Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

Category: Danube Bike Trail

Danube Bike Trail Day 9 – Melk to Vienna

Thankfully the overnight rain had stopped although the temperature is really dropping now & I had my first white fingers of the tour. I did the 76 miles from Melk to Vienna staring with a climb out of Melk before a steep descent back onto the Danube  which today was squashed between hillsides covered in vines and fields of orchards. All very pretty and as a reminder that the Danube is not always so placid all the villages were surrounded by 1 metre high concrete wallls with spaces to slot in metal barriers when the river rises.

Water turbine housingOne of the hydroelectric plants had displayed a water turbine housing, enormous just look how tiddly my bike looks! Bit see the power it generates . 39,000 kW from a 14 metre head of water! There were two more coal/oil power stations closed down as well. With one of them proudly displaying on a LED display its solar generation capacity, it was  showing 84kW or 0.2% of the water turbine!

I saw several cruise ships mainly going up river, none seemed very busy, so I guess the season must have ended.

I eventually reached Vienna making  me 1/3 of the way down the Danube, I passed the 2,000km to The Black Sea marker today.

I think the battery on my Wahoo bluetooth cadence sensor has packed up so the Strava data is now limited to GPS & the heart rate monitor.

Strava_Ride___Melk_to_Vienna-2

 

The pics are here 

Today after biking 2,678km I have given myself a couple of days off in Vienna, although I confess to doing a lot of sleeping today. in The Hotel Anatol

However, I did go out and buy some new Adipure V22625 lightweight running shoes to replace the Saucony ones. Laufsport is totally dedicated to running situated on the first floor with only a discrete door & bell it was a world away from any UK high street sports place!

I also took a look at  the Hammam but it was ridiculously expensive so I will wait to Budapest or maybe Bratislava.

Danube Bike Trail Day 8 – Linz to Melk

Another really excellent 72 mile ride on a gorgeous day. Starting off on the left hand bank then cunningly in Grein using the small ferry to switch to the right hand bank and thus miss all the traffic & noise from the busy road in exchange for tranquility & bliss 🙂

Leaving Linz you pass an old ironworks and a blast furnace that looks like it is about to be demolished – just like the ironworks were I started work at Renishaw and is now an executive home housing estate!

Once again I was blessed with a few umleitungs & it was really funny seeing people take a multitude of ways before converging again. I ended up cycling across a grass field and up a rebuilt river defence.  The flood in the summer of 2002  added at least 15 feet to the river level. and damaged a huge area. Although seeing the mark on a house here in Melk it was a baby flood compared to 1501 which was at least twice as high..

I just love swooshing along these gorgeous paths all on my ownsome without a care in the world making snap decisions, going wrong, dragging the bike up banks and generally just enjoying myself. Although I think I need to stop eating so much ice cream..

Tomorrow its Vienna and tonight I got a deal with Lastminute.com so I’ve booked a hotel for 3 nights 🙂 Since it’s only 340km to Budapest from Vienna.

Here’s the Strava and pictures

Danube Bike Trail Day 7 – Passau to Linz

Another excellent days biking and  64 miles on the clock, making it 719km cycled along The Danube in the first week. I make that 25% of the total Danube distance.

Action shot taken with self timer
Action shot taken with self timer

Today was a terrific day apart from the last 7km, maybe it would have been  better to cross onto the right bank over the locks at Hagenau.

Prior to this the route was spectacular on smooth quiet paths tightly following the Danube as it wound its way through heavily wooded gorges. You have to use 3 little ferry services, but they add to the fun. Definitely a recommended cycling day.

Tonight I’m at Hotel Mühlviertlerhof  (warning: music starts up!) in the centre of Linz, yet another excellent find by the Around Me app. I love that these places start serving breakfast from 06.15, South West coast path accommodation take note!

Dinner after much searching was at the really excellent Mia Cara Italian place. In facr today has been an excellent foodie day with the exquisite breakfast at  Anton in Passau  followed by coffee & cake at Jochenstein, then my fish & beer at  Martins Rauchkuchl. for lunch.

Here is the Strava report for the day and the pictures are here

Strava_Ride___Passau_to_Lindt

Danube Bike Trail Day 6 – Tegernheim to Passau

Well that’s all 595km of Book 1 done and dusted!  that only leaves books 2 (320km), 3 (340km)  & 4  (1600km) to do or  2260km (1412miles)  left on The Danube. Interestingly I’ve already biked 2338km, so about half way from Cambridge to the Black Sea, the long way around , not the direct route.

IMG_4323Today was gorgeous! spinning along smooth bikeways with just odd bits of gravel track and no roads (of course Germany bans trucks on Sunday’s). I did the 90.6 miles in good time helped by a tail wind and flat roads. Was lovely to see all the dads with their young kids learning to do distance biking on the gorgeous paths, like me 60 years ago 🙂

I’m quite liking Passau, my room is enormous, the place has no name, I just saw a phone number in a window :-). The owner recommended the pizza place  behind the church where I met Werner a fellow 47er whose interest is doing up Ferrari’s and MGa’s etc. He confessed to having a push bike which he hasn’t ridden, although he looked pretty fit to me 🙂 Maybe we can get him biking in Cambridge…

IMG_4348It’s great to see the huge boats, carrying coal, vast numbers of new cars, containers and of course passengers  on The Danube now and the size of the river locks are humongous, English canals seem so twee in comparison. Keep thinking wicked thoughts about bribing a captain to take me & the bike back to the North Sea once I’ve finished 🙂

Tomorrow is Austria and apparently 3 have scrapped roaming charges there, although how you really know that, is going to be a challenge to work out! The forecast doesn’t look to good either, rain every day for a week 🙁

Here is the Strava and today’s average speed at 12.4 mph over the 90 miles is the best yet, ignoring the mega downhill from Les Gets to Evian 🙂

Strava_Ride___Tegernheim_to_Passau

The photos are here