From Old to New

As usual we had a hard time breaking loose of Znojmo and moving on to the next town. After a rest day on Friday we were planning on heading out on Saturday for points east but got a little delayed because....well...we decided to get tattoos at a cool little shop in town. It took a little longer than expected (especially mine...ouch) and it was too late to set out for Mikulov, so we spent another day in town checking out a Neolithic pottery exhibit, drinking coffee in an underground medieval cellar, and enjoying ourselves.

Sunday it was back on the bikes (and hard on the back...for Bird, whose fresh tattoo was being aggravated by the backpack). Our plane was to leave on Wednesday from Vienna and time was running short so when we reached the town of Hevlin we decided to head south into Austria a day early and take a "shortcut" via the Krakow-Vienna Greenway route. It was sad leaving the Czech Republic, which we had grown very fond of, and we said our goodbyes as we peddled south into the wind the 90 degree heat.

Once across the border there was a subtle but noticeable change in culture. People seemed more affluent and were definitely in love with their motorized toys (cars, motorcycles, etc.). While it still seemed like an "old" land there was much more of a modern feel to the cities. The towns are more spread out and there was little in the way of restaurants and stores in many of the smaller hamlets we rode through. I hate to sound so negative about Austria, because it is still a beautiful place, but the Czech Republic just seemed to exist on much more human of a scale. The towns and countryside were laid out in a walkable, user-friendly sort of way instead of with primarily the automobile in mind.

There were several bike routes and trails in Austria but the signage wasn't nearly as good as in the Czech Republic and we had a hard time staying on-route. The first day in we ended up riding on the highway in order to get to our stop at Mistelbach, where we found lodging above a good Chinese food restaurant.