the full extent of yesterday's disaster revealed itself at the breakfast. nina had blisters on her toes and her knee hurt, the rest of the crew was battered, and one member even quit and decided to go to the railway station to take the next train home because his feet hurt too much. so one man down, and plus one.
the rest started this day's journey in parndorf, paid the nearby "outlet centre" a visit, as it lay on the route of our trail. but we did not buy much because of the extra weight we would have had to carry for the next two days. at least i have seen the outlet centre, as i have never been there before. looks like it is worth coming back here one day to really do some shopping. but there was a pharmacy too, where we bought loads of plasters and bandages.
the weather today was good, and only a few other people were out on our road too. most of them were on bicycles, as it seems the route is a perfect trip with a bike. accordingly were the looks on the people's faces when they saw us hiking.
after walking quite a while we had our first break at an inn[03-04], had coffee, ice cream, and some water. refreshed we went on through vineyards[07-20] and over mounds[18-20].
on top of one we had a nice picnic in the vine yard. by now everyone was feeling better again, the pain almost gone, so we all could enjoy hiking and the landscape again. and also the weather was still good, although the weather report has predicted otherwise.
next we arrived in winden am see, where we spotted a strange sculpture[30,32,35,37]. turns out it was the "sonnenanbeter" by prof. wander bertoni, put there over 50 years ago, back in 1963. the sculpture did not look that old actually. being there also meant it was not far to our accommodation anymore. almost everyone of the group was happy about that.
in breitenbrunn[40-48] we went to our accommodation, which turned out to have a rather strange host. an old lady with a not too friendly behaviour (at least she had a cat[47]), but maybe that is local tradition. also we asked her if there is a tavern opened in the village, but it seems there was none. either they were closed due to construction work, or because the owners were on holidays or simply because some did not feel like opening today; it seems all that was left was a restaurant in the centre of the village, where we went[48] to have dinner.
there people were friendly and we had a few drinks and fun. but at around 22:00 o'clock they were closing, but we were told there is a first of march festivity on the main square. so we wanted to go there, but that festival was also already over. puh, what is wrong with the people in the country. too bad. so we went back to our accommodation, two of our crew did not want to give up that easily and wandered the streets of breitenbrunn in the hope of finding some place to party on. my bet was they would fail miserably.
the total distance of today's hike was 18.30 kilometres, and i am feeling pretty good actually. no blisters, no pain so far. that is good. i hope the others are fine too, so far everyone seems better than yesterday in the evening.
here is the track for day 02.