Days 28 to 33: Trip to Vienna along the Danube, through the Wachau region, and three nights in Vienna
Imechapishwa: 31.08.2022
Jiandikishe kwa Jarida
In the following days, we cycled swiftly towards Vienna. We took the train to position ourselves (the route from Wels to Linz didn't seem very exciting, and we preferred to spend the remaining time along the Danube.
We were particularly interested in the Wachau region - and rightly so, as the Wachau is a stunningly beautiful place with a lot of fruit cultivation, some of which is even sold by the roadside. There were also plenty of delicious apricot products. It's a region to enjoy! We first rode from Linz to Grein. On the way there, we were caught in a thunderstorm and sought shelter in a hut where they even sold homemade cookies and drinks. We spent an hour there until the rain stopped. The cookie baker even came out in the rain with new cookies and invited us to come inside, but we had already made ourselves comfortable. We spent the night at the campsite in Grein, but unfortunately it was very noisy due to the road with many trucks. The city is beautiful though, and we had a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant with plenty of dessert. In the morning, we had a good breakfast at a café. By the way, the locals here speak a German dialect that we couldn't understand even when they spoke to each other.
The weather pulled out all the stops. An English family decided to continue cycling just before the rain started, with the wind blowing fiercely. 'Those Brits are crazy' (Goscinny, R.: Asterix in Britain, 1966) 
After the Wachau region, we took the train from Krems (also very nice) to Vienna. On the way to the train station, Annika spotted some figs with her keen eyes for fruit, which were being sold for 20 cents each.
Vienna is a beautiful city with very good cycling infrastructure in many places. We cycled over 30 km each of the three days, explored various areas, took a lunch break at a café, and always had a delicious breakfast. In the evenings, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant twice, which was super delicious and very cozy as there were only 4 or 5 tables in total. We always sat comfortably outside and enjoyed Dals with Naan bread. One highlight was the Palm House at Schönbrunn Palace, where we accidentally ended up due to a misunderstanding. There are actually two botanical gardens, each near a different palace. Of course, I navigated us to the 'wrong' one. But the Palm House there was really worth seeing, with lots of interesting information about the time when naturalists were collecting their specimens - and of course, huge palm trees and interesting plants that are endangered or very old (from the time of the dinosaurs, of course, the species, not the plants themselves). We managed with our accommodation. At first, we were put off by the surroundings and the condition of the hallway (a dirty shared toilet in the hallway and a sticker indicating rat poison from 2016). The apartment was mainly visually enhanced, and the washing machine that we were looking forward to was broken. Nonetheless, the apartment served as a good base for our explorations, and the bikes found a safe haven right next to our bed ☺️
Staircase to the hallway 
In the end, I took Annika to the Flixbus in the morning and I'm already looking forward to seeing her again in October in Crete! For me, I then went back to Lake Neusiedl and then on to my next country, which I don't know much about and just want to pass through: Hungary.
You can find my routes on Komoot:
https://www.komoot.de/collection/1622992/-draussenerfahren
Jiandikishe kwa Jarida
Jibu
Ripoti za usafiri Austria