There are two wonderful places of interest in Grein, as well as walking the village itself. The Schloss Greinburg – the local palace on the highest hill and secondly the oldest preserved “bourgeois” theatre in Austria! The term bourgeois I guess means a performing space which was not part of a royal Castle or ruling class palace. The pictures do not give any sense of the almost Lilliputian feel to the theatre. On many levels this village reminds me intensely of the village Oreo Preto in Brazil. It has the same general feel of its overall antiquity and is the home to Brazil’ oldest active “Opera Theatre” – I performed a soliloquy on stage!

The original building for the theatre was the town hall and there are remarkable archives from the past in relation to local government and the theatre.

A few notable curiosities: there was a prison cell in the original municipal building and a small window allowed the prisoners to watch the performance.

The locals could take out a subscription to seats. The original seating is still used. The subscription was enforced by giving the subscriber a key which unlocked an iron bar across the arm rests!

Finally there was a toilet built into one of the side walls with a curtain for privacy, for use during the performance! Gives new meaning to the term “thunderous applause”?

On summary a village on the Danube not to be missed , no matter what the weather !

The Arcade Courtyard of the castle at Grein – the Schloss Greinburg. Strictly speaking now defined as a Palace. Construction started in 1488 and was finished in 5 years! No unions in those days.

The Mosaic room – the Schloss Greinburg – remarkable! It is completely covered in a mosaic using pepples from the Danube river bed!

The Danube from the Schloss Greinburg

The historic Municipal Theatre of Grein 1791. The royal box shown here is called Napoleon box as the locals claim he came to a performance!

There is now a database of Historic Theatres in Europe and one can do a self guided tour. A database is in development.
http://www.theatre-architecture.eu

Grein town square

The front facade of the municipal theatre

My planned stop tonight as I have 4 days to Vienna 200 km distant, calculating out at 50 km a day. I booked into Haus Kloibhofer, a private bed and breakfast. The house is situated on a hill behind Grein. This is one very delightful village! It is nestled into a bend in the mighty Danube. It is an ancient settlement, mentioned in documents in 1147.

It was a major stop/port in days bygone. It was, as many of the settlements along the river, in its heyday, a wealthy district. The reason is that it is situated on a sweeping bend in the Danube, considered to be one of the most treacherous passages. Rocks, whirlpools and eddies are obvious even to me today. This meant that ships and barges required a local navigator to embark and guide the vessel safely around the bend! They charged like wounded bulls or insert your own better simile or metaphor.

I was met, as I puffed and panted up the steep incline, by a grandmotherly woman in boots sweeping the footpath. We rapidly established that she was the proprietor, presumably Madam Kloibhofer and that I had a booking! She fussed and I suspect became a little agitated, over my rain and mud splattered bike, panniers, shoes and clothing. Indeed she indicated the garage where I had to park the bike and she promptly began to clean my panniers with an old towel. I had visions that she may resort to hosing me down personally!

She then become even more agitated when I admitted that there was only one person, namely me! How could this be when I had specified a double room with my Internet booking. My attempts to explain to Madam Kloibhofer that the web site offered Hobson’s choice – one remaining double room when I booked, were futile. I had the distinct feeling that she eyed me with suspicion, convinced that between Linz and the Kloibhofer Bed & Breakfast, I had done away with my wife.

She reminded me of one of the best cleaning women I have ever employed! A fearsome obsessive Dutch woman, the sort of cleaning person who frightens you so much that you actually clean up the house the night before she arrives!

What reinforced this conclusion was that as soon as I had clomped my way into the house, up the stairs and into my room, was the commencing noise of a vacuum cleaner! The activity persisted for all the time that I took to settle in, shower and dress to go out and explore! If cleanliness was next to Godliness, she was on his right hand, I thought!

I cautiously ventured out and down the stairs, fearing retribution for spreading dirt again. Imagine my surprise when I came across what can only be described as a robotic Dyson. It was the land equivalent of a pool vacuum cleaner. I teased it by standing in the hallway directly in its path. It ignored me, attempted to brush my shoes then did an about face and headed off in the opposite direction.

