Danube - Austria Sept 7

Melk to Stockerau

What a beautiful ride today.  It started out cool and overcast but warmed up and brightened up as the day went on.

It was our longest day of the trip at 107k.  

We started the day with our normal breakfast.  But today there was two twists to it.  First, there was honey fresh from the farm.  So fresh that you can see it still had the bees on it!  Second, they had a fresh orange juice machine.  You drop whole oranges in it and out comes fresh orange juice.  It was fantastic!

We set out on the road with clouds still present but the sun trying desperately to burn them off.  It was not successful until about noon.  That is when the skies were clear and the sun was bright.

As we left town we saw the flood high water marker for the town of Melk.  The flood of 1501 had to be a massive one.  This marker is high above and far from  the river.  We saw the same when we were in Passau.  The high water mark for 1501 was far greater than any other flood.

We rode through the countryside rich with beauty.  We came upon several castles perched above the river.  Some as the one above in great shape.  And some like the one below, in ruins but of an age greater in years.

We rode through the wine region of Austria with vineyards clinging to the hillsides.

Villages dotted the hills as the wineries shoes their economic strength.  So many of the towns and villages were so quaint with their winding cobblestone streets.

We got into Stockerau about 5 after a great day of sightseeing.  We are very close to Vienna and the end of the second leg of our journey.. 

Danube - Austria Sept 6

Grein to Melk

This was the view from the room this morning.  There was mist rising up from the valleys.  It was surreally beautiful.

 

Yesterday was supposed to be the rainier of the two days but we stayed dry.  When we were riding there was no rain.  When we stopped the rain started up and poured. That happened when we toured the concentration camp, when we stopped for lunch and when we ended the day and waited for the shuttle to take us to the hotel.  We had great luck staying dry yesterday.

The town center of Grein where we ended the day yesterday.  Look on the building and see when it was built... 1468.

The fountain in the town center of Grein.

Another beautiful old building on the plaza of Grein.

Today the forecast said zero percent chance of rain until noon.  After that it went to fifty percent and escalated to eighty through the afternoon.  So our best bet was to get on the bikes and knock off the 50k ride as quickly as possible.  

The Danube as seen when we started the day.  You can see the clouds gathering.  We tried to get ahead of the rain.  But that didn't work out.  Our luck ran out today.  Less than an hour into the ride it started drizzling.  Then raining and finally all out wet...  Soaked is what we became. ☔️

We powered on rather than stopping for coffee.  We figured that if we stopped we would get cold.  That and the fact it wasn't going to get any better, probably much worse, motivated us quite successfully.  We rode the 56 kilometers in great time and ended up getting fairly wet.  

We got into Melk, our destination, a bit before noon. We went to the hotel (or at least what we thought was the hotel) to change out of the wet clothes.  We couldn't check in until after two, so quite a bit of time to kill.

After getting dry we went into town to get lunch.  Found a warm (optimal word in this case) little cafe right off the square.  Had a great lunch and then walked the town in a drizzle.

This is the Benedictine Abbey perched high above the town.

This is a statue in the town square.  

As the drizzle picked up we headed for the dry safety of the hotel.  That is when we discovered we were at the Wauchau Hof and we were supposed to be at the Wauchau Hotel!  So back on the bikes we went; in our dry clothes...  We had to ride the additional 2k in the rain to get to our home for the night.  

It was a good evening celebrating a particular milestone with friends.  It was Debra and Scott's 20th anniversary.  A great achievement one that I look upon with great envy.  Also, Barry and Wendy celebrated their 41st anniversary as well. The same day for two great relationship achievements.  As I said,  I look upon both of these with great envy and awe...

Congratulations!

Danube - Austria Sept 5

Linz to Grein

It rained most of the night with thunder storms pounding away.  As we ate breakfast we saw the forecast had a window starting after 9 that could pose a nice rainless couple of hours.  So off we set.  We rode for a while until we came to the town of Mauthausen.  I never heard of the town before but from this point on it will be in my memory.

