30 May 2016 (sunny and hot) 58 km

Today would see us breakfast in Austria, have lunch in Slovakia and dinner in Hungary…..but first a little reflection on last night.

It’s amazing sometimes, just how tired you can get….to the point where you don’t take in your surroundings much at all.  After a hard slog in the saddle yesterday, fighting a head wind most of the day, we finally reached our camp destination of Petronell, once again after spending a good half hour trying to figure out where the place was, as the signs had literally just ceased to be.  One lovely old lady had given us directions, purely in Austrian, complete with multiple hand gestures and we were well on the way to our destination, when a younger woman had cycled by and told us that it was somewhere else. Turns out the older lady was right and we were virtually on the spot, when the other one sent us on another 3 or 4km ride.

Arrived at the little site and were told by a man and his wife that we needed to phone the caretaker and offered to do it for us. A man would then come and take our money and fill us in on the details. Seems Gerd, the man, had travelled New Zealand with his wife in 2002. The caretaker arrived and showed us the facilities, within an indoor tennis building. Amazing, astro–turf surface on three courts, with fantastic lighting, showers and a bar restaurant area for afterwards, all in a tiny village, virtually on the Austrian border. The grassy area we pitched on was lush with some nice smaller trees separating each lot of campers, last night we had four couples and a single cyclist. An Austrian flag flew from the flagpole overlooking the site.

Perfect….or so I thought, until I lay my head down. Julia had, as only Julia can, gone out faster than a hypnotist can get his subject hypnotised. So I lay awake, listening to the sound of the breeze and the distant thunder, with the flashes of accompanying light, fortunately for us, many miles away in Slovakia. During the night I woke on numerous occasions to the sound of a bird making a metal on metal type noise. After a few times I realised it was the metal cable of the flagpole, hitting the metal pole in the wind….continuously. At the same time…. Early hours….I thought..’that’s a huge amount of traffic for a small village’, only to realise we are camped just over the railway lines from the Autobahn and the main access route to Bratislava, in Slovakia. By 4am I had the tri-fecta, as the umpteenth freight train had also clanged its way along the track.  So, in the immortal words of Victor Meldrew…..’I don’t bloody well believe it’….

Julia here…..I had a great sleep and we woke up at 7am.  I did some yoga this morning while Pete wrote the above.  I have strained behind my right knee – I think by struggling up a hill in too high a gear several days ago.  So I was trying to help this out plus my old back pains have been flaring up.  I then rolled the back of my knee with a tennis ball that was attached to our camping key (very handy!) while we had our first breakfast of bread and jam (not quite so tasty without butter) and a cup of coffee.  My knee felt a little better before we set off from Petronell and we took the more direct route back up the road to Hainburg.

This was a nice little town and had several supermarkets all in a row as do a lot of towns (including New Plymouth).  So we got the day’s supplies and then found another supermarket a bit further down the road which obviously couldn’t compete with the others and had closed down.  This gave us a nice quiet, shady place to eat our second breakfast of muesli and fruit.

Then we rejoined the Donau Radweg (cycleway) for our 10km journey to Bratislava, Slovakia.  

Quite the collection of tenement blocks

This was pleasant riding and soon we saw Bratislava rising out of the landscape like a distant rubbish dump with one grand white castle standing prominently on the right, while a cluster of the old Eastern Block style tenement blocks lurched together on the left like a pile of abandoned refrigerators.   As we closed the distance, that pile of ‘abandoned fridges’ seemed to grow and grow and we could see an attempt had been made to brighten them up by painting them all different colours.  They were all well out of the main part of Bratislava so we didn’t see them up close but I feel they would have been quite decrepit if you got close enough to have a good look.

Bratislava Castle

Soon we were passing through another disused border station.  There was a long low building with bunks in and all the rooms here were occupied.  We thought these people might be refugees as it looked like a pretty miserable place to be living unless you had to.  Rode up to the bridge spanning the Donau and cycled up the access ramp and across we went. Let me tell you, there was plenty of movement on this bridge and as Julia took a photo, it took her all her time just to keep her hand steady. Noticeable straight away were the cruise boats, all docked for their visits into Bratislava. 

