Day 39: to Vienna (68; 2536)

Two fascinating facts about Zwentendorf to start the day: in the 1970s Austria's only nuclear power plant was built here - but never used, and on Sunday it celebrated its 1000-yr birthday. Seems unlucky to miss a 1000-yr anniversary by one day... A bit like cycling all the way to Athens only to find your friends are not at home ;-)

(Ruth gets credit for that wisecrack)

Interesting camping neighbour last night: an elderly German chap with a large Canadian canoe. The campsite was a couple of hundred yards from the water and even though he had a set of wheels on it, it must be quite an effort to haul, being a large boat with plenty of contents. He says he does 10 kmh a lot of the time but only 5 when he nears the many hydro stations (he is travelling with the current of course). On the other side a nice German girl who told me she celebrated two weeks of cycling last night with a bed, a meal and a beer! Unfortunately a fair few mossies around for the first time (and no wind) so that limited the socialising somewhat.

Ironically because I had only a short distance to make, my legs felt full of vim today. I stopped in the very attractive main square of Tulln for some wifi and coffee, and generally took it easy all day.

The next stretch of cycling looked more like Belize than Austria: the Danube was a perfect pale jade, the sky a perfect blue and the only noise came from birds in the thick forest on both shores. Magic. I could have kept cycling that forever.

The route into Vienna was also surprisingly green and pleasant, though somewhat lacking in signage. In fact Vienna is quite good for cycling, with lots of paths etc. My only complaint is cycles aren't allowed in parks, of which there are many very large and lovely ones - therefore blocking the cycle route in all directions!

In fact I spent a couple of sunny hours this afternoon reading in the main park. I've been getting such enjoyment from the Kindle on this trip. Basically I downloaded about 80 free books - perhaps half modern trash, and half off-copyright classics. This rather random selection contains some absolute treasures - yesterday I read a Jane Austen novella called Lady Susan which was hilarious. Now I'm on Elizabeth Gaskell. 

I'm staying tonight with Uschi's sister Claudia, who was volunteered for this by Uschi when I saw her in Basel. All I know of Claudia is she has a dog and a racehorse. I like her already!

Day 38: to Zwentendorf (80; 2468)

Today was a day of two halves, as they say. I slept beautifully alone in my wooden palace, but despite this, felt totally exhausted all morning. The ride was through the Wacau, a wine and fruit-growing area that has UNESCO world heritage status for its 'medieval cultural landscape' (says a tourist info board). It's certainly attractive countryside and the lovely old villages are geared to tourists, cyclo- and regular. As such it did at times feel like a Disney version of Europe. And that on a sleepy Monday morning. Glad I did not pass through yesterday afternoon.

Lunch in a supermarket carpark at Krems seemed strangely reviving however, and I then really enjoyed the afternoon's ride, which was a total contrast. 

Immediately after leaving town via a huge Danube bridge the bike path started travelling through a remote jungley area right next to the river. Apart from the 'radler stations' (info and refreshment stops for cyclists, a v useful Austrian speciality) there was basically no civilisation all afternoon. 

Zwentendorf is a fairly one-horse town but has a small and quiet municipal campsite. Timewise and legwise I could have gone 15k more to the next place, but that is a big commercial affair and right now Zwentendorf feels more my style. 

Tomorrow: Vienna!

Day 37: to Pöchlarn (89; 2388)

Last night ended with me cycling around a nature reserve looking for my campsite in the pitch black at 1.30 in the morning. It wasn't at all a dangerous situation, but I did feel a bit of a wally! And relieved when I found it. Thanks google maps. Prior to this I had been watching the opening England match in an English pub full of Italians. Very amusing cultural experience...

Despite the late night, the day started at the usual time when twenty Hungarian teenage campers started to get going. I said fond farewells to my recent German friends and headed off into a surprisingly cool and cloudy day.

At lunchtime I stopped in the very classically Danube-looking town of Grein and then took a tiny wooden ferry across the fast-flowing river. As I landed a few spots of rain fell but despite looking threatening all day nothing worse has happened. I feel ridiculously blessed with the weather thus far, but it's been quite a pleasant change to not be sweating today.

Suffering a bit from several late nights I was surprised to make decent time/mileage and considered pushing on to break 100k. Instead I stopped at a 'Nature Friend House' (I've been wanting to try one of these) which advertised camping. When I asked to camp they told me I could but it was the same price (10 euros) to sleep in a bed. So a bed it is! 

