Arrived in Vienna - the biking part of the trip is over

It's with some regret that I'm settled in now, to our hotel in Vienna (Ibis Syles Messe Prater).  It's nice to be in Vienna - though we have 4 whole days, which may get a little long - but I've enjoyed the biking so much, and seeing so many new things every day. I will miss that tremendously.

We got a relatively early start from Tulln, skipping the breakfast buffet, which was extra (18 Euros!). We stopped at a Spar grocery store for some rolls, and yogurt, and that was fine. The bike trails in Tulln are very nice and well marked. And there were a tremendous number of people on them, and also the whole way to Vienna as well. Most were weekend bikers on racing bikes, zipping past us.

There was a long section of interesting houses on the right (we were on the right hand side of the river, going downstream). They were smaller houses, often built on stilts, and BELOW the level of the Danube. We were biking  on a large levee above them.

Here's a few pictures from the trip.

The riverfront area in Tulln

Breakfast on a bench

Some of the interesting little houses, often on stilts, that we saw after Tulln

At a park near Klosterneuberg, there was an old miniature sit-on train track - huge, going around a large swath of the park - that was not open anymore. There was a sign - the current owner, now older, want to pass it on to new owners, but are having a hard time finding someone.

The first time in a while we've seen huge underpasses like this

We had some sausages and a roll here

This is one of those bike tour boats - if you look carefully, you can see the bikes on the top deck

The bike trail, and the signage for it, has been great for a long time now. Going into Vienna it's got more complicated - I had to figure out which specific bike trail to take. For most of our biking I've used the app OMSAnd, because it has great offline map service. But in cities, I've used Google Maps - they seem to have very up-to-date information.

After resting at the hotel, we went to the Haus Der Music - kind of a music museum. Some of it was well done, but there were also some very, very wordy descriptions of every single conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, since around 1800.

Here's a few pictures from our walk to the museum (it was HOT! should have taken the bikes) and then walking back, along the famous Kaertnerstrasse.

Phone booths! Really. I didn't check to see whether they were functional

At the "House of Music" museum Peter practiced his piano. There were weird acoustics there - it was like being at the bottom of a well

Conducting the Vienna Philharmonic

The famous street Kaerntnergasse

St Stephans Cathedral - the most famous and largest in all of Vienna

Next-to-last day biking - Tulln

Today was a day of contrasts in biking. We started out biking through the lovely wine growing area of Wachau, traveling through the  old villages there. And then we got past the Krems area - pretty industrial-looking then some very long straight stretches, along the Danube.

The plan was to do nothing touristy today - just bike - because the goal was to make it our longest distance biking day yet - 61 k. For the first time ever, I didn't have a hotel booked. We hoped to get to Tulln, but were prepared to stop early if we got too tired, so I didn't want to book anything. Here's a few pictures from the quaint vineyard region - the Wachau (first part of the ride).

We bought some apricots here.  Apricots are iffy though - some are great, many are mediocre.

These stones had holes chopped through them, where the post would go

A gnarly old tree

One of the first towns we got to was  Durnstein, which is a very famous old town - I believe it's famous for the ruins of an old castle. I'm glad we saw the castle ruins yesterday in Spitz, I have no need to see any more ruins today. We didn't do anything touristy today, just biked and biked. Actually in Durnstein we had to get off the bikes because there were so many tourists - lots of American tour groups, actually, based on their accents. It was good to get through town and out to where we could bike again.

Krems was stressful to bike through. It had a nice bike path, however it kept intersecting with roads where you'd have to stop. Took a while to get through there.

Here's a few photos from the later part of the ride.

A very industrial part of town

In the woods for a short while

We saw these kayakers camped out, many days ago. Kayaking down the Danube seems a little boring...

Another dam

Boat going through the locks

Lunch on the riverside

The never-used nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf. What a waste.

This makes...I think the fourth time we've seen this huge group of Italian teens. 

Interesting looking roadside plant, just outside of Tulln

Peter was pretty tired after our ride - here he's drinking an Almdudler - kind of an herbal soda.

Our room at the new Diamond City Hotel. It was fine, but too modern - couldn't block the sink so I could wash out some clothing.

The Canadian/Austrian family

She took a picture of us, too.

In Tulln (while at the playground, as usual) we saw the family again - the wife from Canada, the husband Austrian, and a 7 year old daughter. I learned that they had gone on the left hand side of the Danube after leaving Grein - which is the wrong way to go, there's no trail there, so you have to bike on the road. That must have been pretty stressful with their 7 year old daughter, on her own bike. Too bad they missed the south side of the Danube, that was one of my favorite sections - very peaceful. It was around 6, and they hadn't booked a room yet. They didn't seem stressed about it at all.

Thunderstorms in Spitz

The plan for today was to get an early start on a visit to the famous Melk Abbey (supposedly the largest in the world), and then do a short bike ride to our next destination, Spitz, in the afternoon. And that's exactly what we did, interrupted by a few thunderstorms. Melk itself was pretty impressive, but we got through it quickly (didn't stop to read all the displays), squeezing our way through the multiple guided tour groups. It seemed like almost everyone was in one of these groups. No photos were allowed, but plenty of people were taking photos.

The staircase towards Melk

A view of the town, from the abbey

After Melk, we biked along the south side of the Danube, which is supposed to be far superior, apparently it doesn't go along busy roads so much. We got seriously into heavy duty Apricot Country - so many apricots, everywhere! Peter picked two from a tree that looked wild, they were delicious! We've bought them from stores a few times, but have had mixed results with them.

Here's a few more photos from the bike trail.

Detour on the bike trail 

 Aggstein ruins, with an apricot tree below

Hinterhaus ruins

The ferry to Spitz

I wanted to go up to the Aggstein Castle ruins, which are very famous, but after I finally convinced Peter to give it a try, the sign saying it was a 1 hour 15 minute walk, plus the rain, turned us off. So, we biked on.

Arriving at Spitz, I was waffling about whether we should eat lunch first, or go straight to the pension (small hotel) . It started raining harder, and our pension was very close, so we headed to it and got there just ahead of some heavy rain. We rested a while, then went to a restaurant (Donau Prinzessin) to split a pizza, and a Mohnzelt (I learned that's the name of the pastry I had yesterday, with lots of poppyseed inside). The rain had started again, and a tour group of brits on folding electrical bikes sought shelter in the restaurant. I tried to engage the lady next to me in conversation, but she was very upset that the waiter wasn't coming over to her immediately.

Later on in the day, we went to the Hinterhaus Castle ruins. They were great - from the 12th century, you could go all over (cellar, tower, and everywhere in between). Great views, too. Most of the time Peter and I were there alone. I was very happy that we did get to see some very nice ruins today (free, too!), after missing the Aggstein ruins.

The Hinterhaus ruins are not publicized at all, and because of that, there's almost nobody there.  Also, you have to walk up. But since I like the less touristy places anyway, it worked out great.

The rain from the window in our room

Sunny again - headed towards the ruins

The well

View from the ruins, looking upstream

And looking downstream

An ice cream for Peter

Our Pension (Pension Gebetsberger) looks good, AND has good internet, for the first time in 3 days. I actually had to call 3 places in Spitz before I found this one. I now know why that is - there's a festival here, starting tomorrow.