One of the benefits of researching community council online presences is learning that there’s annual World Porridge Championships.

In my ongoing efforts to get the most out of my legs and Lev Davidovitch, yesterday I fitted him with SPD pedals and my cycling shoes with SPD cleats. (The cleats and pedals come as a set.) I opted for a set of pedals that have SPD bindings on one side and are flat on the other, in the belief that I needed to retain the option of having one foot not ‘trapped’.

It’s recommended UK cycling practice, when stopped, to have the left leg on the ground so that you’re normally leaning away from traffic. I believe this also facilitates seeing a bit further behind you when looking over your right shoulder – again recommended practice for the UK. So I assumed I’d keep my right foot attached to Lev and use the flat side of Lev’s new left pedal.

Here’s some observations:

• • During a quick trip where I didn’t clip in at all, I missed the positioning and power that Lev’s ‘cages’ (pedals with toe-clips and straps) provided.

• • Today, on a ride to Little France and back, I think the SPDs – when both were in use – added a couple of mph. I know that I took 35 minutes to get there and 30 minutes to get back (cyclemeter map), when I’d normally allow 40 to 45 minutes. However, the weather – absence of wind for most of these journeys – may well have been a bigger factor than the different pedals.

• • Stopping involves remembering to drop a couple of gears and twisting my left foot to detach. This action is still cerebral rather than cerebellar but should become ‘unthought’ with practice.

• • Keeping my right foot trapped was easy. However, it took up to 60 seconds of checking Lev’s left pedal was the right way up and then fumbling my left foot into position to become fully attached to Lev. So in stretches where there are frequent traffic lights (e.g. Cameron Toll roundabout, Lothian Road, West End), attaching may not be worthwhile.

• • ‘Hang-time’ (where I’ve pulled up behind a queue of vehicles behind a traffic-light which has just turned green, and am trying not  to put my foot down and hence lose all momentum) can feel hairy as I mentally juggle whether to detach from the left pedal (and thus lose more while fumbling to re-attach) or not (and thus risk falling over).

• I need to carry alternative footwear. While it is possible to walk with the SPD cleats attached to my shoes, they do hit the ground and could damage sensive surfaces. Also, they make me walk even further back on my heels, and I’ve already worn away a lot of the sole on the heels of these shoes.

So while the SPDs don’t feel natural yet, I think they will be beneficial.

here

A couple of wee things:

• a former colleague’s short story
• My ‘Tour de Forth‘ sponsor page. No pressure!

Anxiety is from a job interview in 2 hours’ time!

I’m beginning to have sympathy with the views expressed here and here.

It seems vaseline is the answer! Yesterday Elly and I cycled from Glasgow to Edinburgh – 57 miles. I’ll write more about it later. There’s a few snippets for now, however:

• I’ve replaced the lights stolen by some git in Worcester: Lev Davidovitch now has
  • on the front
    • skullies on the left and right handlebar-drops
    • skully on the head tube
    • frog on the head tube
    • micro-LED light on the handlebar
  • on the rear of the pannier rack, from right to left
    • knog
    • skully
    • knog
  • on the rear of my helmet
    • micro-LED light

    (I’ve shown the colours of the lights’ plastics, not the colours they give out.) So if anyone hits me, I’ll know it was deliberate!

• Photos from cycling in Austria are here.
• I’ve signed up for the Tour de Forth: a fairly leisurely 70 miles. I hope to do it in 6 hours. I know Lev has the cruising speed to achieve this. He certainly wanted to run at 14 to 16 mph on Scottish cycle-paths (now there’s a joke I’ll blog about later) yesterday. Whether I have the stamina, leg-strength and vaseline supplies is another question…

Now we’re back from Austria and into normal lives, we’re both missing distance-cycling. (I commute to Napier most days: 2 miles of traffic fumes, potholes and 15 sets of traffic lights. Elly has been working at her High Street office, to which she walks. [She usually cycles the 4 miles to her office in Saughton.])

