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!