Hanging in Vienna for a bit…
Wien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna is the place to be - especially as a cyclist. Navigating through this fascinating city is a pleasure! Plenty of cycle paths, plenty of “except bicycles” when the rest of the traffic is prohibited, plenty of respectful and aware drivers, even though they do drive fast and aggressive (one thing doesn’t necessarily exclude the other)
We rode along the Donau on a rainy day into town.
The days prior were a bit rough with freezing temperatures at night we were looking for indoor places to stay. Though the daytime was peachy sunny with dreamy landscapes constantly changing but consistently stunning. Fall colors like fresh oil paintings on canvas. Like one could never get enough - filling ourselves up with the beauty of our world, our beloved earth doing its thing.
Komoot is the chosen navigation app these days. We’ve been riding 90% on cycle paths or lonely roads through fields and farms. One of the weird scenarios is, that if and when a car appears out of nowhere…it’s usually two: each from the opposite directions passing at the same spot on the road where we happen to cycle - exactly! The timing is phenomenal! How do they do it?
Our last few days in the Czech Republic were cold in more than one way: When we asked for shelter, even in the official places like a pension…closer to the Austrian border -we got a few determined and painfully stern faced: NO and NO and NO. (All women too…) After the 4th try with the same results I was feeling quite hurt - done asking (never begging!) and ready to head for the woods. But we were in the middle of a typical beautiful Czech little town and it was already dark, so James went to check on a fancy looking hotel in the square of “Jindrichuv Hradec” and finally got a nice “yes” (though it didn’t come cheap!). In the end, it actually was quite affordable. Luxury spoke to us in form of a generous dinner, hot shower, clean towels, sheets and a good night sleep on a firm mattress followed by an all inclusive and fulfilling breakfast buffet to get us ready for the next day. 
So far our experience with the Czech people has been wonderfully friendly….don’t know what happened that last day!? Thinking about “What comes around goes around” or in German: “Wie man in den Wald hineinruft, so schallt es heraus” Maybe my attitude went further south than I realized.
Another cold but beautifully pristine day accompanied us across the old border into less affordable Austria
and the search for shelter began anew. All our apps showed basically nothing: no pension, no hotels, no nothing in our immediate surroundings. But when we asked around we encountered super friendly/helpful people. In fact in the next little town of Hessendorf we happened to walk into a private construction zone……it was the only open gate. Getting greeted by a friendly, curious face warms my heart already to the core. Dieter walked us around, knocking on almost all his neighbors doors. There was a little B&B, but left us with no answer. All of the neighbors calls to find out where the B&B people had gone was unanswered too. It got colder and colder and our new friend Dieter waved to us to join him in his (almost) overheated kitchen. He was worried that we would be shocked and uneasy to stay with him but he offered to lay out a mattress in one of the half finished renovated rooms. He only partly believed us when we told him that this was one of the best shelters we have slept in. After a hot shower and lots of cool stories we slept soundly in a well heated room amongst tools and slightly dusted unidentifiable objects. It was dreamy!
Breakfast was already ready before we could wish our exceptionally generous host a “good morning” greeting. Just a few more stories and lots of well wishes before we were on our way again. One more night in a comfy pension Martha, before we reached the river Donau: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube . Down stream the water guided us on a quiet rainy, beautiful day to one of our now favorite cities.
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