2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Prologue

I visited Europe for the first time in 1998 and became a big fan since then. I enjoyed reading about the history of Western civilization. There are always so much to see. This year I'm visiting Germany for the 2nd time and Austria the 1st time. I ended up cycling for 170 miles, visited 6 museums and 1 music festival, all in 1 week!

Coincidentally, even before I boarded my flight, I already got some good biking vibes from the Exhibition about history of mountain biking at SFO. I have been riding Specialized bikes for a couple years and just realized its founder came from SJ State U. And the engineering culture of the silicon valley and the Bay Area in general was part of the stimulants of the whole mountain biking movement, making the Bay Area THE "capitol" of the sports. Just one more motivation for me to get more involved! Please scroll all the way down to start reading my journey from the first stop.

2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Epilogue 2

I gotta admit I really know very little about Austria before the trip though. I read a bit more and tried to understand its culture, especially comparison with German. And I realized Austrian are known to be rude (compared to the friendly German) Not sure if they are rude in general or towards foreigners only but I won't be surprised if the latter is the case for a country with so much rural area. Then I found out the country's anti-semitism. Even though I am 0% Jewish, I still might have a 2nd thought about going had I known this before hand. I did witness one episode that involved rude Austrian: I was in line to buy lunch from the coffee shop at Schonbrunn palace. The Italian guy in front of me ordered two cups for himself and gf. He found out he was charged more than expected. The barista/cashier lady explained in English that's the price of coffee (with milk) but that customer said he actually wanted the (cheaper) espresso. So the lady made the latter as well but looked very obviously pissed. I smiled at that customer, as well as the cashier when it's my turn to order. The cashier lady probably realized that she was too rude and put on a smile too. She joked with me and the rest in line whether we wanted to buy the coffee she already made.

I also didn't know Austria has low crime rate but I totally believe it judging by how Viennese locked their bikes, ie., not chaining up the front wheel. That's a no-no in the States. I learned that from campus orientation years ago.

Even though I survived without cell phone service but it would have been nice to have. I bet it would have reduced some stress from worrying about getting lost along Danube. And cell phone service really helped during my transit in Chicago: my SF->Chicago flight was delayed by 1 hour because of Obama's visit to the Bay Area and I worried that I would missed the Chicago->Munich flight. So I studied the airport/terminal map in the airline magazine trying to figure out the fastest way to get to that gate. When the plane touched down in Chicago, it actually passed by that gate and I saw no plane and I guess the next flight was delayed as well. And I confirmed that with my phone. So I relaxed and spent the extra time on dinner.

Finally, I wanted to recommend an Android App: MapDroyd. You could download and view maps later offline with this App. I downloaded the Bavaria and Austria map before the trip. Even though I had no phone service, I could still use this. It was very helpful, especially when I tried finding the ways from train station to hotel.