Our Days


16/9/2009














We have fallen into a regular pattern of riding/sightseeing for a couple of hours before morning coffee then riding off again, usually having a lateish picnic lunch by the river before arriving at our hotel around 4. We average around 45 km per day and we cope well with that. We use ferries and bridges to swap from bank to bank a fair bit, in search of sights or our hotel or because one side of the river is more scenic or has a better bike path. 
The maps and instructions we were provided with are excellent and the ride is well signposted anyway.


The scenery has been very varied from forests, meadows, farmland, etc and the sights have been too. Even the churches vary a bit - from baroque to even more baroque to totally over the top theatrical rococo, as in the Cistercian Monastery at Wilhering in the photo. The houses look like they are straight from a book of fairytales. 


 There is a nice camaraderie between cyclists too, most of whom are from Germany or Austria and mostly grey nomad types at this time of the year. It’s embarrassing if you get passed by a group of octogenarians as we did earlier on. Debbie lived and studied in Vienna when she was young so her German is very helpful and she’s improving every day as it comes back to her.



The food doesn’t vary much - potatoes, knodel, wiener schnitzel, pork dishes and very ordinary salads. We crave for more vegies. We are enjoying the sturm (the still fermenting wine available at this time of the year) the beer and the local wine, Gruner Vetltlinger. The coffee has been declared terrible.