Bike Tour 2007

Donaueschingen to Vienna by Bike
3-14 June 2007 / 960km

Photos | Google Map (with photos) | Google Earth KML (with photos) | Erik's Story

Prologue

After twelve days of cycling, we arrived at the Stephansplatz in Vienna, Austria. We started our tour west of here in Donaueschingen, Germany, and followed the Danube Rive bike trail for 960km to get here. I was joined on this trip by Erik who is a best friend from childhood. He doesn't cycle much, but proved that a good attitude is all you need for a tour.

We were very impressed with the bike route. The route follows closely along the Donau River, and is composed mostly of dedicated bike paths or roads with no significant traffic. Some areas were so remote that you could only hear the wind, the water of the Donau, the tires on the tarmac, or me humming a tune.

The Donau Radweg is part of the larger and newly established EuroVelo 6 bike route extending from Saint Nazaire, France to the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. I had originally planned to cycle the Loire Valley section of the route, but decided on the Donau after researching train connections. Everything becomes more complicated when you travel with a bike. Getting to Saint Nazaire with the bike would have meant 18hrs on the train and multiple changes between regional train lines. No thanks.

A strong cycling infrastructure revolves around the trail. The route is clearly marked making it impossible to become lost. Cycling information signs with more detailed route information are sporadically found en route. Beer gardens, restaurants, hotels, and guest houses are all "bike friendly" and openly welcome cyclists. I supposed they'd need to around here. Passing other people on tour was often met with a friendly hello or wave.

We had luck with the weather, despite the grim forecasts. I've come to learn not to trust the weatherman (or woman), and simply accept the weather for what it is. We got rained on a few times, of course, but not nearly as often as Jenny Harrison would have us believe. Erik believes this was the result of his new found zen beliefs called The Secret; I think it was just luck. Perhaps Erik should have another granola bar and get back to his yoga class.

This was the first tour with my new Trek 520 touring bike, and the first time I had loaded panniers on the front wheel. I expected this setup to compromise my steering and balance, but was I ever wrong! It felt so natural that I often forgot that I was riding on a loaded bike! I think back to last year and have no idea how I managed to cycle to Sweden with that Bob Yak trailer. Never again! Anybody want to buy a Bob Yak?

The following is a chronological travelogue of our trip. Enjoy!

Donaueschingen - Moehringen (44.29km)
June 3 / Day 1

"Woohoo!" was my reaction as we started to pedal away from Donaueschingen. How exciting to be back on tour after a year! Last year I was so nervous when I left, but this year I was just anxious.

We started a day late due to heavy rains, but this worked out fine. We had plenty of time and Erik really wanted to see last night's game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. We watched Ottawa beat Anaheim (the only game Ottawa won of the series), at the cost of staying up all night and having a very slow and groggy morning. Thank you coffee!

We boarded the morning train to Donaueschingen, and two hours later we were underway. It was no surprise that we saw a number of other cyclists getting ready for their own tour. There was a sense of excitement as we took group photos of each other with each other's cameras.

We had an easy day due to the late morning start, and our desire to ease into the distances ahead of us. That evening we found a hostel and ate dinner at a local beer garden. It was a good start!

Moehringen - Riedlingen (143.28km)
June 4 / Day 2

We returned to the beer garden this morning to fetch the jacket that Erik had forgotten there. The place was empty and closed, but by chance the owner happened to drive by and see us. He stopped and knew exactly why we were there. How lucky is that?!

We stopped in Beuron for lunch, and I got talking to another cyclist at the restaurant. He was local and told me that the Beuron Kloster has some type of connection or relationship to St. Gallen. This was confirmed by my cycling tour book, but I didn't understand what the connection was. So we went to the kloster. It was impressive to see, but the literature and lady at the gift shop couldn't tell me anything more. Does anyone else find it strange when a monastery has a gift shop?

Forget this "easing into distances" thing. We did 100km today!

Riedlingen - Ulm (217.80km)
June 5 / Day 3

Whew! We had tough winds today, but at least it wasn't raining, and the landscape was postcard gorgeous. After passing numerous other cyclists, I asked myself whether I'm touring too early in life. Everyone we passed, with rare exception, was a senior or a family with children. Where are the people my age?

