Cycling the Danube -
2004
Part 2 - Passau
to Vienna
Day 15
– Passau to Linz -
8km
It rained nearly all night and it was
still drizzling when we were packing up. We managed to pack up the inner tent so
that it was dry but the fly sheet was sodden.
Alan's leg was still bothering him so we decided to
have an easy day by taking the river boat from Passau to Linz.
After the short two kilometre ride from
the campground, we boarded our boat. We had stopped at the bakery to buy fresh bread
rolls and luscious pastries to eat for breakfast and lunch. The bikes were just wheeled
aboard and left in a large central area on the lower deck. We settled down in
some comfortable seats right at the front of the lower deck from where we had an
excellent view of the river and the scenery. A large number of other cyclists
boarded and the area set aside for the bikes was soon full. Everyone else
went up to the upper deck which meant that we had the entire lower deck to
ourselves.
Cyclists boarding the bicycle ferry
across the Danube at Schlögen
There was some great scenery as the
river made its way through a series of gorges to Schlögen where most of the
people on board disembarked to either rejoin their coach tours or to cycle back
to Passau. During the morning the clouds cleared and it ended up being a lovely
fine day. As we neared Linz, the valley widened and the hills disappeared from
view.
At Linz, we made over way across the
river to the left bank. After stopping at a supermarket for our dinner supplies,
we rode the few kilometres to the campground at Pletchinger See. It’s a funny
little campground for tents only with a restaurant attached. After setting up
camp and doing our washing, we relaxed in the warm afternoon sun. You were
supposed to put a Euro coin in the slot to have a shower, but one of the
controllers was broken. This meant that everyone using that shower would have
unlimited hot water.
After a relaxing dinner we went for a long walk around the lake.
The
restaurant looked appealing with lots of tables under the lights outside so we
stopped for a beer and a bowl of chips and enjoyed the late evening twilight.
Day
16 – Linz to Au -
35km
It rained most of the night with some
very heavy showers. At least we had managed to get our washing dry the previous
afternoon. Some of the other campers weren’t so lucky - their washing was wetter than when they’d hung it out.
It was still drizzling when we got up so we had our breakfast in our tent in the
dry. The sky continued to look very threatening but the rain had stopped by the
time we left the camp.
As we made our way through Abwinden and St. Georgen,
the drizzle started again. On the climb up to the Nazi concentration camp at
Mauthausen, the skies were quite dark and forbidding. Given our destination,
this was quite appropriate.
It was all very depressing at the
concentration camp. The sky was dark, the buildings were bleak and the large
cobbled courtyard depressing in the cold, drizzling rain. We spent a couple of
hours wandering around getting thoroughly depressed about man’s inhumanity to
his fellow man. Over 120,000 people worked here in the stone quarries and many
of them died from their labours and starvation or were killed in the gas
chamber.
The drizzle turned to rain and it poured as we descended and we were
very cold and wet by the time we reached the village. We stopped at the first
restaurant we came to and had some delicious garlic and cream soup. It was just
what we needed.
We rode a few kilometres to Au where we
stopped at the very pleasant and comfortable Gasthof
Jägerwirt for the night.
Dinner in the restaurant there was most enjoyable.
Day
17 – Au to Melk -
83km
It started to drizzle as we left the
guesthouse in Au and continued to rain all day. It would have been a great day’s
cycling through quite spectacular country except for the fact that we couldn’t
see a lot. The clouds were low down on the hills and visibility was very poor.
With our Goretex rain jackets and warm clothes, we were dry and warm but there
seemed to nothing else to do other than ride our bikes and get to our
destination as quickly as possible.
We stopped for a hot drink at a small
café near Hossgang before riding to Ybbs. It was lunch time and we spent some
time trying to find somewhere we could stop out of the rain to eat our lunch.
Eventually we found a large archway in one of the old town walls and sheltered
there. The wind was cold but at least we were out of the rain.
The rain worsened as we neared Melk and
the famous monastery was barely visible in the mist. We found the tourist office
and got some information on the various gasthaus available. The man in
the tourist office said that the weather was supposed to improve a little so Alan
and Mary decided that they would camp after all. We booked into a basic
pension near the centre of town.
It rained again over night.
Day
18
– Melk – Rest Day
Except for an occasional light shower,
the day was basically fairly fine.
We spent much of the day sightseeing and
spent some hours wandering around the huge Benedictine monastery which dominates
the town. The size and opulence of this place defies description. It really is
an amazing place, one of the great Baroque buildings of Europe. The monastery
totally dominates the small town and it is hard not to feel its presence
everywhere. The restored main square is quite pleasant but overwhelmed by the
large number of tourists.
One of the spectacular chapels in the
Benediktinerstift in Melk
Day
19 – Melk to Vienna -
35km
It started to rain again as we loaded the bikes
outside the pension. From then on, it drizzled on and off all morning as we rode along the
river through the Wachau wine and fruit growing region.
The path out of Melk followed a road
near the river before climbing very steeply up to a large bridge. As we rode across the bridge, we noticed a couple of large rowboats
making their way down the river. The oarsmen were putting very little effort
into their rowing but they were travelling quickly in the fast flowing current.
We saw them again later. They arrived in Durnstein at about the same time that we did.
We rode through vineyards, fruit
orchards and attractive stone villages. It was a pity that the weather was still
dull and miserable as it would have been a very attractive ride on a fine day.
Durnstein was full of tourists. It is a
very attractive village but its proximity to Vienna makes it very accessible for
coach trips from the city. The tourists seemed to be everywhere in the tiny main
street and there were lots of souvenir shops and restaurants to cater for their
needs. After some looking, we found an attractive hotel away from the main
street where we had coffee in the lovely courtyard under large oak trees.
On his return from the crusades, Richard
the Lion Heart was captured and held for ransom in the now ruined castle which
dominates the rocky crags above the town. Supposedly he had insulted the
Austrian flag. Grapevines tumbled down the slopes in steeply terraced fields.
Richard the Lion Heart stayed here!
It continued to drizzle on and off, so
we decided to take the one and only boat which went from Durstein to Vienna. It
didn’t leave until three o’clock so we had a few hours to spend wandering around
the town. The river narrows at this point and as a result of all the rain, the
current was really racing passed the ferry pontoon. Boats going upstream were
making very heavy going while those heading downstream, seemed to flying along.
This boat trip was much more crowded
than the previous one from Passau to Linz and several of the passengers were
quite drunk. Our Viennese cycling friend Helga told us later that it is a
popular pastime for some people to travel on the ferries for the sole purpose of
getting drunk. Because of this, many people refuse to travel on the
boats on this part of the river. This is a pity as it is a very pleasant way to see the
countryside.
Helga was waiting for us on the dock
when we arrived in Vienna just after 8.00pm. The weather had improved during the
late afternoon and we had a very enjoyable but fast ride across the city to her
apartment. After settling in, we went for a walk through some of the centre of
the city before having a late dinner of delicious goulash.
Back to Part 1
