Train Ride: Saturday 13 April

After a week in Vienna, we left by train.

The view from the train was fantastic; here are a couple of pictures we saw in Austria and Bavaria.

Austria

Southern Bavaria

On average one hour on the train was worth a day of riding.  It was like a rewind on our trip.  Here is a map of both our bike and train rides.  Blue is the Danube River and red is the train route.

Trip across Europe (blue=bike; red=train)

Bike trip with overnight stops

So we passed the time reading/working, drinking a beer, napping (at least for Betsy), and then we were home.

Working,...

...drinking a beer,...

...and napping.

It was very nice to be back home.  When we left it was snowing, and when we returned we were greeted by a full week of beautiful spring-summer weather.

Time in Vienna

While in Vienna, Betsy spent a lot of her time in the conference or working.  So I explored the city.  There is a lot of Vienna to explore, but I always started with the view from our apartment.

View of conference center from apartment

view of wind turbines at sunrise from apartment

Then I took the subway to down town.  One of the main stops is “Stephansplat”, which is the location of St. Stephen's Cathedral.

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Interior of St. Stephen's Cathedral

I stopped into many other churches, including a Greek Orthodox, which is quite different than most of the Catholic churches.  I also went to a small art gallery and found a painting of a Germanic bagpiper.

German Bagpiper

I also managed to get my bike repaired (chain & gears were worn out).  During the discussion at the bike shops, it was often easier to use English, because the Austrian German was so different.  My impression of Austrian German is that it has the same sound and cadence of standard German, but it is just not standard German.  Nor is it similar to Swiss German, which has a distinct sound and cadence.

We also had a lot of dinners with other people.  Sometimes it was with Rachel in the apartment –the apartment had a steamer and lots of other appliances, so one night I made Knödel (steamed bread dumplings).

Dinner in the apartment with Rachel & Betsy

…sometimes in larger groups.  Like the group dinner for the session Betsy organized.

Dinner with Betsy's session

…and here was a memorable place we went with one of Betsy’s PhD advisors; the restaurant seating area was spread out in an underground maze of cellars.

Restaurant in cellars

Riding: Thursday 11 April

149km, Vienna to Bratislava to Vienna

While Betsy was in the conference, I rode to Bratislava and back.  Slovakia was part of the Warsaw pact, but is now part of European Union, Eurozone, & NATO.

The day had great weather; the high was about 20C (nearly 70F).  The ride was a little boring, probably because the Danube isn’t as engineered as in Germany, so there are lots of natural wetlands to avoid, and that means riding on straight roads through farmland instead of riverfront.

Castle Bratislava

I arrived in Bratislava before noon, so I heard all the noon bells from the Burg Bratislava (castle Bratislava).

St.Martin Church in Bratislava, as seen from Castle Bratislava

On the ride back, I rode to the top of the hill between Vienna and Bratislava.  I gave a great view of Bratislava, and I could just make out the high-rises of Vienna

Braunsberg near Hainburg, about 20km from Bratislava

View of Danube river upstream from Braunsberg, which is 200m above the river

Riding: Sunday 7 April

123km, Melk to Vienna (“Wein” in German)

Final day!

Self-portrait in the Wachau valley

The morning was cloudy, but the road was dry, as we made our way through the Wachau valley.  The Wachau is known for its wines, and we saw lots of vineyards.

The Wachau valley

It was a Sunday, so we were surprised to find that some wine stores were open, but it is a very tourist-friendly place.  We purchased 3 bottles of wine and sprits.

Joe navigating through yet another cute little town

The valley is also a UNESCO world heritage site, and it is a remarkable place.

St.Michaels church on the banks of the Danube, dating to the 11th century

At the town of Krems, Betsy & I made our separate ways to Vienna.  Much of the rest of the ride was on the dikes containing the Danube, and it wasn’t as picturesque as the first part of the day.  The one thing worth mentioning is that an Austrian out for a training ride and I drafted each other for nearly 40km, so we covered the distance very quickly.  He was very impressed by my speed with so much gear.  After a week of riding, I rebuilt a lot of biking stamina and strength which was lost over the winter.

I met Betsy at the conference center, and she took us to the apartment we have for the week.  We were on the 33^rd floor, of the highest occupied building in Austira.  The view was fantastic!  We were sharing this with Rachel (another American from Tübingen).

Apartment view on Monday morning (day after arriving); Monday was cloudless and beautiful and warm

That night we had dinner with one of Betsy’s PhD advisors, and thus started the week of reconnecting and networking for Betsy.

Riding: Saturday 6 April

122km, Linz to Melk

Originally we wanted to bike to the town of Ybbs, because of its unusual spelling and its bike museum.  However Betsy though it would be best if she took a rest day from riding, and we figured we could shorten the overall trip if I rode longer and got to Melk while Betsy took the train.  This plan was reinforced when we woke-up to rain.

