Out of the door to overcast, yet hazy sun poking through occasionally and 60 degree temps, should be a good day to put in some miles.  We immediately noticed the lack of cars on the road for a Monday morning.  No rush hour, not even bikers scurrying to work………..was today actually Sunday?  For two hours, though we had beautiful countryside before us, we were distracted by the lack of people.  When we biked through a town around 10 am and the church bells were tolling (not to tell the time),

we stopped to check our log and make sure it really was not Sunday……feels like a Sunday, but definitely a Monday, all day…….. two Sunday morning rides in one week, Fabulous! Even better, we were on the right route (like we needed a sign).Again, quaint small towns, beautiful fields, and glimpses of the Donauawaited us.

But this, we did not expect.

Walhalla, commissioned by King Ludwig I (began in 1830), is a hall of fame for distinguished Germans.  Apparently the inside is beautiful, but for us to see it would require a very steep climb……….we’ll just look at the brochures.

Our bike path today was on mostly paved roads and well marked, so we made good time, 55 miles in under 5 hours to our destination.  A quick spin of the Deggendorf, revealed another pretty old town

with three church steeples you could see standing in one spot.  And once again, something we didn’t expect to see in the middle of the square.

Not exactly Maple Street, but some good volleyball players.

Something new for the post.  At the end of each day, we will post extra pictures..  If you really don’t want to read about the day and just want to see the pics, just click the thumbnails below and you can scroll with the arrow on the right to see all the pictures.  Let us know what you think.

It was once again a beautiful morning, except for the very pesky bicycle problem we were still suffering.  Actually, we had originally planned on stopping at this bicycle store yesterday afternoon, but with everything closed for the holiday, we had to wait until the morning.  One more chance at a picture of Deggendorf. Luckily, the bike store we found opened at 8:30, problem solved by 9:15 and out the door……half a mile down the road we turned around and returned to the bike store for more repairs.  We finally got out of the door (hopefully) fixed at 10:30.
We actually made very good time ‘when’ we were riding, seeing the usual beautiful fields, villageschurches, these two churches photographed standing in the same spot and castles.Unfortunately, we had many stops trying to figure out what was the problem with the bike.  Shortly after noon, we pulled into yet another bike store to once again fix our problem.  I waited outside, guarding my bike and all the bags, while Jerry went inside to relate the problem.  Five minutes later, he emerges with a beer in one hand and sandwich in the other…..and I thought we were getting a bike fixed!!  Turns out our bike mechanic (Bikes ‘n More) in Windorf, also has a cafe serving coffee and beer and insisted we sit and relax while he tended to our bike malfunction.  Not a bad spot to relax.Only an hour ride longer from the ‘last’ bike fix, but it went without a hitch, hopefully we are at the end of our bike woes.

The ride into Passau is enchanting, with lovely buildings lining the waters’ edge and the green hills behind

Same is true in Austria, across the Inn River. Arriving in Passau was a very unexpected and pleasant surprise.  Though it took a few miles to get to the Old City, it did not have that huge, overwhelming, filled with tourists feel.  It is a large city, and there were plenty of people exploring the sights, but the city has a very comfortable feel.  Found a beautiful hotel overlooking the Donau,directly across the street from St. Paul’s Church 

and only a block away from St Steven’s Cathedral.  But first a few facts:  Passau, Old Town on Three Rivers, is the meeting point of the Donau, Inn and Ilz Rivers.  Or as our lunch companion explained, the confluence of the blue Donau, the green Inn that flows from Austria and the black Ilz that comes from Bavaria. The old city sits on top of a hill and any road you take in or out is straight up and down.All that traversing, deserves a beer! On a hill across the Donau is the Fortress “Veste Oberhaus” built in 1219 in order to control commerce across the rivers. And then there is The Cathedral, St. Steven’s.
The Cathedral burnt down almost completely in the devastating 1662 town fire, and rebuilt in true Baroque fashion.  Though the outside is almost completed covered with workers cloth, the restoration that has been completed on the outside shows magnificent white sandstone.  Even if you are not a fan of the Baroque period, you have to appreciate the  detail of the inside architecture,
ornateness,and frescos; it is truly jaw dropping.plus the largest pipe organ in the world, sorry for the fuzzy picture, tough to shoot without a flash but had to give you some idea
You could stroll for hours in this enchanting town, but we strolled past an ice cream shoppe then headed to bed.

Out of the door at 8 am this morning to 60 degree temps and sunshine, warmest it has been in the morning in a while, no complaints.

It took us 15 minutes to go one mile, each of us stopping to take pictures of the city as we slowly pedaled away.

