Month: May 2024

Tuesday we uneventfully caught a train to Vienna. Arriving well before the check-in time for our apartment, we rode south of Vienna to Schonbrun Palace.

The entire time we were in Vienna we lost track of which side of the city we were on. Apparently arriving in a city on the north side messed with both of our senses of location.

We purchased the extended pass at Schonbrun, took the extended guided tour, and wandered about the gardens before heading over to the zoo.

The zoo made me sad. The animals lived in small pens, often alone or with only one or two others of their kind for company.

Now late in the day, we headed to our booking. We had found an apartment reasonably close to the center (but north) of town. The apartment used dialing a phone number to get the doors to open. Arriving, we learned the apartment was on the 5th floor, with nowhere outside to store the bicycles securely outside. I loaded Linda onto the tiny elevator with all of our gear. I followed her then, one bicycle at a time.

Wednesday started out with us having the tram and the metro maps confused. Eventually we straightened ourselves out (after finding ourselves headed off the wrong way – again in part due to the north,/south thing) and spent the rest of our time in Vienna bouncing from Metro to Metro to get where we wanted. We started the day by visiting the butterfly garden. From there we wandered about the city exploring a variety of churches. That evening Linda went to a concert at Schonbrun while I wandered about the city.

Thursday started off early at the Spanish Riding School watching the morning practice of the Lipizzoner stallions. Then off to Hofburg Palace and the associated Imperial Treasury and history museum. We ended Thursday at the Prada, an amusement park located on the outskirts of Vienna. Great roller coasters.

Friday we rode out of Vienna, stopping in the tiny village of Orth as we cut the day short attempting to duck incoming rain. We had planned to catch a ferry to the other side and ride a few more kilometers, but no ferry. Even in this little village we just dropped into by accident, castle.

Saturday I wanted to show Linda Hainberg Castle, which I visited in 2015. We climbed up the steep entryway and explored the ruins, before taking a break resting under a tree inside.

From Hainberg we rode into Bratislava. Given our extended stay in Vienna, and the shorter riding days overall than originally planned, we were still a few days shy of where we planned. To catch back up, late in the day we caught a train in Bratislava to Komarno – another city with an interesting castle nearby that I had visited in. 2015.

Several bridges crossed the Donau into Bratislava. We took the second as it lead most directly to the train station. Both that bridge and the one before had lovely cycle bridges underneath the highway.

Sunday morning we crossed the river via bridge to the south side to view Fort Monostor, more modern than my usual preference, but a massive impressive structure from the 1800s.

Then our longest day yet (67 km), riding to Esztergom, including crossing over to the North side again for spectacular riding on a fairly new bike path, and crossing back to the South side in Esztergom. I’d selected a small hostel near the basilica in Esztergom. While it was the first day for the host at reception, he was friendly enough, and finally called his boss to work out the final details that he hadn’t learned yet. The hostel definitely showed its age, more than a little worse for wear, but pleasant enough. We were the only guests that night.

We’ve been switching back and forth from one side of the Danube to the other, depending on a combination of dedicated bicycle path and bathroom locations. We’ve had good luck with both small ferrys and bridges (far better luck than my last trip). Overall however the best paths have been on the northern side of the Danube. When I look back at my notes from 2015, I spent a fair amount of time on this section between Austria and Budapest on highway. I don’t know what I was thinking then, or what’s changed now. Almost the entire time we’ve been on dedicated bicycle path. Nice dedicated bicycle path. Occasionally we’ve ended up on a busy highway between sections, but the instances where we have been without at least a dedicated lane for bicycles have been few and far between. Some of those improvements are clearly since 2015. Others attributed to me just choosing poorly back then on which side of the river to have been on back then.

Monday morning we left the bicycles in the hostel in Esztergom, and walked up to the basilica, visiting the treasury, crypts, and viewing platform before viewing the sanctuary, which had been closed earlier due to ongoing services.

We left Esztergom at 1:00 p.m., riding to Veroce, the roughly halfway point between Esztergom and Budapest.

Monday night we sat our tiny apartment listening to the rain ping off the metal roof on the terrace. We’ve had spectacular luck with the weather. Even when we tried to duck the rain in Orth, it only rained about 30 minutes.

Tuesday, barring an unexpected turn of events the two of us would arrive in Budapest. Shortly thereafter, our trip model changes. I’d begin my ride back to Munich, while Linda would return by slightly more conventional means, even if those are as yet undetermined..