If you do not want to hear the bad of what transpired during the war, you should stop reading at this point...

Mauthausen was the site of a concentration camp.  I have not been to one before this.  I had been to a holocaust museum in Chicago but not seen the actual place of infamy.  And that is what it was...

It is hard to believe that man could be so cruel and inhuman to another.

These are the gates to the camp.  The prisoners were brought by train to the town of Mauthausen.  Then they were marched up the hill from town to the camp.  Once inside the gates the real hell began.  On the march up to the camp if any person lagged behind or was unable to keep up the march, they were shot on the street.  A trolley would come by after and pick up the body.  They had a recording of one of the village girls who said after the march of prisoners came through they were told to go to the fountain and fetch buckets of water.  They would have to wash down the blood and brains from the cobblestones or walls.

Mauthausen is the site of a granite quarry.  The prisoners were sent to this concentration camp to die of hard labor.  

They were marched into the court yard where their abuse only just began.  There are over 81,000 names of victims who are known to have died in this camp.  And as they said, that is only those who were known to have died.  Many records were destroyed as the Allies were moving closer to the camp in early 1945.  The camp was liberated by the Americans on May 5, 1945. 

The walls and the guard towers that kept them in.

The barracks that housed the SS guards to the camp.

The showers where the prisoners were stripped and then given their striped prisoners outfits.

The door to the gas chamber...

The first room of the krematorium.  It had refrigerator pipes to keep the bodies from decomposing too quickly as they waited to be incinerated.

The ovens...

At first they would only use the ovens at night because the townspeople complained of the stench.  But later they were operated day and night because of the backlog...

Memorial to those that perished...

The walls where many left their last messages and loved ones who have come since marked the horrific passing of their brothers, sisters, wives, husbands mothers, fathers...

The room that has listed all the 81,000 names of the victims who were murdered at Mauthausen.  This is just a sampling of the panels that lined the room.  It was unbelievably moving.

As you walked through the exhibit you could read and hear on recordings testimony to what happened here.  They talked about the SS officers who referred to those that they pushed off the cliffs of the quarry as parachutists.  Or the story of the Italian who did escape bit was captured 15 kilometers away.  He was paraded back then beaten and tortured.  They then sicked a dog on him repeatedly until he was mauled to death. All the while he was pleading with his captors for mercy.

The guards would tell prisoners to go pick up rocks along the fence.  Then the guards in the towers would shoot them because they would get a bounty from killing escaping prisoners.

The camp had an electrified fence with 380 volts going through it.  At times prisoners would fling themselves onto it to commit suicide.  It was out of sheer hopelessness and despair.

There was a recording of one of the prisoners who got a job as a clerk.  He said you could cower in the corner waiting for death or you could choose to survive.  He worked his way up to being a clerk for the SS guards.  He said though, at one point he realized he had become part of the death machine.  He talked about a group of Russian prisoners who he watched singing one night, then the next morning he had to cross all their names off the daily roll because they were marched into the chamber.  At other times he would have to pass word to prisoners that they should report to the gate.  At first the prisoners would be excited because they thought they were being released.  But it soon came to be known that they were going to be shot.

Each prisoner was given a cap to wear.  The prisoners had to remove the cap as they approached a guard.  If they didn't take it off in the right time (so many steps away from the guard) they were beaten with a leather strap.  If they lost their cap, they were shot.  At daily roll call the command was given,  "caps off!"  The prisoners had to take the cap off and stomp their feet to attention.  A witness said it made a thunderous noise.  After roll call the command  "caps on" was given.  If you were too slow or not enough emphasis, you were beaten.

As the clerk said, so many came into the camp.  But no one left...

Lest we forget...

Danube - Austria Sept 4

Sankta Agatha to Linz

It was a fabulous day.  Great temperature, great weather, great day!