Once over the other side we commenced more a walking tour of the old town, which was really nice and seems quite vibrant, with lots of youngsters knocking around who seemed well dressed. Got some good photos and during our wander we called into Tourist Info where Julia had a very nice girl trying to assist her. We’d decided to take the southern side of the river to begin with, which would lead us into Hungary in a short while.

The park where we had lunch - still with an eastern block feel to it.

But first we needed sustenance to get us through, so a nice park was selected where we tucked into some grub. Eurovelo 6 was chosen to take us alongside the Donau and it was a great ride. Still plenty of cyclists, however they were now joined by roller bladers in high numbers. After an hour Julia spies a lake where there were swimmers, a rarity as the water is usually murky.  So greatly encouraged we cycled over to join the swimmers seeing as it was another stinking hot day.  I felt a bit nervous about leaving the bikes unattended but there was no stopping Ju.  As we got closer, we realised some of the swimmers were naked so Ju just jumped in with her undies and crop top on.  She said the water was really clear and at least 20C but I couldn’t be bothered. It was just what she needed as it had been warm for the last three days and she had been desperate for a swim and when we carried on she cycled in just her wet crop top (and dry shorts), whilst I rode shirtless.

Houseboats along the Danube

Looking for Rusovce, but by-passed it. Approached a police car and as the guy was outside I asked him where we were. That there, he said pointing twenty metres ahead, is Hungary. Then his female partner began looking at our map without seemingly any knowledge of the town, five minutes down the road.   We asked if it was Rajka and she just shrugged and said “It’s Hungaria” as if how should she know what the village was called – it was across the border so who cared?

Once in Rajka, I asked a girl well versed in the English language for a supermarket. After picking up a can of Mexican beans to have with our pasta, cycled about 3km out of town to a small camping site where we paid 12 euros and set up shop. After showers, in the very basic amenities, we retired to the bar for a well deserved Radler, great to end the day on before tucking into tea.

The youngsters who were running the place and getting well-hammered all finally left at 9pm – all driving and no doubt over the limit.  That’s if they have a limit over here.  NZ has made a lot of progress in this regard and to making people realise smoking is no good for them – here they either don’t know, or don’t care.

29 May (hot and sunny with wind in afternoon) 83 km

Last night, after dinner, we went for a little walk into Klosterneuberg to see if we could get a decent view of the church, which was now lit up.  We got a nice photo and then walked back to the tent on a lovely clear night.  However, it was stinking hot so when we tucked in for the night, we left the door open and opened the vent at the back and just jumped into our sleeping bag liners.  However, it was still too hot in the thin silk liners so we just lay on top of them.  I’d just drifted off when the rain started.  We quickly shut up shop and I’d just drifted off again when the thunder and lightning woke me with a crack and a bang.  Pete was worried about the leak we had the last time we had torrential rain and sure enough it started leaking in the same spot.  We waited patiently for a break in the weather so I could put a plastic bag on the roof to stop the rain coming in through the stitching around the vent.  After about half an hour of watching the drips running down the side of the tent inner, the rain eased and I put the plastic bag on the roof.  That definitely stopped the rain getting in and the tent started to dry out.  However, we were surrounded by ankle deep puddles and we couldn’t believe we didn’t have water under the tent yet.

The picture doesn't really tell the story, but you get the idea

It was by now half past midnight and the rain had stopped completely so Pete went on a bit of a prowl to see if we could move the tent somewhere with less chance of turning into a branch of the Danube.  He came back very pleased with himself and said he’d moved all the picnic benches which were undercover up by the reception office.  If it rained again and we stayed where we were, we were going to get very wet and muddy without a doubt, so we moved everything very quietly up onto the concrete and pitched the tent inner on the concrete and lay the flysheet over another picnic table to dry.

Finally settled down to sleep about 1.30am but poor old Pete lay awake worrying most of the night about how we can stop the tent leaking.  I’m just hoping the thunderstorms will ease off as we head into summer.

We woke early at about 5am so we could get packed up and put the picnic tables back before people started getting up.  Needn’t have bothered – it’s now 7am and not a single person has been round this way – although other people have been up and inspecting the damage and attempting to dry off tents.  I suspect Pete only got me up early because he was hungry and wanted breakfast number one.  Today, being Sunday (and also because we have five eggs to use up), we will have two breakfasts.  Food has definitely become a bit of an obsession with Pete.  The other day he idly asked me what time we were flying out of Heathrow.  I said it’s either 8.15 or 10.15, can’t remember which.  He asked “a.m.?” with a panicked note to his voice. 

