Flood - Nudism and a single room

Rain. All night long we hear it outside, sometimes quiet, sometimes wild, but it's there. Always.

Today we have breakfast in bed. A cool idea from our accommodation. Official breakfast starts at 10 o'clock, but if you want to leave earlier, you can have a breakfast bag delivered to your room door.

At 10 o'clock we have to vacate the room, it seems like the rain has subsided. In reality, it just wants to lure us out, away from the roof and shelter, and then show who's the boss!

We try not to think about the rain and enjoy the beautiful route, varied paths, sometimes directly along the Danube, sometimes through biotopes, sometimes ancient huge trees stand by the road. Birches, so old, so powerful, as we have never seen them before. Taking photos is too annoying in this rainy weather. We have to store the impressions in words and thoughts. It's pouring rain.

Today we as cyclists are a very supportive group - the heavy fate brings us closer together. Today everyone greets each other with a desperate smile, an encouraging smile, or mutual pity.

Just before Vienna, a group of cyclists rides directly in front of us for a few minutes. Emergency brake. A gate across the road. Sign: "closed due to flooding".

So here we are, stupidly standing in front of it and not knowing how to approach the situation.

A nice passerby tells us that some have simply ridden through. No one came back. This allows for 2 possible interpretations: either drowned or made it to Vienna safely. We play it safe, encourage the other cyclists and ride BEHIND them.

The Danube is indeed full and the water reaches partially to our roadway, but nothing is flooded yet. When we feel safe again, we overtake. It's always nice to hear the comments when overtaking, "let the ones with the eBikes go ahead". Oh well, what can I say, riding the heavy eBike at almost 30 km/h is exhausting because it only supports up to 25 km/h. So unfortunately, I don't have the energy to explain that to anyone.

We have chosen the route to reach Vienna via the Danube Island. The Danube Island was artificially built and is the recreational area of Vienna. When the marking "FKK" appears, we briefly consider taking off our clothes, but since the rain pants are so wet that they stick tightly to our legs, we just leave them on and no one complains about it.

Very nice. Now the rain finally stops, which is somehow irrelevant when you are already wet. At least it's not cold, the closer we get to the city, the warmer it is.

So we cycle through dry Vienna towards the center and look forward to: taking off wet clothes, getting off the saddle, and goulash soup for hungry stomachs.

We have arrived. We are in the middle of Vienna. Although cycling in the pedestrian zone is allowed, we continue to push our bikes towards "Graben", a promenade in the center near St. Stephen's Cathedral. Our buttocks thank us and it is less exhausting to maneuver around people. Looking for a café that satisfies our basic needs. Passing by fancy shops. All world brands also have their branch here in Vienna. The people we encounter seem busy, even during the business lunch in the outdoor areas of the upscale restaurants, the majority is always on their cell phones. A lot of emphasis is placed on appearance and clothing, as well as accessories that seem extremely important. The flair of a world city. In between, tourists, people in a hurry, and also some cyclists like us. Finally, we spot a café in a side street, it's relatively crowded and looks trustworthy. A suitable lamppost is also opposite, supporting our fully loaded bikes. We find an empty table with a view of our luggage. When asked for a menu, the waiter replies with Viennese humor: "I am the menu" and starts listing without pause or taking a breath what they have. Viennese Melange, goulash soup, and a mineral water are ordered directly. Perfect, everything arrives and we narrowly and surely avert the feared death by hunger. Now to the hotel - 5 minutes on foot and as we take the last turn, we see signs saying "Attention, filming in progress". Everything is tidied up again, because if we now become extras in the film and are later seen on the big screen, everything has to fit. The film crew is also busy at our hotel entrance. OK, we haven't seen any actors, not even a camera, in our hotel corridor they were just charging batteries for something and the sound engineer excitedly walked across the street with his microphone. Too bad, the people missed something, because we were ready. The last challenge was to individually and upright transport the bikes into the elevator. Since the hotel has no other storage option, our bikes get a single room! So noble have the 2 bikes never spent a night. A wonderful dinner in a small restaurant with a French concept and a great Riesling round off our evening.