Possibly the most comfortable bed I’ve slept in, or possibly I was utterly exhausted? Slept solidly for eleven hours last night – and probably would have kept going had the alarm not woken us up. We were both due a bit of catch up from the last few days! At least that had us ready for a 350km bike ride – especially after the amazing breakfast at the Magdas Hotel, which included cake, bacon, scrambled eggs in pots, salads, cons cous, cheeses, cereals, sausages, freshly baked rolls and a few cups of coffee. We packed our one bag and took quick train ride to a quiet part of town, where Tarek was waiting outside his bike shop for us, with a big smile and two gleaming bikes. All that remained was to fill the panniers, don helmets and start peddling.

An artificial island in the middle of the river allowed us to cycle traffic free for nearly an hour. We had the water on one side and a steady display of naked sunbathers on the other!

At the end of the island, we crossed over to the far banks of the river and continued into a national park. This was a flood plain area and now, further from the city, we were almost by ourselves for much of the ride. The path remained perfectly flat and smooth. Easy riding!

We stopped for lunch by the castle in Orth. It had been blue skies since sunrise, but now the temperatures were delightfully warm. Due to some track maintenance, we had to take a diversion, which happily took us to the Eckertsau Palace/Hunting Lodge. The driveway leading up to it was over a kilometre long in a totally straight line.

Inside was even more impressive though! The Royal family lived here for a bit at the end of the war. 

The stairs were adorned with ‘trophies’ from over a hundred years ago.

And the courtyard was paved with wooden blocks. The gardens however, offered the greatest attractions to the tiring cyclists – with deck chairs to relax in.

Or even better, a lie down!

The final sections took us through a few more villages, full of cherry blossom.

Then a final bridge took us over the river to Hainburg. It was a whopper, several kms long and busy with traffic. Thankfully, we had a separate cycle lane. 

We’d pre-booked a range of accommodation for this trip, but this evenings is probably the best. It’s right by the cycle track and they had a ‘bike garage’ to leave our gear. Inside, the rooms are amazing with high vaulted ceilings (it used to be an old fort). We appeared to be the only guests, so took advantage of this quiet time and made use of the sauna and steam room! So good! 

More guests began to arrive later and we decided to eat in the restaurant, which was delicious and very reasonably priced. We walked off the food with a quick look around the town, including the famous fortified gateway. Then after the sun set over the river, retired to bed…

Day 1: 57km