“No, no,” I assured him, “It’s p.m.  Why’s that?”

“Oh I just didn’t want to be rushed with our free breakfast at the hotel.”

So about 8am we had an omelette and then finished packing up and hit the road at 9am.  We had to go through Vienna again so that was easy as we’d figured out any kinks in the route yesterday.  Thought we might see some other photo worthy sights in Vienna but the southern part was definitely the dodgy end.  At one point Pete thought he might nip behind a bush in a park for a quick wee and there’s a guy there in an old tent.

Not long after this we came to a construction zone and the Donau Radweg and all signs for it just stopped.  We had been following an arm of the Donau Canal so found a bridge to the other side and started to follow the cycle path on that side.  This didn’t last too long before seemingly finishing at a dog exercise park and a dead end road.  We’re looking a bit lost and an old guy with knee bracing comes up to us to see if he can help.  We tell him we’re after the Donau Radweg and he said he has cycled it often but just had both his knees replaced in the last year.  He is still walking very slowly but showed us and told us very good directions of how to get where we needed to go.  We would never have found the way without his directions.  Vienna is a maze of cycle paths and if you lived there, cycling would definitely be the way to commute, as it is totally flat.

This cycling bridge is suspended beneath the motorway bridge

Our map showed us we would be cycling through a nature park so we thought that would be a welcome change from the industrial type land we had been cycling through with lots of long grass and weeds.  But first we cycled through several kilometres of picnicking people who seemed to be mainly of Turkish origin or some other middle eastern country.  They certainly didn’t look like your typical Austrian and there were hundreds of them all with grills and mountains of food such as kebabs and there was tons of it!  Pete was salivating as we drove past and looking longingly at the laden grills.  But we passed a bridge and that seemed to be the end of their section and next it seemed we were in the Nature Park.  Only it seems it was the Naturists Park and there were plenty of sights we hadn’t anticipated seeing!

Good Evening readers of fine literature…it’s uncle Pete, back with a bedtime story.  Now, as Julia has mentioned, we were now cruising through the Naturists segment of the Donau canal, Vienna branch.  I have to admit to never having seen so many naked people all in one place, at one time.  Basically, a feast for the eyes, or so you may think, but alas, my idea of who should be getting their kit off and theirs, is worlds apart. Whilst Julia was probably looking for the Brad Pitts or Matthew Mc Conaugheys of the ‘lets get naked’ brigade, I was definitely on the lookout for your Halle Berry, or any of the best looking ‘Bond’ girl group. Now you need to be aware that this segment of ground spanned over 5kms. It was situated along the banks of the Donau, with lush grass and plenty of spots to be discreet.  However, why be discreet. The ‘Nudes’ of Vienna are an ‘in your face’ bunch, as we discovered when a man and woman came strolling along the cycle path bearing all. Don’t know where she was from, but my guess was ‘Brasil’, if you get my drift. Neither of them batted an eyelid…probably been doing it for years, but even I was put off my stride a little to see what my manhood is likely to look like in another ten years. Further on we cycled past a garden bar and I was just salivating over a nice cold one, when a penis caught my attention, sitting there for all to see ordering a drink, from the fully clothed young girl waitress, who was moving from one naked table to the next….’now…who’s for the Frankenfurter’?  This was not the only naked bar en route and let me tell you, some of the positions these people assume to show off their wears to full advantage, is disturbing. Needless to say, neither Julia nor I found the dreamboats we were hoping to spy. The nearest Ju got was a naked version of Norm, from ‘Cheers’, whilst mine was Granny off The Beverley Hillbillies. Seriously, it had to be seen to be believed…!

Reached what we thought was the bridge we needed to cross when indecision kicked in and the map comes out. As we were perusing it an Austrian guy starts trying to ask us where we want to go. Tells us we’ve come the wrong way and must go back. Not only tells us, but then on his electric bike, gestures to follow him…..at 30kms an hour.  Even with an electric bike this is pretty good going as he must have been about 70, with a well tanned-skin.  We suspect he is a naturist and was just sussing out the best spot to go when we met him.  After 4kms, Anton our saviour, bade us farewell with a smile and a handshake as he pedalled off in the opposite direction. My parting thought was…..where’s that hand been…?

