Vienna - Bratislava

Day 7: Vienna - Bratislava 76 km

Over the years, we have established this kind of rule of thumb while traveling: there is usually one shitty day a week... And after 6 cool days, day 7 was indeed pretty shitty.

Well it was not that bad but to sum up: we drove 20 km through the industrial zone of Vienna, 40 km on a straight dyke through a swamp forest and 10 km through bratislava's industrial zone and all that with very low temperatures... So that we could barely feel our feet at the end of the day. And it wasn't even possible to have a coffee on the way as in the only town, Hainburg, everything was closed... 

But Bratislava was a very nice surprise and cheered us up at the end of the day. The sun even came out around 4 pm. The old town was really nice with a lot of small cafés and bars. 

40 km on that dyke was very long! 

Krems - Wien

Day 5: Krems - Vienna 86 km
Day 6: day off in Vienna

On the fifth day we enjoyed the very nice weather and tail wind to cycle to Vienna. We wanted to make the most out of this sunny day and have a pick nick along the Danube. But we only had bread so thought we could easily get some cheese or something else in a town along the way... Problem: it was sunday and everything was closed, even the backery, the only Option left was again a Schnitzel in some kind of Schnitzel fast food! We enjoyed entering Vienna via the Donau Insel which is really nice. But getting to the hostel was kind of tricky even though we had especially chosen one close to the Danube. When you re tired, having to deal with so many roads and cars is hard!

The next day was a rest day in Vienna. We feel the lack of training and everything begins to hurt. And also in Austria we can still get all the gear we might need, for example a new and warmer sleeping bag for Kim. The weather was not so nice so we were happy not to be outside on that day.

We are off to Bratislava tomorrow!

Approaching Vienna 

Linz - Krems

Day 3: Linz - Hirschenau 82 km
Day 4: Hirschenau - Krems 83 km

Apparently Switzerland is under snow but here along the Danube, the sun is back :)

Getting out of Linz was a bit challenging and we had to cycle 20 km to go back to the wilderness but after that the conditions were ideal. As it was sunny and the surroundings nice, we decided to have a pick nick along the river and try our stove again. And this time it worked! So either our stove does not like the rain or there is something we hadn't understood the first time. So it's working really well but only on super power mode, perfect to boil our water quickly but fondue on the stove is gonna be tricky... We ll keep you updated!
We followed the Donau Radweg the whole day and stopped just after Hirschenau to camp. The temperature is pretty ok when you cycle but it gets really cold as soon as you stop moving so camping is still a bit tough at the moment.

The morning from day 4 brought us to Melk and was similar to the previous days. Except that it was windy and in the wrong direction so the Kilometers are harder. We stopped under the beautiful Melk Abbey for lunch to have a Schnitzel and get some energy. In the afternoon we cycled through vineyards and crossed beautiful old villages. The last kilometers were hard, we felt our legs and Leila started to feel pain in a knee. We found a guesthouse in Krems to spend the night, the area was too urbanized to find a place to camp.

Our lunch spot 

Grein 

Melk Abbey 

Cycling through Wachau vineyards 

We should reach Vienna tomorrow night and will take a day off there :)

Passau - Linz

 

Day 1: Zurich to Passau by train

Passau-Niederrana: 28km

Day 2: Niederrana-Linz: 68km

 

 

So, we are finally on the road! But we are currently only two people traveling, Moritz is finishing his Bachelor thesis and will join us as soon as possible. We are also without passports, passports that are still at the iranian embassy because of a very uncompetent travel agency... So the idea is now for Moritz to join us before we leave the EU and to bring us our passports.

 

We started cycling from Passau at 3 pm under the rain and found a nice place to camp after 2 hours. It soon started raining heavier and we did not manage to make our gasoline stove work properly. Instead of Pasta, we will eat some Kind of cold Couscous with tomatoe Sauce, that took us more than 1 hour to prepare. We hope that the stove will work properly next time, with Geraldine´s advice and a new gasoline of better quality.

 

The night was really cold and wet, meaning the tent was heavy to carry the next day. The weather was better and we could enjoy cycling on the empty "Donau Radweg". Nobody is cycling at the moment so we are in the complete wilerness, mostly birds on our way. We made it to Linz quite early (not many breaks with the cold) where we look forward to sleeping in a warm bed.

 

 

But it feels really good to be traveling again!