The is the second leg of riding about 500km of the Iron Curtain Trail or FeCT.

Too Much Heat in Rural Austria/Czech – Laa (60km)

This was a fill in section and unfortunately I have small gap of about 10km. Alas the 35C temperatures and not wanting to miss a train both depleted me and forced the decision. As for the section, not bad. I would take the Austrian section between Retz and Laa over this bit but this is nitpicking.

The tour was was rural Austria/Czech at its best. Through in a few castles, ancient churches and you have yourself a great ride. Mostly on ashpalt but enough rough pavement and gravel to make you want to leave your pricey road bike at home. In fact a soft tail or shocks would have been good for these sections.

The route itself was through rolling hills and there was some good sections about the history of the Iron Curtain… with the catch that you have to be able to read Czech. The Czech side seemed a bit more developed than the section from Retz to Laa and there were lots of locals on their bikes with kids and large groups.

As for the Iron Curtain, it has largely disappeared other than the memorials and the occasional machine gun emplacement. This of course is a good thing and the whole point of this trail…

60km of the FeCT. Map courtesy of bikemap.net.

Laa to Hohenau (almost)

A Few Pics

Wien Kellers

Heading North into the town of Mikulov

The Score!