So to re-bond with our own bikes, we decided to try the National Cycle Network route 75 from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Elly prefers to ‘maroon’ herself somewhere so she’s ‘forced’ to cycle, while I was looking forward to not slogging uphill through Uphall. Here’s the usual map and here’s the nightmare as it happened:

• The first joke was getting to Haymarket Station – the tram works simply shouldn’t be taking so long.
• There are plenty of trains from Edinburgh to Glasgow and vice versa. Most of these have 4 bike-spaces (some have 6) so during the day, apart from rush-hour, getting your bike on a train shouldn’t be much of an issue. Our only problem here was getting our bikes and someone’s fold-up wheelchair together in the same space.
• At Glasgow Queen Street, the route emerges on George Square: it’s a bit intimidating for people who don’t like urban cycling and/or don’t know exactly where they’re going so they can get the lane-manouvres right. It’s even less fun trying to co-ordinate over the traffic-noise. I’m looking into iPhone solutions – what I need is something that connects our phones via Bluetooth. (I already have a bluetooth headset that works well for normal phone calls when cycling.) Anyway, we wobbled our way to the Clyde near the Clutha bar and started east.
• Quite how anyone thinks roughened, poorly set paving slabs constitutes a cycle-path is beyond me. We don’t all have mountain-bikes with suspension up the wazoo. I know I’m not alone in thinking this – see here.
• The next obstacle was a blockage where Dodge City’s dirty denizens were having their annual day in the sunlight or some such nonsense. We were advised to cycle on the pavements around this: the hi-viz-draped warders didn’t appear to have been properly briefed about cyclists. If you zoom in on the People’s Palace on the map, you can see the results of this lack of information.
• Anyway, having regained the Clyde-side path, we had the usual problem several times: the path splits with no visible NCN sign to indicate which fork to take. The surface is occasionally muddy and slippery, with bouts of bend-induced poor visibility so we didn’t dare get up any speed.
• At Cambuslang, there is a bridge over the Clyde tributary. We then had to take an immediate (and poorly sign-posted) left turn to avoid going into Cambuslang town centre and getting horribly lost (bitter previous experience!)
• About a mile later, the route turned south away from the Clyde, taking us for a couple of nervous miles along a rural rat-run. Not fun.
• The path then took us through Uddingston. Unless you’ve been lost there before and so have eventually found that the signs have been missed out, removed or altered, you will not find the route under the underpass to the school.
• Thereafter the route crossed busy roads in a staggered way. Right turns agains traffic are not fun unless you’re fond of kamikaze manoeuvres. (I am, but not when I’m trying to co-ordinate with another cyclist.)
• The route then droped along another footpath to the ‘Showcase Cinema – Glasgow East’, near Bargeddie. At this point we realised we taken nearly 2 hours to do 15 miles of cycling but were only 8 miles from our starting point.
• Then there were several miles along the Monklands canal – Elly’s least favourite type of cycle-route. The path was slippery and muddy, so I didn’t enjoy it either.
• At the end of this, you’re dumped into the Centre of Coatbridge. Thanks to yet more poor signage, we found ourselves north of the A89 outside an Asda. (This did at least provide a toilet-opportunity.)
• Once we’d found what we thought to be the correct route, we were taken up onto what appears to be a former railway viaduct. The surface was good and the conditions were fair: what was completely staggering was a gate across the path with an official-looking notice stating that the path was closed – with no indication of what to do. You can see our sudden stop and about-turn at the 20-mile marker.
• We then abandoned the NCN75. I used my handlebar-mounted iPhone to navigate us onto the A89, the direct road from Glasgow to Edinburgh. We made quite good speeds along this, but stupidly gave into the temptation of a sign back onto the NCN75 east of the town centre. Of course, there were no further signs – we found ourselves hauling our bikes up steps in an attempt to regain the route according to the NCN iPhone app.
• We stopped for lunch at Katherine Park, east of Airdrie. By now, we’d been travelling for 4 hours and had cycled 24 miles to get 14 miles from our starting point. We were advised by a passing local cyclist to get on and stay on the A89 for several miles – east of Plains we’d find the decent cycle-route to Edinburgh.
• True enough, we did. The route does gratuitously cross and re-cross the Bathgate to Airdrie train-line several times, and does meander (with the occasional missing sign) through Caldercruix village. However, it’s mostly pretty, with good surface and pleasant views of the trains the other side of a substantial fence.
• East of Blackridge (and hence in the Lothians – hooray!), the path took us through unexplained meanders through what felt like Vietnamese jungle. Having loaded-myself up with Viennese coffee and having been very concerned for my fellow-cyclist’s safety for the last  5 hours, I was beginning to half-expect the VC to leap out.)
• Eventually, the route threw us out in the centre of Bathgate. We decided to abandon path-hunting and the prospect of getting seriously lost in Livingston estates for the relative safety of the A89. Fortunately, the road was relatively traffic-free: the stretch from Boghall (east of Bathgate) is another HGV-laden rat-run.
• Just east of the big Tesco complex, we turned onto the A899 and coasted downhill through Dechmont, Uphill and Broxburn and were favoured with the welcome sight of the railway viaduct that marks the western border of Edinburgh.
• At Ratho Station, the official route is across a bridge with steps to the south side of the A8. Hauling bikes up and down that appealed much less than simply cycling on the road. It’s a dual carriage-way so cars should pull over to the middle lane to overtake. Glory be – most did!
• At the junction of Maybury Road and the A8, we met a spanish cyclist who was trying to find a station to take him back to Glasgow. We made up a wee convoy to trundle towards Haymarket Station. The last obstacle was the extra barriers put-up to control the Madonna-fans heading too and from Murrayfield.

