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My Cycling Tour Down the Danube - Part 2

Oliver Parsons has the second part of his travelog of his cycling tour on the Danube.

By Oliver Parsons

9 Oct 2011, 21:37

Continued from Part One

So first of all let me apologise for the delay in getting the Austrian leg written up.  Dorothy, my cat, thought that the laptop was looking thirsty and decided to douse it in a pint of water and sadly it is no more.  But enough of my excuses.

We spent our final evening in Germany in the town of Passau, a beautiful medieval town with cobbled streets, where the Danube meets the Inn and the Ilz.  You can see the different rivers merging together as they each have a different colour, green and blacks merge as you head out of the city as the Danube grows.  We used this as a handy excuse to delay our departure, as we were still being chased by the rain.  

Out of Passau and the landscape begins to get hillier as the river enters a valley.  On each side there are hills and greenery.  There is a feeling of entering a hidden world.  On the north side of the river you are riding in Germany on the south Austria.  After a couple of hours riding we found ourselves at a large yet beautiful power station, and then we were at the border, which was a rather inconsequential affair with a small plaque welcoming you to Austria.

Once in Austria we rode through one of the most striking stretches of our whole journey.  Never mind New Zealand this was real Lord of the Rings territory.  Steep hills on either side of the river, as the valley became more pronounced, covered with trees.  We were riding along a tree covered rode in virtual isolation.  Every so often it was necessary to take a boat back over the river as the road ended.  The highlight was stopping at a farm eating homemade goats’ cheese, eggs from the chickens, and a freshly brewed cider.  The only thing that could have ruined the ride was the rain, and it rained all day, but thankfully we were well kitted up with our waterproofs and it made it all feel that bit more remote and more of an adventure.

However after about 80km we were wet enough and chose to call it a day in the rural town of Ottensheim, in a farm B&B run by the Rodelhof family.  We got the last room in the whole town!  It was whilst staying hear that we heard about the riots back home in London.  The hotel owner couldn’t believe his luck when he found out we were from London and eagerly brought us the paper, looking very pleased with himself.  Strangely we didn’t feel so good and were immediately texting our friend who was staying in our Hackney flat, asking whether she was ok, but she saw through us and told us our flat was fine.  But it was strange how enjoyable the Austrian man found telling us; I guess Europeans don’t expect these things in Britain.

After a good night’s sleep and the opportunity to try and dry all our clothes we set off to reach Melk.  We were through Linz early in the morning, after a large breakfast that only a farm can provide.  Our first stop of the day was to pay our respects at Mauthausen, the location of the only concentration camp in Austria.  After a very steep hill to reach the camp, we arrived, and had it not been for its sobering past, it would have been a beautiful view.  The camp itself has been retained as it was, and it is an incredibly moving monument to the horrors of war.  Here it was not just the Jews who were to suffer, but this was a camp where many POWs from countries across the world suffered.  It is never easy to visit places like Mauthausen.  After collecting our thoughts we continued on our way.

Onward we went to the picturesque town of Grein, with a beautiful town hall and small marina.  There was also a palace sitting atop of the hill, as the river continued to be enclosed by hills and castles, and churches on both banks.  We continued on the north side of the river till the massive hydro-electric station at Persenbeug before crossing the river to the town of Ybbs, where we took a beer and an ice-cream.  We had about 25km of our 120km day left, and luckily we were now riding on segregated cycle paths all the way to Melk, after a lot of road riding during the day.  

On arriving in Melk your eyes are immediately drawn to the stunning Benedictine abbey that sits proudly on top of the hill.  It is a wonder and is the town’s pride and joy, and it makes Melk just the place to stay after a long day cycling.  Our hotel was a family run affair, where the husband was forced to slave away in the kitchen whilst the wife played front of house.  When we awoke the following morning it was easy to see that he wasn’t too happy about the previous evening’s dinner service – our food had taken well over an hour – I think his wife might have over filled the restaurant.  I hope if we ever go back they are still in business and still married.

The final full day cycling in Austria was to Vienna.  This was a trip was through the Austrian wine region, the Wachau.  We rode windy roads on the hillside going from town to town through the vineyards, which were surrounding us.  Being a little higher up we had a great view down into the valley and onto our guide the Danube.  Despite it being relatively early we couldn’t resist a stop in one of the vineyard shops that lined the route.  We waited till we had given the hordes of tourist buses the slip and popped into a winery.  I was sceptical of wines from Germanic countries, I guess I have fallen for all the old prejudices, but the rosecco (their answer to prosecco) was great.  We were staying with some old friends in Vienna, so we thought we best pick them up a bottle as thanks.  

I didn’t expect the day to get too much better but I was going to be proved wrong.   The town of Krems is filled with Baroque townhouses and Renaissance courtyards and churches.  Again it was filled with tourists but that couldn’t detract from it.   We took the bridge over the river at this point at took in the view of Krems from the other bank.  We then set off to Tulln before heading onto Klosterneuburg and the final stretch into Vienna, through what the locals like to refer to as the Austrian Riviera.  

My girlfriend spent a year at university in Vienna, so this was a little bit of a homecoming.  As we rode in it was a perfect way to reacquaint ourselves with this great old city.  We headed straight for a bar where our friends were waiting to meet us.  I don’t think they believed we had cycled all the way there from Melk (120km), let alone Ulm.  They also laughed at our strange cycling clothes.  But besides this they showed us a good time as we enjoyed some home comforts in their flat.  We stayed for 3 nights, taking our first break of the trip.  We ate well in the naschmarkt, took in the Secession museum, and generally enjoyed so city life after our first couple weeks of riding.  

But after 3 days we were getting itchy feet to get going again, next destination was Hungary and that is for another blog.