When the road zig-zags on the map, it means HILLS!

We decided to incorporate a visit to George's cousins, but as we have Czech Republic printed on our cycling jerseys, we had to make a mountainous detour north before heading back down south along the Danube to Vienna. It was a slight shock to the system after following rivers for the last couple of weeks, but rewarding nonetheless and we succeeded in consuming our body weight of bakery goods and chocolate.

We woke up to yet more rain on Tuesday morning and began the climb through the thick fog. We stopped at a petrol station in Austria to ask for directions and were surprised to find a bar packed with locals drinking (at 9am!) The border crossing into Czech Republic was a rough track, turned into a brown river with all the rain and we eventually arrived in the afternoon soaked to the skin and covered in mud. The descent to St. Georgen in Austria was a lot faster and as it started to get dark we thought we should look for somewhere to camp. We've been very lucky - so far everyone we've asked have let us stay. This time Rosie let us camp in her garden and offered us coffee before we set off at 6am the next morning.

We're now resting the old legs in Vienna after a reasonably long day on Wednesday - 203.5km. For once the alarm clock didn't go off at 5:30 and we didn't have to pull on the sweaty lycra. We've scrubbed the engrained mud from our legs, washed and dried everything, bought a new chainset for my bike, explored Vienna, eaten lots of delicious food (generally been thoroughly spoiled by George's lovely cousins) and we're ready to hit the road bright and early tomorrow morning.

Bratislava here we come!