Day 42: to Györ, Hungary (96; 2713)

Some days you've got it and some days you ain't. Today was one of the latter.

I slept badly in a stuffy room and was for some reason feeling vaguely anxious. I left early and had an easy ride - so easy that I would have liked to go further than Györ, but the location of upcoming camping options made that impractical.

I met a Kiwi couple who had come a similar route to me and we rode and chatted together for a bit. They had at some point come up the Prague to Vienna greenway and were strongly advising against it (unmarked and rough trails) which is good to know as, doing the maths on days left, I had been considering it.

There are multiple Eurovelo 6 paths leading out of Bratislava (at least on paper); two minutes after our paths diverged I was attacked by a bloody large Alsatian. His owner was calling him off (ineffectually) but luckily he went for my pannier, which now bears the large puncture wound that would otherwise have been in my leg! 

Not sure what the solution to dogs is. You can buy sprays etc but then have to be quick-witted and sure-handed enough to get to it at the relevant moment. Which I'm almost certainly not. I then almost had a second dog incident later: a huge black bull terrier type that was also loose on the street, but luckily was so busy having a growling match with next door's dog that it didn't see me till I had just gone past. Welcome to Eastern Europe! Or perhaps just a reflection of how few cyclists there are on this section of the trail relative to the pre-Vienna cycle superhighway.

Dogs aside the cycling was easy and I rode into Györ, which is a pretty and big town, very early, and then got instantly lost. Eventually found the swankiest possible tourist info office, staffed by a sour old lady, who grudgingly gave me a map and some incorrect info about campsites. Deciding sustenance was the only way things were going to get better, I then had a nice soup and ice-coffee break in the very beautiful main square at a cafe staffed by grumpy waiters.  I had been pre-disposed to like Hungary by the Hungarians I have known... But so far, not so good! 

Part of this is being back to square one with language. I had got quite fluent in pidgin German, and not even being able to say thank you and where is the loo is quite isolating.

It's been considerably cooler today, less than 25, and when the cloud is over that feels pretty cold after the last couple of weeks. I actually put my coat on against rain spots at one point but they didn't amount to much - lucky as I need to complete a waterproof pannier repair before any major rain.

The route out of Györ was always going to be tricky. The final straw of the day came in the form of a well-meaning elderly gentleman who insisted on taking me a 'better route' than the way I was going. We had little common language and I followed him protestingly for what felt like 270 degrees of ring road before eventually leaving him under the pretence of stopping at a garage (he cycled on shouting 'nein, nein, kom, kom'... And may still be doing so for all I care). Anyway I found my way fine once the pressure was off but it ended up being a bloody long way to get from the centre of town to my campsite.

Resolution of the day: I am absolutely going to stop giving in to other people's directions unless my map happens to agree with them!

Day 41: to Bratislava, Slovakia (85; 2621)

Last night Claudia took me to a heuriger in the town where she grew up, on a hillside outside Vienna. A heuriger is a very traditional Viennese occurrence where a family vineyard opens its doors for a couple of weeks and serves its newly-made wine along with some homemade food. Then when that batch of wine is gone it closes up again and a different vineyard has a heuriger instead. What a great system. The wine was good and the food absolutely amazing. Claudia made me try some of the dodgier realms of Austrian cuisine (pig lard anyone?) but it was all just delicious (possibly excluding the lard). Maybe I'm not ready to become vegetarian just yet.

A sad thing happened though - we saw an air ambulance flying low overhead and then a few minutes later the people with whom we were sharing a table got the phone call you always dread. They left as soon as they could, but it was quite a lot later before the helicopter took off again, presumably meaning that there was no longer any urgency for the patient. 

Claudia has been a brilliant host and is very entertaining company. I see lots of similarities with Uschi - I bet they fought like mad when they were kids! It was really great to see some of how the Viennese live, as well as the lovely city itself.

Today is yet another public holiday, and she was off early to the stables. She used to race her own horse when younger and now has a youngster in training whose second race is next weekend. I had been warned to get going early too as Turkey's president is in Vienna today and large demos are planned to shut the centre. The holiday did make the cycle back in a fair bit easier (as did knowing where I was going). I eventually made it out over all the multitude of bridges via the nudist section of Vienna. Those guys have impressive tans already!

The majority of the ride to Bratislava was along a long straight dyke. Luckily the cycling conditions weren't bad and I was very content bowling along in a straight line for 16k. This ended with a fantastic bridge crossing, taking me right up into the treetops for a couple of km across a wetland nature reserve and then the Danube itself.

