September 24, 2019: Vienna

September 24, 2019

Eighteen kilometres on foot

Hotel: Magdas Hotel, € 78

IT WAS still dark out when I opened my eyes just a slit, hoping to see that the bikes had packed themselves away into the boxes. They hadn't.

The work began in earnest. It was not too often that I had to create a box from a box. I went down to the lobby to borrow a knife so I could hack away and get somewhere rather than with my mini jack-knife. Note to self - like I did on earlier trips, bring a 'real' one that can get things done.

The thing was, the bikes would fit into the box - the question was whether or not the boxes would fit into a taxi, through security, or into the truck for the drive home. They were HUGE. Either way, I would have to destroy the integrity of the boxes then try to figure out a way to strengthen them so they didn't spill our goodies from Vienna to Timmins.

The bikes were dismantled, which takes mere minutes, placed into the box, then I hacked down the box to 'normal' size, taped it up, popped in our bags of clothing, tools, panniers and such, then strapped the boxes with the nylon straps and clips. So far, so good, but the tape on the corners was not holding. Something more would have to be done. I figured I would use the airport packing service to wrap the boxes in plastic film. Or so I thought.

Approaching noon, we headed back out and toward the centre to St. Stephen's to have lunch and to find a bank to change the CZK to EURO. It seems none of the regular banks allow it unless you are a customer, so we needed to use Western Union. Holy commission robbery, though I did expect that from them. Not only was their rate terrible, but they charged another 5 EURO for the transaction.

Before leaving the square, we went into the magnificent St. Stephen's for a few photo moments, then worked on a nearby geocache. That was a fail when people kept hanging around the area, so we couldn't look for or find it. We moved along, heading to the far side of the ring road before working our way back toward the Stadtpark seeing the Rathaus, palaces, and parks. There were enough people around, but not too bad, so it was a beautiful walk around the city. I was not perfectly oriented, and tried to remember the sights from when I was here previously, but could not until we stumbled upon them. After about 15 km on foot we started to make our way back to the hotel, though first a photo moment along the river tributary with Alex's Pookie.

In our hotel's neighbourhood, we were about to return directly to the Magdas, but decided on a return to Gasthof Schosztarich again, where we had been yesterday. Mr. Schosztarich seemed genuinely pleased to see us again, as did the woman who had served us the day before. Relaxing in the back garden, we had a drink, then decided on a dinner of pork/beef and potatoes.

As every other time, when we went to pay Mr. Schosztarich he beamed with happiness and thanked us for coming, and asked if we would be returning the next day again. Sadly, we had to tell him we were heading back to Canada the next day so could not. Then he had a number of questions about Canada - bears, elk, where we lived, and so on. But we had to go, and he said we would be welcome in his restaurant any time we returned, though he said he would soon be retiring and his son would be taking over. But, not to worry, he said, he would be sitting in the same spot. And then he asked us, would we enjoy a schnapps from him as a gift. We would so we did accept his generous offer before wishing him the best and heading out.

I had a light bulb moment so we returned to the room via a grocery store where I picked up two rolls of plastic film and back at the hotel, used them to wrap around our boxes - this seemed to work alright which made me feel a lot better. Rather than using the packing service in the airport, I film-wrapped the boxes to strengthen them on the long axis hoping this would keep our things safely inside. (It worked beautifully and when our bikes arrived to Cochrane, even after arriving late and being shipped by bus from Timmins, the boxes were in pristine condition.)

The last item on our list was to head to Prater park and go for a ride on the big ferris wheel. Views were awesome, photos numerous, and a nice finish to the Vienna visit and our PRG to VIE bike tour trip #19.

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