Our extended ride to Prague

Ok so it took us 6 days to arrive in Prague.

Bikes parked...golf-time it is

The cyclepaths along the Danube lead all the way to Germany and very easy to follow once you work out the signage...so our first day heading along the river, after the help from Hans, was spent backtracking/off the beaten track/repairing Sam's 3rd flat and finally calling it a day and camping about 30ks from Vienna in a place called Tulln...the first camping ground that we've found to be open, so hot showers it was for the 3rd night straight (a new tour record).

The next two nights we ran into some un-friendly weather and spent 2 days/nights in the same spot we had set up on the side of the road under the cover of some pine-trees. Once the rain eased up (April 9th) we started on way North it wasn't far down the road that we passed a very inviting looking country golf course, Sam mentioned that he was feeling nostalgic... so I pointed out that we could of course stop in and play a round, no sooner said than done...a quick change of clothes, some help from the course pro John with locating some lefty clubs and we were hitting the little white balls around the front nine of the Ottenstein Golf Club. After the round we retired to the clubs restraunt claimed to be the finest in Austria, and ate like kings...then got to chatting with both the two pro's of the course (John/Mark)...good guys, Mark shouted us a beer each and then we checked out the standings of the US Masters with him on the internet. Just your typical afternoon round of golf while bicycle touring...as you do.

Exiting forest cover

The ride north to Prague was a killer...chilly conditions against a relentless headwind (very tough going) and constant hilly terrain (more up than down...even tougher). Another tough encounter was the night spent among human-made landmines (excrements)...very scary campsite that one.

Fill-up point

Lovely country roads...streamside among ruins

Sammy swinging...(a golf club that is)