Feiburg to Vienna

Oh yah! I'm getting good at this game!

According to my calculations, I landed on foreign soil 36 days ago, have been actually covering ground on my bike for 24 of those days, and have peddled 2,113 km so far. For those of you interested in such things, my maximum distance in a day has been 132 km, the minimum is 52 km, and the average is just under 90 km. My average speed is roughly 18 km/hr. I have replaced one inertube and one set of break pads. I have fallen over three times, but never hard enough to break the eggs in my saddle bag.

I have completed the first two phases of my journey: the Rhine River to Freiburg and the Danube River to Vienna. The third phase is to get myself to Malta, but I haven’t quite figured out how I will do that yet. I have roughly two weeks to get there, so riding my bike the whole way may not be an option. I will let you know what I am doing next as soon as I have figured it out.

The Danube (or Donau as it is known locally) flows through some exceedingly beautiful country. The landscape alternates between wide, lush valleys full of freshly seeded fields and small villages with red roofed houses to narrow corridors created by steep sided mountains which are speckled with cliff faces (should have brought my climbing shoes) and covered in forests. Even in the mountainous areas the bike path is flat, following the shore of this impressive river. I feel much like a proud parent as I have watched it grow from a trickling little stream in Donaueschengen into a huge behemoth at Vienna, flowing quickly by on its way to the Black Sea. Part of me wants to keep riding with this river all the way to its end, but that’s kind of the wrong direction. As a side note, I don’t know who wrote that famous old song “The Blue Danube” but they were obviously one of the 7% of the male population that suffers from colour blindness. Its more browny green than anything.

Since Freiburg my movement has been more or less continuous. Aside from spending a few lovely days in Regensburg, I covered ground every day. It is getting warm now, and I have experienced the flavour of what it will be like to ride in the heat of the summer. So far the only weather that can put a cramp in my style is a strong headwind. I spent one day riding into one, and it slowed me down to less than 15 km/hr, which was frustrating. I should note that the next day the wind decided to change directions, and it pushed me all the way to my destination. I didn’t even have to peddle and I went 15 km/hr!

I miss everyone at home, but am so grateful for the comfort I find inside myself. There have been times on the trail when I am overwhelmed by my experience. Sometimes the combination of the scenery, the secret life of the local people around me, the music of nature, my thoughts and feelings (and maybe also the music I am listening to) combine to make some of the most potent experiences of my entire life. My throat clenches and tears well in my eyes. It is these times that I wish for your company. But that is the nature of my journey… the paradox that I am living in now. To experience the things that I wish I could share, I must be alone. Life is a mysterious and wonderful thing… I am happy I will never fully understand it, because I love so much to uncover its secrets as I grow.

Thank you for reading this, I carry you all with me as I go. Right on the front of my handlebars where you can get the best view.

With much love from Vienna: Devon