As it was to be sunny, albeit cool and brisk, I set off to visit the Schonbrun Palace and then drop off the bike at a local bike shop for boxing and shipping to Aaron in Hannover.

I mapped out a ride that would take me on a path along the Danube and then do a wide circle back towards Vienna and the Schonbrun Palace. At times I was well and truely passing through the back roads of the industrial suburbs, so it was not all that enjoyable. In total I clicked up about 40 km a lot of it on a well maintained gravel path.

This route demonstrated an obvious error on my last blog about the Danube. I stand corrected. What I described as a canal, is in fact just that. The Danube River does not pass anywhere near the old centre of Vienna. Oops! I found the real river today. It’s still not “blue”!

The Schonbrun Palace is yet again another awesome monument to privilege, wealth and decadence. Each seems if possible grander than Versailles. This summer residence has almost 1500 rooms!

In these past two years and my cycle adventures, I realize that tourists to a man, including me, are drawn to architectural wonders, created in the name of either his majesty or the messiah!

Jesus apparently said you can either have me or mammon. Well all I can say is that The Benedict Monks seemed to combine both without too much catholic guilt.

As I meander through these awesome edifices, true socialist that I am, I have continuous images of hungry, diseased peasants and serfs outside the fortifications working the land and crapping in the woods.

“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”, exclaimed Marie Antoinette.

“Up the Workers” said Alexander Downer (or was that Bill Shorten)?

“Off with her head” said the Queen,

And after my time in Europe, all these famous quotations have real meaning.

The Schonbrun Palace and a minute part of the gardens

All pictures of Schonbrun Palace and Gardens.

It is a Saturday and despite the web site of the official Austrian weather bureau stating in upbeat language “good news, the persistent low pressure trough that has brought several days of cool rain and wind, is moving on”. Well not today Josephine! It was cool, tail wind and broken sun shine with rain for the last 8 km or so into Vienna. Trip distance today about 45 km.

No sign of any familiar cyclists, not even the Spaniards. However being a Saturday and 40 km from the city, for the first time I was passed, coming in the opposite direction, by a fair number of road bike cyclists. However never at any time was it as frantic at Norton Summit on a Spring Saturday.

Have booked into my “boutique” hotel- defined by minimalist futuristic furniture and art nouveau on the walls including of course, the lavatory. It has a wine theme. Each room is named after a wine variety. I am in the “cleanskin” room – obviously they have worked out I am on a budget! Michelle would naturally be in the Moët Room.

A couple of pics of the town square of Tulln

One side of St Stephen’s church Tulln

At the beginning of the last day outskirts of Tulln.

The final day cycle path into Vienna. One can see the first autumnal colours

This was a day in which the rain returned, as well as the men from Spain. We passed each other several times during the day. I have a sneaking suspicion that their navigating skills are as deficient as mine! They are, I think more depressed than I by the weather and seemed to be riding head down from point A to B and not taking in the sights!

The scenery today was quite different from the past 4 days. The track entered the Wachau Valley. Whereas I described riding between fields of corn and sunflowers, today it was vineyards and apple and pear orchards.

If I had to give you a feel for the days riding, it was very similar to riding through “Little Italy” in the Adelaide Hills. The Austrian ride was mostly beside a huge raging river and flat, the Adelaide experience omits the river and adds an occasional incline!

In summary I experienced fluctuating rain with Spain mainly on the plain. (Sorry terrible pun!)
,
I did not see any other familiar faces on this day.

I rode about 85 km, became mildly disorientated in Krems. I tend to become so, once I enter any substantial town.

A quiet village

I often think I would like a garden like this

The vineyards and orchards

The beginning of Autumn and I grabbed a few beautifully crisp new seasons apples from roadside trees!

A brief postscript from Grein. I went down into the kitchen around 7.30 to pay my account and my grandmotherly hostess was baking “strudel”!- rolling out the pastry.

My penultimate overnight stop before Vienna. Melk is similar to Ypps but is tainted by tourists. I am the first to admit that I am one of course. I arrived by bike. The tourists I refer to are literally boat loads of, I suspect, Americans who travel on the Danube by luxury boat from Vienna disembark at Melk for frenetic shopping, a brief guided tour of the Abbey, then back to Vienna all in a painless day.

Melk is still worth the visit for it has one of the largest and most beautiful Baroque Abbeys in all of Christendom. Indeed the whole complex is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. It’s best described as the religious answer to the Palace of Versailles. Or, as it is perched on the flat top of a huge hill, “Versailles on Stilts”. Indeed all the King Louis’ of France have nothing on the Benedict Monks and their Abbey complex in Melk on the Danube.

Unusually one is permitted photography without flash in all areas, other than the library- which is a wondrous room as I am sure you could envisage. The other noteworthy space is the Marble Room.

In his well-known novel The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco named one of the protagonists “Adson von Melk” as a tribute to the abbey and its famous library.

Benedict Monks have occupied the monastery and abbey complex since 1088 and they are still in residence… All three of them!

I had to include this picture of the bathroom at the Cafe and Restaurant zum Fursten. My colleagues will immediately share my concern that I had developed the Charles Bonnet Syndrome.

Two photos of the first quadrangle of the Abbey.

One of the cloisters!

Exterior of the Abbey Chapel.

Interior of the church.

The Marble Room

The Marble Room

A small part of the gardens and Pavilion.

The Abbey looking up from the street in downtown Melk.

“Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen,
The clouded sky is now serene,
The god of day — the orb of love,
Has hung his ensign high above,
The sky is all ablaze…..”

Words that sadly are not mine, but rather one of the greatest wordsmiths of the English language in the 19th century- Sir William Schwenck Gilbert.

There was a potential catastrophe on today’s ride! I took off my backpack to rummage for the iPhone and take a picture, no big deal, but 10 km later I realized that I had left the backpack by the side of the river! So add an extra 20 km to the day’ s cycle. To my utter relief it was where I had discarded it with passport and credit cards still inside.

I took the ferry across a swollen fast flowing Danube from Grein to the south bank side – by far the better route. I met the 4 Israeli cyclists intermittently as well as the 2 Spanish guys. They were rather forlornly looking about the village square in Ypps. They were looking for food. I indicated the Backerie across the square but they explained they were looking for “meat”! I let that remark pass and shrugged.

By about lunch time I reached Ypps. Again a delightful village

My cycle books states”Ypps has been widely commended for the exemplary efforts to restore and preserve the old Renaissance houses and remaining parts of the city defenses.” I agree whole heartedly. Pictures below to prove it.

Secondly is the church of St Lorenz. Again pictures follow.

Arrived in Melk just as the sky dropped a sudden cloud burst, all over in 15 minutes and sun out again.

This is the picture that is responsible for my leaving my backpack on the river bank!

Yet another “Schloss” by the river!

This health centre sits facing the Danube in Ypps

The professional brass plates listed
Psychiatrists
Geriatricians
Social Workers and
“des Krankenastaltenverbundes …”

I shudder to think what might be the last speciality? A form of electro convulsive therapy perhaps?

The bakery at Ypps. The Spaniards that blighted my life had gone in search of meat.

A streetscape that surely proves this village is worth a visit.

The Catholic Church Ypps. A gay touch. St Lorenz. Constructed around 1500. The gilded alter dates from 1730.

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.