I lunched on the river at Hainburg, a Roman town and technically still Austria, though you wouldn't think so from the language the waiter and I were speaking.

Then goodbye to Austria which I have really loved (despite the lack of smoking ban). The Austrians seem to me to enjoy a general lack of 'German-like' rules, eg dogs are allowed in almost all restaurants (Claudia told me in a very posh one near her if you tell them when you book that you're bringing your dog they prepare a special meal for it!)

So who else didn't know that Vienna and Bratislava were a short day's cycle apart? As we drove on the motorway last night there was a set of exit signs showing Slovenia and Italy this way, Slovakia and Hungary that way, Vienna straight on. Lovely. I also didn't know that Slovakia is now Schengen (and Euro) so no formalities at all at the border.

Bratislava is like a European capital in miniature. The old town is cute and heaving with the river-cruise masses, and there is a definite air of a town on the way up. I am staying in a nice hostel where a very kind young man insisted on carrying a loaded Horace up an enormous flight of stairs so he could sleep safely on the balcony (and so the young man could look manly in front of his girlfriend, I suspect!).

Day 40: in Vienna

Well what a lovely place Vienna is!

For one thing, it's a surprisingly stress-free capital (..on foot). The highlight was watching the morning training session of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. The well-trained Lippizaners are always a joy to watch, but the training of nervous youngsters was very interesting. The riders have a very quiet way with the horses. They are worked pretty hard with each rider doing multiple half-hour sessions. 

Apart from horses, I spent a happy hour in a brilliant travel / map shop, and am now a) 38 euros the poorer, and b) fully equipped to tackle the mountains of the Czech Republic. And then head north. Possession of detailed maps is clearly not actually going to help me get up the hills, but there is a comfort in being able to pick a route, and to know where the next sleeping place is!

After lunch I headed to Schloss Schonbrunn which was the emperor's summer residence. It's really enormous - you get the impression it and its park were designed to be impressive and a display of power, rather than beautiful, comfortable, elegant etc. I'd still prefer Chatsworth, if anyone were asking.

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Horsing around 

The cathedral, reflected in a modern neighbour

The Schloss (and from its folly above)

Day 39: to Vienna (68; 2536)

Two fascinating facts about Zwentendorf to start the day: in the 1970s Austria's only nuclear power plant was built here - but never used, and on Sunday it celebrated its 1000-yr birthday. Seems unlucky to miss a 1000-yr anniversary by one day... A bit like cycling all the way to Athens only to find your friends are not at home ;-)

(Ruth gets credit for that wisecrack)

Interesting camping neighbour last night: an elderly German chap with a large Canadian canoe. The campsite was a couple of hundred yards from the water and even though he had a set of wheels on it, it must be quite an effort to haul, being a large boat with plenty of contents. He says he does 10 kmh a lot of the time but only 5 when he nears the many hydro stations (he is travelling with the current of course). On the other side a nice German girl who told me she celebrated two weeks of cycling last night with a bed, a meal and a beer! Unfortunately a fair few mossies around for the first time (and no wind) so that limited the socialising somewhat.

Ironically because I had only a short distance to make, my legs felt full of vim today. I stopped in the very attractive main square of Tulln for some wifi and coffee, and generally took it easy all day.

The next stretch of cycling looked more like Belize than Austria: the Danube was a perfect pale jade, the sky a perfect blue and the only noise came from birds in the thick forest on both shores. Magic. I could have kept cycling that forever.

The route into Vienna was also surprisingly green and pleasant, though somewhat lacking in signage. In fact Vienna is quite good for cycling, with lots of paths etc. My only complaint is cycles aren't allowed in parks, of which there are many very large and lovely ones - therefore blocking the cycle route in all directions!

In fact I spent a couple of sunny hours this afternoon reading in the main park. I've been getting such enjoyment from the Kindle on this trip. Basically I downloaded about 80 free books - perhaps half modern trash, and half off-copyright classics. This rather random selection contains some absolute treasures - yesterday I read a Jane Austen novella called Lady Susan which was hilarious. Now I'm on Elizabeth Gaskell. 

I'm staying tonight with Uschi's sister Claudia, who was volunteered for this by Uschi when I saw her in Basel. All I know of Claudia is she has a dog and a racehorse. I like her already!

