Sunday 13 June 2010 Innsbruck

Sunday 13 June 2010 Innsbruck
Wonderful day today.  Brunch of bacon and eggs (Austrian style) and then another walk around town and through the gardens.  As we went through town we heard a marching band and then a policeman on a motorbike blocking traffic and blow me down if a parade of Lederhosen clad men didnt march through town.  It was great timing to see some local culture.

After our little walk we enjoyed another cup of coffee in the town square and what should happen by about 10 trumpets and trombones should play traditional music from atop one of the buildings.  We were truly been treated to the culture.

There is a chair lift up the mountain and we really wanted to go but the cloud level was too low so we waited until the afternoon where it lifted a little so we jumped on a travelled up to 1900m.  Even though we couldnt see anything right at the top it was a great trip up the side of the mountain.  There were heaps of hikers and downhill mountain bikers.  If your into downhill mountain biking this would be heaven, catch the chair lift up the mountain and blast your way back down....then repeat.

The view from the top :)

The little cable train you take to get to the cable car.  Still cable powered but runs on tracks and picks you up from in town.

At the point where you get off the cable car and wait for the cable train there is a cafe/restaurant.  We stopped there and had a glass of wine, life is good.

We enjoyed our dinner so much last night we decided to go back to the same place for more pizza and pasta.

Saturday 12 June 2010 Vienna to Innsbruck

Saturday 12 June 2010 Vienna to Innsbruck (Train)
We travelled to Innsbruck on the train today.  We managed to pack one of our front panniers in with the others so we had less to carry once the bikes are loaded onto the train.  It's a common fact that cycle touring is great when your riding your bikes but painful when you need to move all those bags and your bikes by train or airplane.

The train trip was OK although we are now little more nervous about Monday's trip as today's train ran about 15minutes late.  We wouldn't normally care about that except we have two changes of trains on Monday and there is only 10minutes to make the change and carrying our bags, retrieving the bikes and then racing to the platform, packing the bikes and then clambering aboard may take all of those 10minutes.

We were a little worried that Innsbruck wouldn't look too flash at this time of year, it's summer and it is a ski town but when we arrived (actually quite a few kilometres out) we knew it would be great.  The mountains soared and the views were magnificent.

We had booked into the 'Basic Hotel Innsbruck' and it was cheap and with a name like that it was with trepidation that we rode our bikes through town toward our digs for the next two nights.  We were both very surprised to find a newly renovated and equipped hotel with modern conveniences and even a normal toilet.  Austrian toilets are an odd design but I will leave that subject there.

The view from our hotel room...not bad for the 'Basic Hotel Innsbruck'

Same view zoomed in

A stroll through the old town saw us in lovely surrounds but tainted a little by the tourists and the vendors that prey on them.  Yes I see the irony that we are ourselves tourists but I'm sure you know what I mean.

We had coffee in a street cafe and the tour guides trapsed past holding their little flags  with their little herd of sheep people following along listening on their ear pieces to the commentary.  Aside from that though Innsbruck is very nice and we also enjoyed some yummy pizza and pasta at an Intalian restaurant.

Friday 11 June 2010 Vienna

Friday 11 June 2010 Vienna

Today we had things to do, train tickets to buy, hotels to book in Innsbruck and Ljubljana, buy a fuel bottle as we now have our multi-fuel burner for the trangia stove and send some of our warm clothes home. In fact the little parcel we set home weighed 2kg!!! That's 2kg less we will have to drag up the hills we know we are going to meet as we head south.

Vienna, another beautiful European city with obviously lots of money somewhere. I've never seen so many jewellery stores with armed guards standing outside, actually I've never seen a jewellery store with an armed guard standing outside anywhere. Last night we did an embarrassing thing and had a beer in the local Australian Pub, yeah I know it's cheesy but normal pubs are not common over here, except of course in England. On the continent they are mostly Cafes or Restaurants that serve drinks as well they just dont have that 'sitting in a pub having a beer' feel about them. It's also hot and our hotel room has no aircon so Sandy and I are sitting here sweating, gee we miss Darwin :)

On our walk around Vienna this morning we were standing in the middle of one of the big pedestrian malls and we both agreed that we'd like an icecream. Just as we were trying to remember where we'd seen an icecream store a man on a little electric cart came up, parked right beside us, and I'm talking 2ft here, and set up his little mobile icecream stall. “I would like a 40ft yacht” were my next words but our powers of thought seem to only work for icecreams. We all had quite a laugh as I explained to the vendor what had just happened.

The plan now is to catch a train to Innsbruck tomorrow and then a train on Monday to Ljubljana, Slovenia where we will start riding again. Innsbruck is in the middle of the alps and is supposed to be very beautiful. We thought we'd better at least see some 'real' mountains before we leave this part of Europe. The train is because even though we'd like to see the alps we dont have any real desire to ride over them :) From Slovenia we then head toward Croatia and the ocean. We are both very keen to see the ocean again.   

