Life's a Stitch

Sept 11th – Zwentendorf to Klosterneuberg 44.83 (26.89 miles)

We said goodbye to our hosts, packed up our bikes and we headed off along the river, getting closer to the big city of Vienna.

Our cycling days are getting shorter, but the biking is a bit more complicated as we get closer to more populated areas. Urban cycling means traffic and convoluted city bike routes. We spent quite a bit of time today consulting the GPS.

It was Monday and many restaurants were closed, so we were happy to see one riverside patio with customers.  They were serving their limited Monday menu: cake, grilled cheese sandwiches or hotdogs. C indulged in a generously sized piece of poppy seed cake. It’s a taste I haven’t acquired. We were visited by one of the Danube's "ugly ducklings," a y0ung swan.

We made the decision to stay two nights in the last town before Vienna, Klosterneuberg, as there was an event in Vienna that had driven up hotel prices. Tomorrow we’ll ride our bikes into the city and turn them in at the rental place that will transport them back to Passau, and we’ll take the train back to our comfortably air conditioned hotel with an "interesting" view of the patio of the apartment next door. I wondered how these people felt about having dinner on their balcony with new hotel neighbours every night or two.

Tomorrow is the big day, the end of the bike portion of our trip. I admit I'm not as disappointed about this as I was on the last nights of our walks on the Camino.