Day 38: to Zwentendorf (80; 2468)

Today was a day of two halves, as they say. I slept beautifully alone in my wooden palace, but despite this, felt totally exhausted all morning. The ride was through the Wacau, a wine and fruit-growing area that has UNESCO world heritage status for its 'medieval cultural landscape' (says a tourist info board). It's certainly attractive countryside and the lovely old villages are geared to tourists, cyclo- and regular. As such it did at times feel like a Disney version of Europe. And that on a sleepy Monday morning. Glad I did not pass through yesterday afternoon.

Lunch in a supermarket carpark at Krems seemed strangely reviving however, and I then really enjoyed the afternoon's ride, which was a total contrast. 

Immediately after leaving town via a huge Danube bridge the bike path started travelling through a remote jungley area right next to the river. Apart from the 'radler stations' (info and refreshment stops for cyclists, a v useful Austrian speciality) there was basically no civilisation all afternoon. 

Zwentendorf is a fairly one-horse town but has a small and quiet municipal campsite. Timewise and legwise I could have gone 15k more to the next place, but that is a big commercial affair and right now Zwentendorf feels more my style. 

Tomorrow: Vienna!

Day 37: to Pöchlarn (89; 2388)

Last night ended with me cycling around a nature reserve looking for my campsite in the pitch black at 1.30 in the morning. It wasn't at all a dangerous situation, but I did feel a bit of a wally! And relieved when I found it. Thanks google maps. Prior to this I had been watching the opening England match in an English pub full of Italians. Very amusing cultural experience...

Despite the late night, the day started at the usual time when twenty Hungarian teenage campers started to get going. I said fond farewells to my recent German friends and headed off into a surprisingly cool and cloudy day.

At lunchtime I stopped in the very classically Danube-looking town of Grein and then took a tiny wooden ferry across the fast-flowing river. As I landed a few spots of rain fell but despite looking threatening all day nothing worse has happened. I feel ridiculously blessed with the weather thus far, but it's been quite a pleasant change to not be sweating today.

Suffering a bit from several late nights I was surprised to make decent time/mileage and considered pushing on to break 100k. Instead I stopped at a 'Nature Friend House' (I've been wanting to try one of these) which advertised camping. When I asked to camp they told me I could but it was the same price (10 euros) to sleep in a bed. So a bed it is! 

This is in the slightly odd town of Pöchlarn. According to the tourist brochure I was given this is a very ancient town (Romans etc; I hadn't know the Danube was the border of the Roman Empire for 500 yrs). The brochure is generally pretty amusing: 'unfortunately the city was also more than once victim of inundations, ice jams and fires... Today it is a future-orientated business location..'. Well all I can say is, not on a Sunday afternoon it's not.

I find Austria a little bit quirkier and thus more entertaining than  Germany. Especially foodwise: as I write I am eating delicious garlic soup, that came served with a large squirt of squirty cream on top. Yesterday's lunch delicacy was 'germknödel' - one giant dumpling with prune jam in the middle, topped with a pile of poppy seeds and dripping with melted butter. Good cycling fuel but very odd indeed.

The next week's going to be busy: Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest if I maintain current speed. Three capital cities in a week, how very American!

Day 36: to Linz (75; 2289)

A second lovely Austrian cycling day, though a little sleep-deprived as I didn't get to bed till (gasp!) midnight, surprisingly drunk after 3 beers. And then the firemen started their games again early just outside my tent. With Abba playing as a soundtrack.

Blissful cycling through the middle section of the day on dedicated Tarmac cycle paths alongside the southern bank of the Danube. Superb forested mountains with occasional castles, monasteries etc to look at across the water. A bendy river with the odd ferry to take. Picture perfect. 'Yeah, it's just Austria' say my German friends with faint scorn.

We had another nice tailwind and were really zipping along, averaging more than 25 kmh. I lose these companions tomorrow as they head south for Croatia, I shall miss their company but will enjoy dawdling a bit more!

We rolled into Linz early afternoon, again a picture perfect and rather grand town. The campsite is a little way out in a nice park - or a 'ghetto', depending on who you ask. Tonight there is yet more football to be watched, if I stay awake that long. The World Cup has the advantage of making it possible to identify nationalities more easily: I saw some Brits flying England flags from their bike and I think those are the first English accents I've heard since leaving home!

Trying to figure out a post-Budapest plan. Ideally I want to end up at a ferry (so that's probably Holland or Copenhagen) one month after leaving Budapest. And absolutely ideally, I want to cycle the whole way. I may have to tackle some pesky mountains after all!

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Austria looks like this:

Vote now!