It started out with a...  wonderful downhill!  What a way to start the day, by flying down the hill.  😊   There was a downside though.  These beasts of a bike were not the most nimble little things.  So we really could not get them up to full descent speed.  But any descent is a good descent. 😉

We rode right along the Danube for a good portion of the morning.  It made for such an idyllic ride.  The trail took us along the cliffs in the cover of the trees.

We lasted a good 5 to 10k before we were lost.  Or not exactly lost, we were directionally impaired shortly after our adventure initiation.  The first dilemma was the ferry that we were supposed to take.

We stopped at the first spot that was supposed to be where we were to catch the ferry but there was no ferry to be found.  So off to the next...  And there we caught the means to the north side of the river.

The river, even though now has a green milky color to it, has a certain majesty.  

There are castles that dot the hills above the river that appear periodically.  They signify a time when the river and control over it were paramount to the people around. 

This is a watch tower slightly off the river that must have served to monitor traffic as it moved up and down the river.  

The ferry boat that we had to catch when the river bank became impassable to bikes.  We caught the ferry and sailed down river for 800 meters to resume our journey.

A small town where we caught lunch.  We ate traditional Austrian dishes.  And as usual the portions were enormous.  So much so that it was difficult to climb back on the bike for the last 10k into Linz.

What is great is how bike friendly everything is here.  This is a bike repair station on the side of the restaurant where we ate lunch.  They have all the tools necessary to make any repairs or adjustments available for all to use.  You would not see that in the States.

We got into Linz and it was a Sunday...  Everything was closed and I mean everything.  The downtown was like a post apocalyptic ghost town.  It also did not have the charm of many of the towns we have been in.  I must say it is my least favorite town we have been in.

That and the hotel we stayed in sealed the deal.  We wanted to eat dinner but all the tables in the restaurant had reserved on them.  When we asked about getting a table they said they were all full.  After a "kind" word or two they miraculously came up with a table for us.  And all the while we ate dinner many of the "reserved" tables went unfulfilled.  It really soured me on the place.  So Linz is kaput...

Tomorrow we face our first real day of rain.  As a matter of fact forecast is for two days of rain.  😟

Danube - Austria Sept 3

Passau to St. Agatha

What a gorgeous day.  The original group of four has now been expanded to six.  Scott's wife Debra has joined us as well as Barry's wife Wendy.  The merry six of us headed out on our way this morning.  We had a short day and rode only 45k.  It was a sunny to overcast day.  We had a leisurely ride along the Danube.  It was an almost completely flat ride on the north side of the river.  On the north side the river runs along a steep almost cliff like bluff.  It is heavily wooded and very picturesque.  

This is the scene as we left Passau.  There is a stronghold that guards the entrance to the Danube.  It has walls that run all the way up the cliff to the castle on the high point.  It controlled both the Danube and the River Ilz that came together at this point.

A little farther these two are joined by the River Ill.  The River Ill comes down from the Alpine Region and brings a great deal of silt with it.  It is interesting to see the three rivers come together.  The Danube and Ilz are fairly clear and clean looking.  But the silt filled Ill river overpowers the other two and creates a murky Danube from Passau onward.

As we rode along we were making good time on a short day.  So a coffee/coke stop mid morning was in order.  We had pastries and cakes in the town of Erlau.  The fountain above was near the cafe and it had a Roman soldier holding a jug of water that was pouring out and putting out a house that was on fire.  I'm sure there has to be a story behind it but I did not discover it.

After another hour or so we came across this quaint little restaurant right on the trail.  As you can see in the picture, it is in the valley just below another castle on the hill.  We had another one of those light lunches... 😳  it was roast beef with potatoes smothered in gravy.  Mmmmm was it good and it was huge.  When we arrived at the restaurant we asked the waitress how much farther until we are in Austria.  She looked quite puzzled and told us we already were in Austria.  And after a little more conversation we discovered we had been in Austria for some time.  We had crossed the border without nary a clue or any fanfare.  Woohoo, we are in a second country.  We had ridden across Germany and we didn't even know it!

