Monday 5 May 2008

Eurovelo 6: Krems to Slovak border


From Krems to Vienna it was only a short trip and I enjoyed visiting the museums again. I have been in Vienna various times before but it is always nice to come back. I stayed in an ETAP hotel that I had used a lot of times before on business trips. But now I was here with bike instead of a rental car. It felt kind of weird to smuggle the bike up into my room because I felt that it would not be safe in the underground parking lot. Cycling out of Vienna the next day brought me to that futuristic bike path leading up to a bridge - a lot of effort and money has been spent to make life easier for cyclists.

My last campsite on the Danube
As I had mentioned in earlier posts I had been suffering from numb fingers for quite a while. The problem didn't get better, so I decided to see a doctor in Hainburg (just before the Slovak border - my last chance to talk to a doctor in my own language!) The doctor diagnosed Karpal tunnel syndrom: The nerve for the three middle fingers leads through a small tunnel in the hand (the so called Karpal tunnel). A lot of pressure from cycling can lead to a swelling in this tunnel which will irritate the nerve and causes numb and/or tickling fingers. The doctor advised to stop cycling immediately in order to avoid a permanent damage of the nerve - if it is not too late already. I didn't really want to stop cycling, but I didn't want to risk any permanent damage either, so I took the next train back to Berlin - 10 days earlier than planned. It has not been an easy decision, but I didn't want to risk the rest of my trip because of a health problem.

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