Day 13 - TMAAT in Vienna

As I mentioned our campsite here on the outskirts of Vienna is, well it’s not all that to be honest. It is however clearly very popular though and I am really glad we booked in advance because by 9pm there is not a space to be had.

Uniquely (almost certainly not “uniquely” but certainly unique to us at least so far on this adventure) this campsite has a plague (seems like the most appropriate word to describe the biblical scale) of grasshoppers (or possibly cicadas or locusts ….is there a difference and how would I know?) everywhere.

This morning a particularly massive one hopped on Marcs leg as he was taking a sip of his hot tea (Marc was sipping the tea not the grasshopper). It made him jump so much (again “him” being Marc and not the grasshopper although it could be confusing because they can both jump, unlike an elephant, but grasshoppers as far as we know cannot drink tea though) and spilt his (Marcs!!) tea all over his freshly cleaned shorts. Out of the three of us (Marc, Gary the Grasshopper and myself) I am pretty sure I laughed the most and Marc the least…..Gary played it deadpan.

Whilst referencing wild life I should mention that a few days ago we saw a real life, in the wild snake! Yes …I know!

I only saw the tail end of it (literally!) as it slithered away into the undergrowth but Marc had a very close encounter. It was a good 3 feet long (so a proper snake) and was clearly trying to cross the cycle path making its high risk bid for the other side as Marc came along. There was a near coming together and the snake reared up as if to strike when Marc’s bike wheel got too close. Fortunately both protagonists continued safely on their respective journeys unscathed.

I really don’t know why I have failed to mention it thus far but perhaps let’s put it down to tiredness.

Back today which, now we have finally cleaned our clothes, is all about relaxing and seeing a bit of Vienna….so we do both.

Given it is a day for relaxing we get an Uber into the centre of Vienna and then begin a semi guided / semi aimless wander around. We shy away from the very posh looking Cafe Sacher, home of the famous Vienna Sachertorte, and stop instead around the corner at Cafe Mozart which is only marginally less fancy looking but is “reassuringly expensive”…..hey we have earnt it!

It’s still very hot today so as we wander around for the whole day we find ourselves pausing for “refreshments” on a fairly regular basis. Eventually, after around 10 miles of walking we find our way back to the camp where we fettle the bikes and get our stuff organised ahead of a big day tomorrow ….a planned (it never goes to plan!) 95 miles into Slovakia. Speak tomorrow.