Budapest, Hungary to Austria, Vienna, just around the corner, only a 3 hour ride. Fine and cool with blue skies and being in the Schengen area now no border crossing to worry about today or so I thought hahaha, think again this was the worst one so far. As I neared the border I saw a queue of cars a long way from the border and I thought No, No, No, “an accident” up ahead, this is going to take ages because they won’t let anyone through until the debris has been cleared. Anyway I did my usual and slowly filtered through the traffic, down the emergency lane and when that ended, through the middle until I got to the front and discovered the Austrian authorities had setup a temporary border and were checking cars and pulling some over for further scrutiny. If you are in a car be prepared for long delays, I was told later that this has been going on for a while. The Police ignored me as I rode past taking a picture of them. Lesson – motorcycles are good for crossing borders but useless when it comes to protecting you from bee stings hahaha.
Immediately you cross the border there is a Shell service station, stop here and buy your Vignette, 10 days for a motorcycle cost 5.20 euro. I tried to buy the Vignette online but for some weird reason it can only be done 3 weeks in advance.
- Blue skies
- The countryside
- The Border queue
- The old border buildings
- The new border buildings
- Vignette from the Shell station
- Many wind turbines, very windy
- Vienna
- U-Bahn
- Bridge
- The Wein river
- To end the day
First thing I did was buy a one week pass for the public transport which consists of trains, trams and busses, cost 17.10 euro and for some reason it is a Monday to Sunday ticket only (Quote – Valid for unlimited travel in Vienna within the specified calendar week Mon-Sun. This is not a 7-day ticket!). This worked perfectly for me as I arrived on a Sunday, not so good if you arrive mid-week but there are other options. The ticket machines at the stations speak English.
The fuel consumption on my bike has increased by 10-15% and I am hoping it is due to the air filter getting clogged. So I found a Bike shop and ordered a new air filter and they gave me the bolt I needed for the chain guard free, in fact they gave me 2 sizes just in case. Bike City gets a thumbs up from me. After that I walked to the nearby Technical Museum, I find these museums fascinating and never miss the opportunity to visit them. This place is huge and had a cafe with very reasonable prices. Entry 13 euro and lunch 6.40 euro, I spent about 3 hours looking around the 3 floors of exhibits.
- The Station
- On the train
- Nasty
- Technical Museum
- Inside
- Mobility
- Racing Electric bike
- Tata Nano
- Aircraft Engine
- Cost of Shipping
- Container Ports
- Container Ships
- Spaceship II and White Knight II
- Otto Lilienthal
- and his hang glider
- Big gears, note the wear
- Steyr 220
- Bicycles
- Mercedes W196
- Ancient
- Speedometer
- Navigation
- Getting your bearings
- Paddle Wheels
- Helicopter
- Moon LAnder
- Ladislaus Almasy – The English Patient
- and his plane
- from the rear
- Helicopter Drone
- Hauling a barge upriver
- Vienna – Piano city
- Eroica symphony
- Pipe organs pipes
- Alban Bergs beloved Ford Model A
- Hold steady for about 5 minutes
- Count the photographers
- Satellite
- Steel maker
- Big machines
- Soup
- Stew
- Pelton Wheel – Intricate
- Spot the power source
- A Factory powered by Belts
- Transformer
- Wood
- Mechanical advantage of pulleys
- Lifting the Vatican Obelisk
- Ancient
- Big wheels keep on turnin
- Old machine
- Steam engine
- Massive connecting rods
- Note the oil feed
- Women sorting ore
- Men drilling and blasting
- Manual wooden lathe
- Free gift on exit