this little area that looked like a place to pull off the road to launch a boat. There was a lot of brush hiding it from the road we were on. Imagine our surprise when we discovered a 'memorial' to the Pied Piper of Korneuburg:
The story goes that in the days when the plague was still a problem, Korneuburg was overrun with rats and this strange man showed up one day and sold his musical services and was able to coax all the rats into the Danube. We thought this was really interesting as we've all heard a story like this, but have never seen anything about it in person. I put a link below to the legend below.
The ride became much more suburban after that. It was right along the Danube, the path was very crowded with walkers and cyclists and there were steps actually leading down into the Danube. Of course, this was my husband's opportunity to actually dip his toe in THE Danube River, as the access was pretty easy, so after he did his ritual toe-dip, we sat on the steps and ate our leftover pizza and M&Ms from the night before:
We continued on towards Vienna, we finally got our first glimpse from this bridge that we were crossing. We would be riding into Vienna via an island in the middle of the Danube:
There were a lot of distractions riding up the path. People on bicycles not paying attention, runners, walkers, pets, etc. not a lot to see. I did take some video. Here is a screen shot from that video to give you an idea of what it was like:
We finally came to the bridge we had to cross to get off the island and into Vienna itself. We rode another bike lane underneath the bridge to do this:
And just like that we were over the bridge and riding in the city, and everyone was out and about enjoying the first warm day of the season, apparently. I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of city cycling. Too many obstacles, people, distractions but you can't avoid it on these bike tours.
We discovered that our hotel was a few miles from the old part of the city, which meant that we'd be doing some walking the next day, as we had a planned rest/sight-seeing day layover in Vienna. The hotel was in a nice area and had a huge underground parking garage and a dedicated bicycle room off of the garage where we could store out bike. We couldn't find that bike room in the garage, at first, so someone from reception came down and showed it to us.
We had a great, modern hotel room. One thing I want to mention about the more modern hotel rooms we've come across on our tour is that they have great energy-saving features. In some of them, there is no electricity unless you stick your room key card in a slot by the door. Then some have their air conditioning tied to the windows and the air conditioning won't run if the windows are open. Our room in this hotel had automatic blinds which we could close. The air conditioner also had a remote control like you'd use for a TV and could not be used if the windows were open.
Based on a recommendation from the couple we met back in the laundromat in Passau, Germany, we went to the restaurant they suggested, and I ordered wienerschnitzel. My husband got a five-sausage dinner plate. Yes, that flower looking thing is a sausage. We ate outside, had some local beer and really enjoyed our meal.
Tomorrow we will be walking to the old part of Vienna to look around.
As always, you can see more photos on Instagram under the handle 7th_decade_redhead.
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")
