In which Sid and Doris have a normal distance day making way along the Danube.
We have made it to Vienna. You may hum the Harry Lime theme. We have, though we have little recollection of the story.
The best bit of the our story is that the journey here suggests we are fit enough to carry on. Today we covered 93 kilometres and an unchallenging 242 metres of climb, on a day that feels more like “what I did on my holiday” and maybe has less than the usual amount of Sid-ism potential.
We open the day with a complicated route through Krems to cross the Danube to the favoured south side. We are immediately reminded that this is a Vairy Beeg river. Monday’s cycle traffic is not a tenth of Sunday’s and often consists of mismatched couples of a certain age, he well-mustachioed and with Lycra tightly stretched over his well-developed tummy, she with a shopping basket on the back of the bike.
This section has fewer villages. An early excitement and one for the Nature Notes is this swan family with its Cygnets.
Our progress, about 22 kph, is marked occasionally by these posts which show the distance to the delta in Romania. Here we are at 1992 (irritatingly, at some point we had cycled past 2000 but not noticed it, if it was there) and given our plan as it is developing we might see a much lower number before we leave. However, for all the joy of flat cycling we have not had a lot to excite the eye.
Let’s see what we can show you.
There have been a few little marinas, but nothing can have a tall mast as the air draft is quite restrictive. We have seen boats with masts unstepped, which kept us occupied for quite a few kilometres working out a better way not to have your cockpit full of mast on a long river journey.
We put off stopping and eating for longer than we should have. Just before Tulln there were road works and diversions. “S” says that you should eat little and often. And if you have to compromise then reconsider the little. So we were quite grumpy by the time we were in the middle of Tulln with sandwiches, sodas and cakes. Still, we had liked the sculpture of a local folk legend. The rat made a bid to join the rodent mascot party, but was left behind.
A later deviation away from the river saw us on a narrow causeway and above us this fine perched chateau. Doris tells me that Anna on the boat introduced her to the phrase “better seen from below” to describe sights which look fantastic but alas do not justify spending cycling leg muscles climbing up to see them. Watch this space for our new #betterseenfrombelow hashtag…
Morale renewed and lesson learned, we stopped just short of Vienna to fortify ourselves with ice cream for the route into the centre. At one point we were on an overpass which is now superseded for car traffic and left in place for cyclists, walkers, roller skaters, large wheeled scooters, skate boarders…. great idea if slightly unnerving.
Getting into the centre showed us a lot of the town. We have been out to see St Stephen’s (see also Neuer Dom in Linz, a compulsory 2m shorter as I am sure you will remember from your eager perusal of Sid’s Linz entry), Hof Burg and the Heldenplatz. The Heldenplatz is a favourite of Sid’s, though Doris seemed oddly reluctant to do the full walking tour. Soon after WW2 the Austrians persuaded themselves and anyone who would listen politely that Austria had been invaded by the Germans. The new Modern History Museum on this very square has revised what Austrian institutions say. It has fabulous footage of this vast space full of adoring Viennese greeting the Fuhrer.
Having only just got going again we are moving on after a single night in Vienna and planning to see Barbora and Rene in Bratislava tomorrow night.