Bikes!

One of the things that has been different about me since I got married is I have less grease under my nails. The reason for this, is that Nils builds, cleans and fixes my bikes for me, and I just sit on the couch and drink wine and read the New Yorker on my kindle. If you asked me what the biggest difference about being married is on a personal level, this would be in my top 3.

So. Since our bikes have arrived I've had three amazing rides. Nils has had two but that is because he has been sick, which may have something to do with working really hard and staying up late building bikes but I digress.

We live near the Danube, and there is this funny island nearby called the Donauinsel. I'm attaching a map here for anyone who is actually interested enough to click on a link. If is long and skinny, and has some good paved riding trails. We can get to it from the Prater, which is the massive park I've talked about a few times already where I go jogging.

Ride number 1: We left from our house to go to Donauinsel, and came back through the Prater. In short, it was amazing. It took about 1 hour, and will probably be our short loop for a quick work out. Notable stops along the way include no less than 5 Biergartens, and several ice cream stands (hence the maniacal exercising).

Ride number 2: From our house, we went out the Danaukanal, a canal with bike paths going both ways that runs closer to the city than the Insel and goes towards the mountains. We road up through a hilly neighborhood (think North Berkeley) and then rode up and up this beautiful vineyard hillside (Kenwood-esque) and reached the top of this mountain. Coming down was super fun, it was my first long descent on cobbles. I think my hands are still numb. Here is Nils at the top looking down at the city.

Checkin' out the view.

Ride number 3: Mountain biking! I noticed these signs on ride number 2 that said "zur mountainbike strecke" and I was intrigued. They look like this:

zur mountainbike strecke=mountainbike route

So, Nils had to work this Sunday so I went out on my own to see where these intriguing signs lead. It turns out, from the city, you can ride to this amazing massive network of trails that are actually awesome. I road for about 2.5 hours and it was super fun and amazing. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to have mountain biking within reach of our apartment. This is where you will find me when I'm not glued to a SAS program.

Next week, I'll post about riding a stage of the Giro d'Italia from Venice. Unfortunately, it looks like it will be in the rain, but that only increases our tough quotient. See you then!