Oh, and along the way, I attached something to Elly’s bike.

So that’s it: 57·3 miles and 7 hours in the saddle (8 hours total journey-time) at an average of 8mph, when it should have been 45 miles taking about 4 hours with no stopping except for traffic-lights. (I hope to test this in the next week or so.) As ever, I’m in awe of Elly for managing this distance on a commuting-bike.

Today was our last full day in Vienna, and our last day with Curt and Vonny (the bikes), so we decided to make the most of it by cycling as near to the full length of the Donauinsel as we could. Here’s the map.

So we started with the almost traditional trip southwest down Praterstraße and across Aspernbrücke before turning southeast and following the cycle path along the south bank of the Donaukanal. This took us through suburbs (and past a quicker route to Hundertwasserhaus and Wiener Kunsthaus) and then past the industrial zone that fills the gap between Vienna and it’s airport at Schwechat.

Just before the Donaukanal rejoins the Donau proper, there’s a bridge (confusingly called Klosterneuberger straße: Klosterneuberg is northwest of Vienna and we were well to the southeast) to a small spit and then another bridge over what looks like flood defences to the Donauinsel. We then cycled on to the southeast tip of the Donauinsel. We sat there for a while, watching the blue (really!) river flow on its way to the Black Sea. A real cyclist arrived: I think his stopwatch software said he’d done 70km in 3 hours.

We then cycled north along the Donauinsel as far as Brigittenauer Brücke, where the lure of ice creams  temporarily halted us. (There’s a little break in our path on the map because I didn’t start recording straight away.) We pushed on, against increasing headwinds out of Vienna and into Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), aiming for the Donauinsel’s northern tip. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite make it: the last 20 meters are gated off to non-authorized people. So we crossed the nearby bridge and used the now-helpful winds to cycle south along the riverbank in search of a place to paddle and/or swim.

We stopped for lunch at an Imbiss on Arbeiterstrandbadstraße (‘the street of the workers’ swimming beach), the sunbathed for a while before both of us took dips in the Danube from a small but very popular shingle beach. This is where today’s first map ends.