Shortly thereafter, we crossed the Austrian border; we will miss Bavaria.
We rode a wonderful flat bike path along the north side of the Donau for most of the morning (and no bike problems, yippee) taking in the sights.

Most of the towns seemed to be on the other side of the water offering us great opportunities for photos.

The green hills touching the water then reaching for the sky, just awesome
Saw a lot of tour bikers, once again the young ones pulling their share.Mid-morning we took a small ferry along with many other bikers across the river. enjoying the shade, cooler air and a view from the other sideHad a picnic lunch overlooking the Donau After lunch, the hills seem to have disappeared but the sights were still there. Took an interesting loop on a very rustic forest path that dropped us here then out through a cornfield, before back on our lovely bike path.
Our last five miles into Linz put us on a road, which we sprinted (dunno why)
Though we both felt we could have gone further, we wanted to see the city of Linz, so at 60 miles we stopped.  Quickly finding a hotel (500 years old) in the center of the city and once again a great view from our hotel window

We strolled around town enjoying the sites

and of course, the churches. This is called the New Dome! Tough to get good shots of the exterior of the churches as the rest of the cities’ buildings are built so close.  We were surprised that there were very few restaurants especially considering the number of tourists; lots of cafes and coffee shops, but no ‘real’ meals……..we did manage, of course.

It was warm (70) and sunny to start this morning, but not for long.Within five minutes of our ride the sun went behind the clouds and the temperature dropped ten degress and stayed that way for hours.  For our first few miles, though our path was nicely paved, we had a view of industry on the other side of the Donau.

Three long detours in as many hours that took us way off course and added a few extra miles (dike construction) interrupted our serene ride, but did take us through villageswe would not normally see.

On our infrequent path by the Donau we caught a glimpse of the Austrian Alps.It’s the faded ridge in the background

and parks with sand volleyball courts.Interesting note: seen lots of tennis courts, all of which are clay.

By 11 am, both the detours and clouds were over, giving way to bright and hot sunshine.  Stopping for lunch in the shade of a tree and an incredible view across the water, we are reminded how many of these towns cater to the bike touring people.

This is a bike museum

Some of the smaller villages main commerce is bicycle tourism.We debated crossing the river to maybe avoid any more unforeseen detours and with a ferry right there, we decided to go.
It was a great decision, we had a shaded and cool bike trail, much like what we’d enjoyed the day before.  With the sun high and warm, we passed many bicyclists on park benches or actually taking a dip in the Donau.  We kept drinking water and looked forward to “getting there”.  Pulling into town and finding availability at the first hotel we found was perfect timing and picture perfect.That’s our room on the end with the balcony and flowers.

We did a small bit of touring, but the real sight is the monastery on the hill behind our hotel.  After just under 70 miles, we were not climbing it, so pictures from afar will have to do.

What we were able to get to was this great German restaurant, Koloman, (open only 6 weeks).  The building is from 16th century, we enjoyed fabulous food and Austrian wine as well as wonderful  music.  If you ever find yourself in Melk, put Koloman’s on your list and ask the owner for a tour of the old alcoves and three foot thick walls, very cool (sorry, didn’t bring our camera).

Weather report this morning is overcast, in the 60’s and windy.  We were ecstatic, with a long ride ahead of us we needed every advantage available……obviously, the wind was to our back!

Our first 20 – 25 miles had to be some of the prettiest riding we’ve had. Winding through small villages, views of castles across the river,rows of grape vines,and fruit trees on narrow bicycle paths, as if we were the only two around in this Garden of Eden.  We’ve noticed in both Germany and Austria, they don’t have miles of any one crop; what we would consider vineyards might run for several dozen rows, then rows of apple, pear, or cherry trees, same with fields of corn, wheat, etc.

Look at the size of this tree and the number of cherries.After 50 miles we made a brief stop in Tulln an der Donau for lunch, which looks like another interesting town to visit, but we just can’t do them all.  Refortified after lunch with a couple of bananas for backup, we were ready to do our last stretch of 20+ miles of beautiful countrysideand towns.

At 3:00 we passed the entrance (as seen from a bicycle) to the City of Wien along the Donau canal. Now the challenge, this city is huge (2.3 million people) and finding our hotel will be no easy task.  Imagine biking into New York City for the first time ever, except all the streets, building and landmarks are mapped in a foreign language……one you can’t read!  With the exception of a couple very close calls, we made it to our hotel by 4:30.