Castle in Wallsee

But before we left Linz, we had breakfast at a bakery; I had a very heavy poppy seed pie.   Then we stopped by the visitors’ center to find out about the ferries; those that we needed were not running.  Instead of the ferry, Betsy took two trains to Melk.

Meanwhile I rode through the rain on asphalt paths on dikes.  Around Grein the ride became very picturesque; I only rode 0.5km between stopping to take pictures.

Town of Grein

Idyllic Austrian village on the banks of the Danube

I went through Ybbs, and found it to be still asleep for the winter; the bicycle museum wouldn’t open until June.  So it is good that we didn’t stay there for the night.

In Melk I met Betsy right on schedule, and we toured the town.  Betsy realized that she might have been to the cloister there in high school.

Benedict monastery at Melk

Riding: Friday 5 April

89m, Passau to Linz

Before we crossed into Austria, we spotted some Americana.  Or what the Germans think about the American frontier & civil war.

American West, German Style; noose and Native American under the porch.

After we crossed into Austira, and started hearing the 2^nd new dialect of the journey (Bavarian was the first, and it had a distinct accent, so we recognized the differences).

Bavarian-Austrian border

We stopped at a bakery delivery truck, and somehow talked our way to free bread and yogurt drink  …I think the driver/baker felt sorry for us, especially when he told of about the snow in the weather forecast.

Bakery-mobile

Parts of the Danube were nice in Germany, but they were really nice in Austria.  And we were the only people out and enjoying it.

Danube river through Austrian hills

Betsy’s knees were getting sore, so we got off of the bike path and stopped a not so pretty town called Aschnach.  On the map there was a train station, but when we got there it turned out that there was only a busstop with the name of “bahnhof” (which in German means “train station”).  After waiting for about an hour, the bus finally came, and after a few tense minutes, Betsy & her bike were off to Linz.  I got back to the bike path, peddled hard, and made it to Linz just in time to have the very same bus driver point me to where Betsy was.  …and Linz is not a small town; there are hundreds of busses per hour passing through the station, so that was quite a remarkable encounter.  …And I do mean point, because I couldn’t understand any of his Austrian-German.

For a place to stay we found a youth hostel, it wasn’t great, but it was close to a nice restaurant, that indulged us with a cheese platter for desert.

Riding: Thursday 4 April

87km, Bogen to Passau

We started the day with the wind at our backs and made very good time to Deggendorf.

Mistletoe

We walked around the Deggendorf town square and got a little chilled, so we had a quick snack and rode on.  In Vilshofen we had lunch at a café, at which point the sun came out –we noticed that mid-day often brought different weather.

The rest of the ride to Passau was very much as I had hoped the ride would be.  Sunny, with a high around 10C (50F), and riding through hilly country, with little settlements and their farms along the banks.

Passau is where 3 rivers meet at the same point (Danube, Inn, & Ilz), and each has different colored water.  The Danube doubles in volume in Passau.

At the Passau Confluence

We spent several hours in the old town of Passau, between the Inn & Danube rivers.  We located a guesthouse that was 5km down river, so went there for the night.  It was a lovely place, with great food.  After dinner we played cards in the restaurant, and even managed to explain the game to the couple at the neighboring table, using only German

Cathedral in Passau

 

Mermaid on the Banks of the Danube

View from above the guesthouse, as the sun sets over the Danube

 The sunset was the last direct sunlight we saw, until arriving in Vienna, which was 3 full days later.

Riding: Wednesday 3 April

66km, Regensburg to Bogen

We woke up relatively early, maybe we were getting used to the long rides in the cold weather.

We visited one of King Ludwig’s lesser known architectural commissionings –Walhalla.  Although named after the Norse heaven, it is a neo-classical temple, filled with busts of famous Germans.

Walhalla, next to Donaustauf (just down-stream from Regensburg)

Walhalla

The morning was windy, and after Walhalla, we rode through flat fields in the river bottom.  It was tough going, but we stopped a bakery for lunch, and we were ready to ride on.

We started seeing signs along the path for non-hotel accommodations, which were generally a few rooms for rent in someone’s house.  We found a fantastic Bed & Breakfast near the town of Bogen.

After leaving most of our heavy gear at the guesthouse, we returned to Bogen for the evening.  We had the taste of Hopfenweisse in our minds, so we looked for it around town; we did not have any luck.  However we did enjoy a private organ concert in the Bogen cathedral, when the organist was practicing.  And found a nice Greek restaurant.  …And during dinner, we definitely decided that next year we are going someplace warm during our annual Easter bike ride!