Thursday morning we packed up and headed to the castle in Passau on the other (north) side of the Danube. We found the road up to the castle – the very steep road. I could ride up (if barely). But Linda had no hope of riding up that incline. So we walked. I realized even walking Linda struggled, with me pulling (or in this case pushing) ahead. So I left my bike by the side of the road and walked back down. The rest of the ascent I pushed one bicycle up 50 feet, only to walk back to the other. Repeat.

We walked in and about the castle before heading out (and down!) to an easy ride along the Danube to our first planned stop — a LIDL supermarket. Which was closed. A quick Internet search showed I’d made a rookie mistake — a national German holiday of Ascension Day. We ate lunch with the last of our bread in the vacant market parking lot.

From there we continued onwards to the next castle.

While the castle included a ceramics museum, Linda found another playground.

Headed onward, we planned to change back to the southern side of the Danube, because the southern side had more public bathrooms and more campgrounds. However, when we arrived at the dam / crossover point, at the nearby cafe we learned construction meant the bridge was closed. However, we found a ferry a few kilometers downstream and switched to the southern bank.

We’ve cycled for days on lovely dedicated bicycle path, enough so I had forgotten to check the elevations on the southern shore. Which were decidedly not flat. As we repeatedly climbed (and fell), the other bank mocked us with a visibly flat cycling path.

While the road climbed with a relatively shallow grade, Linda struggled with the hills. We’d finish one ascent only to drop back down and repeat. Before we reached the campground Linda melted down from exhaustion. We stopped for a while to get our legs back under us, and finished the last few kilometers to a campground in Inzell, self-described as the most beautiful on the Danube. All I can say is, I hope not.

Fairly remote, Linda and I discussed our options. We took showers, and ate dinner at the campground restaurant. By the morning we’d come up with a plan, and also agreed that while camping isn’t out as an option, we’ll do our best to limit it.

I’d also identified a river shuttle that, while 30 km away, could bring us the last 10 km into Linz.

Not 100% certain we’d make it to Linz, we set off Friday morning without reservations for a place to stay.

We caught the ferry outside of Linz mere moments before it departed, and had a relaxing boat journey for the last leg into Linz. From the ferry we made reservations for a hostel in Linz, noteworthy because it was a new addition to booking.com. I assumed it was a new addition, but an established hostel. I was wrong.

From the ferry we rode through Linz to the hostel. We revised our estimate of how new the hostel was by the person painting the front entrance. We’d picked the hostel in part because the listing said the hostel included a garden. Which was still a gravel lot. But worst was the shower, which provided only cold water, and water that was not quite as cold, as the two temperature settings. Correspondence with the hostel staff over the next couple of days suggested that the hot water heater kept blowing a breaker. The water would be cold, start getting warm, and then return to cold each time I corresponded with them. Linda managed to catch one of the warm water windows.

The “hostel” also wasn’t really a hostel. No kitchen, no common area, no place to meet and interact with guests. Then again, we found a bigger problem. In the form of the tick attached to Linda’s shoulder. And we discovered Bavaria has both high incidence of Lyme disease and FSME — tick-born encephalitis. I managed to remove the tick, but left the tick’s head in Linda’s shoulder.

We stayed in Linz for 2 days, taking a break. The kind of break which includes walking to tourist information for medical care early on a Saturday morning. And then walking across Linz to the hospital, and then walking back across the hospital campus to the other part of the hospital which treats patients on Saturday but not emergency care. The staff cleaned out the tick bite and sent us on our way, recommending a FSME vaccine for future travels, which they could not administer.

After all the walking, I decided to learn how the public transport system worked in Linz. We picked up travel passes and for the rest of the day moved about much more quickly on the local tram system. We caught a tram back to City center. I browsed through the local flea market while Linda visited a cafe. From there we visited the castle museum, which had displays ranging from werewolves to coral reefs made out of yarn

to electric bicycles.

The strangest combination of things I’ve encountered at a museum.

Linda has struggled with problems with her wrists (Cyclist’s Palsy), so we decided to take a more extended break and catch a train to Krems, about halfway to Vienna. But I hadn’t realized that the rail system stopped paralleling the Danube. Our transition to Krems included three different train changes, with layovers ranging from only 4 to 14 minutes. But after only one moment of the train door closing behind me almost leaving Linda behind, we arrived successfully in Krems early afternoon.

