As already mentioned, I brought three postcards from Post Office Bay home to Austria. I combined the delivery of the two of these cards (going to the Wiener Neustadt area) with a bike tour.

Yesterday, I took the subway to the south of Vienna, and cycled on the Thermenradweg to Wiener Neustadt. This bike route is part of the EuroVelo network. So, fortunately it is signposted rather well. Only in Guntramsdorf I seem to have overlooked a sign, and had to cross the town on the main road. Otherwise, however, this cycle path largely passes through meadows and fields – apart from a bridge across the motorway, traversing the industrial zone "NÖ-Süd" and a short section along a four-lane highway to bypass a military area.

Most of the route follows the Wiener Neustadt channel, which is lined with shrubs, trees, meadows and fields. Only at the beginning (near Guntramsdorf), some (old and new) industrial buildings line the right bank of the channel. Otherwise, the cycle path is really quite idyllic  – and, fortunately, mostly flat as well.

In the end, I arrived in Wiener Neustadt even earlier than expected. The delivery of the card there, however, was quite unspectacular: Two children were playing in front of the house, and I gave the card to them (after a brief inquiry whether I have indeed found the right house). They thanked me politely, but that was our entire conversation.

To deliver the second card, I continued on to a neighboring village. The small dirt road I took to get there was almost as picturesque as the Thermenradweg. Unfortunately, however, I did not encounter the card’s recipient, so I had to leave the postcard (with a small note) in the mailbox.

After cycling back to Wiener Neustadt I had enough, and returned to Vienna by train.

But as all good things (including postcards from Galapagos, it seems) come in threes, I still had one more postcard to deliver. I decided to do that today. As it was going to an address in Vienna, the bike route was less exciting – and the delivery, as it should turn out, even less so: Unfortunately, the destination turned out to be a so-called "PopUp dorm", i.e. a temporary student housing – without any doorbell. There was just a small box for entering a code at the door. Even though there was also a button with a bell on it, it had nothing that looked like a speaker or a microphone. Accordingly, my attempt to ring failed. I waited a few more minutes, but unfortunately nobody entered or left the building. I did discover an open (emergency) exit on the side of the building, but I decided not to enter through there – with a police station directly across the street, and a lady next door who has already been looking at me a bit skeptically (as it seemed to me), any other course of action would probably have been unwise.

All in all, I have basically covered all possible delivery options with my three cards:

1. handing it personally to the recipient,
2. personally deposited in the mailbox, and
3. by ordinary mail (as I do not seem to have any other option for the third card).