I am in Austria – hence my article is delayed by a week! I am here for a quick break to visit family and friends. It is always good to catch up after an absence. It has been 1.5 years since I was last here.

Catching up happens mainly at restaurants (mainly ‘heurigen’ – which literally translates to this year’s – this year’s young wine) or homes.

One friend in particular likes meeting at heurigens BUT the mode of transportation is ALWAYS bicycle. We meet near their home and cycle out to the vineyards. Always an adventure.

I have not been cycling much this year and wasn’t sure how I would cope with a 20 km ride to a vineyard. But I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Cycling along the old Danube then through little villages and small country lanes is truly breathtaking. Eventually, we cycled along vineyards and arrived at the heurigen we were aiming for.

What an achievement it was. The entire route is relatively flat with short sections of differing gradients.

Dinner felt like it was earned! What a feeling! And of course, food is had with wine, But not too much as there is the cycle back. But whatever is consumed is done with the knowledge that it will be burned off on the cycle back. 😉

The 40 km round trip was a good trial for the 60 km cycle ride I did this week. Again along the Danube to a different location. Along the EuroVelo 6. EuroVelo is a network of 17 long-distance cycling routes crisscrossing Europe.

Austria is so well set up for cycling especially long-distance cycling. It is possible to cycle to the Danube River delta in Romania. The river is still used to transport goods to countries along the Danube.

But the highlight of the trip so far has been hot air ballooning. What an experience. We, my husband (Markus) and I were invited for a ride by friends who balloon as a hobby. We could not resist the opportunity to try this new adventure. Both of us have never ballooned before.

What I loved about the entire adventure was the science and helping with the preparation to fly. It was back to physics. Lift-off and flying is based on the principles of physics. Hot air rises and cold air sinks.

We had to leave early in the morning, 6 am before the air got too warm causing thermals to form! Our friends had done their research and knew wind directions for that day. As there is no steering in ballooning, wind direction is critical in determining the flight plan. And as we were near Vienna, there was a no-fly zone around the Vienna International Airport that we had to avoid!

We took off from a local airstrip and landed in a field in the next village. Our ‘driving’ time (as the ballooners call it) was 1 hour and 10 minutes. Both take-off and landing was very smooth.

So much goes into flying these balloons. It is INCREDIBLE!.

I am keeping this week’s article short. My LinkedIn post has some photos of the ballooning : https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7222880241797455872/

As always, you can reach me at yoga@yoganesadurai.com