Discover your town!

Whenever I think about city-cycling I think about the German campaign Radlust which deals with the promotion of federal cycling traffic. The term "Radlust" could be translated to "the joy of cycling". The aim of the campaign was to -- literally speaking -- mobilize the unused potential of the bicycle in cities (nearly all households in Europe own at least one bicycle) by remembering their owners about the pleasure of movement:

>> If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. << (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

Whenever I cycle on the weekend myself, try new bike routes or generally explore areas that I have never been to before by bicycle, I too feel this enthusiasm and pure joy of cycling. Last weekend was one of these occasions...

I put on my new stripy jersey dress, carried Paula up from the basement and set off for the unexpected. Also with me, a map printed from anachb.at (useful Viennese-area route planner), sunglasses, a hat and some of my cameras.

My first target was a café in Oberdöbling, a rather posh part of Vienna. I met up with some colleagues for an entertaining extended breakfast at the Wannenmacher bakery. The route was easy to remember, but 4 km more or less uphill. No bike racks at the café or nearby, but after some scrabbling around I found safe parking for my Retrovelo Paula.

Almost lunch, I reactivated Paula again. Goal: the Viennese zoo at Schönbrunn (I wrote about the place earlier, if you would like to have more background information). Start and end point were about 10 km away from each other, with a lot of steep up and downs along the way. Plus, the route suggested was not at all easy to find. I already missed the first turn.

Some of the streets were that wide...

...others were incredibly hard to find (for example very narrow foot path with exceptions for cyclists).

I had to look up the map regularly, but didn't get lost again. The route was strange though. Once it send me through a park (no cycling allowed), another time I drove through a restaurant (typical obscure traffic planning à la Vienna :))...

...and even ended up at a blind alley with a pedestrian underpass at the end.

Hard to believe, but I did make it to Schönbrunn alright :). Of course I exceeded the proposed 36 minutes of cycling time -- but no hurry, no problem. Even on such a lovely warm summer's day I found a nice bike rack for Paula inside the gardens. Had lunch at the Kaiserpavilion...

...ice-cream at the Rhinos and generally stayed inside cool places, like the aquarium and bird house (don't see the giraffes, they stink).

Warm weather makes tired, so after some more strolling around and photo shooting with Paula...

...it was time to return home. There was still some 9 km to go. Along Mariahilfer Straße, and up and down the Gürtel bike path in the evening sun. A lovely way to let the day die out.

For all the photographic glory see my flickr album "from döbling to hietzing and back". Or even better: just go on your own discovery tour around town, and take part in the final round of the LGRAB summer games.