Vienna at Last!

We set off from Mistelbach with only 50km or so to go to Vienna. The terrain was rolling farmland, occasionally fairly steep, as we rejoined the Prague-Vienna Greenway route after our "shortcut". Most of the day consisted of riding on narrow farm roads that resembled the paved bike paths back in America (barely wide enough for a car or tractor to pass). It was very hot and there was little shade, so we both suffered a bit from the heat.

The part of Austria we were riding through is very windy and so they have capitalized by building arrays of huge windmills throughout the farmlands. It was cool riding beneath the mammoth structures while hearing the slow "woosh" of the blades and seeing the shadows from them sweep across the fields. I don't know why some envrironmentalists in America have to fight against such wind farms when they seem so superior to me to any other kind of energy-producing method we are constructing. They may not look "natural" on the land but I, for one, think they're rather peaceful and beautiful.

We were on track to make it to Vienna on Monday until we hit a thunderstorm maybe 10 miles out. After first taking refuge under a gas station awning (& then discovering that they had a bar inside) we decided to stay the night in the "suburb" of Wolkersdorf instead of getting further drenched. It was a good thing we did so since the next day it took way longer than expected to navigate into Vienna, due to the before-mentioned lack of bicycle signage.

The official beginning/end of the Prague-Vienna route is supposed to be in the suburb of Stammersdorf but we never could find it and none of the locals we asked had heard of it. It was a bit of a disappointment not to find it but we set our sites on the Danube River, in the heart of Vienna, as our official ending point. I forgot to mention that, ever since we entered Austria, we didn't have much of a map except for a printout from the Greenway website. There was supposed to be a bike route all the way to the river but it was impossible to follow and so we just randomly tried to head in that direction taking whatever streets looks good. There were many bike lanes, etc., in Vienna but, once again, little signage. After blindly following street after street and getting frustrated we took a turn through a park-looking place and magically ended up on an old highway overpass (now a bike trail) that took us right to the river!

After obligatory congratulations and pictures we headed in the direction of the largest buildings in search of "downtown", or somewhere we could find a place to stay. After another frustrating couple of hours of navigating through the city (and eventually finding a cheap map) we were able to find the tourist district and located a charming (but expensive) pension overlooking the heart of the shopping district. Our one night in Vienna was spent getting a very brief look at a few of the nearby sites (some very impressive) and getting some much needed sleep. A proper tour of Vienna will have to wait for another trip.

After the long flight over the pond we're now safe & sound in the USA and recovering nicely from our trip. I'll get some pictures posted asap and we'll try to write up some more thoughts soon. It was a fabulous trip!

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.