Day two (September 14, Kalladorf-Slavonice, 80 km)

Perfect day. May I share some impressions after riding parallel to the border most time of the day (first half in Austria, second half in the Cech Repubkic).:

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1. Lower Austria is indeed empty and indeed worldclass in land sealing

The closer you come to the border, the fewer people are there. However, publicly subsidized building activity and soil sealing are everywhere.

2. No Espresso Herbert today, but still Espresso (and, boy, what a wonderful one)

After 2 hours ride through all this emptyness, I urgently needed a coffee. As I didn’t really manage to find one (no supermarket, no bakery, no bar etc.), I was desperate enough to ask a woman passing when riding through Weitersfeld whether she knew a place I could get a coffee. The reaction was stunning, as she spoke only little German but invited us most warmly to have coffee at her house. It turned out thats she is from Ukraine and insisted to invite us and not to take any money from us. We had a very, very nice coffee and biscuits, standing in their garden with an outstandingly friendly communication with her whole family (she, her husband, her mother, one of her daughters). I have never experienced anything like this with any Austrian local. Best coffee ever.

3. Someone in Retz likes Vienna (and its Courts)

This is the Stadtcafe in Retz (which has a nice main square). I have no clue why they think that they are or should be part of the Viennese judicial system.

4. People thank God and Virgin Mary for really weird things

such as

300 years of Vacation

or the Non-Realisation of a Hazardous waste landfill

5. There is plenty of (beautiful) Water in the area

and people doing funny things there (such as throwing fish in a small pond that is immediatly flowing in a large pond where the fish is immediatly fished by dozens of of men (no women) holding fishing rods in water.)

6. Sometimes, Austria looks like in the 60ies or in an Italo-Western

This is the area in front of a “Lagerhaus”.

7. The Border is (almost) just an Anecdote

Every time I pass this border (or a border to Hungary), I am still completly overwhlemed how different this is today in comparison with my childood, when I spent hours waiting in front of barriers, intimitaded by soldiers with machine guns each time we went to Budapest.

This is the former Czech Border Station, looking like an abandoned and rotting film set today.

A tree was planted as a monument at the border in 1989.

8. Local Currency is not yet an anecdote (not at all)

If you try to pay in the Cech Republic with Euro (which I needed to do because I didn’t find an ATM during the whole trip), you are however still ripped off as if it was 1988. The Currency Rate used in the restaurant in which we had dinner was 50 % above the “official” Google-figures. Czech cuisine, by the way, is also still rather rustic, with things such as drowned sausage (don’t ask me what it is) and meat, meat or meat.

9. Appartments can be great

Although you ride through even more emptiness in The Cech Republik (no bicycle lane, but almost no traffic on the side streets; the main square of Slavonice looks beautiful but was covered in almost complete darkness - Wikipedia has a daylight picture; , we hardly met anybody anywhere), some people invested quite some money into the idea that people could become crazy enough in the near future to like such a kind of vacation and might like a decent appartment. The one we rented onlie (no problem to find one) can be occupied without needing to meet anybody, including the landlord, is paid online, has highspeed internet, a beautiful garden with a barbecue, a full kiitchen and a Tesla-connector (for 1.800 Czech crowns - less than 75 € per night.

10. It’s beautiful

Although my knee and my back do hurt (a little), and although it’s rather hilly here (really!), I can hardly imagine a better way to spend my time. Last picture for today was taken from the top of just another hill, on the way to Drosendorf. Riding downhill, I heard “Trotzdem nix woarn” from wonderful Felix Karmer with the songlines

“Und da Wind der weht wie früher
Und die Sun scheint wie vor hundert Jahrn

Nur du hast dein Ziel vor Agun verlorn
Aber mach di net fertig, es is nix woan”.

And it was just perfect.

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