On a final note the toilet paper at the Haus Kloibhofer, has advertising on each sheet! What on earth! Good material for the Gruen Factor! My initial suggestion

“On the whole, Kleenex is best”

Prizes will be awarded for the most creative ideas!

The room

The sun was shining this morning! …. For about 20 minutes!

Lets break this into two parts. The cycle first then the delightful village of Grein.

The weather remained dismally depressing – overcast, constant drizzle and a cold breeze. The ride was only about 50 km today! Embarrassing after yesterday’s effort. I don’t so much mind the cold, overcast sky but the rain dampens things dramatically. One is rugged up and thus sight seeing or taking a picture is a major undertaking. Disrobing, taking off gloves, cleaning fogged glasses and then doing the same tasks in reverse, is irksome and thus avoided. Should the sun appear, one’s cadence decreases allowing one to see, hear and smell the sights and sounds.

Again today I met several familiar fellow travelllers from yesterday as well as some new faces. A group of 4 well to do Israelis on a supported self guided tour (luggage between hotels – panniers for schmulks) and then 4 down to earth New Zealanders. The latter I stayed with for some kilometres until a lunch break. They had started seven days ago from the origin of the Danube and frustratingly had seven days of rain.

They were rather stoic and somewhat resigned to this aspect – like water off a sheep’s back. “Lets have a cuppa”, exclaimed one of the women whereupon she produced from a pannier, a small outdoor gas stove and proceeded to boil the kettle! Within minutes all 4 were sipping hot tea and dunking biscuits! I was suitably impressed and said so! She explained that this particular stove was the ONLY one worth having as it was made from titanium! My tongue in cheek comment that it must have been suitable to take on the space shuttle, failed! She responded like a worn out teacher to a student in an “opportunity” class: “actually I doubt it”! A hint of resigned frustration.

To make the journey more irksome, they were packed for a camping holiday! All 4 had panniers containing 2 man tents, the previously mentioned stove, sleeping bags and blow up mattresses! I was yet again genuinely impressed. “Don’t you occasionally miss a warm bed and hot shower”? Of course was the uniform cry! We try to rent an on site cabin or stay at a hostel , every third or fourth day. I fiddled with the Garmin computer and commented on how bedraggled the sheep looked in the paddocks, In an attempt to rapidly change the topic, sensing they were about to ask me about my choice in accommodation. Memories of the sauna at The Landhaus zu Appesbach, came flooding back, not to mention the stuffed boar main course! They kept dunking!

A couple of shots proving that the cycle path was as wet and dismal along the Danube as yesterday!

The ultimate titanium camp stove as produced out of a NZ pannier.

The day dawned! Bleak, blustery and rain. I had not ridden for a day or two and was having withdrawal symptoms. So I set out, calling in to the bike shop in Passau to improve wet weather gear : long trousers and shoe covers. I was otherwise well protected from the waist up.

The day turned out to be reminiscent of my Irish adventures last year, in terms of the weather. For today it alternated between cold biting rain then bright bursts of sunshine! Appropriately clothed I was almost sweating at times. During the day I guess there were about 10 other adults riding the same trail, a couple of Spanish guys and a high proportion of “older” people – some I venture older than I. It was all rather fun, in a masochistic way. There were some mitigating circumstances against the scudding clouds and rain. The profile was flat and the prevailing breeze was a modest tail wind.

The cycle path which is well developed on both sides of the river follows the old tow road for the barges. About two or three times one must crisscross the river by ferry.

Today, literally 4 days before I reach the end of my cycle trip in Vienna, I had a back tyre puncture. It was a snake bite pincher puncture. In retrospect I can recall the sharp rut over which I rode. But what was surprising was that it took several kilometres of further riding before it suddenly became obvious. I was by then riding a leafy moist track in the forest by the Danube. I swore and blasphemed and bugger me if almost instantly the sun came out and around the bend I rode up to a riverside cafe in the middle of nowhere. Surprisingly the tyre which is as new as the bike, slipped off the rim easily and I had it all sorted within 15 minutes.