Once Anton left us, we slowed the pace right down as it was a stinking hot day, even with the headwind.  This next stretch of canal riding was extremely boring (well what wouldn’t be after that!) as it was a straight path between a grassy dyke and a forest, with no shade and no deviaton.  The headwind was getting stronger to make things even more difficult and we were both getting hot, tired and hungry.  We were desperate for a break but there were no seats and no shade and certainly no seats in the shade!

At last we came to a carpark that had a mown patch of grass by it with some trees, so we spread the groundsheet out and gratefully tucked into some lunch.  It would have been all too easy to lay down and have a nap under that tree but we pushed on, opting to take a small road instead of the canal path.  This was much nicer and the kms seemed to go quicker.    

Orth Tourist Info

 

We cycled into the town of Orth to see if they had any maps of Slovakia or knew of any camping grounds near Bratislava – No to both.  However they did have nice toilets and they were free.

We decided to treat ourselves to an ice-cream and sat in the shade outside Tourist Info eating them.  Then we decided to guess ourselves a road to Eckhartsau Schloss which took us through farmland and along gravel tracks and through the odd patch of shady forest.  It was a lot more enjoyable than the cycle track and it delivered us right to the door of the Schloss.  

Eckhartsau Schloss

So we had a wander inside and round the gardens, glad of some different movement. 

Then it was back into the headwind to a massive bridge about 2 km long over the Donau.  We were both tired and it was a struggle.  Once we got over we had to turn back on ourselves and cycle back 6km down the Donau to the only town round these parts with a campground.  We figured we would at least have a tailwind for this part, but we figured wrong.  It was just a very strong crosswind and drained the last of our energy.

A nice looking house with heaps of roses

Finally got to the town of Petronell-Carnuntum and had to ask several times for directions to the campground as there were no signs.  We also had to stop and fix one of Pete’s pannier bags after one of the hooks got caught in his gears.

Got to keep the daily quota of church pics up

Got to the campground about 5.30pm and as soon as the tent was up, it was off to have a cold shower and grab a lemon radler from the vending machine.  It’s amazing how good those two things can make you feel after a long hot day!  Then we cooked tea of goulash and pasta and had a cup of coffee while we took turns writing the blog.

We have a great little campground for the night – there are only two vans and two other tents here.  Both the tents have other cycle tourers in them.  The grass is really nice and lush and we’re amazed they have wifi here.  Just over the hill at the back of us, we have a huge windfarm.  The blades are spinning as we speak and as Pete would say, they look like a mass of WWII spitfires with red and white Stripes on the blades.  Luckily they’re not as noisy so we should be able to get a better sleep than we got last night!                        

28 May (hot and sunny) 42km

Slept like logs and woke to a beautiful sunny day.  Today would be a cruisy ride into Vienna, 14km away and after breakfast we got lathered up with sunscreen and toddled off along the bike path.

A glance to the right revealed this.....!

Flat all the way and no drama to find the city centre.  We happened to look up a road and saw Stephansdom gothic cathedral so cycled up to have a closer look.  

We’ve said it before but it bears saying again.  Travelling by bike through a city is the only way to go.  Especially on a hot day.  All the other tourists (and there were plenty of them), were struggling along in the heat and we were whizzing along, breeze ruffling our hair (well, mine anyway), and getting to each destination in half the time.  

We had a map but generally just went to one tourist destination, then would see the next one was West or Southwest or whatever and follow the compass in that general direction and it was no problem.  We had a couple of rest stops, two in Macca’s for ice-cream and iced coffee, and one at a pizza place where we had a delicious spinach and feta pizza and a cold coke.

There are a lot of people in Vienna though and cycling up and down the main shopping street was quite a lot of fun, weaving in and out of them all.  It was about a km long mall with no other traffic and actually very few bikes.  I wondered if we were supposed to be there sometimes but there were other bikes doing the same thing.  We figured if anyone told us off we’d just play the ignorant tourist.  We also managed to track down some of our Primus camping gas so stocked up on that.

Schonbrunn Palace

At Schonbrunn Palace we had to leave the bikes outside and join the hordes of walking tourists – boy was that hot work!  Being Saturday, there were plenty of bridal parties coming through as they have lovely gardens with huge amounts of roses.  Not to mention those beautiful classical outdoor staircases which you really need a wedding dress on to bring to their full potential. 
Two days ago there had been a free concert in the grounds which was attended by 40,000.  All classical music and I dare say a fair bit of Mozart as this is where he came when he decided Salzburg was too small a town for him.  And yes, there is a huge difference between the two cities – Vienna is on a whole other level, but we prefer Salzburg.

