It was another cool, crisp morning as we organized ourselves outside the Hotel Post in Vienna. It had been a wonderful two days in this city of the great classical musical masters. Not only famous for its music heritage, Vienna is a museum of classical architecture. Today though, as sad as we were to leave this great city, we were quietly excited about entering another new country, Slovakia, whose capital city is Bratislava, just 80k further east along the beautiful Danube River.
It was about 9am before we finally rolled away from the Hotel Post. We were confident of our exit strategy from this massive city, having ‘cased it’ the previous afternoon. We headed north across the Danube Kanal until we reached a massive circular traffic hub which revolved around one of the larger railway stations, where we knew to turn east and enter the beautiful Viennese Prater.
The “Vienna Prado” is centuries old. Originally the royal hunting grounds, it is now one of the most magnificent city parks in the world. Having turned east, the wide bitumen path stretched out for some 10km in front of us, with wide avenues of lush forest, tracks, paths with trotting horses doing their morning training, with dozens of joggers and cyclists doing their morning routines as well as horse drawn carriages travelling along the same path as us three Aussie touring cyclists. This was a lovely, if not beautiful, way to exit the main city area of Vienna.
We stopped briefly to enjoy the view of Vienna’s equivalent of the ‘London Eye’, a large Ferris Wheel that sits at the top of the Prater. The thing that captured our attention though was the large map of the world in the children’s playground. We couldn’t resist playing ourselves, reminding us of where we were in the world, and where ‘home’ really is.
We were eventually able to turn away from the Prater, crossing the Danube to travel for most of the day on the northern bank. The ‘mist’ that has been lying very low over this part of Europe for many days now still persisted, restricting not just our vision of the Danube waterway and the beautiful sights on both banks, but also spoiling our otherwise good photos.
The early morning was otherwise perfect for cycling. The track was superb, and for the first few kilometres ran alongside the Danube. The trees were beautiful with many of them now in full autumn yellow. We managed to confuse ourselves though by not turning off ‘by the book’, but stuck with the path along the river that actually eventually came to a dead end, requiring us to go back some 3km in order to follow the correct way, thus adding an extra 6k to the toll for the day.
The sun was well hidden by the thick ‘mist’, but there were a good number of cyclists out on the path today. The path led us through lovely stretches of forest, through beautiful rich farmlands, but mostly through wetlands and national park which lasted for a large bulk of the morning. Actually, apart from the first few kilometres out of Vienna, we did not see the Danube for most of the day until we crossed when much closer to Bratislava. We had no doubt though that we were always close to the great river although we never had the chance to see it through the day.
A lot of the path on the northern bank today was actually running along the top of the Danube flood levee. It was mostly a packed granite surface and not actually bitumen for long sections. While it was okay, the granite at times is loose making it harder work on loaded bikes, especially bikes like ours with narrower tyres. We found though that we could get along very well, mostly sitting about the 20kph mark for a good part of the morning.
Not long after we had left the massive Shell petroleum factory, which is as large as a town in itself, the track straightened and for about 15km the track was ‘rifle’ straight, along the top of the levee wall. It was easy cycling, and although we couldn’t see far into the distance due to the mist, we had great views of farms, forest, wetlands and wide open spaces of lush vegetation.
The levee bank also bi-passed all towns along the way until we were ready to cross the Danube again at about the 50km mark. Crossing the Danube was an experience. To see it for the first time since leaving Vienna was lovely, to remind us of its beauty and majesty. The mist was still thick, but we could just see the outlines of the ancient river town of Hainburg across the river, where we intended to stop for lunch. At Hainburg we were only 20k short of Bratislava.
It was great to sit by the Danube, just outside the ancient city wall of Hainburg. We ‘boiled the billy’ and had one of our traditional ‘Alley’ touring lunches, with crispy baguette and fruit, with coffee made on milk. The weather was warm, but we were disappointed that the mist affected our photos, especially of the ruins of Hainburg Castle on the hilltop above the town, and also the full glamour of ‘Braunsberg’, a massive rocky mountain that towers over Hainburg from the eastern side.
With Bratislava getting closer, we were getting more excited. We rolled away out of Hainburg, already with the sites of the massive residential, high rise suburbs of Bratislava in full view, almost 20k distant. The ride was glorious. The views expansive across open farmlands, with sweeping views across to Bratislava, and views north to the historical castle ruins of Devin which sits on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Danube and Morava Rivers, from where the Czech Republic is also almost visible.
The bikes seemed to roll by themselves. It was a very long run into Bratislava. The beautiful, if not magnificent, Castle named HRAD, stood out for miles across the open pasturelands as we covered the closing kilometers of Austria. We were looking for the official border crossing to take the photo, but now with open boundaries, the border crossings are not as obvious.
The former border gate however soon came in to view, and we took a quick photo and kept rolling. The path was now very wide, with much more cycle traffic, the local Bratislavians being out and about. After all, it was Saturday afternoon. We must have been obvious ‘foreigners’, because many locals made us feel very warmly ‘welcome’ by their words and actions toward us. It was a great reception. We never lost sight of the great Castle, and now some of the famous landmarks of this great city, especially the new viewing gallery above the bridge on the crossing over the Danube.
We had arrived, and found ourselves in the cobbled streets of the old city of Bratislava. It was just lovely. The old city is relatively small, but nonetheless a captured segment of history. The beautiful buildings caught our attention, with the magnificent churches and their spires standing tall and erect.
The afternoon run from Hainburg to Bratislava which included a lazy lunch by the river had taken more time than we anticipated. The day had now cooled considerably, and we were on a mission to find our “Patio Hostel” which was actually just outside the old city in the less cared for outer ring of the city centre, referred to as the “Nivy”. It probably has an unsafe feeling if walking alone at night. The Patio Hostel is basically a Youth Hostel, but we were pleasantly surprised to score a lovely room with bathroom and shower in our room. The room is bright and clean, and very comfortable.
Bratislava and indeed Slovakia has an incredible history, which we are keen to explore in the few days we have set aside. The Slovakian people whom we have met today have been warm and lovely, giving us a great feeling that we are amongst a wonderful people.
We reflect on a great day of cycling. It was a wonderful day of exploration and discovery. All day we were on the Danube cycle path, but an unusual feature of today is that we rarely saw the great river itself. However, we never doubted its presence even though we could not see it for the thick wall of natural forest that hid it from our view. We were reflecting on this as we cycled, and noted that although we cannot see it, we never lacked confidence that the great river was always with us, just beyond the trees.
It reminds us of the great promise of God, also reflected in the words of assurance of Jesus. Through the prophet Isaiah, God’s assurance of his constant presence through all circumstances, is given to us “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (“Isaiah 41:10). The wonderful words of assurance of Jesus are also a reminder of this promise “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20”
As we rest our weary bodies in the humble Patio Hostel in the Nivy in the great city of Bratislava tonight, we rest knowing that although the track in life may not always be smooth and flat like the Danube path, the words of the one who assures us of His constant presence will always prove true.
With love from us – Kelvin, Julie and Sarah-Jane
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