The restaurant  had some pretty unique  stools at the counter.  What do you think?!

We then proceeded down the trail to complete the final 10k.

This was an old house that they were fixing up that looked magnificent.  You could see in the back a very old set of ruins that they were working off of.  It looked as if it was a hunting lodge from way back.

We took a ferry across the Danube to get to the place where the hotel would come and pick us up.  That was due to the steep climb up to the hotel.  In many of the other trips I have taken they would have made us climb up on our bikes.  But these monstrosities of a bike are so heavy that would be problematic...

The hotel we are in is quite fancy with a spa, sauna, indoor/outdoor pool and a panoramic view of the countryside.  It fits in the WOW category.

We were treated to a sight as we sat down to dinner...

A hot air balloon came drifting right by the hotel and restaurant where we were.  We were first alerted to its presence by the sound of the flames igniting to heat the balloon.  It was a sight that even the wait staff all had to see.

The panoramic view from the deck of the hotel was something to be seen.

They say you can see for 100k, regardless, the view was spectacular.  As we sat on the balcony and looked out, I saw a little village appear out of the haze.  It was far off in the distance.  One minute it was not there and the next...  It look Brigadoonish.  It was a small village with a church and a high steeple.  Something out of another time...  Hauntingly beautiful!

The dinner was fabulous and topped off by...

A fantabulous sunset that made you sit back in wonder.

What a day...  Can't wait for tomorrow!

Danube - Germany Sept 2

Passau - Rest Day 

What a great village to have a rest day in.  We started the day with breakfast and this time they had scrambled eggs and bacon, a nice addition.

After breakfast we set out to get the bikes for the next legs of the trip.  We had to catch a bus and travel a bit out into the outskirts of Passau.  The bike guy was a typical German in that; you get it their way PERIOD.  When asking about a different seat, one that is less barkolounger-like, he said in his somewhat English...  if I do it for you I have to do it for all of them.  I told him that he was only dealing with me right now.  😊  and he actually changed it out...  The rest he was not so giving on.  He gave us a couple of tire levers and a patch kit.  When I asked for spare tubes he said nein...  If you get in trouble you call me, I come fix...  he said.  I told him, if you give us tubes we can fix it before we finish dialing you.  No was the answer.  His job was to come fix.  Doesn't make any sense but it was the German way (or no way)!

Once we got the bikes we went to St. Stephen's Cathedral.  They were having an organ recital at noon.  It was a treat but a bit much without the accompaniment of a mass or something.

One of the doors with ornate decorations to the cathedral.

One of the sections of the pipe organ.  It is supposedly the largest in the world with over 17,900 pipes around the cathedral.

The decoration of the walls and ceilings was amazingly beautiful.

And the degree of preservation of the murals and cornices was astounding.  Truly a treat that you have to see.

Passau is a city at the juncture of three rivers.  It is surrounded by water on almost all sides.

On the wall of the steeple to the right of the picture you can see the high water marks of the floods over the centuries.  The highest mark was in 1501 and the second highest mark was 2013.

We will be setting out tomorrow on the second leg of our journey.  It will take us out of Germany and into Austria.  

Danube - Germany Sept 1

Pfelling to Passau

Today was the end of the first leg of the journey.  We cycled for 83 kilometers through the majestic Danube River valley.  It was a great day with the temps starting out in the 50s and warming up to the high 70s. 

The river has gotten deep enough and wide enough to carry barges for transport as well as river cruise ships like the one above.  It has grown to the point where it can now be called the mighty Danube.

The villages that dot the countryside all have churches that announce the time by ringing the bells for the hour and quarter hours.

Every now and then you see the ruins of a castle high on the ridge.  You wonder what history the place had and how it ruled the land around it.  A picture of a time gone by...

A waterfall along the path that feeds into the Danube.  Very peaceful and serene...

Our destination city of Passau...  The last stop in Germany.  Next we have a rest day in Passau and then on to Austria.

We have pedaled across Germany!