Easter Bike Trip

Seven people from four continents have somehow all found their way to a small city, Linz, in the north of Austria. We all have our bike laden with supplies - hopefully enough to get us to Vienna. All that separates us from this city is 230km of bike path along the backbone of Europe - the Danube river.

Why did we not just catch a train to Vienna? To be honest, I'm still not sure, but I think it's something along the lines of the saying "lessons come from the journey, not the destination".

With our journey stretching out ahead of us, a blue sky above us, and a good Austrian breakfast inside us, we start our journey. We've only given ourselves 50km to do the first day - to get into the rhythm. We'll play the rest by ear. After a few minor bike adjustments, it's pretty clear that we'll manage 50km today. The next two days are a different question though. 85km sounds like quite a lot. We take it slow on this first day, and we get a bit separated for lunch, but most of us find a market square in (the first of many) cute little old villages. We manage to hold ourselves back from buying excessive quantities of exotic cheeses. Sausages for lunch.

After a mammoth hill climb, our accommodation is a bit of a shock. We'd seen on its website that they sell ceramic garden figurines, but that doesn't really prepare us for the reality. Every piece of land that isn't covered with house is covered with hideous porcelain gnomes. We slowly edge our way through them to the front door, and are rewarded with hot showers and comfortable beds. After a bit of down time, we limp to the local pub, and eat various kinds of deep fried meat and potatoes. And the pancake soup is great.

Day two. We're pretty sore from yesterday. But we would have been encouraged to hear from our future selves that that day was the hardest. I guess we all just had to get used to new bikes, etc.

This day has the nicest scenery - passing through so many really cute really old villages, and nice European "wilderness" between them. An impromptu picnic for lunch also felt very European. Cheeses and sliced meat on fresh bread in a courtyard surrounded by tiny cobbled streets.

The worst bike malfunction happens on Saturday too. Long story, and this blog already looks pretty long, but to cut it short, one of us peddles for about an hour with her front brakes on, complaining the whole time about how hard it is. Once we figure it out, disconnect the breaks and it's all good to go.

For our second night, we stay in a really tiny village called Willmersdorf. It's got half a dozen bnbs, a great pub, and a museum for a famous stone statue found in this village. This statue is so famous it's got its own wikipedia page.

The next day, Sunday, the Easter bunny forgets to distribute Easter eggs, but biking is easy. Really getting into the zone now. It's a bit windier than the last days, but Mirko seems happy riding at the front, breaking the wind for us. We easily cover about 80km and find another bnb in a place that's almost a suburb of Vienna. More deep fried stuff for dinner on the side of the river as the sun goes down - including the very healthy sausage stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon, and served with chips.

On our last day, we have only about 1 hours ride to Vienna. By now this is absolutely no problem. I have to say it was very sad handing our bikes back to the rental place.

Vienna was fascinating. So many amazing old buildings everywhere. I'll spare you the details, though, as I told you it was about the journey, not the destination. So how was the journey? It was fantastic. We really lucked it with the weather, with the people, and had no accidents of any kind really. It was my first "bike trek", but I will definitely do more.

Thanks for reading, I'll post another update rather soon covering all (ok, some) of the goings on since Easter.

Adam