Vienna to Zagreb - 7 Days 535km

Hills & Corn

Vienna, Seebensten, Burgau, Bad Rakersburg, Koprivinca, Vitrovica, Zagreb

The 2500k mark arrived just before Vienna and so it was too the hotel and dump the gear then have a look around Vienna. There was also a few beers too!

There is an Australia Bar in Vienna. I walked in and yelled Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. There was no reply so clearly it wasn't that Australian. They did have every ones favourite beer VB but I don't drink it at home so I wasn't going to be drinking it in Austria.

Instead it was to the Art gallery for a bit of culture.

Biking around Vienna was very easy. Like most European city's it was easy, safe and fast to bike around. 

This is the beer section at a Spar shop.The cheapest was 80 cents euro Attakringer. Having biked across Austria I am now familiar with almost all of these.

And so it was the final evening with the 3 French.
We went to a beer house and worked our way through the 7 beers that they made. All

were good apart from the chili beer. It tasted fine then 5 seconds later it burnt your mouth. Pierre had a 1L stein of this and to his great credit finished it. He did have to remove clothing and was sweating profusely by the end but he finished it.

It was a good way end my time with Pierre, Margeaux and Vincent (joined here by Vincent's girlfriend Stephanie).

It was very difficult to say goodbye to them but we were going in different directions and all good things must come to an end. I wrote this on their facebook page to sum up our time together.


"It was an awesome experience to ride with the Pierre, Margeaux, and Vincent for nearly 4 weeks. The courage, commitment and teamwork they displayed in the time I was with them was truly outstanding.
It didn't matter how tough it got they always continued on, kept to their very tough schedule and it was always done in an incredibly positive way.
You, your family and your friends should be very proud of what you have achieved so far and I have no doubt that you will continue to the end of your journey no matter what it takes.
Take care, be safe and it was an honour to ride with the 3 French!"

So it was to the beginning of Eurovelo 9. This I thought would take me from Vienna to the Croatian coast but the reality was a little different.

The first day out of Vienna was flat until the bottom of what I thought would be the Alps. Now I don't spend a lot of time planning where I am actually going but I knew it was going to be hilly and I also knew at some stage that the lack of planning would become a problem.

After the first day there were many hills, large, and usually very step. 

This climb got me to over 1000m up. It was step and hot and there was more to come.

I found a flat place for lunch. It was bread, cheese and luncheon sausage. It was the only time I have eaten luncheon sausage and it will be the last.

This is what awaited me after lunch.

 

I was following the Thermanradweg (Eurovelo 9) to the border with Slovenia.

There were some parts steeper than others. Anything over 10% and it hurts.

After 3 days I reached Bad Radkesburgand the border with Slovenia. It had been 1 easy day and 2 very difficult days in the Austrian hills. It had been around 35 degrees for the last 3 days and I was happy to see the end of Austria.

Now my lack of planning had caused me to get geographically confused. Instead of going over the alps I had essentially gone around them. There were hills but nothing like the alps and I was both pleased that I didn't have to bike them and a little disappointed at the same time. I did meet some Polish people who were biking the alps and they had only 2 panniers so I had far too much gear for alp climbing anyway.

Having got to Slovenia I looked where I needed to go to next. The Eurovelo site has this section of EV9 being not yet realised. What that actually means is that there is no route and you are on your own. With a little more  planning I would have realised this and gone in a different direction.

There is a bike route that followed the Dura River so I decided to follow that. This lead back onto Eurovelo 6, then to Eurovelo 9 and down to Athens. 
I thought this would be a good plan as it meant I didn't have to think about a route, just follow the Eurovelo and everything would be fine. It wasn't in the direction I had intended to go but it didn't really matter as it went to Athens which is where I needed to get to.


It was a quick 35k across the top of Slovenia and then into Croatia. 
There was nothing to see really just farms and corn fields.

A map of the Dura river that I was following

The border into Croatia. I was really looking forward to seeing Croatia as I had heard many good things about it. I biked to Koprivinca and then onto Vitrovica and there was nothing to see. Nearly 300km from Slovenia to Vitrovica and I had seen corn fields, the odd interesting town hall and not a lot else. There was no camping grounds anywhere and the hotels were expensive. Without knowing it I had biked my way into the middle of nowhere with nothing to see, no where to stay and there was only more of it to come if I continued in the same direction.

