Destination: Deutsch-Haslau, Austria
Daily Cycle Distance: 56.5 km. (35.24 mi.)
I awoke to clearing skys.... and wind. Frühstück (breakfast), soon to become
a daily part of our morning ritual was in the lobby of the hotel. We got
on the road for real around 10AM heading for Bratislava (didn‘t make it).
Just outside of Fischamend, we asked directions from a man out for his morning
walk. I thought I had done a pretty good job w/ my German but we were soon
flagged down again by him and pointed toward another road. Following this,
we promptly ran out of road anyway. We managed to re-locate our route but
much of today was spent wandering around NeiderÖsterreich. Lot‘s of little
towns: Arbesthal, Göttlesbrunn, Höflein, Scharndorf, At Wildungsmaus. we
got on B9 going toward Hainburg. Lots of traffic on this busy two-lane primary
road to Bratislava. We stopped just as the very busy two-lane road narrowed
into a road cut before it entered Hainburg.
While checking our map, I noticed a car parked just off the edge of
the pavement with the hood up and two guys in coveralls peering underneath.
The car was an old vehicle of some unrecognizable make and model. Piled high
on the roof and in a trailer being towed behind were several old and rusting
bicycles. The two guys trying to figure out the cars problems turned out
to be bicycle mechanics from Slovakia. They spoke no English and no German. I
hope I don‘t need to look one of them up in the next few days.
Leaving them still peering under the hood, we left the busy highway and re-routed
toward Prellenkirchen. There we ate lunch (Mittagessen) at Gasthaus ‘Kaiser
Probus‘.. During lunch, we decided that we might be better off spending the
night on the Austrian side of the border. After getting directions from the
waitress at the Gasthaus, we backtracked a bit looking for a place to stay
the night. First trying unsuccessfully at a ‘Zimmerfrei‘ (literally ‘Spare
room‘) in Schönabrunn, then success at Gasthof Karl Hoffmann. Our room with
a bath down the hall cost us 270ATS (~$21 ea.) or $~43 total for the night.
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