God smiled on me that day, for the roadside cafe was also one of the many ferry points. There was a large shed and a jovial weather beaten ferryman! When he saw my predicament, he offered to pump up the tyre. I wheeled the cycle into his shed and he turned on a large portable air compressor. When I realized that the hose had no pressure gauge and that he was simply going to judge the pressure by “feel”, I diplomatically did my best to indicate a mild degree of apprehension, lest he over inflate it. When he understood, he laughed as much as to say “look mate, this is the Danube Cycle Path hundreds of blokes ride past every day in summer this is not the first time I’ve pumped up a bike tyre!” I still asked him nicely “not so hard”!

At the next sizable town called Aschach, there was an enticing bakery and would you believe, right next door a bike shop. As god is my witness, it had an air hose for cyclists to check their pressures! These series of fortuitous finds after an isolated puncture and taking the lord’s name in vain, can only mean one thing – there is a God or now that I think it through, perhaps I really mean there is NO god?

I had a coffee and almond croissant then meandered into the cycle shop to buy a replacement tube. The attentive young man in overalls (on my fetish scale overalls are just a smidgen below Lederhosen), sized up my wheel rims and then helped me check the pressure in my tyres. The need for this was that whilst the hose had a reassuring pressure gauge, I could not seem to get an accurate reading! The young man laughed and explained that the gauge was “kaput”! Like the ferryman he simply pumped it up as “much as he could”! Again he relied on “feel”. Given his youthful overalls, I did not once question his technique, indeed asked him to check the front tyre and seriously contemplated buying a dozen replacement tubes!

By about 3 pm the sky cleared yet again and the sun burst forth. By this time Linz was less than 10 km away. Readers may recall that I had cycled to Linz from Prague a week or so before, so I decided to ride through and here I am at Steyregg.

The consequence is that I have ridden about 110 km in total today, the longest of any day despite the fluctuating weather! Started out at about 9.30 am and arrived at Steyregg about 4.30 pm.

It’s early to bed!

The dinning room at the Pension Virus. It will well and truely wake you up at breakfast!

Wet weather gear and 110 km’

Two ferry rides

This small rock in the middle of the Danube has some sort of place in the story of the Nibelungen, the basis for the Wagner opera cycle. “Der Ring des Nibelungen”.

The path was basically flat and excellent Tarmac following or utilizing the old tow road,

Travelled to Passsu by train, in fact three. It was painlessly efficient. Passsu is an interesting city on the border between Germany and Austria. It would have been more enjoyable to explore if the sun had been shinning! It’s ancient history includes yet another Baroque cathedral with, it is claimed, the world’s biggest pipe organ, in a church that is. It is also a university town.

The city sits at the confluence of 3 rivers. Strange but true, 12 months ago I was at the confluence of 3 rivers and 3 countries, in South America.

Passau also has a significant history in relation to the Second World War.

From 1892 until 1894, Adolf Hitler and his family lived in Passau. The city archives mention Hitler being in Passau on four different occasions in the 1920s for speeches. On November 3, 1902 Heinrich Himmler and his family arrived from Munich. Himmler maintained contact with locals until May 1945.

It was the site of a post World War II American sector displaced persons camp. Even now there are some sights pertaining to World War II in the city of Passau. I am not sure where these are! They are not in the usual tourist handouts.

On the 2nd of June 2013 the old town suffered from severe flooding as a result of several days of rain and its location at the confluence of three rivers – Danube, Inn and Ilz. I suspect more so than the towns along the Elbe, about which I wrote in the first few weeks if my ride.

This is a cycle friendly train!

St Stephens Cathedral Passau – the largest cathedral organ in all of Christendom! It has 17974 pipes, 4 carillons and 233 stops. I am not learning to play the organ, but all I want to know is how on earth can one “pull out all the stops”, without a significant intermission?

The interior of St Stephen’s Cathedral.

The exterior of the Cathedral.

