van der merwes blog site

Cyclists need to rinse or wash their clothes every night and always look at how an accommodation can be used to wash and dry clothes (washbasin, plug, hangers). You can hang your wet stuff in the shower or in various other spots (we have been forced to hang them on the bicycles).

Things balance out. When it is hot, the breeze from the front will help to keep you cooler. When it rains the heat your body creates from the exercise will warm you up. You inevitably develop sore spots. Some of these may be a sore wrist, sore aching muscles and saddle sores. On the flip-side your body also adapts and become more effective each day.

Food tastes better when your body really needs it. Many cyclists drink beer. Beer provides carbohydrates and alcohol and liquid. Beer is a triple whammy that makes your body purr after you have done a days cycling.

You need fewer belongings and simple stuff become more valuable, like rope and tape. You depend on your bicycle, so the state of your bicycle becomes important. This is common to all cyclists, so it is very normal for inn-keepers to initiate the first interaction by saying they have a place where you can lock your bicycle. Conversely it is reassuring that you can replace your whole bike for a few hundred dollars if you need to (for the cost of renting a car for a week or two). It seems like the hotel community is keen on cyclists. Cyclists leave early and they drink a lot of beer. They will also eat almost any food after a ride.

You become adaptable. If you travel by bicycle and you are finding your own way and accommodation, days can be a little chaotic at times. Random things happen. A kid in a very small village threw stones at us. We used water bottles to store left-over red wine. A sip of wine is useful to improve the mood when you a close to your destination but you are struggling. Bicycles and equipment break. The towns where you planned to stay may not have suitable accommodation. The people you stay at or road users may behave in an unexpected manner. Your main source of locomotion is your body, which may have an injury or feel off. Some days you will get lost while you are trying to find accommodation. You learn that life is not on rails. Your stable job and the next five years of your planned life is a chimera.

When you cycle tour every day you start dreaming regularly at night. I discussed this phenomenon with a fellow cycling psychiatrist. He reckoned it is because the brain has received many inputs during the day which it has not had a chance to process, There are decisions about routes, interactions with other road users and glimpses of interesting surroundings. Cyclists think about their bicycle, bodies, and contemplative thoughts on a straight stretches. Your mind tries to catch up with the processing by staging varied dreams

Today we set off wanting to do a shorter route – which we achieved at 70km. The weather was also a bit cooler than yesterday with some cloud cover and a breeze in the afternoon.

It was a bit of a navigational mission to get out of Plattling, across motorways and back on the Danube. This all went according to plan and we were back on the river, on the north bank, after about 20km. From here it was reasonably easy going. The route varied from easy tar sealed bike routes to compacted earth on stop banks.

   

We stopped for ice cream from the supermarket at the town of Bogen (should be the sister city to Lower Hutt?).

We decided to start looking for accommodation earlier today – and we first stopped at Kirchroth – which advertised some rooms from the cycle path. When we got there it was pretty dead. The advertised gasthaus had a sign on the door saying they were on holiday. The gasthaus opposite looked good, but no one responded when we knocked. So we rode on.

A few km further we passed a sign that said radler hotel. We wondered whether there were any shops nearby, but Kris decided to stop and ask the proprietor. We learnt that the nearest shop was 3km, but that they could provide beer and wine and bread and cheese, so we we stopped.

      

 

      

This has proved to be a very relaxing place to spend an afternoon/ evening. We have our own little house and porch next to the big house. The owner is retired but building a swimming pool out back. He came and had a beer and chat with us. He used to be a German traffic policeman. He showed us this photo of the fish his son caught in the Danube near Regensburg. It was 2m long and 100kg. The fish was released live back into the river after the photo was taken.

 

Today was another heatwave – and we rode far too long looking for accommodation – We ended up doing 95km.

We had a good start to the day with a conversation with the husband of our inn-keeper. He works on the river enforcing regulations (like a traffic policeman). We learnt that the maximum draught on the river boats is 3m, although they can sometimes exceed this when loaded. The locks were built to only take draughts of up to 4m. The larger passenger boats are over 100m in length. They can still turn around on the river as it is wide enough.

                            

More than 100 metric tons of water flows by every second.

On parts of the river there are no specific rules for the side of the river boats need to keep to on. On other stretches they have to keep to the left.

We crossed over to Germany from Austria at the Jochenstein hydroelectric power station and locks. The border is in the middle of the river. Kris had to push the bikes up 90 steps to get to the other side (My bike is too heavy for me too push up the steps). Those steps probably help to keep the passenger and bike ferry at Engelhartszell in business.

