Day 43 - Vienna

 0.0 km - Total so far 2,284.80 km

Our final day as tourists in Vienna.

The plan for today was to visit the most popular tourist attraction in Austria, the Schönbrunn Palace. We rode the Underground (built by Bombardier and others) there in about 30 minutes. We had bought tickets for a 10:30 start to the visit, but the ticket I received this morning gave us a 11:15 to 11:30 start. We got an earlier tour of the huge gardens.

Just exited the U-Bahn (metro)

Chilly day at the Palace (11C)

I wore my favorite T-shirt that drew the attention of three American couples. They offered their opinions on their President and told me they were part of the "Resistance". Not sure exactly what that consists of but it was nice to hear.

We got back from the visit using the tramway. A bit cheaper than the Underground but it took 15 minutes more to get back.

At dusk, we will go for a final walk around the 'hood. We are feeling quite at home in our one bedroom apartment but leave we must.

Below are pictures of damage to the Palace. You can clearly see the brick masonry covered by a thick coat of cement like material.

 

An example of the construction technique used on many buildings in Vienna

Brass model for blind people

Tomorrow we will bike to the start point of the Sultans Trail at Stephanplatz and start the second part of our adventure.

One of our avid readers wanted to know about our daily non-cycling routine.

1. Groceries. We generally buy groceries daily except on Sunday. Everything is closed on Sunday, so we buy for two days worth on Saturday. We usually stop for groceries before we head to our final destination for the day. Once in a while, the grocery store is very close to final destination so in that case we go after we are done cycling.

2. Routine on arrival. It can take up to 15 minutes to remove our luggage from the bikes, bring luggage to the room and then go secure the bikes. At the campground, it's five minutes to get everything done. About 10 minutes to put up the tent.

3. Select and crop pictures. It takes 20 to 30 minutes to select and crop the pictures. Sometimes it's possible to start that process when Hélène is buying groceries. 

4. ReLive. Again about 20 to 30 minutes to add captions to pictures. Issue here is that there is only space for 100 characters so some editing is required. This is done on my phone because of link to RideWithGPS and sometimes I have to re-edit the ReLive because pictures not displaying because of omissions.

5. Writing the Blog. First pass 20 to 30 minutes and then revisions as required once Hélène has produced video. 

6. Edit videos. Hélène tells me 45 minutes but I have seen her editing the video for much longer. However, she is getting much quicker at doing that.

7. Plotting route for next 2 days. This is another 30 minutes to sort out the routes and find accommodations. 

8. Bike maintenance. Every three days or so, we do chain maintenance and quick inspection. If we encounter much gravel/stone dust during the day then we will clean and oil chain that day. We use a European chain oil that enables us to clean and lubricate chain at the end of the day. I use a brush to remove Gung from chain than I spray lube on chain and let everything evaporate overnight. In the morning, chain is lube and clean.