Looks pretty fancy, well, while it is not The Savoy, it will meet our needs and it is very centrally located.  Touring will have to wait until tomorrow, after 78 miles, we were tired and hungry.  We found a little restaurant around the corner and enjoyed dinners of meat smothered in gravy and sauce and served with potatoes.  Since we were done with dinner at 7:30, figured we better stroll around the block, so we didn’t go to bed too early.  Ran into a group on a small stage playing some great music.  Great people watching, but once again, no camera.  Maybe tomorrow during our Day Off!

What An Incredible City!

Think we may have said before in another city, that you can only brush the surface in a week or a month and that is SO Very True of Vienna.  A mix of old and new surviving together. So much history, including the origin of the Wiener Schnitzel and (apparently) the best apple strudel.  And where do you think the name “wiener” for hot dog came from?  Something for Everyone.  But, if you are an architecture, music and/or museum fan, THIS is the city to be in.  We’ll identify a few here, but more can be seen below in the thumbnails.

On Saturday mornings, a band (ages 19 -99) marches through the streets ending up in one of the squares and plays for about a half an hour.  We videoed the parade, but the learning curve with the new camera isn’t something you want to see.

Roman influence is everywhere, including actual walls of the old Roman Empire that they have preserved in the middle of a square in this massive city.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum

The Rathaus/City Hall

The Volkstheater

The Votiv Kirche/Church

Before dinner, we headed towards the Rathaus, where there is a Saturday evening free concert.  Just a few blocks into our walk, we hear a parade a couple of blocks away.  Heading towards the sound and the crowds we find a huge “rainbow” parade……floats on huge trucks (18 wheelers), lots of dancing and colorful people.  This is when we really needed our video, though doubt we could put any clips on this family show.  Unfortunately, the rain that had been promised all day, decided to make an appearance and rain out our concert.  We headed to an indoor restaurant to dodge the downpour.

Hope to see you tomorrow.

We run into glitches on each tour, sometimes on a daily basis……flat tires, getting lost, unscheduled detours, bike lock not unlocking, dodging traffic.  WAIT, back up…..bike lock not unlocking?…..ah yes, that was this morning, Sunday morning, no less.  Looking forward to an early start to our ride and our combination lock, that nicely secured both bikes together as well as to the downstairs garage, was frozen!  Not tumbling! LOCKED!  Even though Vienna is a huge city, finding a locksmith at 8 am on a Sunday morning was going to be difficult and expensive.

But our wonderful hotel just happened to have bolt cutters, not heavy duty, and certainly not meant to cut a lock, but with enough will power (testosterone) and desire to ride, the lock was cut.  Then, over and above, the front desk girl that found the bolt cutters, gave us her bike lock as “It is Sunday, nothing is open and you will need to lock your bike tonight.”  Unbelievable!

In the heat of getting the bikes unlocked, loading up and finding our path out, we didn’t notice the cold temperatures (52) and howling wind for several miles.  There was still plenty more to see of Vienna on our seven mile trek out of the city, both old and new.

We went through a huge city park, though soaked from last night’s ran, was filled with runners, walkers and one horse and buggy. There was also a huge carnival area with a Ferris wheel and all the other rides you can imagine along with sport fields of every sport.  If you are planning a trip to Europe, this really is a city for all ages.
Once out of the city, we seemed to be out in the open by ourselves.  No walkers, no bikers, but we did have to share the road with…..….snails.  They were more plentiful than hermit crabs on the Brac; we dodged them for hours.  The overcast skies and wind that assisted our ride was also pushing away the clouds behind us,and reflected beautifully in the ponds.As we lunched beside the Donau we watched a barge struggle up river and took in the very modern bridge we had crossed earlier.Within the last five miles our destination city came into view past the fields of farmland.  And the city went on for miles. Also, within those last few miles we crossed the border into Slovakia.  Though the border is now abandoned, you can almost see and certainly sense how it ‘used to be.’

Our last few miles, we biked with Wim and Marga from Holland, on their way to Istanbul.  They’ve done extensive touring including a three month bike tour in Malaysia, fascinating.  We said our good-byes in Bratislava as we went in search of a hotel so we could go out and tour.

Bratislava is the political, industrial and cultural center of Slovakia and quite visually interesting, includingthe Bratislava Castlechurches,the New Bridge, seventh largest cable-stryed bridge in the world,

and St Michael’s Gate, theonly surviving medieval gate.  Beside the gate (white tower in the middle) is Europe’s narrowest house.

With all the sightseeing we had not seen the storm rumbling behind us, until in rumbled it’s presence.We hastened back to our hotel, before it started to rain.  A little rest before dinner is always good.