The main square of Vitrovica

I stopped here for lunch. This is sign for the River Dura track. From here it was corn fields in every direction as far as the eye could see. I have no idea what happens to all the corn in Croatia but I had had enough of looking at it.

The 3000k mark somewhere in Northern Croatia.

The roads were fine to bike on but there wasn't much room for cyclists. 

I arrived at Vitrovica took an overpriced hotel, took a number of beers and looked up my options on the Internet. I realised that if I was going to continue in the same direction then I was going to have to get used to looking at corn. Coratian corn, then Serbian corn and finally Romainan corn. Its difficult enough biking every day but when there is nothing to see and nowhere to stay then its not a lot of fun.

So I decided to get to Zagreb as soon as possible and that meant the train. I just wanted out of the corn fields and this was the best way to do it.
 

The train took me back in the opposite direction to which I had biked over the last 2 days then to the South.

Zagreb was great. It gave me time to rest, to see just how wrong I had got my directions over the last few days and make a plan for the rest of Croatia.


Zagreb is a very nice city. Quite cheap, some sights to see and a very nice old town. It was great just to sit and work out a plan for the rest of my journey in Europe and relax in the sunshine.

 

Science

The main square in Zagreb. Later that day I had a little incident with a haircut.
There was a communication issue and I ended up with my hair 3mm long. It was a bit shorter than I had anticipated.

Basil - Vienna 13 Days 1082k

Chocolate Beer Chocolate Beer and Schnitzel

Basil, Hoentengen, Randeldorf, Hausen in Tal, Ulm, Neuberg, Rosenberg, Dengendorf, Engel Hartzell, Lintz, Tullin, Vienna

The first ride though Swizterland was hilly. Switzerland was very clean, very beatiful and very expensive. A snickers bar was 3 euro so there were no coffee breaks until we reached Germany. Switzerland has amazing bike paths. Often it would be a road just set aside for biking and there were many Swiss out on their bikes.

Sometimes you meet new friends on bike paths

We crossed from Switzerland to Germany back to Switzerland and finally back into Germany to camp. There was a day off so it was a BBQ, beers and a swim in the Rhine - cold but not too bad.

Then back onto the bike for the final part of Switzerland

The bike ready to go and loaded with a baguette

Lake Constanz is in the background on the right. We started from the lake in the morning and by two were at the top of a very large hill. It was the biggest climb so for that lasted for around 10k. It was a big day but on the way down I set a new speed record on the bike and I was using the breaks to slow down.

The Germans are very efficent. There are 34 different places listed on the sign post.

Southern Germany was very beautiful and there was some great scenery and some excellent riding in the sunshine.

I had broken the 500k in a week barrier!

In Ulm the festival on the Danube was taking place so the Eurovelo 6 track became the venue for dinner and drinks. We camped at a Canoe club just 100m from the site of the festival.

The 2000K mark on the Danube.

Sometimes it rains and it rained a lot in Germany.

Some German pub food for the World Cup semi final

German sheep

Coffee and cake in Neuberg.

We took a ferry through the Danube gorge. This was only about 8km but it took out some very large hills that we would have otherwise had to climb.

We camped next to group of Swiss school kids. They were about 15 years old and were doing a 12 day bike trip doing 100k each day. Lucky for them they didnt have to carry and gear.

This was the cossing point from Germany into Austria - a power station. There were 3 flights of stair to get the bikes up down.

Arrival into Austria.

There were 3 boats needed to follow the track.

The city of Linz.

Vienna! After 46 days on the road I get to sleep in a bed, have a shower without wearing jandals and catch up on some sleep.

The last 13 days with the Margeaux, Pierre and Vincent have been a blur of biking, camping rain, storms, amazing scenery and many many laughs. There have been breakfast beers, so many cups of coffee and a few times that I didnt think I could keep up with them.

I have biked further and faster than I thought was possible and I have had an incredible time doing it. Its a funny thing riding a bike. You forget the pain and suffering that goes into getting from A to B and only remember the good things.

I have been very fortunate to share the last few weeks with the 3 French and I have learned a lot from them.

So tomorrow its onto Eurovelo 9 to the alps!