clairedavieswriter

Obviously, you can only reach the most superficial understanding of a country and its people from riding through it for a couple of weeks, but with that caveat in place, these are some of the things that struck me as a first-time visitor (barring a brief trip 10 years ago): Overall, Austria – and in…

And that’s Team Bernard’s 11th end-to-end done. Together (with no mechanicals – chapeau to Bernard the bike; no punctures – kudos to my amazing Schwalbe tyres; and only minor routing glitches – merci Guillaume the Garmin), we’ve pedalled 938k / 582 miles and climbed over 5,800m / 19,000ft in 13 days to reach Austria’s easternmost…

And just like that, Team Bernard have reached Austria’s capital city. It’s always a thrill to cycle into a major city. But of all of us it’s Midge who is the most excited, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who enjoyed early 80s pop (frankly it means nothing to me): It wasn’t the…

As promised, Bernard got his second ferry ride in two days before we’d even turned a pedal – the dock was directly in front of our campsite: As luck would have it, the ferry had just arrived and we were the 11th bike in the queue; the maximum was 12: The skipper took my €4.40…

I’ve said it before, but there’s something inexplicably exciting about encountering certain rivers. The Romans had their Rubicon, and perhaps it left its mark on our DNA. Whatever the reason, reaching the Danube (or the Donau, as it’s known in German) is a moment I’d been looking forward to since I first planned this trip.…

Today marked the end of Team Bernard’s time in the mountains. The Zimnitz loomed over us this morning: As we said goodbye to our friends: The peaks of the Salzkammergut were veiled in cloud: And their flanks guarded the river Traun: As we followed it north and downstream, away from Bad Ischl: Side note: Bad…

After a restful ramble round Salzburg, and a slightly less restful night due to an unscheduled thunderstorm, Team Bernard were back on the road today, pleased to see the sun shining: It was another day of beautiful scenery, right from the start: There were still plenty of spectacular mountains all around (note the young man…

The Austrian cycle path engineers really let themselves down today. And my research wasn’t too great either. I’d deemed this route ‘gently downhill’ – which is largely correct, looking at the profile: But clearly I’d overlooked the two significant spikes, and entirely failed to notice that the second one went through somewhere called ‘Pass Lueg’,…

To answer yesterday’s questions: 1. Happily, my legs did still work, although I’ll admit they felt a bit tender on some of the hills. 2. I did need my waterproofs, but overall, given the weather forecast, I think I got lucky: It was a damp, chilly start (16 degrees! I’ve gone soft). The clouds were…

Well that was a ride and a half. All Guillaume’s data confirms what my legs already know: it was our toughest day so far, significantly harder even than the Arlbergpass on Day 2. Cols get all the glory but they’re not always the toughest climbs. Just one example: over almost exactly the same moving time…