Poysdorf

August 22, 2017

We had an easy ride out of Vienna, much easier than I expected. But in retrospect, I should remember that central Vienna is quite small compared to cities like Paris, London, or Berlin, making it highly manageable. Plus, it has excellent bike infrastructure, making biking an easy mode to use!

With the decision to make our visit to Bratislava a day trip rather than a bike trip and to follow one of the Greenways to Vienna, we needed to tweak the route to Mistelbach ever so slightly. Kenneth had already laid out a route there from Vienna, but we modified it to make the starting point our hotel and to cut out a four-mile loop down and back on one of the Danube River islands. That shaved some mileage off today's ride. We ended up backtracking on some of the route I had used to get into the city Friday, which included biking along a nice canal that I had used to come up from the Danube.

Today's ride to Poysdorf.

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From there, we crossed the river on a former highway bridge now converted to a bikeway and paused to take in the views. Magnificent! Plus it was a bright and sunny day. Warm but not hot, at least not yet!

A former highway bridge, now a bikeway. Lots of space for everyone!

And the view of the Danube looking downstream. The sun was not quite right for a good picture, and the upstream view was blocked as it had the new highway bridge in it.

Kenneth and I had gotten separated from Happy and Jerry at the start of the canal. We took the south bank, and they crossed to the north. Both will work as long as you don't miss the last crossing to get over the Danube. As it ended up, Kenneth was biking quite hard, and I was trying to keep up with him, so ultimately, Happy and Jerry fell behind a bit. But Kenneth also wanted to stop at a bike store on the way out of town, so a little extra advantage was OK. We continued on our way and finished crossing the Danube and were soon "off" the course, winding our way through the opposite shore's suburban-style road network to a major sports retailer. Kenneth went in and found what he needed while I watched the bikes. I would have checked my air, but this was a big-box-type retailer, so I didn't bother to ask.

Working our way through the suburbs on the far bank looking for our bike store.

After recovering the course, we continued on our way, still somehow ahead of our other two riders. After some wayfinding issues (the course in one section didn't make much sense and seemed to want to follow an old tram right-of-way), we broke out into the countryside and an actual part of the Greenway, signed and all! We were on our way!

This was a very pleasant part of the ride, although really there is no part I can disparage. It was bikeway all the way and well signed for the route we were following. In fact, so well signed that we could abandon the course on our Garmin and just follow the signs. Which we did for a section, as the signed route actually took us off the Garmin course. Fine with us. The Garmin course we were using had us going down a dirt road at one point. I think the Greenway route we were using had been "borrowed" from another RWGPS user's account, so possibly that individual had just taken a different path for whatever reason. Or maybe the Greenway course had been further refined, as over the course of the day we found other anomalies. Either way, we were headed for Mistelbach and, from there, would make for Poysdorf and our hotel for the night.

So we veered off the Garmin course at about MP 14 or so and started following the Greenway signage (which is Euro Route 9, I believe). It took us through the small village of Pillichsdorf and then back out to the countryside as we turned to head northwest.

A bike motif in a city park in Pillichsdorf.

At some point we were hoping to find lunch and had identified a few towns where we might partake. That ended up not happening as we had difficulty just finding water! And with 57 or so miles on today's agenda, a refill of water was going to be required. So we pedaled along, sometimes on good roads and sometimes on not-so-good roads, but all passable. For a while, we followed a railroad line that, in most cases, would be a pretty consistent grade, but in our case went up and down to allow cross roads to pass underneath to the far side.

Kenneth riding along a country farm road . . .

We had been climbing (more or less) since before Pillichsdorf and peaked at about MP 32, where we started to drop along some farm roads, which was not on the actual route. The actual route appeared to be little more than trodden grass along a fence line. Or maybe there was another road on the far side of the fence line. Either way, this road worked fine, was as good as any other, and took us to the same point!

More farm roads on the opposite side of the climb. This one was a little rougher but did not last long, and we were soon back on hard pavement.

Shortly afterwards we arrived in Langendorf and were successful in getting water. This was about two miles before one last climb and the final descent into Mistelbach. Not a big climb, not overly steep, but longish. But given we had taken three days off and the seven days before that had been down the Isar and Danube Rivers, we were a little out of practice! But in all truth, we had been riding fairly strong today. The rest was well deserved, and Kenneth had brought new energy and dynamics to the group, both good things. I was no longer riding solo as much!

I will admit to getting a little lost after the descent. I was actually ahead of Kenneth by a tad, made a wrong turn, and rather than backtrack, explored a new route to recover the course. All of which was fine. But Kenneth did not miss the turn and went on into Mistelbach to explore the town a bit. I decided to bypass it and head straight for Poysdorf. But I know Kenneth got there first, so he must not have lingered in town long. Beyond Mistelbach it was more beautiful countryside, although we did run into some construction work for a new highway.

Beyond Mistelbach, we were back on bikeways again.

And discovered lots of windmills generating clean energy. We saw lots of these in Austria during our trip to Bratislava.

I only had one difficulty. Somewhere around MP 50 I "felt" a little snap in my seat. I didn't hear anything, but I felt a "give." And I felt my seat position alter a tad. I pedaled on for a while, contemplating this, knowing deep down what had happened, but testing out the result. Finally, I stopped and examined my seat. Sure enough, my left saddle rail had snapped right behind the rear support. This has happened to me before, but never on tour! And I knew what I had to do to fix it. But I waited and rode the last seven miles as it was, all the while trying to shift my weight to my right "cheek" side, such as it were. It worked, and I arrived at our hotel without incident.

And there was plenty to distract me along the way, including this beautiful long climb up a hill not far from Poysdorf that was pretty stunning, I thought.

A long climb up a beautiful hill. Six or seven boys, all kids, passed me and rode up this side . . .

. . . then down the far side, with me not far behind.

Poysdorf in the distance. In my mind, I was limping along on a broken saddle.

Limping indeed, but to a very nice hotel. Good choice, Kenneth. And welcome to the crew!

Saddle fix? Move the saddle forward so that the broken rail is between the two rail supports. That worked last time. My only challenge is I'm carrying more load and have a lot of hills to climb before I reach Berlin. Hill climbing means more pressure on the saddle. Let's hope the fix survives those climbs!

We contemplated it and the fix over a glass of local wine . . . apparently a specialty of the hotel.

Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 1,332 miles (2,144 km)

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