We cycled into Ulm and checked into the first pension we saw. We wandered around the city, gawked at the size of the Ulm Cathedral, and found a restaurant for supper. I ordered the 'Parisian Rosti', which I can best describe as a McDonald's hash brown with frozen vegetables piled on top. It tasted that way too.

Ulm - Schwenningen (296.09km)
June 6 / Day 4

The Ulm Cathedral is 161.53m tall, and is the tallest church tower in the world. It was also the tallest building in the world from 1890 to 1908. It's quite touristy and it's almost impossible to find a postcard without a picture of the cathedral on it. We had a look inside, and had no difficulty deciding not to climb the tower's 768 steps. I bought postcards instead.

Germans are eager to give directions, even if you don't ask. I experienced this last year when a man pulled his car off the road to help when he caught me looking at a map. Yesterday, a cyclist rode out of his way to show us a direction, and today a man slowed down in his car, rolled down his window, and yelled "Diese richtung! Diese richtung!" while pointing with his finger. You don't need a map around here - just a blank stare and a blank piece of paper!

In Gundelfingen we stopped at a private car museum featuring mostly European classics from the 20s-50s. It was interesting, but what I really enjoyed was the curator's obvious dislike for Daimler-Benz. Did you know that fuel injection is actually a MAN invention and not from Daimler-Benz? This was written in big letters behind the MAN tractor collection. For that (and other reasons) he calls them arrogant.

We went about 2km off the bike route to stay in a castle in Schwenningen. The price was right, the room was big, and the food was delicious! I was concerned about security since the castle moat was only stocked with ducks and goldfish. Shouldn't there be crocodiles in there? We had a few drinks while the owner's son played around on the patio. He suddenly approached us and proudly said, "I can speak English too! One! Two! Three! Four Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten!" Cool! He then began to repeat what we said in a mocking tone: "Bleh blah bleh bleh blah." This kid is hilarious! This continued at breakfast the next morning, to which he added, "Eine lustige Sprache, gel? (A funny language, huh?)". I don't think he realized or cared that English is my native language. Apparently, he's been learning English from Benjamin Bleumchen tapes, but I'm sure his comical nature is pure talent.

Schwenningen - Ingolstadt (385.65km)
June 7 / Day 5

This evening we camped near the Auwaldsee and ate dinner at the campsite's beer garden.

Ingolstadt - Regensburg (477.80km)
June 8 / Day 6

The alarm went off at 6am, and by 7:15 we had the tent packed and were underway. Shortly after leaving I came within inches of making roadkill out of a squirrel. The thing jumped out of the bushes, ran alongside my front wheel for a second, and then dashed in front of my bike to cross the path. How stupid! What if I just maimed it? Would I have been responsible to euthanize the poor thing? That would have weighed heavily on my conscious.

The highlight of the day was passing through Weltenburger, home of the oldest monastery in Bavaria, and the oldest Klosterbrau (monastery beer) in the world. I wanted to try the beer at the monastery beer garden, but it was just too early in the day for that. We watched boat loads of tourists come and go, and from there we took a short ferry ride on the Donau to Kelheim. An audio guide played on the ferry's loudspeakers telling us fables about the rocks and cliffs along the shore. Apparently, one of the cliffs is Napoleon's suitcase! Really! It's cheesy, but tourists and children seem to like this kind of stuff.

Regensburg - Deggendorf (571.98km)
June 9 / Day 7

Last night I thought it was a good idea to drink five weissbier; this morning I thought different.

The river is changing as we progress downstream. It was quite narrow at Donaueschigen, but it's beginning to widen and we're seeing more industry and large container ships going up and down the river.

Our tour book told us about the Walhalla Temple, but it was the photo that got us interested. The temple looks like the Greek Acropolis, but in much better shape. That's because it was only built some 150 years ago. We cycled up a big hill to take a closer look, but I was more impressed by the view over the Donau River. We met a German teenager who eagerly told us that the Walhalla Temple is a historical milestone of German achievement. I'll have to read up on that someday.

Deggendorf - Passau (629.73km)
June 10 / Day 8

We were about to leave the hostel this morning when it began to rain. We debated staying another day in Deggendorf, but decided to put on our rain gear and get going. Not 20 minutes later, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and we had to put on a layer of sunscreen. "It's The Secret," said Erik. Go back to your drum circle, I thought.

