Cycling Feldkirchen to Krems, Austria: World Championships and Picture-Perfect Villages
31 August - 2 September 2019
Feldkirchen an der Donau to Grein (31 August 2019, 85.6 km, 53.2 mi)
We were on the road early, cycling through a light, morning mist. Not far up the road, we circled around a long lake created from an old oxbow bend in the Danube River. A large number of rowing teams were out on the lake, practicing their strokes.
It turned out to be the Regattaverein, an international-standard rowing lake just outside the city of Ottensheim, Austria. The lake was crowded with boats because we just happened to cycle by while they were hosting the 2019 World Rowing Championships (25 August-1 September, 2019). Pretty good timing. Apparently, the results of these events will largely determine who gets to go to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, next year. We passed the lake early in the morning, when the teams were just warming up on the lake.
National teams practicing their strokes, for the 2019 World Rowing Championships. Regattaverein, Ottensheim, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
During the short time we were there, cars and pedestrians were streaming in. We saw people wearing the team jackets for Canada, France, the USA, and China, among others. Judging from the volume of cars headed for the giant parking lot, it was going to get really busy along the trail, and it would be a lot harder to bike through the area later in the day. We were glad to be passing through early.
Boats stacked in the storage area for the 2019 World Rowing Championships. Regattaverein, Ottensheim, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
It’s been an embarrassingly long time since we last washed our bicycles (three months, but who’s counting?). There simply haven’t been any convenient facilities along the route since our time in the UK. The bikes have been muddy and dusty for a long time. So when we stopped at a gas station to buy food and drinks, and found ourselves looking directly at a power-washing station right next door, we decided the time had come to give the bikes a good wash. When we were done, they looked great. We added oil to the chains before setting off, and we both could feel the difference in the smoothness of our ride.
Giving our bikes a long-overdue bath. Puchenau, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Today’s route took us past Linz, the third largest city in Austria, and home of the cyclist Erich, who we met on our way over the Pyrenees Mountains back in March. The EuroVelo 6 route just skirts the edge of the city, on a waterfront bike path. As a result, we didn’t get to see much of Linz. But we did get a sense of the city’s importance as an industrial powerhouse, by seeing all of the waterfront factories and warehouses.
Most of the rest of the day was spent biking along treeless levees. That wasn’t ideal, because it was a really hot day. We ended up stopping frequently to drink water and eat potato chips - to help with replenishing electrolytes, of course.
Giant fish statue, along the Danube levee. Naarn im Machlande, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
About 13 km before reaching Grein, we stopped at a particularly welcoming wayside cafe. What caught our attention was the outdoor seating with big umbrellas, and plenty of parking space for our bikes. We savored a couple of cold drinks at a table in the shade, which was immensely refreshing. It gave us the extra boost we needed to bike the rest of the way to Grein.
Sugarless drinks are hard to come by in Austria. There were a few more calories than I was hoping for in my iced tea. Mitterkirchen im Machland, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The tent-camping area at the campground in Grein is situated right next to a busy road. We tried to position our tent as far away from the road as possible, but unfortunately that wasn’t very far. On the bright side, the lawn where we could camp was bigger than usual, and it had a few trees. There was plenty of room to spread out, and the other cyclists that arrived thoughtfully pitched their tents some distance away so that we all had a little bit of privacy.
After dinner at the campground restaurant, we walked into town along the Danube waterfront. The gorge formed by the river just past Grein was lovely in the sunset. There’s also a big castle on a hill, looming right over the town. The Greinburg Castle is still the primary residence of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in addition to housing a maritime museum. The Hapsburg-yellow walls had a nice, warm glow in the evening light.
Greinburg Castle was the town’s most prominent feature, sitting high on a hill. Grein, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
While we were sitting at a cafe in Grein, enjoying a post-dinner ice cream cone, three river cruise ships passed by. The town has some big docks, so some of the ships must stop here. But tonight, they were just passing through. They were all heading upstream, having just sailed through the Strudengau Gorge. Cruising through the gorge at sunset must have been quite spectacular.
Cruise ship on the Danube River, just upstream from the Strudengau Gorge. Grein, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Grien to Krems (1 September 2019, 79 km, 49.1 mi)
On our way out of Grein, we headed into the Strudengau Gorge, a narrow gap bordered by tall, granite cliffs. Along the route, we passed through several, small villages nestled in the valley, at the foot of the cliffs.