About 4pm, we thought it was time to go and hand back our bikes at the Donauzentrum hotel. Here’s the map of our route there. We arrived just in time: we’d not been told what time to hand the bikes back in but a van from the bike company was there, with two blokes loading bikes into it. So I removed Lev’s pedals from Curt and we said emotional farewells to him and Vonny. It’s quite true: we’d both become fond of our ‘steeds’ and I’d bonded with mine in a particularly ‘Bruce-ish’ way only today.

To try to lift the mood, we took a 26 tram (see upper-right route on this map) to Hardegg-gasse. (I like the name for very obviously puerile reasons.) yet again drinks called: this time cokes from a local Turkish Imbiss. Then it was time to take the U-bahn back to Schwedenplatz and then to Nestroyplatz to pack away cycling gear before going out for our last evening meal in this trip to Vienna.

We took the U-bahn from Nestroyplatz to Schwedenplatz and then north to Spittelau and then south along the Gürtel to Burggasse-Stadthalle so we could have Wienerschnitzeln and a different type of chocolate cake at Loving Hut. I wish I could make cake that well! To make the most of our last night here, we took a number 5 tram north to the university area then east and back south to Praterstern, before walking back along Praterstraße to 3/4 Takt for a quick drink (Schloss Eggerberger beer for me and a peach wine spritzer for Elly) and then returning to our hotel. Some of the route is shown on the top left of this map.

So that’s almost it! A last Viennese breakfast tomorrow morning, then some shopping and maybe an Eiskaffe before taking the Schnellbahn to Schwechat for a 14:35 flight to Heathrow and then a 10pm flight back to Edinburgh, changing back into long trousers, fleeces and waterproofs and letting the memories begin to fade…

We wanted to explore a new part of Vienna today, using the bikes we’ve come to enjoy. While returning from Favoriten 2 days ago, we had seen signs for the Wientalradweg (Vienna [river-]valley cycle route). So, while I pushed up ZZZs and then accidentally scared a chambermaid, Elly obtained a free Vienna cycle-route map from the cycle-shop next to the hotel.

We set out steadily enough: along Praterstraße, across Aspernbrücke and along the Ringstraße as far as the Opernring, where the first sign directed us down Babenbergerstrasse. (OK, I admit we overshot a little.) The next sign directed us along Getreidenmarkt but after this we couldn’t find any more signs. (They probably were there but we just missed them.)

We met there some okker cyclists who had cycled to Vienna from Amsterdam via other bits of Europe and were now looking for Westbahnhof. We directed them as best we could to the Gürtel and then took ourselves to Gumpendorfer Straße (how I live that name!) and hence back to the covered-over part of the Wienfluß.

From there until Margaretengürtel, the route was easy to follow but wasn’t obvious thereafter: we found ourselves circling a ‘Buggery Queen’ (my name for a certain chain of fast food  restaurants) until we realized that a river valley cycle route should follow the course of the river. So from there we followed the resurfaced Wienfluß out west through Meidling to Schönbrunn U-bahnhof.

There, Elly saw a sign for the Wienflußradweg, the cycle path right alongside the Wienfluß. So we followed this increasingly pretty path through the western suburbs. At the end of the river-path there is a funny curved bridge up to the bank. It has steps but a trough for bike wheels, which we both appreciated. We cycled on for maybe another quarter mile before the oath ended at the very edge of Vienna.

We were asked by a local chap what we were looking for. He directed us to a nearby Italian restaurant run by Turkish people. There was a TV in the corner showing a Turkish medical soap opera, full of synthetic emotion.  It’s good to know some things are constant all over the world, even if one of them is ham acting. After this, there was a seemingly interminable advert for comfortable bras. Check out this if you want to buy any.