Again, uncertain in the morning whether we would successfully arrive at our destination, this time not for distance traveled but successfully making all of the train changes, we didn’t make any reservations in Krems until we arrived. However, we found a lovely place close to City center. We spent the evening exploring the city and local churches.

We had chosen Krems in part due to its proximity to a couple of castles from my travels here in 2015, one to the west and one to the east. Monday morning I left Linda for an extended ride back to Schloss Durnstein, the castle reputed to have held Richard the Lionheart, during the period where the Robin Hood legend originated.

From there I caught a solar-powered ferry back to the south side of the Danube. I completed the circle back to Krems, although an archaeological dig distracted me for a while.

Tuesday we will take a train to Vienna, and spend a few days there before resuming our bicycle ride to Budapest.

We spent Saturday night in a hotel in Regensburg. A small protest about the legality of marijuana gathered in the square outside.

Linda and I spent Sunday wandering around Regensburg. We visited the Thurin and Taxis (badger and tower) palace, as well as several churches. And a marketplace while searching for a bathroom. A quiet day for both of us to recover. Except for a few minutes of rain that caught us hiding out under an overpass, the weather left us alone.

Our bicycles were locked in the patio at the hotel, and I noted when we settled in for the night that the patio was locked until 8:30 a.m.

On the other hand, the weather forecasts for Monday suggested that rain would start sometime between 5:00 pm. and 7:00 p.m., so we wanted an early start. At 8:15 a.m. Fortunately, someone at Reception unlocked the patio for us. We loaded up the bikes, and headed out.

Except for a brief stop at a supermarket to pick up food Monday, we spent the day almost exclusively on dedicated bicycle path. 13 km outside of Regensburg we stopped at the castle in Donaustauf, a ruin but still keeping watch over the Danube. Only a few kilometers from there we came to Walhalla, a monument built in the early 1800s to honor those people who had provided great social and cultural advancements. And of course the Bavarian King Ludwig the First, originator of the idea.

Walhalla had a lot of steps.

From there we had a pleasant ride all the way to Straubing, our intended destination for the night, about 50 km from where we started. For a while we had our own personal rain cloud following us. One cloud, overhead, with blue skies all around it. Occasionally sending stray droplets our way.

We arrived at the campground at 5:00 p.m., with plenty of time to unload the bicycles, put up the tent, and head out for dinner, before the rain. We did not arrive in time to get back from dinner before the rain arrived. We had walked about a kilometer to a Greek restaurant. We pondered our options at the restaurant as torrential rain fell from the sky. We had decided to get an Uber back to camp, but one of the staff at the restaurant kindly drove us back the campground!

The moderately heavy rain stopped in the wee early hours of the morning, I agreed with Linda that perhaps camping in the rain far from the bath house was not optimal.

We packed up Tuesday morning, and rode into Straubing to check out the castle that was not. On the way to Deggendorf I explored Saint Ulrich’s Chapel while Linda waited at the bottom of the hill.

Just outside of Deggendorf Linda found a park which she deemed an acceptable place to rest.

From there we finished the 45 km ride to Deggendorf where we spent the night. We booked it a few hours before we arrived using booking.com.

Overall the weather forecast had shown intermittent rain for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Looking at the forecast Tuesday night, the weather radar showed, and forecast, rain all around, except a 70 km circle centered on our route from Deggendorf to Passau!

As we began to ride out of Deggendorf, Linda’s front shifting stopped working. We stopped to take a look. Linda’s front derailleur and shifting has always been really stiff. Enough so that at one point I had changed the front shifter to one with more leverage to make shifting easier. I tinkered with the shifting for a while, but had reached the point that I thought I wasn’t going to be able to fix it. But in my final steps of tinkering a 3 mm pebble fell out! After recalibrating everything, Linda said her shifting works better than it ever has. That pebble has probably been there the entire time!

The forecast held true for our entire ride to Passau Wednesday. While the temperatures were cool, we had only the occasional scattering of rain.

Along the way we stopped at Bergrune Winzer. The climb was steep enough we walked the bicycles up the hill. But a lovely view of the castle and valley.

We cycled by Hilgartsberg Castle, which I visited 9 years ago. While we stopped to eat at the base of the hill, we skipped the climb. From there we pushed on to Passau, with a ride over 60 km, Linda’s farthest ride yet! Next, Austria!