Gordon: We are enjoying a "rest day" in Vienna, if resting is going to three art museums in 24 hours. We are staying in the Museums Quarter in the city, so we are within walking distance of a surprising number of museums ... and palaces. I cannot recall visiting a city with so many monumental buildings. Our guidebook suggests that the Habsburgs may have focussed ...
Gordon: Today we had a glorious ride through a hilly region known as the Wachau. It produces some of the best wine in Austria. And as we have found in the Douro, Burgundy and other areas, wine is a magnet for tourists. The Danube is now frequented by cruise and excursion boats, and the cycle trails are full of day trippers. It appears to be ...
Gordon: The 320 km stretch between Passau, Germany and Vienna, Austria is allegedly the most popular section of the Eurovelo 6, and possibly the most used length of long distance cycle trail in Europe. We were warned that we would find this area uncomfortably busy during the summer. Fortunately, this has not proven to be the case. There is a steady stream of cyclists, but ...
Ruth: Today we spent the afternoon at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. It was built by its first prisoners shortly after Hitler annexed Austria. Its location was chosen for the granite quarries which would provide the much needed granite for new monumental buildings in Nazi Germany. For a time Mauthausen and its satellite camp Gusen were the only category III camps, with the harshest conditions of ...
The river markers inform us that we are now more than half way to the Black Sea with 2,174 kms remaining. We parted company with Clair from New Zealand in Passau. She also started her journey in Nantes, France and became part of the tribe that we continued to reconnect with along the route.Just a few kilometres after Passau we entered Austria and the most popular ...
Gordon: It seems that every town we pass through in this region has some modest claim on history. Some of them are quirky enough that I must share them.Tonight we are in Ingolstadt, a small city with an attractive historical centre dating to the late medieval and Renaissance periods. Despite its small size, however, Ingolstadt is of considerable import to beer drinkers. It was here ...
August 7, 2016Ruth: The camping on the Danube fits our needs much better than the crazy holiday campgrounds we first encountered in Germany. Now there are numerous municipal tent sites that are geared for cyclists and canoeists making their way down the river. Although certainly not my preference when it is pouring, in good weather they are fun social places where a gathering tribe of ...
August 8th, 2016Ruth: I love breakfast in Germany! I love eating It, and when I'm not eating it, I love anticipating it. There is a point on any cycle trip where the pleasures of food become far more important than any number of amazing tourist sights. In Germany, breakfast has become our main meal. Oh course we have also dined on Schnizel, spätzle and other ...
Gordon: We joined the Danube at Tuttlingen, where it is little more than a stream. I anticipate that the 60 kilometre ride from there to Sigmaringendorf, where we are staying tonight, is destined to be one of the most spectacular days on the Danube. The river wends its way through a karst landscape, with limestone cliffs and spires rising on every side. Above the white ...
August 4, 2016Ruth: The Rhine River has been such a delightful surprise. It is a beautiful green tourquoise color and much cleaner than I expected. For most of the distance that we cycled along the Rhine it is the border between Switzerland and Germany. We watched a man swim from one country to the other and we took many cross border walks to look at ...