       

There is an education centre directly on the German side of the river, and a lot of children and their teachers were very involved in outdoor education programmes.

The next big town of Obernzell was very neat with paintings on many buildings and a lederhosen factory on the outskirts, reminding us that we are in Bavaria.

Another 20km along the river and we reached Passau. The city looks wonderful as it appears around the bend in the river with it’s various onion sharped turrets. Then you see a castle up on the hill to the right, with walls built along the cliffs. We entered the city via a bridge.

             

We obtained a basic map for the Eurovelo 6 route beyond Passau at the tourist information office, had a quick ride through the old town and an ice cream. We headed back onto the northern bank of the Danube by passing over the power station just beyond the city – this one had no steps.

Our next stop was Vilshofen, where we crossed to the south bank of the Danube over the bridge into town. The Vils river joins the Danube here, so the Danube is slightly smaller up stream.

We considered stopping here, but decided it was too early as it was only 1.30pm. This may have been a mistake. We decided to do another 20km to Osterhofen, the next big town. When we arrived at Osterhofen we found that the tourist information had closed at 12. It was unbearably hot standing in the town square trying to make sense of the information boards. There were signs indicating that some town celebration was happening over the weekend. Kris asked at one of the Pensions on the square and they were full. He was referred to another a few doors down, and it really didnt look that flash. I thought this would surely be reasonably priced, being in a small town and all. But they wanted to charge 90EUR – more than we paid anywhere else including Vienna and Budapest! So we decided to ride on.

We stopped and spoke to a man on the street who said that Moos was a good town, with a brewery where you can stay. We stopped at Moos – unfortunately the brewery was all closed up (with no sign that you can stay there), however the town had lovely gasthauses. We stopped at a promising looking one, but they had become only a restaurant with no rooms! It seems there were no rooms in the town. The proprietor was apologetic and even filled Kris’s water bottle up with soda water.

So we rode onto Plattling, another 10km in the heat – although it was already beginning to ease by now. At Plattling we got some help from the library (referred there as tourist info was closed) – they gave us the names of a few hotels that seemed affordable. When we got there the first one was expensive and didn’t have internet. We went with the second, which was also expensive but at least had wi-fi. So we felt we were overpaying for a very ordinary accommodation in the end – and we were exhausted.

We cheered ourselves up with some delicious food from an excellent supermarket. European supermarkets are like heaven when you have been riding the whole day in the heat – they are cool and full of great food – hovering near the fridges is a cheap treat. We had a picnic and then a couple of beer’s at outdoor cafe on the town’s main street.

 

We started our day with an interesting discussion with other cycle tourists at the youth hostel breakfast. One was a German psychiatrist from Cologne and the other, from Berne in Switzerland, was on an open ended tour – going to Istanbul, then maybe further.

It was a cooler day again today, slightly overcast, so perfect conditions. Even so, we saw another snake warming itself on the cycle path – this one a little smaller then previously.

We started out on the north bank of the river and the ride out from Linz to Ottensheim had long stretches with the road into town between the cycle path and the river. We are becoming spoilt, so even though this is an excellent cycle path and totally separated from the traffic, our enjoyment really started when the cycle path went directly onto the river at around Ottensheim.

We back-tracked a little to cross to the south bank at the Ottensheim Wilhering power generator so that we could visit Erferding. This is because I read in the tourist brochure that “its’ main square is counted as one of the most beautiful in Upper Austria, as the houses haven’t really been altered since the middle ages”.

Anyway, we followed a detour off the river to visit this town, which was a big disappointment, seeming to be nothing special compared to all the other towns we are seeing.

We lost the cycle path trying to hunt fantastic old towns, and did a detour through some of the outskirts of the town and industrial areas before finally getting back to the river. We did find a nice cheap kebab shop though. There was a drive through cigarette shop right next to the kebab shop – the first time we have seen such a thing (photo below). This probably added about 20km to the day – so no more tourist brochure detours from now on!

The following town, Aschach, was even prettier, just from the river bank. We stopped for a quick ice cream.

Next up were some bends in the river, called the Schlogener Schlinge, most of it part of a nature reserve. The river narrows and the sides steepen. It does a full S bend at one point. You ride along a bike path with the river on one side and a forest on the other for most of the time. The banks are at more than a 45 degree inclination at various points. There are cycle paths on both sides of the river. There are also castles visible every now and then up on the top banks and one or two small towns, such as Inzel. The whole section lasts about 20km. It was getting hotter at this point and there were lots of flying insects in the air too.

   

 

   

  

There is a camp site, hotel and yacht basin at Schlogen at the end of the bends.