This 600-year-old tower was once used to collect tolls from ships on the river, and travelers along the valley road. Today, it’s maintained as a platform providing panoramic views of the Strudengau Gorge. Sarmingstein, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Traveling along the Danube, you can’t miss the fact that the clear-cutting of forests is more common in Austria than in Germany. We were especially surprised to see some patches of forest that had been cleared of trees on very steep cliffs above the river. It was hard for us to imagine how they managed to get the cutting equipment up there, and how they safely got the trees down off the near-vertical slopes.
On some days, we have trouble finding breakfast. But not today. Somehow we managed to have three meals before noon. We started with a picnic at a tranquil city park in Persenbeug. In fact, we ate that meal because we had already cycled more than 20 km without seeing any bakeries or grocery stores, and we suspected that we would not have any other options for breakfast. We were wrong.
Just two km down the road, in the town of Metzling, we stopped at a bakery that had delicious-looking pastries. Yes, they were delicious.
We probably wouldn’t have stopped to eat again, except that we came upon a little roadside cafe serving Mackerel-on-a-stick. It was just so wacky and different, that we had to stop and try some. We bought a fish-on-a-stick, and ate it at the picnic tables nearby. It was fantastic. The fish was roasted with a salty, seasoned coating that made the skin deliciously crispy.
Lots of fishes on sticks, staying crispy and warm over an open grill. Emmersdorf an der Donau, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
About 12:30 in the afternoon, a blustery thunderstorm blew through. Great big raindrops came pouring down, and we were obliged to take shelter under a covered walkway between two houses for about a half hour. Then the thick, black clouds dissipated and the rain stopped for the rest of the ride. We were pretty happy about that.
On our way out of Spitz, we passed a long, tall, hill covered with grape vines. It was the famous “Tausendeimerberg” (thousand-bucket-hill), which they say can produce a thousand buckets of wine in a good year. That’s 56,000 liters (or 14,800 gallons) of wine. Spitz is nestled in a region called the Wachau Valley, which is famous for its wines. And Spitz is a huge contributor.
Thousand bucket hill, rising up on the outskirts of Spitz, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
On the final leg of today’s ride, we cycled through many small, picturesque towns with old towers, city walls and churches, bordered by castles and monasteries on the cliffs above the river. Dürnstein, in particular, was a lively and interesting village. We stopped frequently to admire stuff on display in the shop windows, or peer inside cozy little galleries selling colorful arts and crafts.
The ruins of Dürnstein Castle, where Richard the Lionheart of England was imprisoned and held for ransom by Duke Leopold V of Austria in 1192 AD. Dürnstein, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The lovely Göttweig Abbey, as seen from Dürnstein, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The ride into Krems was unusually dramatic, with a passage through an old city gate followed by a spectacularly ornate monument to Saint John Nepomuk, the patron saint of Bohemia.
When we arrived in Krems, we discovered that the hotel we had booked was right next to the main city park (Stadpark), and that there was a big festival going on - the Volksfest. It looked like a mix of Octoberfest (with lots of beer drinking), plus the fairway at a county fair. It was very noisy, and the room they had reserved for us was on the first floor, facing the park. That might have been okay, except that the hotel didn’t have air conditioning, so we would have to keep the windows open. Not good.
We didn’t have any luck on our first several attempts to get the room changed, and we had just about resigned ourselves to either a hot or noisy night. But part of the problem was that the guy at the reception desk didn’t speak very good English, and our German hasn’t improved very much. Just when we thought all hope was lost, the receptionist offered us a different room that faced an interior courtyard. Yay! Now we could have the windows open for some air circulation, and still have peace and quiet.
We had a relaxing dinner in this tranquil, stone-lined courtyard. Krems, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Waking home, we passed another gate into the medieval center of Krems, Austria. The Steiner Tor gateway looks like a fairy-tale castle, with steeply sloped roofs on the side towers. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
During the night, a big rainstorm blew through, dumping buckets of rain. We were glad to be in a hotel.
Krems Rain Day (2 September 2019)
The rain continued off-and-on all day. We stayed inside, and relaxed for a day.
Sometimes the chandelier is the best place to hang a few items to dry. Krems, Austria. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
