Krems to Vienna

Today the big focus was the ride. We had the longest day of the trip to date, not helped by the closure of one section of the bike path. This led to some more improvisation on the navigational front, of which the lowlight was accidentally ending up on a freeway on ramp, getting some "helpful advice" from a few passing motorists and having to walk the bikes back against the traffic to get the hell outta there. All within the first 15km. We managed to get back onto the correct detour and finally found our way back to James' GPS course. From there it was a bit of a grind. The extra detours and navigating hiccups contrived to add about 8 km to the planned day leaving us with a total over just over 90. The longest day on the bike for Gillian and Kieran ever, and up there for James in terms of time on the saddle (our bums hurt!). The fastest part of the ride was over a bridge where there was a wall of spiders on both sides - very Indiana Jonesish. Gillian rode her fastest speed of the day yelling FARK all the way.

It was a relief to find ourselves at our Viennese accommodation, and the cleaning lady was there to let us in, conveniently. The picture below tells the story of the day...

Or so we thought...

After showering, stretching and a bit of time relaxing (and checking the local area on google) we decided to go for a walk - the intention here was a quiet drink and then dinner.

We did the walk part, and then we found Cafe Happy Day. It had a nice little area out on the street, and a very lively bartender - Aurora from Transylvania. We ordered some drinks and said "cheers" with Aurora in about 8 languages (one of James' specialties), and settled in with a couple of beers and a wine. Then came Armageddon.

The sky went black (fast! We've never seen anything like it), there was a rumbling of thunder followed by incredibly strong winds and a torrential downpour. The only thing to do was to move inside and have another drink. By this stage, Aurora had decided it was fate and, having taken a shine to Gillian, poured the biggest glass of wine seen to date on our trip. After asking what music we wanted on the jukebox system, and then discovering Kieran's love of heavy metal, we ended up sitting at the bar listening to Judas Priest at full bore, followed by ACDC - the obligatory Aussie contribution - Bon Scott only... This was followed by unavoidable Jaegermeister shots (a new experience entirely for Gillian), while we fervently prayed for the rain to stop before things got completely out of control. Thankfully, the downpour ended as our second drink did (not counting the Jaeger shots) and we made a hasty exit. Shamefully, James appears to have managed to cut out Aurora from the couple of selfies we took to mark the occasion. We stumbled down the street for dinner and now find ourselves sitting at home wondering what the hell just happened... Welcome to Vienna!

For what it's worth, the video of the ride is below. Far from the highlight, it's not even close to the most interesting thing that happened to us today. At least we don't have to ride again tomorrow, we're looking forward to a couple of days in the same place...Plus we have a washing machine! Who thought we would be excited by such a domestic chore, utter luxury.

Maybe some history and culture tomorrow...

Relive 'Danube day 12'