I started early this morning because I had planned a few kilometres. Shortly after 7.30 a.m. I plunged into the morning traffic in Vienna. It wasn't that bad though - Vienna is a really great city for cycling. And after 2 kilometres I was already out of the city and back on the cycle path. There was hardly any traffic here, just a few commuters cycling to work even at 4 degrees Celsius. As I had forgotten the (obligatory?) start photo, I made up for it on the banks of the Danube with a view back to Vienna.

Afterwards, we first passed Vienna's oil reserves and then travelled through a nature reserve on what felt like an endlessly long straight. It was almost as monotonous as the weather - there wasn't a cloud in the sky at the start of the day. For a change, there was a bridge and a sign that tried to explain the cycle path situation - I was glad I had saved the route on my bike computer, the graphics confused me.

After the only small ascent of the day, I could already see Bratislava in the distance - and I wasn't far away from it either. When signs suddenly appeared next to the motorway that were no longer in German, I wondered whether I was already in Slovakia. At the next signpost, which was completely in Slovakian, there was also a map and the case was clear: I had already crossed the border without realising it. I guess that only happens in Europe!

I took my first long break in a park on the Danube opposite Bratislava Castle. Just over 100 kilometres to go. EuroVelo Route 6 led past the city itself, but the skyscrapers were particularly visible from the bridge over the Danube. Soon I was back on the Danube and the next seemingly endless straight awaited me. Really varied is different. But it was still nice - if only it hadn't been for the headwind. It accompanied me all the way to Komárno with only a few interruptions.

The main problem with the headwind for me is that it encourages me to ride too fast. «I'll show him!» or something like that. However, I calmed down a little and my heart rate dropped back to a reasonable level. However, I can't really relax in a headwind yet, I definitely still have potential. When the previously good road turned into a gravel track of the «horror» variety - I couldn't go faster than about 15 km/h because it was so uneven and full of stones, although my bike usually rolls very easily over gravel - I started to feel a little crisis coming on. Fortunately, there was a tarmac road that ran pretty much parallel to it. Despite all my love for EuroVelo 6, I left it as long as this road led in the same direction. A car overtaking every 3-4 minutes was definitely much more bearable.

When the road went in a completely different direction, I took the next ascent back onto the flood defence dam where EuroVelo 6 was. I was relieved to see that the road was now tarmac again. The headwind remained. Slowly but surely, I wanted to take a second break. There wasn't really anywhere to sit down, and I was beginning to lose sight of the forest. But then suddenly there was a «rest stop», complete with bike service facilities. So I only took another break about 20 kilometres before Komárno. A good hour against the wind later I was back at the hotel - fortunately at a quarter past four. By the way: Yesterday everything was in German, today the receptionist didn't even speak English. The signs here are also in Slovakian and Hungarian - after all, the Danube is the border with Magyarország. The German shopping chain Lidl is also here, but one of the products I bought was labelled in all possible languages (including Estonian, Lithuanian, Slovakian, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Greek and 3 other languages that I couldn't recognise from the abbreviation), just not German or English. Welcome to Slovakia :-).