Pete here:  I must admit I’m not a fan of large cities. Having lived in, what I classify a large town, for the past thirty five years,I wouldn’t want to go back to the constant hustle and bustle that goes with day to day living in that type of set up. It’s loud, it’s fast, with everyone needing to get somewhere yesterday. The amount of people in the main shopping area was insane and there must be money around, because everyone was spending it, on anything from ice-cream to food, clothes or electrical items. It would be interesting to know what tourism brings to a city like Vienna, it would be huge.

Colourful graffiti and this striking tower make an interesting sight

No it's not hail......it's dandelion seedheads!
We've never seen so many in our lives and they
have been building up in drifts over the last week.

At 4pm, we began the steady plod back to our camp, stopping on the way to pick up our tea and food for tomorrow, as the shops are closed here on Sundays. It’s a bit of a hassle as it means we have a lot more to store on that day. A welcome shower greeted us and then whilst the computer charged, we washed a few clothes over at the laundry and then made dinner.  We had a salmon omelette tonight – the first eggs we’ve had since Harald and Elvira’s place and boy was it tasty!  Ju had to go beg for some oil from the camp restaurant though as we’d forgotten to get some to cook the eggs in.  They were happy to oblige seeing as we bought two Radlers as well.  We needed them after such a stinking hot day and typically of Europe, unable to find a nice clean-looking place to swim.

So tomorrow we continue our trek down the Danube towards the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.

27 May (sunny and hot, late cloud and showers) 83km

As some of you may have guessed, religion does not play a big part in my life. I don’t knock those that believe in it and have quite a few friends who do in fact follow the word of a certain…..you know who.  This morning, as with a number of previous mornings, I was roused from my slumber at the very….may I say it ’ungodly’ hour of 6am.  Furthermore, those of you close to my heart and probably a few others as well, will know that, in my line of work, 6am is already well into my day.  Last night we pitched our tent opposite the most beautiful village of Durnstein, on the Donau river, in fact for those less knowledgeable, one of the major rivers in Europe, for centuries….(no I am not reading that off the info brochure. )  Anyway I digress, on our cycle travels however, although we do have some early starts, it is nice to sleep a little longer than normal. 

But no….not this lovely spring morning (and there have been very few so far.) This morning I was woken by six loud chimes of the bells, indicating to me…..the time of 6am. The bells then went on to ring out a further, what I can only presume, was part of a Mozart concerto.  It was 6am….what on earth made those little Abbots flying up and down on the end of their bell ropes, think, for one minute that I wanted to be reminded of the time.

In years gone by, the bells have been used to remind people that it is harvest time, the bells were ringing in the time of the plague, religious ceremonies are a must have, for bell  ringers and of course, in times of war, it was a call to arms.  Time to enter the new age guys. I am not attempting here to put anybody out of work and I actually get a smile on my face every time I see one of those fellas in a long flowing black robe, but did you know that there is something called an alarm….in olden times it had hands and a clock face.  Nowadays, they’re on watches, computers, fit bits, all form of modern device.  So, why not try bringing the church into the modern era.  A few less clothes for those Abbotts on hot Summer days, maybe some speedos (or budgie smugglers ) as we call them in New Zealand. And perhaps, for the Abbots, rising early to do other tasks, rather than bell ringing….a loud version of AC/DCs Highway to Hell, now there’s a song that really gets you going.

All views in this rant are purely that of the writer (not his lovely wife….and No….she didn’t tell me to put that in.) No Abbots were hurt in the writing of this piece, but one is considering an option to play percussion with Motley Crue.

View from our tent this morning

After a nice shave, shower and even some hand washing of a few items, I wandered back to the tent to have breakfast with Julia.  Julia here – might I just say that Pete took a loooong time in the shower so when he finally got back, I went over to the shop to pick up the fresh bread and milk and also to put some hot water in the pot so we wouldn’t use up as much gas to bring it to the boil.  However, there was no hot water left.  I came back to Pete and said there was a lot of consternation over by the shower block as it appears someone had used up all the hot water.  Of course Pete was mortified – yeah right!  He grinned like a Cheshire cat.  Of course if anyone had been moaning about the lack of hot water, I certainly wouldn’t have understood them.  But we got our showers and sorry to say, that’s all that mattered to us!