This is in the slightly odd town of Pöchlarn. According to the tourist brochure I was given this is a very ancient town (Romans etc; I hadn't know the Danube was the border of the Roman Empire for 500 yrs). The brochure is generally pretty amusing: 'unfortunately the city was also more than once victim of inundations, ice jams and fires... Today it is a future-orientated business location..'. Well all I can say is, not on a Sunday afternoon it's not.

I find Austria a little bit quirkier and thus more entertaining than  Germany. Especially foodwise: as I write I am eating delicious garlic soup, that came served with a large squirt of squirty cream on top. Yesterday's lunch delicacy was 'germknödel' - one giant dumpling with prune jam in the middle, topped with a pile of poppy seeds and dripping with melted butter. Good cycling fuel but very odd indeed.

The next week's going to be busy: Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest if I maintain current speed. Three capital cities in a week, how very American!

Day 36: to Linz (75; 2289)

A second lovely Austrian cycling day, though a little sleep-deprived as I didn't get to bed till (gasp!) midnight, surprisingly drunk after 3 beers. And then the firemen started their games again early just outside my tent. With Abba playing as a soundtrack.

Blissful cycling through the middle section of the day on dedicated Tarmac cycle paths alongside the southern bank of the Danube. Superb forested mountains with occasional castles, monasteries etc to look at across the water. A bendy river with the odd ferry to take. Picture perfect. 'Yeah, it's just Austria' say my German friends with faint scorn.

We had another nice tailwind and were really zipping along, averaging more than 25 kmh. I lose these companions tomorrow as they head south for Croatia, I shall miss their company but will enjoy dawdling a bit more!

We rolled into Linz early afternoon, again a picture perfect and rather grand town. The campsite is a little way out in a nice park - or a 'ghetto', depending on who you ask. Tonight there is yet more football to be watched, if I stay awake that long. The World Cup has the advantage of making it possible to identify nationalities more easily: I saw some Brits flying England flags from their bike and I think those are the first English accents I've heard since leaving home!

Trying to figure out a post-Budapest plan. Ideally I want to end up at a ferry (so that's probably Holland or Copenhagen) one month after leaving Budapest. And absolutely ideally, I want to cycle the whole way. I may have to tackle some pesky mountains after all!

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Austria looks like this:

Vote now!

Day 35: to Engelhartzell, Austria (95; 2214)

Last night ended with companionable watching of the World Cup opening match, and today I rode on with these same three companions, Boris, Henry and Danielle. V nice to have company to chat to though they do ride quite fast (Horace clocked 45 kph on the downhill from the campsite, and I was going the slowest!).

Today was perfect cycling conditions, including a reasonable tailwind. We made it to Passau mid afternoon. Passau is a big tourist destination and the start of the heavy cycle traffic on the classic holiday route - though I haven't seen noticeably more yet. The river Danube meets it's bigger sister, the Inn there, and there is a startling effect where the two rivers meet: the Danube is dark and the Inn light brown so you get strange swirls until it mixes fully. From then on the southern bank is Austria and the northern one Germany.

In the midst of a 'which campsite' debate we crossed by ferry and so I hit my 8th country of the trip! Hello Austria.

The final campsite (all others had been rejected for not showing football) is slightly mad. Coming towards it the road was closed - in essence so the region's firefighters could park on it while they all take part in some kind of river races, happening immediately in front of the campsite. The races seem to consist of upstream punting, which looks quite a lot like hard work! The campsite also has big outdoor swimming baths in the middle of it - and the space for tents is a narrow strip with a hardcore base. Since my tent can't stand without tent pegs this wasn't really working for me. However I've been allowed to move to the end of the children's play area which is a rather select spot and decidedly softer!

Early morning swimming, here I come.

Day 34: to Kapfelberg (88; 2119)

An absolutely super day, in which fortune has been favouring the bold.

I returned to Regensburg old town first thing in order to visit the cathedral which is marvellous; beautiful stained glass and wonderful sculptures of St Peter everywhere. Also the full set of bones of the 13th C founder of Regensburg in the crypt, lovingly wrapped in gauze and bound with gold braid. 

Unlike many I have visited of late the cathedral was completely silent, the loudest noise being my bike clips on the stone floor. 