We finally had strong winds in our back, and this made the ride to Passau go quickly. Tonight we stayed in a four star hotel directly in the town center.

Passau - Ottensheim (719.29km)
June 11 / Day 9

The landscape changed slightly as we crossed into Austria. We were now cycling through a lush green valley instead of through the flatter farmlands in Germany. It was a nice change.

Ottensheim - Ybbs (813.48km)
June 12 / Day 10

The lady at the Ottensheim tourist office is a liar, stupid, or drunk. She told me last night that the Ottensheim campsite was far better than the campsite in Linz. I took her word for it, and so we paid €10.- to stay in the second worst campsite I have ever stayed in (the worst being in Sweden). Today we cycled through Linz and I saw the campsite she compared it to. She was out of line! Have another drink!

As we were about to crash last night, we saw a massive thunderstorm brewing in the distance. It was a beautiful site watching the lightning light up the dark clouds. We speculated on the safety of sleeping in a tent so close to a tree, but we were too lazy to do anything about it. We played the odds, and the storm passed without a drop of rain. "It's the Secret," said Erik. Have another bong hit, I thought.

In Ybbs we visited a small bicycle museum where the curator couldn't stop giggling. It was very interesting to see the evolution of the bike going back to those penny-farthing bikes of the 1800s. These bikes were huge! Some had a front wheel with a circumference of up to 5 meters! Think about that: one revolution moved you forward by 5 meters! Injury was a problem with these bikes; a result of a locking front wheel that catapulted the rider forward. Single-gear bikes were already being made by 1900 with frames and cranks almost identical to today's bike. It's amazing to see how fast things progressed, and how little the basic design has changed since.

Ybbs - Krems (879.07km)
June 13 / Day 11

Last night we met a colourful cross section of Ybbs. At the first bar we met three ladies from Vienna who were in Ybbs, "... to be cured." We didn't ask of what. After dinner we visited the Ybbserl pub, which is a popular hangout for the locals. Here we met some interesting personalities. The first was the man with the loose dentures, who was a spitting image of Fire Marshall Bill. He even talked like him! We then met a sweet, intuitive, and Canadian expatriate woman. Erik and her chatted and discovered that they knew common people in Toronto. Small world! Through her we met the suave doctor who likes to smoke (I always chuckle when I meet a doctor who smokes). His stories made us laugh so hard that I had tears streaming down my face, and I couldn't recognize my own laugh anymore. He confirmed what we speculated those three ladies were doing in Ybbs. Then there was Pete, the angry town drunk, who was upset at the doctor for speaking "Americanish" with us. We were later joined by a town councilor who is active with charity work for Chernobyl children, and bought us our last drink of the evening. It was literally a test-tube sized beer! Still laughing from the evening, we stumbled to the hotel and crashed for the night. I somehow avoided a hangover in the morning, but Erik wasn't so lucky. The Secret didn't help him on that one.

Our company from last night insisted that visit the Melk Abbey in Melk. The massive size of this abbey made it impossible to miss. It sits high on a rock in the middle of town, and makes the rest of the town seem insignificant. Tours buses lined the roads, so we knew we had hit a tourist goldmine. We toured the abbey and even paid the small museum entrance fee. It was pretty cool, and afterwards we enjoyed an expensive lunch at the abbey's restaurant.

We stayed in a guest house in central Krems. The lobby and halls were all full of porcelain dolls, and it was just creepy walking by them on the creaky floors.

Krems - Vienna (960km)
June 14 / Day 12

We made it! As we got closer to Vienna, the lonely bike path became busier, buildings started to get bigger, and before we knew it we were in the Stephansplatz in central Vienna. I recall being here a few year ago, but everything looks, feels, and seems different when arriving by bike. We sat for a celebration beer, watched the people and buskers, and continued to the Schweizerhaus for dinner and another beer.

We stayed the night with friends in Vienna. We were too physically and mentally tired to do much else, so we left the next morning with a stop over in Munich. We had a fantastic tour and I'm already thinking about next year.

Photos | Google Map (with photos) | Google Earth KML (with photos) | Erik's Story