After yesterday's overcast skies we woke up to a bright sunny morning. Having really enjoyed our time in Vienna we set off once again for pastures new.
The ride out of the city had to be the longest we have yet done. Admittedly we wanted to see a few more sights on the way out, but we had done nearly10 miles by the time we reached the outskirts. The Hunderwasser house is without a doubt one of Vienna's stranger buildings, almost Gaudi-esque in appearance. Built as a social housing project, it must be a more interesting place to live than an ordinary tower block.
Our final bit of the journey out of the city was through the Prater, Vienna's giant park. We must have been looking a little puzzled at the map, because two cyclists stopped to help. One of them led us out of the park, across the Danube and on to the correct route. We were a bit concerned about being able to keep up as he was on a racer, but he slowed down for us!
Safely on the right road we carried on along the Danube until Lobau, where there is quite a long diversion. The diversion is fine but sharing the road with convoys of quarry lorries all kicking up dust and grit isn't much fun. It was probably good practice for the African trucks that we will encounter later on though.
The next section was a bit tedious as we predominantly rode in a straight line for 20 kms, until we reached Hainburg. We have come to prefer the routes that lead through the local villages.
Shortly after Hainburg we finally waved goodbye to Austria and entered into Slovakia. So far so good, the cycle path still existed and there were even some signs. We weren't really sure what to expect as we entered into Eastern Europe. What we didn't expect was a huge logging lorry coming towards us on what we thought was a cycle path as we neared Bratislava. All of the signs pointed to it being a cycle path; a narrow road with two lanes and paintings of bicycles on the tarmac. For all we know it was just a handy short cut for the driver!
Following the route without any further incident we crossed the Danube into Bratislava. Our hostel was not too far from the river and unlike our epic ride through Vienna we quickly arrived at our destination. The 'Hostel Blues', although quite pleasant is a bit of a comedown after our last stop. We do still have wifi though and the reception staff are really helpful.
After a quick shower we had a rapid tour of what turned out to be quite a picturesque little city. The many quirky bronze statues situated around the streets are of special note. With the light fading we returned to the hostel for a rest and then went back out for dinner. The Slovak pub was recommended to us by the hostel staff and turned out to be really good. I had two traditional Slovakian dishes: Small dumplings with sheep's milk cheese and sausage and then more dumplings stuffed with plum and coated in cocoa and rather strangely cheese. Debs opted for the safer, although apparently delicious Goulash. After all the dumplings Debs had to practically roll me back to the hostel.
We leave Slovakia for the time being tomorrow and head into Hungary.
The ease of the Euro zone has come to an end!
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