The very ornate baroque staircase of the Bishop’s Residence!

The Bishop had a miniature organ in the library, he played with it regularly but abstained on Sundays.

The accuracy of the weather bureau in Austria is equal to that of Australia. Today dawned cool and sunny! I had pre booked my bus and train. Bugger, I could have had a delightful cycle trip. Anyway Hallstatt is a tourist hub by virtue of its age and awesome location.

The Austrian tourism authority claims (and we are dealing here with an “authority”) that Hallstatt is the oldest village in Austria and the most photographed! So why would I bother to try and repeat history? Cause I have an iPhone 5, that’s why!

It was established when highly pure salt was discovered deep below the mountains, the sediment of subterranean salt lakes. The tourist brochure also describes a “prehistoric” ( the first millenium BC ) mummified salt miner, discovered in pristine condition and preserved. Conceptually, next time you use gourmet pickled lemons, examine the lemon skin.

The train trip and the ferry across the lake to the village is the highlight. Once again quaint alpine houses are built in a small bay and migrate up the mountain side. The water on the lake is a pale sulphurous green gray and clear as a bell.

There are two churches – a Protestant and Catholic. There is a Charnel House – explanation- the Latin for flesh is “caro”, the Latin to eat is “vorare”. Hence a carnivore is a meat eater. A Charnal House is used to store bones! Such bones have been buried and then after an appropriate time, years, exhumed. The flesh has gone, the body decomposed. Hence “Charnal”. This custom was used extensively when burial ground was limited and boy was it limited in Hallstatt. So one was buried, then after 15 years, the skull and long bones removed and placed in the Charnal House. A new body could be buried in the same grave site.

I hasten to explain, after this brief foray into etymology, that the term “carnal knowledge” does NOT describe your local butcher, it’s more likely to be the milkman.
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Strangely the most attractive picture book scene as far as I was concerned, was a fairy tale looking white castle on the lake’s edge opposite to Hallstatt! The woman in the ferry ticket office said it was a “small private castle”. I asked if it was for sale? I shall discuss with my financial planner. It would be an awesome base for group cycle trips in the Salzkammergut region.

Once at the village things take a turn for the worse! The little esplanade around the village, nestled into the mountains is a tourist strip. You can imagine I am sure!

So after all that, what would I suggest to the Austrian Tourist Bureau? Come to Hallstatt, definitely! But only if in perfect weather. Of course a winter dusting of powdery snow on a crisp sunny day is more than acceptable. In any event, one should cycle in and ferry/train out. There should be no other option.

The delightful fairy tale looking castle across from Hallstatt.

When I said that Gmunden was rather touristy and commercialized, filled mainly with local tourists and self funded Austrian retirees, I had yet to cycle into St Wolfgang!

Try to visualize a syrupy, sweet combination of “The Sound of Music”, “Hansel & Gretel” and “The Wizard of Oz” – all on steroids, the place marketed by Walt Disney – that is St Wolfgang.

The buildings are gingerbread and chocolate boxes all rolled into one. The town is squeaky clean and obviously on the international tourist map. It’s claim to fame is that the operetta “The White Horse Inn” is set in St Wolfgang. Here is an edited transcript of the Wiki page:

Sometimes classified as an operetta, the show enjoyed huge successes both on Broadway and in the West End (651 performances at the Coliseum starting 8 April 1931) and was filmed several times. In a way similar to The Sound of Music the play and its film versions have contributed to the saccharine image of Austria as an alpine idyll.

I could not have put it better myself.

Cycling today was around Lake Mondsee, cool and overcast with misty rain for the last 2 hours.

The White Horse!!! I have no idea if its the original.

I have no idea why, but the place was over run with Fiats. Like so many Christmas beetles noisily scampering about!

Several pics of the moist ride of the circle around Mondsee, with a ride of a few kilometres through this tunnel. It was obviously previously a single lane thoroughfare for motorized traffic.

The awesome panorama of the alps from the top of the mountains above St Gilgen. One can trek there or catch the cable car.