April 11, 2019
Day 24: Fohrenhain to Neusiedl
Even though we are generally very naive and undemanding, we came to realize that Cesar's Privatzimmer, our spot above the chicken shack, was not quite up to snuff. Putting aside ants and cockroaches, the internet and electricity antics, and the fact that our room had not been completely cleaned (like old garbage in the wastebasket), and no soap in the washroom, it was the number of single men tromping around, cooking in the common kitchen, and talking loudly with each other that made this more a flophouse than a hotel.
The fact that no breakfast was part of the offering turned out to be irrelevant, as I woke up with dizziness and nausea. There is no time to be dizzy or nauseous so I just stumbled to the bike, which after 65 years of practice I could ride no matter what.
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The weather had given up most pretense of being Spring, so we had 10 degrees and a very stiff and cold wind in our faces. We entered a landscape which for the few of you that know southeastern Washington State, was much like the Palouse region. That is, it had large rounded hills, covered with crops or tilled fields, sometimes giving a layered or striped appearance. The hills had a lot of wind turbines, something that seemed very reasonable today, given the stiff winds.
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5 years ago
The first exciting thing we ran in to was a group of pigs. We had never seen anything like these guys before - they were totally furry! Not just hairy, like pigs can be, but furry.
We passed through a fair number of villages, but none had any commerce at all. Had we been looking for food, we would have been out of luck. The lack of any commercial development began to concern us, as we watched our bike batteries begin to falter under the onslaught of hills and high winds. But finally, outside the town of Ladendorf a clever owner had put a sign advertising his "Steiner" restaurant.
We found the place, and they readily agreed to have us plug in the batteries while enjoying their lunch special. This was restorative "country food" - chicken soup and roast chicken, and really did the trick, for 6.20 each. Of course, we also added an Almdudler, for the customary outrageous 4 euros.
The break gave us and the batteries both just enough boost to make it to the also tiny village of Neusiedl an der Zaya. The latitude and longitude for our Weingut Martinshof did not accurately show where to go, as the spot indicated was 1/2 block away. Once we found Martin's it was not quite so simple, as there seem to be related buildings over a further 1/2 block.
But our host was a nice young man, and the room - a first for us - contained a sauna. Dodie has just figured out how to work it, so the chilling effect of the day's winds may soon be reversed.
We are now poised at the edge of the Czech border, and have even run into our first Vienna to Prague Greenway sign. This is a sign that another cyclist also photographed (or one just like it), and that at home we greatly enlarged to learn as much from it as we could. And now - here we were standing directly in front of it.
Paradoxically, though we made it all this way to in front of the sign, we were too cold to really look at it. We may find ourselves looking at a computer blow up once again. Actually, we now have the paper map of the route (thanks to the Nicholson's in Kamloops), plus the Bikeline Guide, and GPS tracks, so we will be fine.
One thing we did notice from the sign was just how many countries Austria has borders with - seven. For Canadians, with only one neighbour, this is quite remarkable.
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 1,278 km (794 miles)
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5 years ago