  

There is a bit of a hill climb just after Schlogen (we were on the wrong bank as it seemed flat on the other side) – up and down about three times until Wesenufer, where we crossed to the north bank along another power generator. A huge barge was going into the lock of the generator as we were crossing.

We stayed on the north bank until Engelhartszell – passing through a few small towns which seemed pretty dead. We wanted to stay at Engelhartszell so we crossed to the town on the south bank using a pedestrian/bicycle ferry. We had to ring a bell to summon it to our side of the river. It took us and another cycling couple over.

         

         

 

The tourist information office was closed but there were brochures available outside outlining accommodation in town. The first place we tried was about 100m away and directly on the river. It is in a 400 year old house, with thick walls and a very friendly proprietress. Also good value. Only downside is no wifi, but we decided we could live without it for the evening. The house used to be a farrier shop, which shod the horses that pulled barges along the river. There is a museum in the house with a forge that is hundred’s of years old.

We had a picnic on the river and enjoyed looking at the tourist and commercial ships go by.

We then had some special beer from the nearby Trappist monastery. The monastery is struggling, but its beer is famous. It contains honey as well as hops and malt and is beautiful – kind of like drinking a liqueur. Obviously a change of the corporate mission statement is required.

     

Good to have a rest day today – leisurely breakfast and meandering around the city. Catching up on the blog in the afternoon. Planning for our upcoming route.

           

 

                     

 

    

 

 

My hands were getting progressively more painful from clutching the bike handlebars – so we bought some beautiful new grips at a large sports store. Kris had cracked one of his pedals (too much standing pedaling up hills), so new pedals as well.

BEFORE

AFTER

It was a relief to wake up to a cool overcast morning. There was actually a very light misty rain as we left – but not enough to drench us. For a while we just cycled ahead of a dark rain cloud. The weather gave the river a moody magical look to it – you could imagine mythical Danube creatures lurking just under the water.

The first 25km or so of our journey was along the southern bank. There were stunning views of the towns on the other bank.

   

We crossed the river at another power generating station (at Ybbs – Persenbeug) – according to the info sign, this is the oldest surviving hydro generator in Austria.

The weather cleared mid-morning but unfortunately a little head wind also came up, meaning that some stretches required a bit more effort.

The river began to narrow as we approached the towns of St Nikola and Grein, with steep slopes on either side.

    

 

After Grein the path took us away from the river again and through some fields. There were information signs about the work that had been done to contain the town from flooding as it was flooded in 2002. The vulnerable part of the village is shielded by a 7km wall and the main roads going through the wall have a metal frame that be closed when the water rises. The town wall protects the villagers from floods and not from barbarian hordes. We had to cycle up over some of the walls.

Parts of the cycle path were right up against the river, just about at the same level as the water. We noticed that houses we passed by were mostly built on stilts, so obviously the area is prone to flooding.

The route took us up and through town areas after Mauthausen, with a few little hills (had almost forgotten what hills are). Eventually we were alongside the river for the last stretch to Linz. There is quite a bit of quarying and other industry on the opposite river bank as you approach Linz (at around Steyregg) – not very pretty after all the beauty of the rest of the ride. The last stretch to Linz was a push, with head wind and at the end of a long ride (105km in all). When we got to the tourist information we were told that accommodation is in short supply due to a convention and the tourist season. However we were able to secure one night in the youth hostel (we wanted two). When we arrived here they told us that two nights were now available – so we can have our planned rest day.

The stretch we did today – from Vienna to Melk is the most scenic so far along Eurovelo 6. We had an early start (trying to beat the heat) and it took about an hour to work our way out of the city proper (around 10km). We were going against the Monday morning traffic.

We saw the place where the Danube canal joins the Danube. Also lots of street art cycling along under bridges – ranging from crude graffiti to sophisticated graphics.

Once out of the big city, the entire route was along dedicated flat bike paths, making for easy riding. The trail was generally along the river bank, but periodically meandered through small villages.

There were hundreds of other cyclists. More than half are older then us and a lot look well to do. The Austrians have clearly put a lot of effort into the cycling infrastructure and it is paying off in attracting many tourists. Most seem to be German, but we also came across some British and American people.

There were many signs along the cycle route offering accommodation and some cafe’s geared to attracting cyclists – we stopped for an ice cream at this one and also re-filled our water bottles at a tap they provided.

Tulln was one of the most attractive towns we rode past, with bright gardens along the river bank. It used to be the site of a Roman fort.

We crossed the Danube from south to north bank at Altenworth, where there is a water turbine power station.

