Bratislava 2 – Day 5

What an absolutely exceptional day I had today. I set my alarm for 8 AM, dressed in my cycling gear, and went down to the luggage room to bring the bike up to the room. I installed a bike seat that I know is comfortable that I brought from home, my lights and a bar bag. Then I went to the dining room for breakfast and took a hard boiled egg, and some yoghurt drinks to take with me on the bike in case the small places where I was going had no food on offer. The weather was forecast to range from 9 to 13°, and sunny. Here I am ready to go.

Only the first 2 kilometers, and the final kilometer, of the 53 km that I rode, were on roads that had any significant amount of traffic. There was perhaps an additional 5 km at the most that was on the road, but with very few cars. The rest of the distance was on excellent cycling infrastructure that allows no, or very restricted, motor vehicle traffic. The long distance cycling network here is like nothing I have seen in Canada, with only the P’Tit Train du Nord and connecting trails in the Laurentian’s coming close.

My route today took me up and down a mountain. The change in elevation was double what I am used to compared to riding up the escarpment at home, which I find quite challenging. Almost the entire ride was relatively flat other than 6 km of climbing, and 6 km of descending. 

The surfaces were quite wet from a lot of rain that fell overnight. It was a mix of sun and cloud as I started out. It wasn’t long before I had to remove my vest. The route ran parallel to the rail line for a while.

The path I was riding on was paved, but crisscrossed with other paths, down to the city, and up into the mountains, some of them paved, and some of them dirt.

Several trains passed me as I rode.

I passed through a couple kilometres of vineyards, and there was a small restaurantat at one of them.

A restricted number of vehicles were allowed on the path, such as service vehicles, but only one car very slowly passed me.

The path briefly went through a built-up area on a regular road, but there was no traffic.

Then there was about a kilometre on a gravel road.

I then reached a small village called Rača which had a bust of Andrej Hlinka, a Slovak, Catholic priest, journalist, banker, politician, and one of the most important Slovak public activists in Czechoslovakia before World War Two.

I had already been climbing a bit to get to Rača as can be seen when I looked back at this point.

However, the challenging 6 km of climbing with over 400 m of elevation change, was just beginning. 

In addition to the paved pathway that I rode up, there were numerous mountain biking and hiking  trails. 

The municipal bus service came right up to the beginning of the bike path at the City  Forest. 

The path is a very generous width, as you can see from this service vehicle that carefully passed me. Only two other motor vehicles passed me in the 6 km of the climb. I didn’t see any other cyclists riding up, but three were riding down, two of them were young women about my children’s age, on e-bikes.

It wasn’t long before I had to take off my vest, and roll up my sleeves, given the exertion of the climb, even though the sky had clouded over and light rain had started.

It’s always difficult to understand how steep something is in pictures, but if you look at the slope beside me in these pictures, you can get an idea of what I was climbing.

I stopped to let my heart rate fall and give my legs a break every 400 to 800 m, but I managed to ride the entire thing. 

The wayfaring signage and abundance of cycling infrastructure is so impressive, given what I’m used to at home.

Just before I reached the top, there was a restaurant and a bicycle rental business. There was also a large white cross, which gives the place its name – Biely Križ.

The bicycle repair station had outlets for people to plug in their e-bikes.

This is a hostel which caters to cyclists and hikers. All the fence posts were capped with mugs.

When I saw this platform and frame, I figured I had reached the top about 1.5 km before I expected.

However, once I got around the curve, I saw that the road continued up, but not quite as steeply.

The descent was absolutely amazing. There was still a fair bit of fall colour. I descended fairly quickly for the first couple kilometers, probably getting up to 35 or 40 km/h, but then on one of the curves, I hit some debris on the path while breaking and fishtailed, but fortunately stayed upright. I was also getting quite cold at that point, so I put my jacket back on, and descended more cautiously after that.

The park ended at a village called Svätý Jur, and the descent continued through the outskirts of the village to the main square. Outside of the downtown area of Bratislava, I have been seeing these metal discs bolted into the road to slow down drivers.

The main square was lovely and lined with shops and residences.

I stopped at the Café-Bistro Sanctus Georgius for a latte. A man standing outside to smoke called out “Welcome” as I arrived, but that was the extent of his English. I’m not sure how he identified me as being an English speaker, but obviously he was correct.No one in the café spoken English, but I muddled through.Many cafés here provide cushions and blankets to allow one to sit outside comfortably in cold weather.

A daycare in the village had an adorable coloured pencil fence.

It was a very appealing, walkable village, and this park next to the grocery store, caught my eye. Just down the road from the grocery store was a school.The intersection closest to both was completely raised in all directions, an excellent safety measure.Around the corner by the high school, there was another raised intersection.

The village had a small train station.Then I was on another bike path running parallel to the train tracks.

At a high level I planned the route based on the places suggested by Dominik on Sunday. I decided the details  based on heat maps of where cyclists ride.  Overall the entire route was excellent. There was one oddity which was that I needed to ride across this field and climb up this embankment.

This beautiful bike path is what I found at the top of the embankment.

I passed quite a few small canals along the way. The globes in the trees are mistletoe.

There were many beautifully forested sections to ride through. But not so many as with rail trails at home, that I got bored. Often the path went through open fields with beautiful vistas.

At this point, the bike path started parallelling the highway, but there was a very little traffic noise. The highways here have COR-TEN steel noise walls that seem to be very effective.

When we were driving into Bratislava from the Vienna airport, I noticed bridges that seem to have vegetation on them and be quite wide. I speculated that they were wildlife crossings, and today I saw one of them from the side.

Here is a mark of excellent infrastructure. You have the option to go under the road or over the road and also the wayfaring signs show you all the other routes you can connect to.

Another sign of a society that considers the welfare of those using active transportation is that they sign and build high-quality detours when they have to close infrastructure for construction.

My route took me around Bratislava airport. There are no flights direct from Canada to this airport.The airport covered a lot of land, but the cyclepath continued all around it.

I stopped at the south end of the airport for a snack and a plane came in over top of me.These lights are  for guiding aircraft in. I don’t understand why they would be on this wave shaped bridge, as opposed to just a regular convex one. Perhaps to keep the lights all at the same height?

This restaurant had the figure of a man holding a real, but aged rode bike.

At this point, I recognized that I was travelling along the Little Danube and retracing part of a ride I did last spring.A lot of commuters seem to use this path.

In this picture, you can see a pipeline crossing the river, then a pedestrian bridge, then a highway bridge.

That’s my shadow on the COR-TEN steel noise wall.

This picture show two high quality bike paths crossing  and significant investment in cycling infrastructure in a chalking place where there is a river and highways and ramps, but it is still an inviting area to ride.On this section, the bike path is separated from the walking path by an accessibility strip.

As I approached here, I thought I might have to use the stairs, but was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a ramp.

At this intersection, it’s painted green for bikes and red for pedestrians.

The bike lane is in the centre of the road and painted green where it’s at grade.It then continues in Boulevard between trees.

And here I am back at the hotel 53 km later. I was quite tired towards the end of the ride, but in a different way, from when I was climbing the hill, where my heart rate was very high. At this point my legs just felt like they didn’t have much left. I think I am still not completely over the jet lag.

I was able to shower and relax in the room and review my pictures before Michael got back from work. We went up to the 13th floor to the hotel bar called Outlook for a drink and beautiful views over the city.

Then we walked to Spilka for dinner. I chose fish and chips, something I choose from time to time after a day of biking, but unfortunately it were disappointing. They definitely filled me up, though.

I haven’t decided what I’ll do tomorrow, but it’ll be something less taxing.