I've always thought cathedrals to be wonderful places, sort of like National Trust parks in that you can't quite believe that something so awesome is free and available to all. This year I have become a bit of a connoisseur and I have to say I find them incredibly moving - Santiago is not the only cathedral that's had me welling up. Not that I have suddenly found the god that they are built for. But the human durability and love of beauty that they represent is something really special.  Time away from the scurrying of the rat race (or at least from work concerns and my usual sources of stress) has made me much more interested in such matters. Or perhaps I am just destined to become an old buildings buff in my old age.

I also picked up an exact replica of the Swiss Army knife I just lost which was exceedingly satisfying and lessens the blow.

I finally set off into a sunny but breezy morning, notably cooler (below 30!) yet still no thunderstorms.

For lunch I got detoured into the small town of Worth, which I imagine had to petition hard to get cycle signposting into it. Like on camino it happens fairly often that you get diverted into a one-horse town, presumably so they increase the chance of you patronising the local businesses. Whether it's useful or really annoying depends on how good the town's facilities are, whether they're open, and indeed whether you actually need a stop. I had a quick carb fix in a nice bakery and listened to the daily business being conducted for a bit. There's a lot of 'gruss Gott' here (which I think is literally 'God's greetings'), even the local cyclists were greeting me with it.

I hit one possible camping site early afternoon but for some reason kept pushing on even as multiple reasonable alternatives flew by. I finally went for a campsite a good few km off track but highly rated on my camping app. It was up a massive hill, but as a result has a view out a long way across the Danube plain. It's really a lovely spot and, even better, has three other cyclocampers who are friendly! (Two of whom are cycling to Dubai via Athens, Turkey, Iran... Hardcore). Very nice to have people to chat with even if they did invite me to watch the World Cup with them, which starts tonight.

Perfect weather, excellent cycling, and now some company. Perfect day!

Day 33: to Regensburg (95; 2031)

What a day.

At 4am the weather broke, at least temporarily, and I lay awake enjoying the cool and listening to the freight-train noises that squalls of wind make as they howl towards your tent across a wooded area. By 7 it was cool and overcast, by 10.30 it was sunny but I was thinking 'yup, definitely cooler than yesterday' when I saw a thermometer registering 30 deg. Comes to something when that feels cool. Big thunderstorms are forecast... As yet no rain has fallen.

Good news from Greece means that I spent a fair bit of this morning reconsidering my plans. If Alex and Duncan won't be there in July, my motivation for heading south (into increasing heat and mountains) is considerably lessened. Suddenly I feel free to go anywhere... After Budapest I mean.

Anyway: cycling. I set off the wrong way but a friendly local cyclist stopped me and put me right. The first 15k were straight and beautiful along a cycle track bordering the Danube on one side and a military zone on t'other. The Danube by now looking much wider and more peaceful.

The morning in general was easy - I had been rather fearing it as my map noted loads of uphill. When I found it quite easy I credited this to Nutella (breakfast of champions), only to notice on a reread that the steep buts were downhills, not up. Oh well, either way my legs aren't burning half as much after 24 hours off from hills.

At noon I arrived into Weltenberg, a hot honeypot due to its ancient monastery which continues to brew beer and milk tourists. 

Oh happy day! There's a boat, which is the traditional way for cyclists to avoid 10k or so of hot uphill while viewing one of the most spectacular sections. So I finally cruise the Danube, through fast-flowing limestone gorges. There's a handful of souls kayaking and little boys floating downstream on their bellies (these guys absolutely have the right idea) but other than them and our boat it is a very peaceful scene indeed. There's a German commentary, of which I of of course understand one word in five ('left-hand side' etc). I think one of the landmarks was a '5 million year old meteor crater' but it's entirely possible it was 500 million or indeed 5 thousand. I've not had reason to learn large numbers yet!

A hot afternoon was vastly improved by two swims: one half way along where I startled the locals by just ripping off my Tshirt and shoes and running in, bliss; and one instead of a shower this evening. 

Destination Regensburg - a town with 1000 listed buildings. Thus far I have seen the park, the river, and Netto. (Why does Germany have such abysmal taste in supermarkets? I've seen only Aldi, Netto and Lidl for days...) 

Update, later: well it's still massively humid but possibly less hot tonight, cool enough at least that I found the energy to head into town. It is a nice and rather majestic place with lots going on, including an organ recital in the cathedral so I couldn't enter. It also has both a travel book and map shop, and a penknife shop (sad to say I left mine at my breakfast perch earlier today, and miss it already). The shops don't open till ten though, so part of me thinks I may start late tomorrow and go for a short leg after perusing the cycling Europe maps for a bit!

The wind is rising - let's see what the night brings.