It rained hard all night Friday but we didn't want to waste our last day in Vienna. So it was back into our yellow bike jackets and off to explore the metro system. We headed out of the city to the Schlofs Schonbrunn -the country palace where Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Sisi made their home. (the parents of Marie Antoinette)It was a  huge estate with acres of gardens. Because of the rain we toured the palace and then wandered through the massive park and gardens. It's always interesting to follow the history of royalty in another time period.
The afternoon was very low key with time to catch up on the internet, reading, etc as Sunday morning would see us heading out for 5 straight days of biking.
This morning we headed out under heavy clouds but they eventually turned to a beautiful sunny day.We had  a wonderful day of biking mostly along raised dikes, well paved and often through a nature park. One of the fascinating things was the number of mistletoe balls growing in the trees. Some teees would have one or two, others were dead with 10 or more balls living in them.We travelled through Hanesberg, the last large town in Austria and soon we were crossing beside the old border crossing into Slovakia.Our destination for tonight was the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. We lucked in as this weekend is Bratislava   days so we were treated to. Street activities with local costumes, dancing , singing , local artisans and foods. A great way to see the culture of another country. Tomorrow we head off on the  final stage of our journey - 4 days biking through Hungary to reach Budapest.