There were a huge amount of cruise vessels on the river at this early hour, although for some, they would have missed this beautiful place as they cruised on through between 6,30am and 7.30am, too early for some to be up.

Pack up went smoothly, bikes were oiled and we were off. Our first port of call being Krems, for a look, pick up supplies and try to find some gas for our little stove. First two, no problem, but we spent an age looking around the town for gas without success. Hopefully Vienna will be more forthcoming.  So began a long hard slog of a day. 

Krems

Didn’t leave Krems until after midday after being sent all over the town for the gas. It was hot and we were pissed off with our lack of success and just put our heads down and rode a very boring section of the river.  After yesterday it was a bit of an anti-climax with nothing of note to anticipate or photograph.  There were still quite a few cyclists about but less than yesterday. After cycling for two hours we stopped to have lunch. Found one of the few tables and grabbed a bench seat to put with it. There we enjoyed a well deserved top up in the fuel department.

This is what the riding was predominantly like today - pleasant enough but a bit boring

We noticed a thundercloud building to the west (behind us) but weren’t too worried as we had quite a strong headwind to contend with.  But despite this, the thundercloud managed to edge closer and closer to us.  After a brief stop in Tullin, where we picked up supplies for our evening meal, we started to feel the occasional spit.  After about ten kms they started to build and we put on the pace, hoping to reach our chosen camp at Klosterneuburg.  We were racing along and almost caught two racing cyclists who had passed us earlier on – that would have given them a surprise if we had!

Eventually came upon the camp which is a bit more expensive than most with it being close to Vienna at 24 Euro per night.  However, it does have free wifi. Because we definitely have priorities. Number 1… The cheaper the better!

Number 2… Good facilities, including hot showers that don’t cost extra

Number 3… Good wifi ( not as easy over here as you think ) with plugs to charge laptop, camera and solar chargers.

Pete loves his music so often when we travel, he will hum, whistle or sing a tune.  Sounds nice you might think, but when it is the same tune that is being hummed, whistled or sung, it can drive you mental.  Two days ago Pete heard “My love is in league with the freeways” by Robert Plant, playing in one of the supermarkets we were in.  He started whistling it as soon as we got out of the shop, would bust out a few lyrics when it got to the bit he knew and then go back to whistling the same few notes he’d just whistled which would invariably lead to him singing the same four words he’d just sung.  By the time it came to setting up the tent, I had to tell him that if he didn’t shut up I would just have to punch him in the mouth.

Song of the day today was “Here Comes the Sun” – a song I really liked, until today.  It too has been sung, whistled, hummed and lah-lahed to death, so much so that I was willing that thunderstorm to reach us so he would literally have to change his tune!  Well, it worked, only thing is “Here comes the sun” has been replaced by…….”My love is in league with the freeways”…….arrgh!

26 May 2016 (misty, fine, sunny, windy, rain, thunderstorm, fine again) 60 km

Writing this I am overlooking the Danube river. We are at a campsite on it’s banks using unlimited wifi….and let me tell you…that is like hen’s teeth. On the opposite side of the river is the village of Durnstein, just beautiful, basked in early evening sunshine.

Mmmm.......mmmm

The day began at 7am and after clearing our sleeping bags away, we tucked into cereal bananas and raspberries. Great way to fuel up for the day. Our German neighbours, Lars and Jonas…tell me about it, right….Scandanavian names, got up shortly after and began preparing for their departure, in the opposite direction. Nice young guys and we wish them safe travels.  

All packed, goodbyes undertaken and we cycled off in the direction of Melk, one of the places Julia wanted us to see. 

The day upon waking was misty, but now the weather had fined up, the sun was out and we enjoyed a lovely ride alongside the Donau, watching the rivercraft motor by.  A lot more cruisers on the water today and Julia gave me some statistics on the amount of boats operating these cruises….amazing numbers….I’ll bet that is a closed shop, no one would get a look in.

