Tulln, looking out my hotel room window
Last night was not good for sleeping. I had maybe 4 hours of
not very good sleep: I stayed up to late working on my web pages, I had two
cups of strong coffee with my late supper to help me stay up, and I visited
a concentration camp. All these things and more kept me from sleeping well.
It was good for writing ride reports since instead of sleeping I was working
on the computer.
Today I wanted to ride to someplace where I could easily take the train into
Vienna for a day and then ride northeast to Mikulov CZ the next day. Tulln
fit the bill and, because there was no room at the pension down the street,
I'm at an even more upscale hotel than last night. This one claims to be
four stars - I'm not sure what that means in Austria - it is pretentious
enough that I initially rejected it. But it is nicer than last nights room
and cost only 59 Euros a night for their smallest room which is the biggest
room I've stayed in on this tour It also has a very helpful staff whose
services I have needed to help me find internet access - alas only for
reading email and to tell me what I needed to know about taking the train to
Vienna tomorrow.
Here it
feels almost like I'm riding the Blueridge Parkway
But this is what I just rode past...
There were some neat buildings, and even neater ruins allong
the route today. As I ride I often think "This feels a lot like some place
in north america." Then I see the ruin of a fortress that was built before
Europeans knew America existed.
About half of the riding today was on roads along the river, almost all of
the other half was on paved bike paths, and a mile or two was on dirt
paths.
Riding along the river means flat riding - almost always - and
great views of the river and the towns on both sides. I saw a lot of tour
boats today, starting with one that was getting ready to load passengers at
Melk. All of the tour boats I saw today were heading upstream - that is
slower since the current is pretty strong on most of this river.
During the later part of the day, the land opened up. It felt like I was
riding in a river delta instead of a river valley. It also became much more
rural. I sometimes rode for miles without seeing any signs of people.
Near the end of the day, the path became dirt for a few miles and I passed
folks on road bikes. They passed me when the paving returned . My
700x32 TTs, which are, of course, marked 700x37, seem to be a very good
width for this ride.
An atypical section with atypical riders
A typical section with typical riders
Several miles of
the path were through vineyards
Since I won't be riding the
Danau Radweg any more on this tour, I'll close with a very brief summary:
Great, easy riding with stunning scenery, lots of history, plenty of
services, and a very bicycle friendly environment. I started this tour on
this route because it is the most popular bike route in Europe. I now know
why 200,000+ bicycle tourists ride it every year. Highly recommended.