We then retraced our path back to Ringstraße, had a drink in the Palmenhaus restaurant in the Burggarten and then went to the Burgtheatre Kino to watch ‘The third man’, a gripping movie set in post-war Vienna. While it’s an unquestionably good movie, the part that brought (and is still bringing right now) a lump to my throat was seeing the bomb destruction to this beautiful city. While I know other places got far worse, this city is a place I know and care about personally. Also, if the film is to be believed, the hotel Sacher, which I imagine to be a symbol of Viennese (culinary) pride, was forbidden to Austrians. To the victors the spoils?

Anyway, when we emerged, it was getting dark and raining quite heavily, so we splashed our bikes back to the hotel, and I’ve been blogging since then. Here’s the inevitable map.

I should say a word or two about this hotel: while there may well be others that are just as good, this hotel is in a well-connected spot just out of the central district (so isn’t stupidly priced) but is in a pleasant safe inner suburb full of life. Yet the rooms are quiet, big and well appointed with enough safe power points for our electronica and showers which can be set from gentle rain to warp-factor enema, the staff are very friendly and helpful (it’s a family-run business), there is safe parking for bikes and cars, most rooms have balconies, and joy-of-joys: the bathroom light and fan are controlled by separate switches, so you can go to the toilet at night without disturbing anyone!

To the north of Vienna is a 500-metre hill called Kahlenberg, which gives a fantastic view over the city and surrounding areas. You can go to Nußdorf and get a funny little buggy up the hill. Or you can take a regular Wiener Linien bus. But, we we still had the bikes and the weather was getting slightly cooler, we thought we should do something energetic. So we

• cycled along the west bank of the Donau almost to Klosterneuburg (i.e we overshot)
• retraced our path back to Kahlenbergerdorf
• found there was no cycle path up Kahlenberg from there
• went back to the south of Klosterneuburg and and, from there;
• found the aptly-named Hohenstrasse, which winds slowly, surely and very sweatily up to the top of Kahlenberg.

This road is mostly cobbled, presumably to avoid tarmac crumbling in winter, but the cobbles are square, flat-topped lumps of granite that gives good traction, not the rounded slippery death traps I’m used to in the UK. Also, I don’t think I saw any missing cobbles on this road.

We enjoyed the view and some very welcome Vöslauer bio-himbeerensaft (organic raspberryade), before heading back to Vienna via Grinzing, a wine-growing suburb (and former separate town) and then returning to the Donauinsel via a bridge dedicated to cyclists, pedestrians and skaters. (There is a parallel bridge for infernal combustion engines. I imagine the authorities might stretch a point and also allow steam-engines on it.)

We returned via the Donauinsel, partly to avoid traffic but mostly because we had seen people swimming in the Danube here and wanted to try it. There are a number of pontoons moored along the banks so people can sunbath and dive into the river but these were all already occupied. So we found a shady spot with reasonable access to the water, then Elly sunbathed while I tiptoed in. (For anyone concerned, I was wearing trekking sandals: lifeguard training has taught me not to trust underwater surfaces.) once I’d worked up the courage, I found the water was lovely: cool, CLEAR, and relaxing. I couldn’t swim proper strokes apart from backstroke and sidestroke due to my frozen shoulder but these were enough to take me where I felt like going.

I think I stayed in the water about an hour. I didn’t want to get my cycling gear wet so I cycled back along the Donauibsel in my trunks. (Elly was much more discreet and lady-like, as is only to be expected!) Once we’d changed, we took a tram to the 3 Bezirk to eat in a veggie/vegan Taiwanese restaurant called Vegetasia. This uses ‘meats’ made of plant protein and tofu to make very convincing oriental dishes: highly recommended! We had planned to walk back to the hotel but a sudden downpour saw us firstly sheltering in a doorway the making a dash for the nearby Landstrasse U-bahnhof and a dry but unromantic trip.

Here’s a map of yesterday’s cycling as far as Donauinsel. (Ignore the bit about going to Alsergrund: that’s spurious.) And here’s a map of our tram-journey to Vegetasia.