Goals are like thinking about where you want to go for dinner tonight. A good destination to walk toward until you pass something better. So, here is my goal – I want to ride at ~500km of the Iron Curtain Trail or FeCT.

The FeCT runs from the Arctic to the Black Sea along the former borders of the Iron Curtain.  At 4,127km long, it is not my intent to ride the whole thing… this year… but instead the sections that are reasonably accessible by train from Vienna.  I might do a few longer trips in Fall if weekends and work permit, but for the moment, 500km is a nice round number.

Ohhh, here are my rules for myself.  KM only count if they are on the trail and doing a section twice does not double the distance.  I will attempt to do a blog to remember the ride, make some notes in case I go back (or someone stumbles on this via Google).  Finally, I also get to changes these rules at my whim.

Full Route of the Iron Curtain Trail (www.ironcurtaintrail.eu – All rights reserved)

And So It Begins – Hohenau to Devinska Nova Ves (66km)

The section is definitely bucolic and only moderately busy (closer to Bratislav) and flat.  Trip notes:

• About ~20% of the route is on roads but almost all are low traffic.
• The trail section surface runs from smooth asphalt to rocks and broken pavement.
• Because of the road surface, leave your road bike at home.  A hybrid is fine, a mountain bike with non-aggressive tires is perfect.
• There are a few points along the way to buy a radler and fill your water bottle, nevertheless, plan to be self-sufficient.
• There are some areas that are relatively remote and a way from the roads (e.g. 1-2km+); plan your travel accordingly (e.g. single women, etc.).
• Once you leave Hohenau, there are only two bridges across the March at Angern an der March and the Friendship bridge.

The first 66km of the FeCT. Map courtesy of bikemap.net.

A Few Pics

An old guard-house at the border with a control gate and customs house.  Notice the decoy electrical box with a camera pointing toward Slovakia from the Austrian side.

Former Border Control just east of Hohenau.

And so it begins, at the Slovakia border.

Austrian / Slovak border.

Lots of Oil and Gas activity.  It could have been Alberta….

A derrick working the Slovak oil fields.

An abandoned bunker along the berm on the former Czechoslovakian side.

Abandoned bunker. There were at least 6 all spaced ~200M apart.

The Score!