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Day 1, Vienna - Melk
Friday, 07 July 2006

Day 1, Vienna - Melk July 19, 2003

After many, many days of waiting and preparations I finally set off at 7:30. My family helped to get all my stuff downstairs, quick photo, good-bye, and that was it.

I knew the roads in and out of Vienna so no problems at that stage. Generally speaking all the time heading west. Danube River crosses Vienna roughly south-north, so I decided to make the shortcut and to intercept it again at Melk (objective of day 1) where it turns west.

First few hours were strange, first of all I had to get used to much, much heavier bike than usual. Additional 30kg can really disturb when you want to make a quick turn or stop. Well, somehow I managed. At least for the time being it was flat. Later it got worse... somewhere about 30 km outside of Vienna, I decide to make a shortcut and... spend 1.5 hrs climbing up the hill. That was my first one (but worse were to come yet).

Later on, just kept passing small towns, villages, fields (lots of corn fields) on this sunny day and kept wondering how I would feel next day (and also that I must have been out of my mind inventing the idea of the trip). It was quite hot and at some moments even became boring. Just before St. Pölten had something to eat at local imbiss and hit the road again.

I started to think that I would write a book "The Loneliness of Long Distance Biker" :-)

Finally I reached the river at Melk in late afternoon, crossed the bridge and found my camping. Actually there were two campings in that area, but I chose one on the south bank (both are visible from the bridge), better starting point for next day. Funny thing here, at least for me, I eneterd the site and wanted to register - forget it, reception is closed. Well, well what to do? Instant decison - I just set myself up, we'll see. Quickly opened the tent and laid down. Now I could feel how tired I was. Somebody came few hours later and collected the cash (€5) and I aslo could buy token for the shower (€0,50 for 5 minutes of hot water).

Sleeping in a tent on the ground is not as if sleeping at Hilton hotel. Well, I did not sleep well that first night.

Distance: 92 km
Average speed:17 km/h

Last Updated ( Saturday, 16 June 2007 )
 
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