Austria - Most Popular Bicycle Route in Europe

Country #4 -Austria

Fairytale Riding

September 17 to September 23, 2015

Cycling distance in Austria: 382km's
Total cycling distance: 1095km's

Once again no border formalities as we crossed from Germany into Austria and thus no passport stamp. Damn Schengen Area Agreement! If I had my druthers I'd seal up the borders and have a nasty string of officials to deal with just so I can show of some blasted stamp in my passport.

Only a sign partially grown into a tree greeted us to let us know that we were crossing a country border. It didn't even have the decency to tell us which country. But then you're probably not much of a savvy traveller if you don't even know what country you're about to enter.

Entering Austria

Heavily protected Austrian border

The moment we entered Austria the whole system of paths and infrastructure changed. Germany was awesome but Austria was awesomer ...yes that's a real word, look it up. The signposting was superb and so were the paved trails and minor roads through all of Austria ...well almost all.

Amazing trail system

Austrian signposts

The route hugs the meandering Danube and leaves you breathless kilometre after kilometre. Little towns, villages and rest stops dot the landscape and a cold beer is never too far away. And as an added bonus, unlike southern Germany, Wifi is freely available pretty much everywhere.

One of many ferry crossings

Mermaid's got you

 Once again we followed many a dike and came upon an area where entire towns and villages were surrounded by dikes. The village of Langen had openings in the dike for cars and trucks to pass through. You could see metal attachments on the fortified walls where I assume floodgates would be attached and the town sealed off during major floods. Posts high up in the air indicated various water levels during the worst floods in history. Imagine a mark about 10 metres above your head and you get the picture.

Diked in town of Langen

Langen Dikes

We arrived in Grein and decided to take a forced day off so as not to overdo it. From the campsite we stared up at an imposing castle which was even lit up at night. As with many campsites so far this one was located right next to a busy road. I've come to the conclusion that Austrians, so far, are the loudest of the bunch. ATV's and barely muffled dirt bikes roared past on the road and every few minutes some brainiac decided that it was his duty to entertain the campers with a thumping stereo as he drove past. But then Austria is the home of heavy duty KTM dual sport motorcycles, so what can you expect?

Camping beauty

We set up Camp Canada and duly impressed the older Israeli couple next to us as well as the two young US cyclists from Seattle who joined us for some wine and to share the table. They had the odd notion that they would get by on 25 Euros per day for the two of them. No wonder she took my last piece of chocolate without asking :-)

Camp Canada in Grein

We had a lovely day walking around Grein and enjoying the local arts and crafts market, where artisans had come from all over Europe to display their wares.

Healthy salad

Peaceful country trails

The Austrian part of the Danube Bike Path was pretty much devoid of hills which made for some amazingly easy cycling. A great spot for beginner touring cyclists. Strap on a pannier or two, head from guesthouse to guesthouse, enjoy cheap booze and don't worry about the hills, there aren't any.

Campsite view across the Danube, Tulln

We had decided to skip Vienna since we had no desire to navigate fully loaded touring rigs through a city of 4 million people. So we stayed on the north bank of the Danube which took us onto the 20 or 30km long artificially created Danube Island. Quiet paths lead you through parks, recreation facilities and a bit of art thrown in for good measure. Then we came to a sudden halt. A turtle was crossing the path and we positioned our bikes to protect it from the onrushing roadies in full lycra until it had safely made it to the other side.

Danube Island Turtle

Danube Island sculpture

View from Danube Island, Vienna

We were now past the main part of Vienna and had left the Danube Island and followed the path along the north bank of the Danube when we decided to stop for lunch. I pulled out the guidebook and read up a bit about the area. "The north bank is popular with naturists" it proclaimed. Now I understand why there were dozens upon dozens of buck naked people wander about, old and young, thin and fat. They all had one thing in common. All their bits were on full display and they were all evenly tanned everywhere. One big happy family, and that's the naked truth.

Making egg salad sandwiches

So on we went after some unease eating ziploc made egg salad sandwiches while a male with dangly bits moseyed around nearby. The wind had picked up and we were now battling some serious headwinds. In fact, since we left Donaueschingen we only had one day of no headwinds. I was determined to make time and pushed on ahead as the fearless leader and navigatrix. Something wasn't adding up in my head as we went along the path, but dammit I was determined to push on to get in the distance for the day. WHAM! the trail ended in a dead end. At least the 5km's of backtracking was with tailwinds now.

Beautiful but it was the wrong trail

The plan was to skip Vienna and head to Bratislava, Slovakia where Patti's coworker's sister lives with her family. Then we'll take a train back to Vienna, stay for the night, check out the gay scene, walk around and head back to Bratislava once more.

On our last day in Austria we spent an inordinate amount of time yet again on unpaved dikes. I'm not sure if there's some cosmic message there. But we also pulled into yet another cyclist stop and discovered the "Radler" beverage. It's basically beer with pop. Some of it comes prepared in cans and some of it is mixed on the spot by your local friendly barkeep. Radler is a German word for cyclist.

After a hard windy day

After spending the last night in Austria in a town called Orth we clattered off once more to head for our next country, Slovakia. The outskirts/suburbs of Slovakia greeted us from a distance long before we actually hit the border. I'm excited about entering our first former Soviet Block Country.

Slovakia is in sight