Our first day’s cycling didn’t quite go to plan. We had about 120k to go to our destination, Mikulov. So who’d have thought that by 1130am we were still in Vienna: in a bike workshop!
We’d only just started when Jackie’s, newly-serviced bike started to play up. The new chain was crunching on the sprockets every time she put a lot of pressure on the pedals and the back disc brake stopped working altogether. So we found a bike workshop - but they were fully booked for the next couple of days. However, putting on a sad face and telling them that we had to get to the Czech Republic by this evening seemed to do the trick and, within a short time, all three mechanics were working on Jackie’s bike.
On the upside, the early morning rain had given way to bright sunshine.
After that leisurely start, we bashed out 115k in 30 degrees of heat into a rather pesky headwind. We got into Mikulov just gone 5pm. Very thirsty: beer o’clock. (Two pints for only £3.41.)
The Czech Republic (or Chechia as it now called - much to the chagrin of many) is a lovely country whose people like to eat plenty of soup, pork, dumplings and, at Christmas, carp.
The ride up was largely uneventful, bar a short-cut of mine which went wrong. It looked like this farm track would bypass a busy roundabout. Unfortunately it did not. Reluctant to turn back and retrace our route back to where we knew, we tried to short-cut left to get back to the road by going cross-country, this took us under a disused railway tunnel, through a little homestead (inhabited but no one around), through a bramble hedge and across a ploughed field. We successfully got back to the road but turning back would have been a lot easier. And quicker.
I’ve never seen more than one hare before in a single day. Today, coming into Mikulov, we counted eleven!
Mikulov is a charming Czech border town with a rather turbulent history (particularly its Jewish history and its WW2 history).
There are lots of other cyclists here.
EV13 (The Iron Curtain Trail) comes through here and we’ll follow it west tomorrow.
Had an apéritif in a wine bar after which the few eateries were all closing (it was only 9pm). Luckily, our hotel was still serving otherwise we’d have gone to bed hungry.