Melk Abbey

At Emmersdorf, we crossed the bridge to Melk and it’s fantastic Abbey.  Arrived and immediately went to tourist info only to find out that it was Corpus Christi and a holiday. Now being the strong church goers that we are, we had no idea what that signifies, but it did piss us off, as all the supermarkets were closed. You would think that if they were going to hold a religious holiday whilst we are cycling our way around the country, they would at least have the decency to give us notice to stock up on provisions…..I mean …has someone died or something…?

Took a stroll through the town, passed the religious service that was going on in the town square, up to the Abbey, apparently one of the finest examples of Baroque church architecture you will see. We concur…it was beautiful so we enjoyed a nice wander around and inside the buildings and gardens.  We then found an ice-cream shop that was open, so knowing that this could indeed be our last supper as it were, until the supermarkets opened again tomorrow, we simply had to buy one each and sought out some shade to eat them.

On the way out of Melk, we spied a Service Station that was open so fearing this could be the last sign of life for awhile, we ventured in and cleaned out their fresh food cabinet like a swarm of locusts.  Now we felt ready to continue with our nice flat cruise down the super-highway of cyclists by the Danube.  Funny, when we were in the hilly regions of Germany, Czechia and Austria, we didn’t see any other bikepackers, but now we’re on the flat, you get sick of saying hello to them all so just stop bothering.

Next we came across the Schonbuhel Castle which is very impressive, seemingly growing out of the rocky cliff face that rises straight out of the Danube.  We have had a very cruisy day, acting like real tourists and so it continued with castle ruins appearing on a regular basis.

However, just after we stopped for our second lunch, using up yesterday’s camembert with two buns scored from the garage, we noticed some storm clouds lurking over the Wachau Valley where we were headed.  

Schonbuhel Castle

Sure enough, we’d no sooner packed up and hit the road than the first big fat raindrops started to fall in an ever-increasing tempo, so we made a dash back 100 metres to a café and sheltered under their garage for about fifteen minutes.

Then we felt it was safe to venture out again and got harrassed by raindrops for the rest of the afternoon.  They never really came to much but made us dash along as fast as we could to try and protect our dry footwear.  It was still warm and we just couldn’t be bothered trying to get all our wet weather gear out and getting all sweaty inside of it.

Durnstein

Before we knew it, we were opposite Durnstein in this lovely campground with a lovely quiet little patch all to ourselves.  As always it was straight to the showers before having a relatively relaxed pre-dinner beer and checking messages and Facebook.  Then it was time for our two tins of herrings we bought from the garage with another two buns.  Luckily the campground had some sweet pastries so we bought two of those to go with our after dinner coffee while we wrote the blog.  The rain has buggered off completely and it’s a beautiful evening.

Just a note on birdlife – I can hear a pigeon cooing as I write this but they are nowhere near as dominant as on our last bike trip.  Crows abound but weirdly enough, we didn’t see any in Czechia – it was like they couldn’t get over that mountain range.  Or maybe the Czech men outdid them with the whole brooding, hooded stare thing and the crows just felt completely intimidated.  We have heard plenty of Cuckoo birds too.

We have just watched the sun go down on the beautiful village of Durnstein across the Danube from our campsite.  As the sun went down, the lights came up and what a spectacular sight!

Thank goodness for digital cameras - the whole scene just kept looking better and better!

25 May (cloudy, patches of sun, mild) 88km

With clothes hanging from every possible hook or shelf, I heard the church bells signal that it was 6am. It was something my still sleepy body didn’t need to know, it was looking forward to the 8am chimes instead. Out of bed for a quick feel….of the clothes….to see if they were drying to their full potential. Moved a few things around, some were still quite damp. At the same time, I glanced out of the window to see a thick, low cloud, rather than a mist, enveloping everything and knew that we were in for another probable drenching. My thoughts were echoed by the sound of rain on the rooftop. We are coming to an area that Julia was looking forward to showing me, due to its scenery, history and all round quaintness. This kind of weather certainly takes away any anticipation you had in seeing it…..that’s if you can see it at all!

Julia roused and then fell back to sleep. Unlike the clothes, she had been very warm in the night and had removed her duvet inner. Interesting to note, that over here the trend is to have, on double or larger beds, single duvets. It’s not a bad idea as you can remove the covers in the night, if you get too hot, without affecting your partner.