The ride from here to Krems is directly along the river bank. We had thought that Krems may be a good place to stay. It was still early, and some of the areas we traveled through were industrial, so we had lunch from a supermarket bakery and carried on.

Kris decided we should cross to the southern bank of the Danube at Krems, as would be more scenic (there were fewer cyclists on the northern side). We got directions on how to get across from a little man passing on an electric bike. He ended up riding ahead of us to show us how to get across the bridge. He was very helpful, evidently just cruising around on his new bicycle. He told us that the castle up on the hill is at least 900 years old.

The flat riverbanks began to give way to hills, dotted with vineyards and incredibly beautiful little towns every now and then. We considered stopping at one with a camping site and a castle on the opposite bank but decided to go on to find place with a better shop.

This is such a scenic stretch of the Danube that there were a number of flat bottomed tourist boats going up and down between Melk and Krems.

In the end we went all the way to Melk (a 125km ride, our longest day so far).

Melk is very lovely, with a huge monastery up on the hill overlooking the town (it evidently has a library with 85,000 books).

The old town has a lively pedestrian area with cafes. The town is clearly doing well from cycle tourists – there was a bit of a rush of cyclists to get reasonably priced accommodation (two pushy women that arrived with their husbands at the tourist center after us, managed to get to the pension before us, luckily there were enough beds). Our room has a view of the monastery (if you lean out of the window and look through the hotel sign!).

 

The layout of the pension has obviously evolved over time. We had a bathroom on the other side of the pension corridor and the pension was obviously old as the outer walls were half a meter thick.

The pension has a large cellar (maybe an old wine cellar) with about 20 bikes parked in it.

We had our supper from the nearby supermarket – the quality of the food in Austria is excellent – we had freshly baked bread, cheese and ready made salads. Later on we had a beer sitting outside a cafe (it was still 26 degrees Celsius at around 8pm). We could identify the people walking past who had also done a long bike ride through their mincing walk and browned forearms.

We had a full day to explore Vienna today. First we went to the Shonbrunn Palace – about 5km from our hotel and a bit out of the centre. This used to be the Emperor’s summer residence and is huge. It was already too hot to walk around the gardens at 9.30am in the morning. I admired the Japanese tourists enthusiasm as they gamely snapped photos and rushed around in the sun (many with sun umbrellas). When we were leaving hundreds of tourists were streaming in the gates.

    

     

We decided to escape to the Danube island – about 6km across the city – a favourite spot for the Viennese on a Sunday. It is a long skinny island (21km long) in the middle of the river. As we made our way there on the bike paths, we noticed many other bikes heading in the same direction – people with summer clothes, mats and small small children attached to their bikes. The island is only accessible by bicycle, on foot or roller skating. Once we were there we saw lots of people swimming and sunbathing (also topless) all along the banks – you are allowed to swim anywhere. There is also a big children’s playground with paddling pool. There is a water ski lift, which we had never seen before – it pulls people along on ski boards through a pulley system. The pulley system is in a large square with the track elevated about 10 metres above the water. There are markers, a ramp and a few other items on the track. Some of them could do tricks, such as jumping into the air or going over ramps.

     

It was incredibly hot so we found or own little stretch of river and had a quick dip – wonderfully cool. The bottom was squishy but the water was so clear that you could see your feet. There was also a curious swan which didn’t seem to like the people swimming on the next cove but left us alone.

    

 

We headed back down town in a cooler state (wet underclothes) to the tourist info taking in some of the fabulous architecture on the way (and also this cool boat on the canal which has a swimming pool on it).

        

Soon we were too hot again, so we went for a beer at a cafe on the university campus.

Then back to the hotel to rest out of the sun. In the evening we emerged again to walk around. It is still hot at 10 pm.

We were back on the Eurovelo 6 today, with a fair number of other touring cyclists. The start of the route was alongside the river and periodically through wheat fields. We watched the Hainburg castle up on a hill coming closer and closer.

      

As we passed through Hainburg Kris realised we were in Austria. We hadn’t noticed a border – but the road signs were different and the cars had mostly Austrian number plates.

We also noticed an increase in the quality of bike path signs – with a number of routes referred to in detail.

Just outside of town, we were surprised by a long snake (at least 1m in length) lying sunning itself on the bike path. Some local cyclists (young sporty ones in lycra) coming the other way also stopped and turned to take a look, but it had slithered into the grass before I could take a photo.

We stopped to talk with a cycle touring German couple who had been riding in our direction for the past 10km or so. They had left their car in Vienna, toured to Budapest on one side of the river and were coming back on the other. They advised that we could do a side trip to see old Roman ruins if we stayed on the south side of the river instead of crossing over to the north side as per the usual Eurovelo route. So we decided to see the ruins.

