Vienna or as the Austrians call it, Wiens

Hello:

We made it to Vienna yesterday.  It should have been the easiest leg of the trip, but since Moogie's knee was bothering her, we rode the second half of the day very very slowly.

We left Krems at about 10 am, and stopped in Tulln for lunch.



We wanted to make Vienna before dark, so we didn't stop to site see.  But, still, it took about 1.5 hours to find a place to eat, eat, and get back on the trail.

It was sunny most of the day, with wind.  The Murphy's Law of Biking held true, and we rode into the wind the whole way.  It alternated feeling cold and hot because of the sun.  I rode without a jacket and was a bit cold, but I liked it.  There aren't as many towns on this stretch of the trip, so we rode through forest with the river on our left  as we were on the south side of the river.  Moogie's knee started to hurt and we had to really slow down.  It was getting close to 5 pm and I was starting to worry about arriving before dark.  We had been smart and google.mapped the hotel in Vienna, then saved the directions on Moogie's phone.  We knew it was going to require quite a bit of riding through the city.  In fact it was about 6 km once we got to the city proper.


We got a bit lost, but not too bad, and some very nice people helped put us back on the right track.  Ok, I know the map above makes it look like a straight shot, but really, it wasn't and it is very tough to read street signs here.  Also, it says that it should take 2 hours, but it took us 4.  We did it though.  We rode bikes from Passau, Germany to Vienna, Austria.

Today, we slept in a bit, then took their subway, the UBahn into the city center.  First we visited a flea market.

We walked around quite a bit.  Moogie was amazed that most of the stuff looked like what you could get at a flea market in Brooklyn, NY.  Then we walked to St. Stephen's Cathedral.  This is just an amazing building.  I know I am Catholic, but when I see these cathedrals, I can't help thinking that the Catholics knew how to build a church.

We took a tour of the catacombs below the building where the bishops of Vienna as well as many of the royal family are buried.  There was also an open pit of bones from the last time the Plague swept through Vienna.  It was amazing and sad.  There was a mass going on in the church, so we went into a side nave and lit candles for my brother.

Then we went out for ice cream.  We deserved it!  We found this organic ice cream place called, Eis.  The ice cream was delicious.  Moogie had the cone with cream cheese and strawberry.  I had chocolate, caramel, and raspberry.

We then went to a butterfly museum and enjoyed the open flight of the beautiful butterflies.  We wanted to go to the Natural History Museum next, but it was closing in 1 hour, and the guy selling tickets said to come back tomorrow as we would not get out money's worth.  By then it was pouring.  Our raincoats are only water resistant, so even though they helped, we still got soaked, especially our shoes and pants.  We decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel.

It was a great day, though.  Tomorrow we will try to fit in 2 museums, the Library, and a palace!  Oh, also one more crypt, Moogie loves crypts and catacombs.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with organic raspberry ice cream in Vienna