The following photos are what happens when cycle tourists use a nice hotel room to clean their gear :)

Thursday 10 June 2010 Langenlebarn to Vienna

Thursday 10 June 2010 Langenlebarn to Vienna 35km

We are sitting in our hotel room with the windows open on a very balmy night listening to an accordion playing in the streets below.  It is actually quite romantic and we've had an amazing day and by that I mean we've ridden our bikes for a couple of hours, found a hotel that is straight out of the classics and then wandered the streets of Vienna.  We are located right in the central 'old town' and it has not disappointed.

Having said that we are both sort of over the classic European cities.  It is time for a change and previsouly when we were so cold we longed for warmth and beaches but ironically it is forecast to be 34degC in Vienna tomorrow which is warm in anyone's books and the minimum tonight is 22degC.  The last few days have been quite warm and to be honest riding the Danube has become quite routine so we are looking forward to new adventures.  Look, when I say 'routine' I mean 'boring'.  Sure the rivers nice and the path traffic free but it just goes on and on so we need a change......we're heading south.

Wednesday 9 June 2010 Schonbuhel to Langenlebarn

Wednesday 9 June 2010  Schonbuhel to Langenlebarn 82km

Well after yesterday's struggle for energy (well I struggled, Sandy did rather well) we had a great days ride today and exceeded our expectations.  Bit of a headwind but not too bad.

A privately owned castle down the road from our campground

We rode through some loverly little villages and bought some supplies and some yummy morning tea, how unusual :)

We stopped for a very yummy lunch at a flash riverside restaurant.  Whilst there a couple flew in in their helicopter.  The pilot stayed with the chopper while they went off to have lunch, it's a tough life for some.

Apart from the food stops we rode beside the river, saw lots of barges and passenger boats working very hard going upstream as the river is still running quite strongly from the floods of last week.

See, it's not all postcard views

But it mostly is :)

We are now booked into a guesthouse as I wanted to sleep in a bed tonight....I'm getting old you know!!!  All going well we should get into Vienna in the morning somtime where we will decide the fate of the rest of our holiday.  If that sounds ominous, it is.

Tuesday 8 June 2010 Grein to Schonbuhel

Tuesday 8 June 2010 Grein to Schonbuhel 55km

Today began with a ferry ride across to the south bank of the Danube as per our map book recommendation due to the heavy traffic on the north side.

Our steeds ready for the days ride

Not much to say

The scenery has reverted back to hills on either side which provide a scenic background to the little villages dotted along the river.  It was a perfect temperature this morning and I can't begin to describe the contented feeling of riding under shade of the trees, looking up into these robust forests.

Soon the spell was broken as we emerge from the trees into Ybbs and a headwind.  After our morning coffee stop we then ventured onto Melk.  By the time we reached Melk the mercury was positively soaring and we were beginning to feel the effects of yesterday's 100km day.  After replenishing the fluids we did a spot of sight seeing at the Melk Abbey which was quite magnificent,  especially the church.

Melk Abbey

The little church in the abbey

Over our drinks we had decided to call it a day once we reached the next camp spot which happened to be 3km further on.  Due to the recent flooding we are camped on the proprietor's front lawn but never the less, a lovely little spot with a bar and restaurant.


Gary & I have a lot to the learn from the Austrians when it comes to cycle touring, especially when it comes to lunch breaks.  For instance in a cafe the other day Gary and I were the only ones having coffee every one else had a beer (½ litre and sometimes 1 litre steins at a time no less) and a few smokes thrown in – then the bastards over take us going down the road!!!

I've heard it mentioned a number of times that once the sun comes out over here it's a good excuse to get around in next to nothing which so far seems about right.  But amongst cyclist we've seen a disturbing trend for men to hoik the legs up of their lycra cycling shorts converting them into, well er, hotpants.  And lets just say not everyone has the physique for it!

Monday 7 June 2010 Kobling to Grein

Monday 7 June 2010 Kobling to Grein 102km
Long day in the saddle but it was pretty flat and we had a bit of a tailwind.  The scenery changed from postcard Danube winding it's way through the valley to wide open dirty river with weirs and giant locks for the barges.  It's actually really good that they still have so much commercial shipping on the rivers and canals in Europe.

We had a couple of diversions as the Danube had flooded over the last couple of days so a lot of the path was muddy and was still being cleared.  I imagine it would be a priority as there is so much cycle traffic on the paths, you really have to see the amount of cyclist to understand.  Every cafe along the path, and there are a lot of them, have heaps of bike racks out the front and I would guess most of their trade comes from cyclists.  The lunchtime coffee break has become a bit of a trend with us, gives us a lift for the afternoon's effort.

Wow!!!  An inner tube vending machine outside a bike shop!!!!

We had a couple of beers here

The campground in Grein is recovering from the flood and everything is very dirty as it had been underwater.

Sunday 6 June 2010 Passau to Kobling

Sunday 6 June 2010 Passau to Kobling 60km
After our lazy day off we had a big sleep in and didnt get on the road until 1130.

We left Passau and immediately we were on a traffic free path surrounded by hills and riding beside the Danube, life is good.  Not much to say as the scenery was stunning the whole day, it almost becomes monotonous.

The campground was on million dollar location and sitting on one of the riverside benches we had to pinch ourselves as we took it all in.  We were naughty and had dinner in the restaurant, it couldnt be helped we saw someone else order lasagne and just had to have it.