Now into our third week here and well into our stride. The knees and backside are free from the initial twinges you get as the mileage builds, just disappointing to realise that we’ve had more rain, by a country mile, than we had in the entire three months, two years ago. Still…ya gets what ya given and the experiences along the way, make the trip….photos might be shit….but experiences are there to remember?!! One thing we are struggling to come to terms with on this tour, is the dramatic changes in temperature, from day to day. High 20’s one day to 10 degrees the next. Sweltering and covered in sweat, to soaked to the skin and freezing cold. Some call it climate change….I call it a pain in the arse!

Before we went down for breakfast, we checked the wifi and it was on, so we quickly uploaded the last three days of blogs and then went down to the breakfast room.  We were the only people in there at 8.15am so maybe we were the only people staying?  We certainly didn’t notice anyone else in the corridors and it was lovely and quiet.  Had the traditional buns with ham and cheese followed by buns with apricot jam which seems to be the preferred flavour over any of the berry jams and marmalade.  Also had orange juice and a machine made coffee which was alright.  While eating, we both were reminded we have holes in our teeth so decided to ask at reception if there were any dentists in this village called Katsdorf.  Seeing as the weather still didn’t look too promising, we figured we may as well try and get our teeth sorted while it was hosing down.  So no dentists here we found out, but there was one back in Gallneukirchen.  Well after last night’s debacle, we couldn’t go back there – we were like Bonnie and Clyde on the run so decided to head east and hope to get our teeth seen to in Melk.

Back upstairs to pack and we were on our way by 10.00am and luckily it wasn’t raining, just looked like it might at any minute.  It was also considerably warmer than yesterday so we started off in shorts and rainjackets.  We followed bike route signs to St Georgen an Gusen and had a lovely ride following the Gusen river for about 5km – it was beautiful and we even saw a wild deer who stealthily hid in the trees when I whipped out the camera.

The signage was great and we soon found ourselves in Mauthausen. This little town is right on the Donau and after a few minutes we came upon a shopping centre, with a bank, so decided to restock the finances, in case we get our teeth done. Cycled alongside the river, watching the odd barge go by, but as yet, no luxury cruise boats, like the one Julia was on with her Dad. The weather had improved, jackets had been removed and jerseys were about to come off.

A striking building along the way.  At the open window, a woman had been having a smoke.  I yelled "Smile" and she did! 

Cycled to Mitterkirchen, where we pulled up for lunch outside an info centre. This had nice seating and lunch was as always, delicious! A large amount of cyclists were coming through by now and a couple of German guys struck up a conversation. The older one was very jovial although not able to communicate, whilst the younger one did the translating. We’d also met an older couple from Tennessee earlier on who were headed down to Vienna. 

Flat, smooth, dry and easy to follow - just what the doctor ordered after yesterday!

They’d very kindly offered to take a photo of both of us. I’d said to Ju that we should try the other side for a while for a change of scenery. That went down like a lead balloon, and it only got worse when the first village of Wallsee, meant some hill climbing just to get to the town square. Nice castle at the top, so I was forgiven a little.

The castle at Wallsee - from the bottom and the top

The day wouldn't be complete without one picturesque church!

Grein was very scenic and we were loving the good weather.

Just before Grein, after some lovely quiet riding we crossed back over the river. This definitely wasn’t our best move. After taking some photos we found we were riding on the main road which was not only busy, but noisy too, not a cyclist’s friend. We did eventually find cycle paths further along but alongside the road, so still noisy. Arrived in Persenbeug and immediately crossed the river heading to Ybbs. Called into the Tourist Info office and a nice girl told us that we were better off on the side we’d just come from and head to Marbach, where there was a campsite. So, back across we rode, picking up supplies at a Euro Spar on the journey to the camp.

Castle at Persenbeug

Not far down the road we pulled in as two young German guys from Flensborg were paying for the night. Two years ago we were in their home town and we loved it, so conversation was soon struck up and went on over dinner. Lars and Jonas are cycling from Romania back home again to the north of Germany. They’ve had a great time so far and have been on the road for a month with a month to go. As we spoke, one of the cruise boats went by. Total luxury….unfortunately for my darling wife, she won’t be doing that with me anytime soon.

With dinner over and the sky still clear, it was time to relax and contemplate tomorrow’s ride to Melk and Durnstein, two of the towns that Julia really loved on the trip with her Dad. We heard the forecast was supposedly good for tomorrow, so, here’s hoping!