A hill!

So this is the fourth day of flatness. And whilst flatness is easy especially with the slight tail wind and allows many miles kilometers to be covered, and the Danube is undeniably an impressive river with picturesque hamlets, villages and towns on its banks, it does eventually get boring. Happily though as we approached Vienna we decided to leave the river and shortcut to the south of the city where, yet again, we are staying with friends of Calin/Raul. Half way through we hit a range of hills and ended up climbing some 700ft over 4km which may not sound much but was a welcome break after the flatness! As was the descent on the other side.

Vienna is a big city! We crossed maybe a third of it getting to the house. The bike provision is patchy - great in places but non existent otherwise. Terrain not so different to Sheffield, but without the potholes.

Had a bit of bike trouble today. Calin and Raul managed to run into each other (one turned, the other didn't). Fortunately no-one was hurt but it wasn't until we set off again that we realised the rear derailleur on Raul's bike was twisted and poking in at an alarming angle. And that whilst it was rideable the chain wasn't happy and Raul couldn't use most of his gears because the bent arm would come into contact with the wheel spokes and so we needed a bike hospital asap. Unsurprisingly then, the next few villages had zero facilities and it was many km before we eventually got it fixed.


1447km.

Gudrunstraße, Vienna, Austria