Greetings from Slovakia
Home country of Henry, our leader. Today turned out to be an interesting day after all. After the usual breakfast in the hotel we headed out to the campground along with the new members starting from Wien - Joe and Edwina who did Tour d'Afrique with Brian last year, Sandy who did TdA with Chuck, Brian #2, Jim, and Victor - all Canadians and I think all are from Montreal except Sandy who lives on Prince Edward Island.
Now we were on the real Donauradweg and cruising along again with the old crew ahead and the new crew a short ways back testing their legs. That didn't last long because we came across another rider who told us to go back because the path was covered with water. We had heard of the flooding along the Donau but thought it was either behind us or way ahead of us - guess not.
So we all turned around to the last intersection. Most of today's route in Austria was to be in the Donauradweg National Park and there are other biking and cycling trails intersecting along the way. We chose the first available route that would take us north and farther from the river.
A few hundred meters along the dirt and gravel road we found more water. Randy and Brian in the lead both could see the end of it. Randy, the intrepid mountain biker forged ahead on Lizzie (his bike) and managed to ride through it. Brian tried and did it too with water coming up almost to their hubs. All of us with the skinny tired bikes chose to take off our shoes and walk it which wasn't too bad except for the mosquitoes. As we walked Henry sloshed past us riding through it also - must be the Africa experience showing through in those guys.
We finally had to show our passports to cross a border but didn't get any stamps on them and crossed without incident. We soon entered Bratislava and managed to find the hotel with only having to stop once at a Holiday Inn for instructions. The cycle ways are nothing like cycle-friendly Viennna - not smooth and set away from vehicles but they do have them which is more than I can say about most of the US.
At Sheila's urging, she, Chuck and I took a taxi out to the campground to dinner. Another great dinner - chicken in gravy, stir fried veggies and brown rice. We returned by taxi in a light rain. The taxi cost 200 koruny each way - question for the day - How much is that in US dollars? Hint: try www.xe.com/ucc/
Jenny's parents, who we thought had left to tour other countries to the south now may be joining the tour instead and were with us again at dinner. They will be a welcome addition.
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Posted August 26, 2005 by Tour Participant
Slovakia |
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