During the last days I was riding alone from Bosnia north to Austria and I was in a strange mood. I had no real pleasure in traveling and biking was more or less becoming a routine. The landscape flattened out and got a little boring and already 700 km before reaching Vienna, I felt so close to be at home, that I just wanted to get it over and finally arrive in Austria’s capital, where some of my old friends are living. Also temperature began to drop significantly and it were the first days during the bike journey where I had to wear long clothes all day. So there was no reason for me to slow down and for five days I did not do anything else than heavy pedaling. A bit exhausted I arrived in Vienna a week ago.
I am still a bit confused being in Vienna. Seeing my friends it suddenly feels as if I have never been away and still there was this long journey which I have not even finished yet. More and more I begin to think what might come afterwards. Besides that I found that I have troubles finding my ways through the narrow streets and get my bearings correctly. Apparently, not living in a dense city for a year gave me a good sense for orientation in nature and open space, but I got really confused while biking in Vienna. Partly this confusion might be due to highly non-intuitive bike lanes.
Vienna has built many kilometers of new bike lanes in the last years – a good thing – however, the roads are narrow and the available space needs to be shared with cars, tramways and pedestrians. Unfortunately, the traffic hierarchy in Vienna still puts bikers on a lower rank than cars, resulting in sometimes ill-conceived solutions: Bike lanes might end abruptly, or are suddenly moved to the sidewalk where conflicts with pedestrians are predictable.
One of the highlights of the last days was visiting the “Zentralfriedhof“, Vienna’s central cemetery where about twice as many people have been buried than currently living in the city. It is a huge space and especially the old jewish part of the cemetery I found amazing. Many of the old graves are overgrown and appear not to be looked after. However, the small jungle that has emerged gives this place a beautiful atmosphere. But have a look yourself.
pedalsk 