Riding: Tuesday 2 April

90km, Ingoldstadt to Regensburg

It started as a cloudy and windy day, but it wasn’t raining.  We rode many kilometers along the dikes of the Danube.

Around mid-day the sun came out, just as we were riding though hop fields.

At the cloister of Weltenburg (oldest cloister brewery, dating to 1050), the Danube cuts though a rocky gorge, and the bike path is forced to go over a mountain.

I decided to ride over, while Betsy took the ferry.  On the other side, in the town of Kellheim, we found a Schneider-Weisse owned restaurant, and they had our favorite German beer:  Hopfenweisse, which is a cross between a wheat beer and an IPA.  We each had one, and that was the highlight of the day.

Hofenweisse; "tap 5" from Schneider-Weisse

 After a beer, Betsy though it best to take the train to Regensburg and look for a place to stay, as I made the journey by bicycle.

Regensburg

Wedding locks on a pedestrian bridge over the Danube in Regensburg

One thing I noticed is that the Danube becomes navigable below Kellheim, and regular ship traffic was a common sight the rest of the journey.

Riding: Monday 1 April, Easter Monday

78km, Höchstädt to Ingoldstadt

We were the only people staying at the hotel.  And our breakfast set the norm for the rest of the trip:  bread rolls, sliced cheeses & meats, jellies, and a soft-boiled egg, …and two cups of coffee for Betsy.  The night was clear and cold, but we were delighted to start the day in sun, despite the sub-freezing temperatures.

During our ride we reconfirmed our suspicion that Bavaria is the Texas of Germany –the big, loud & proud state in the south; lederhosen and dirndls are to Bavaria, what belt buckles, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats are to Texas.

We also noticed that there were farms more reminiscent of the US, where the farm house is surrounded by the farm, and not farmland surrounding the village.

Even though it was sunny, it was still cold, so around noon, we stopped into one of the few cafés which were open for warm drinks.  And during our stop another pattern emerged.  The weather changes around mid-day:  wind picks-up, clouds move-in, or clouds lift.  On this day the clouds moved in for the 2^nd half of our day.

We rode on for another few hours, and in the mid-afternoon it was time for traditional coffee & cake.  Because Easter Monday is a holiday, there were a lot of people having enjoying this tradition.  I had to order quickly to get a slice of an apple torte, which was the closest to apple pie I have found in Germany.

After our afternoon snack, Betsy thought it would be good to take the train the last 20km, because her knee was beginning to hurt.  We got to the train station, and made a plan to meet at the other end, because I was going to ride the distance.  It turns out on a reduced holiday schedule, biking is sometimes faster.

We found a hotel, after an hour of searching, and it was next to a very Gemütlich (cozy, welcoming) restaurant.  After dinner Betsy & I played cards, in the restaurant, for about an hour.

Riding: Sunday 31 March, Easter

66km, Ulm to Höchstädt
We had to wake up early to get Ted & Emily off to Frankfurt for their morning flight back to America.  With daylight savings time also starting that morning, it made for even less sleep.

Betsy & I took the train to Ulm to start our ride down the Danube.

Riding on Trains with Bikes

 For the second year in a row our Easter brought snow, and we rode our bikes through it.  And with the snow came mud.  And contrary to the expected prevailing wind, we were riding into the wind.

Lunch at a mosque, one of the few places to eat on Easter.  In full rain gear, with muddy bikes

But we are excited to be actually making this trip we have been thinking about for a year.
We came across a reconstructed Roman Temple site, and while we were exploring it, the sun came out for the first time that day.

Roman Temple Ruins in Faimingen

As we approached our hotel for the night, we used some snow to clean off the muddiest parts of our bikes.  At the hotel, we spotted a hose then really rinsed off our bikes and each other.

Then we had a well-deserved sleep after our early morning and long, cold, wet ride.

Busy Spring

Betsy & I have had a busy 3 weeks.

I finished a month of exams at the University of Stuttgart on 14^th of March.  However before I was finished with Stuttgart, I got a job offer at the University of Tuebingen!  So I informed NREL & Windward that I would be quitting, which was overdue, as work had been irregular and increasingly sparse.  I will start working next week or the 1^st of May, depending on how fast my foreigner’s work permit can be processed.

As for Betsy, in the last 3 weeks, the student she was supervising went back to China, and she visited the University of Marie & Pierre Currie in Paris to give a talk and prepare future collaborations.

We also hosted Ted & Emily, friends from Boulder, for a few days leading up to Easter.  We visited castles, cloisters, breweries, and museums –in general, the quintessential southern Germany experience.

But the really blog worthy event is our bike ride to Vienna.  It took 8 days and we covered around 700km (440miles).  We are currently in Vienna until the Saturday the 13^th of April, while Betsy is attending the European Geoscience Union conference.   …so I will blog about each day of our ride over the next week.