Bike Everywhere!
I left my bags in the AirBnB place today and did a Vienna sightseeing ride on my bike. I wish it did not rain as much so that I could take better looking pictures.
Riding in the center was very easy. Vienna has very good infrastructure for bicycles. There are separate lanes and separate traffic lights for bikes. I really liked riding there.
Another easy ride today. The tailwind has been quite strong and sometimes I did not even have to pedal. The views were great along the way but at this point I got used to them 🙂 .
I’ve arrived to Vienna and I plan to do some sightseeing tomorrow in the morning. This is the third major city in my tour after Paris and Basel. Then later in a day I will ride to Bratislava, which is just 30 miles from here.
Very pretty ride today. Also a very easy one because it was downhill and with tailwind.
During the ride I’ve met a Russian-speaking couple on cruising bikes. They were riding from Passau to Vienna on an organized tour where they stay on a cruise ship each night and ride about 40 kilometers per day. Later that day I’ve seen more cyclists like them, many are old and on electric-assist bikes.
I’ve found a campground half way to Vienna and it is located next to the Schloss Schönbühel castle. In addition to being right on the river and with a great view the campsite also has free and high quality wi-fi and free showers. Here are the views near the campground:
Very short ride today as I planned a rest day in Linz. I needed to recharge everything and plan the rest of my trip.
My plan is to ride 2 days to Vienna, stay there overnight, then ride 30 miles to Bratislava, stay there for a night and then take a train from Bratislava to Prague where my tour will end. That way I will visit 6 countries (France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic).
I also found a bike shop in Prague, which can package my bike in a cardboard box so that I can either take it with me on a plane or ship it back home.
I have reached Austria today! This means I have crossed an entire country – Germany – by bike. Somehow I have missed a sign at the Germany/Austria border crossing and when I realized that it was too far away to go back.
Before crossing the border I passed the city of Passau. It looks like it is the destination for the river cruise ships. There were so many of them there! As a result the river front was flooded with tourists.
The route from Passau to Vienna is very popular. The scenery is beautiful and the ride is easy. The infrastructure is great too – there are even ferries just for bicycles. Because of that there are many more cyclists on this part of the EuroVelo 6 than anywhere else on the route.
I was planning to reach the city of Linz today but there was a very nice campground on the way so I decided to stay there instead.
