PEDAL POWER Gleanings
Never ending fall FALL   2011

We had a great Fall, sunny and warm. Which was not only great for biking but for the grapes too. Vienna is in the middle of one of Austria’s best wine producing regions. (Not everyone drinks beer here.) The weather helped make the 2011 wines among the best ever. Those of you visiting this year will have the chance to taste them.

As always we closed up shop on October 31st. Or so we thought. It was so warm that we were swamped with requests for bikes and bike tours. What could we do? Fortunately it got cold in November and we were finally able to go into hibernation for the winter. (We definitely need our beauty sleep.) Actually our last tour was on December 28th. A Dutch group. The latest we ever had.

What a year!  2011 was great for cycling; very little rain and never really hot.

We thank everyone who visited us last year for your support.
We are looking forward to all of you who are coming in 2012.

If you are visiting in Spring 2012:
We have decided to start the guided bike tours during Easter week on good Friday and they will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in April.
Starting in May we go to our regular schedule and they are available daily.		  
Summer party and more bike tours than ever SUMMER   2011

Just as summer began Europe’s largest open-air musical festival took place: the Danube Island Festival. This year it is from June 22nd to 24th 2012. Last year there were 1 million guest per day! Now that is a party!

Our daily guided bike tours continued to grow. Especially the afternoon one. More and more people want a respite from being in the city during their travels and they really enjoy getting out to the Danube Island and biking along the river.
Vienna offers a perfect Bicycle-Boulevard around the Inner City SPRING   2011

We woke up from winter hibernation to a beautiful, sunny but cool March.
The big event in April was the 1st  Vienna Bicycle Parade. There were over 5,000 participants! Not bad for the first one.

The entire Ring (Boulevard that runs around the Inner City, built on the site of the medieval city walls.) was closed off to automobile traffic and all 3 lanes of it were filled with every type of wheeled vehicle imaginable and some you can’t. What a sight! It is a one in a lifetime experience for the tourist who happen to be here for it. With a Pedal Power bike riding down the grand boulevard between the many palaces and state buildings built over a 100 years ago. The Ring was built just about the time that bicycles were reaching a larger public.

DANUBE BIKE TRAIL
May and June were great to do the Danube Bike trail.
The trend continued that ever more people are doing the trail from Vienna to Budapest. But it is our humble opinion that if you have done neither (Passau-Vienna or Vienna-Budapest) that you should definitely do Passau to Vienna first. Why? because it is possibly the best bike trail in Europe!
The Greenways bike Route from Prague to Vienna is also becoming popular. You need more time and stamina for that one. But it is worth it (not only for the many Czech breweries).