After we left McD's last night it was dark and we had no lights on the bikes - so we decided to ride on the pavement. Halfway home we saw policemen ahead who had stopped to get a young motorcyclist at the side of the road. Off we got and dutifully pushed our bikes past them until we were out of sight again. We rode them further along the road until we reached a place to cross the busy road so got off again. As we were crossing the road we saw the police car who had driven up to see if we were riding the bikes - after he saw we were pushing the bikes again he did a u turn and drove off. That was a near miss for us and a lucky escape. It was a good feeling to get one over on the old bill though.
The sun shone and the heat rose today - big time.... After a few minutes discussion we decided to use today to cycle some more and explore further. We were told that the cycle route from the camp site to Vienna was 14 km so we decided to do that and see how we went on. The ride was delightful - all along the River Danube, amongst the trees and lanes way away from the busy roads. It was flat of course, being along the riverside and there was shade from the trees for some part of it. A strong headwind tested us at times though.
It was great to see the ever changing landscape - one minute was trees and river, the next was superb graffiti on the support posts for the flyover into Vienna. The Danube was not blue today though, as reputed - it was grey really - or green if you had a very romantic view of the vista.
We saw a large flat bottomed container ship that had been converted by ING into a swimming pool and leisure complex and it was being well used in the sunshine today. There were also Danube cruise ships which were beautifully kitted out - see pics. An entertaining ride!
Eventually we stopped off at the Swiss beach at the sid eof the Danube. This is a fantastic area that has been sanded with deckchairs to resemble a beach and it has a bar and a restaurant. People were there in their lunch breaks stripping off and sunbathing - if they had that in the UK we might have considered staying on at work.... not! After beers and some lunch and an entertaining time watching some roadies setting up a stage for an evenings gig we set off back along the cycle path. On the way Steve saw a BMX trail and couldn't resist having a go - even after his 28 km ride.....
On arriving at Essie we had a rest and a read and then had a walk around Klosterneuberg to see what there is there - not a lot but it is very handy for Vienna sightseeing. We had just about had enough anyway as someone must have put some money in the meter - it was steaming hot! Time to return to Essie and treat each other to a pedicure after all the dirt and heat of the day.
Dinner was some lovely pork steaks with potatoes and green beans, sitting outside trying to cool down (sorry UK - we have heard that the weather is bad there)
Tomorrow into Vienna proper for an exploration.
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