Author: Brian Burger

Today’s terribly rough trip up the Danube from Krems to Melk:

Ride about 15km.

“Eine Espresso, bitte.”

Ride another 15km or so.

Stop for picnic lunch alongside the river. Admire ruined schloss above river.

Ride another dozen clicks.

“Yes, it is beer o’clock…” Watch riverboats go past.

Ride another fifteen clicks or so, arrive Melk. Drop bike at jungendherberge, see old town and massive palace/monastery.

The rain even held off until we got to town.

We’ve left the plains around Vienna and are into the dramatic hill country for now, towns and villages jammed in between the hills and the river.

Rough day, hope it stays like this the rest of the trip!

Quick post before 54km of riding and a litre of Austrian beer gang up to knock me out…

Weather started warm around 20 C, cooled to around 16 later. Very occasional light rain, just to make sure we didn’t get too relaxed.

Great post-ride walk through the old town of Grien, which is a suburb of Krems these days.

Off to Melk tomorrow, another fifty clicks or so.

First day on the road out of Vienna was up the Danube to Tulln, 44.4 km according to my bike computer.

The EV6 bike route is fairly well signposted, and the Danube is a pretty obvious landmark, so everyone in the group managed to make it to Tulln. Some of us did manage to get off the trail onto the main roads for a bit, but that worked out OK.

Tulln seems like a nice little town, a few of us did beer, wurst and bread for lunch at the little market in the town square. Nice hostel too, much more relaxed than the big hostel in Vienna.

Onwards up the Danube tomorrow!

Our group of fifty is mostly gathered at the hostel in Vienna ahead of our actual start tomorrow (Friday) morning, so the bike lockup has gone from being busy to being pretty much solid bikes. My own is in the near row in the centre, not that you can tell in the crowd!

What’s actually interesting is how many bike tourists are staying here who aren’t part of our giant group. There are even posters up in the hostel about the bike routes along the Danube and elsewhere in Austria and the other hostels along those trails.