From the Vienna airport, we hiked a little along the south bank of the Danube along Austrian Weitwanderweg 07 toward Bratislava. Mainly I wanted to see Devin Castle -- it was a nice sight, but the trail is pretty poor, a great muddy mosquito factory. We followed it as far as Wolfsthal and then caught a bus to Bratislava.

This is a fun, friendly, and beautiful city, a good place to shake off the jetlag. We stocked up on hiking maps and Slovak cuisine and I got a haircut, and now we're ready to start hiking for real.

We're heading north from Bratislava tomorrow on a trail called Štefánikova Magistrála., eventually connecting to the western terminus of the Trail of the Heroes of the Slovak National Uprising. (These trails and many others are strung together to make the E8.)