There is an old amphitheatre in Petronell, built in the first half of the 2^nd century, which was well worth seeing. The Austrians still put shows on in the theatre.

                   

There is also the ancient city of Carnuntum which extends over an area of 10km2 – only part is visible today.

We had thought we could continue along in the same direction on the south of the river, but after a bit of to and fro discovered that we had to turn back and cross the Danube at at Bernstein Straße bridge – so that added about 20km onto our journey, extending it to a 98km day. The bridge is amazingly long (1.88km) and has a good cycle track on both sides.

The rest of track was along the stop bank, which had no shade and was very hot in the sun. An outdoor cyclists pub near the end of this stretch was a welcome sight, as we were running low on water.

We stopped for a beer and a conversation with a Viennese cyclist who we had passed on the track a few times. He told us how Vienna is numbered in an onion-like structure, with district one in the middle and 23 radiating outwards. Once we had cooled down and refilled our water bottles we set off again. Unfortunately we didnt look at the signs closely as we came out of the pub, so set off on a secondary path trough natural parks. We were feeling light-headed from the beer and the heat (a legal high) – so we ate lots of chocolate. The road eventually dumped us somewhere on the outskirts of Donaustadt. From there we made our way into the Vienna central city and eventually found the tourist info at around 4pm. We stopped at several hotels along the way and asked for tariffs and they were surprisingly expensive or full (we were discovering that Austria is comparatively expensive). We were happy when the tourist info could provide a booking for a reasonably priced place 5km from the centre (in district 7). It took quite a while to navigate there – the city is so big that the map they give you only names every fifth street or so.

Vienna is a huge city with amazing buildings throughout. It is so large that you cannot cover all the sights in a day – even on a bicycle.

We rode around in the evening a bit.

              

 

           

Kris spoke to some people at an open source stand at a Vegan fair. We had a pizza and found the night life along the Danube canal. There was a football match on and lots of fans watching and cheering periodically. No more cheap beer here – they cost around EUR3.80 each, compared EUR1.20 in Slovakia. The prices for food are similar to what we would pay in Wellington. There were lots of young people sitting along the banks of the canal. Here is a photo of me sitting on the canal and drinking a beer.

 

     

Today was the first day we had to do some maintenance on our bicycles after about 1,400km, and it was not a broken spoke! Luckily the problem was solved without too much pain.

We had an early start and a relatively fast 43km ride to reach Bratislava along route E575, arriving before 11am. The road was very flat but had lots of cracks running across the tarmac (maybe worse for fast cars than bicycles) and there was a bit of traffic.

Our first views of the city were of soviet style apartment blocks. We struggled a bit to find the the river bike paths to enter the city. Kris’s chain began slipping, and he thought it was probably the chain but worried it could be the sprocket, so we needed to find a bike repair shop as a first priority. We negotiated around road repairs and traffic in the center to find the tourist information office and they gave us a map with locations of a couple of bike shops. Luckily the first shop confirmed that his chain had stretched after measuring it, and could replace it right away.

After that we rode around a bit looking for accommodation. Bratislava is not an easy city to navigate around with on bike. There are lots of curbs and crossings to negotiate, plus some streets have trams running down them (lethal if you get your bike wheel stuck in the tram track). They have however begun to make an effort with some bike lanes at least and there are clearly some cycling enthusiasts around. We met one of them (who runs a website called warm showers where individuals host touring cyclists). He recommended a local pub frequented by cyclists and we went and had a beer there (it was very hot). Eventually we went back to the tourist office to get a recommendation for overnight accommodation and were advised of a “very cheap” 4 star hotel. It was the most expensive place we have been in so far. It was good however, the best thing about it being the breakfast (which included apple strudel).

We rode around in the evening, which was more pleasant once it began to cool down. The main tourist site is the castle, there are some great views of the city and the river from up there. If you look in one direction you see the beautiful old town, in another direction the soviet style apartment blocks, then industrial chimneys and again soviet style apartment blocks. There is also a fancy bridge which has a restaurant built over the top of it.

We had some street food in the old city, but felt it was a bit of a tourist rip off place. There are some quirky statues there that all the tourists stop to photograph.

     

We ended up doing a bit of a pub crawl – including a craft beer pub near the bridge restaurant that had an interesting dark IPA. Then we went to a tourist cafe next to the Danube and then back to the cyclists pub – which has good beer, was buzzing with locals and cyclists and has a view of the castle, even though it is near a motorway.