Nothing never means nothing

It’s a funny day when there are no real stories. We leave Bratislava by crossing a bridge back to the south (or right bank) of the river and then almost immediately crossing back. Today we are on our own as there are few signs to guide us.

We are quickly on a high levee that is smooth and beautifully paved which makes for a very fast ride. We already know there is nothing between here and the “middle of nowhere” place we’ve booked for the night, so we make haste to get there before the day gets too hot. All we are hearing is the European heat wave: today is predicted to be 48C in Roma. Thankfully we are going nowhere near Roma!

The river has been messed with by man. We ride alongside a wide canal which is used by the large riverboats and barges. What we don’t see is the actual Donaj (Danube) as it shows on a map. The levee is high. We ride high past the few small towns we see today. The towns we pass could almost be small towns in Victoria, which is where we are from, with modern looking homes with flattish roofs.

There are cyclists around but few touring cyclists in either direction. When we were in France we engaged with almost every cyclist we passed, with a “bonjour”. This was often initiated by the other cyclists and we lagged a little in responding. Once into the Germanic countries (Switzerland, Germany, Austria) our hit rate with greeting exchanges dropped to around 60% (a generous estimate, given we were initiating most of the time) with “hallo” or “grüß gott” (a new one for me). I think the greetings declined even between Switzerland and Austria. Now in Slovakia the hit rate on greetings has dropped to almost zero. We pass many stony faced cyclists where a “dobrý deň” barely draws even a glance.

There really is nothing much here. Our penzión is eager that cyclists will find it and there are painted notices on the bike path counting us down the final few kilometres.

Penzión Platan is a little oasis in what is not fair to call a barren landscape because it really is quite lush, but is a fairly middle-of-nowhere landscape. We are required to do nothing here except relax and enjoy the surroundings, which is just fine!

Stats for today:

• Distance: 58.22km
• Climb: 35m
• Average speed: 21.2km/h
• Average temperature: 32C
• Moving time: 2:44:26
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken at our Penzion in the middle of nowhere as we relaxed after an early arrival. There may have been an earlier beer (Neil) in the immediate aftermath of the ride, but this is the formal end of day beer.

Along the way today: