RIDE YOUR BIKE ALONG THE DANUBE

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RIDE YOUR BIKE ALONG THE DANUBE (In praise of active vacations)

Seriously. Take a break and do it. Your will enjoy a week of healthy exercise, excellent meals and wine, the opportunity to see peaceful and prosperous old towns and the landscape along the ever-present majestic Danube. How can you go wrong? There are two main sections, one from Passau to Vienna, the other from Vienna to Budapest, each about 350km long. Our trip involved the first one.

There are fully guided tours but we chose a self guided type, you will see soon what it entails. The first thing to do is to decide at what pace you'll cover the distance. Those more ambitious will take five days; we are over 60 so we chose 6 days. Next rent bikes via the internet ahead of time through a local outfitter. Their service also includes reservation of hotels on route, the transportation of luggage from hotel to hotel, provision of bike panniers to carry lighter stuff needed for the day and naturally a phone number to make sure that you get repairs etc. if needed. Included is the cost of taking the rental bikes back at the end. The closest airport to Passau is Munich. We arrived on a Sunday mid May around noon. There are hourly train connections between Munich Airport and Passau; it is a two hour train ride. Our outfitter was from Passau; he waited us with his van at the station and took us to the hotel. He spent about two hours with us explaining on a detailed map what to look out for on route. Since paths run usually along both river banks, one may be easier or more interesting than the other; also there may be maintenance (closure) on certain sections. He also explained the rental bikes. They are different from bikes used in North America in that they have coaster brakes, and gears (choice of 3 or 7) that are all covered inside the rear axle, thus protected and foolproof. When you change gears you are not supposed to pedal but coast...the opposite what you do on our bikes here. All of this is somewhat new and takes a little getting used to.

We spent the rest of the day discovering Passau, an old Bavarian town on the border with Austria (and close to the Czech Republic) with a history of more then a thousand years. It is located at the conjunction of three rivers, the Danube the Inn and the Ilz. In 700 AD it was a largest diocese of the Roman Empire, an important post to spread Christianity in Europe. Easily walkable, with lots of old churches, pastry shops and beer halls. Yes there is a castle also. We had an excellent dinner in the restaurant our bike supplier recommended. Eating our first meal we enjoyed all things German. I had a cloudy Weiss beer, Maria had white wine, I ordered the fresh white (fat) asparagi that were in season, Maria had soup with liver dumplings in it. Restaurants here have a lasse fair attitude toward allowing pets in; there was a friendly golden retriever under our long table.

We set off next morning. A cool crisp Monday morning, it was the beginning of the biking season. The good weather did not abandon us and has gotten warmer as we went. I imagine the route is busier during the summer school break; this trip is an ideal family vacation. The first day is the shortest, some 35km and takes you to a scenic hamlet called Donau Schlingen where the Danube makes some sharp turns and a grand hotel is located. The hotel had separate parking lot for bikes and was full with tourers like us. Many were in groups assisted by busses. I imagine if one belongs there and feels like not biking anymore on a particular day, the bus would come and pick you up. But I note that there were opportunities to "cheat" for individual bikers like us also. You may hop onto local riverboats and also on trains that commute between the settlements. Your supplier gives you the schedules.

Day 2 was a more challenging, at least 53km ending in the Austrian town of Linz. It is the biggest town, some 250k inhabitants and where the name of the pastry "linzer" comes from. To get there we biked alongside green forests, stopped at quiet coffee houses for pastry and espressos and crossed the Danube twice, once over a power station dam then over a bridge before arriving by 3 pm. Maria had a stumble with her bike right in Linz at a bike under-path, having to do with the complex manoeuvre to negotiate the short sharp steep turn, the coaster brake and (undoubtedly) with fatigue. The bike took the impact and had to be repaired; Maria got scratches. To her credit she did not loose her enthusiasm except from here on she descended on slopes at a rather measured pace.

Day 3 takes you to Grein, a lovely Austrian village. The distance would be 65km, but because of reconstruction of the path along the Danube there were detours and up and downhill sections, so it was the longest day. There were times the shortest route was not clear and we did get to places that was not in the itinerary, like the lovely hilltop village of Wallsee, that took additional efforts. It was always a pleasure of arriving at the destination hotel. The outfitter offered two classes of accommodations, one more B&B oriented, the other (somewhat more expensive) hotels. We chose the latter. The hotels were usually the best place in town, family managed, with excellent restaurants and buffet breakfasts before departures.

Day 4 (51km) started with a bike ferry ride to the other side of the Danube. While waiting for the ferry I asked the user of an electric assisted bike to try it. It is a hilarious feeling. The motor's assistance felt like my father's help pushing my bike in my childhood. You can rent these bikes and a lot of people in their advanced age take advantage of it. Our day ended in Melk, a historic town dominated by a Benedictine monastery.

Day 5 (45 km) is by many the most beautiful part of the trip. The hills along the Danube shift from forests into vineyards. The predominant wine variety is a white called "gruner vertlinier", but there are others, reds also. There are many heurigens, growers offering wine tasting and simple food. The day ended in Krems, a bigger town with university and lots of good restaurants, in close proximity to Vienna. Arriving as usual we had a cold glass of beer and while Maria was having a rest I went to scout for the "best place to eat". I got this information often from the tourist buro via a slight "cross examination"; they at first would not name one, not wanting to show preference. By 6 pm we would walk the town and end up in the selected restaurant. Here in Krems we asked the hotel to phone and reserve, but most of the time this was not needed, in fact most of the time the best restaurant was in the hotel where we stayed. Smaller places have no English menu, but servers when young spoke some English and we ended up knowing what to order.

Day 6, the last day, would have been the long ride into Vienna but Maria specified that she wanted to cut it shorter so that she could "shop" in Vienna. We took the train from half the distance in Tulln, thus saving 40km from the 85. It was a Saturday and there were tons of bikers from Vienna on the path, filling roadside heurigens, consuming wine and food. We arrived around 3 pm in Vienna to the Franz Josef Rail Terminal and rode to our hotel via touching the Danube Canal that had a park like atmosphere where families and kids were enjoying the shade and the green. To Maria's regret stores were already closed, and they stayed closed Sunday also, Viennese do not mind forgoing all those sales, they prefer to enjoy the weekend, let the tourist fume, (and plan better next time).... and just wonder along the rich shop windows. Vienna deserved an extra day even if it was a Sunday. After breakfast we walked the "inner stadt" the city looked clean, prosperous and beautiful. While it does not have the vistas of neighbouring Budapest or Prague it makes up with the grandeur of public buildings like the residence of the Astro-Hungarian emperors called the Burg, the arterial tree-lined avenues called Rings and of course the richness of it stores, that were all closed...you heard that before. After this stroll we bought a 24 hrs transportation pass, and being a sunny Sunday decided to go to Grinzing, once an outlying wine growing village, now swallowed by greater Vienna. It has kept its charm and is full with inexpensive heurigens for folks to eat and drink after returning from a walk in the hills. The custom is to select your food in the establishment's kitchen, cheese, spreads, sausages, pates and bacon is on offer and they bring it out to your communal table in the shady garden where wine drinking takes place and where you may mingle with the locals' kids, grandmothers and dogs if you want. At the end they all take the streetcar back into town that rattles along the long streets. It beats washing your car, cutting your lawn and activities that many of us do on a weekend in good weather.

Steve Littke

Ottawa, June 19 2011

PS Our outfitter: Pedaloradtours, Passau, www.pedaloradtours.de Cost for two of renting bikes, 7 nights in hotel with breakfast (incl. 2 nights in Vienna) 1,500 euro.