The Wachau Valley by bike
Trip Start
May 28, 2007
1
15
49
Trip End
Jul 2007
Vienna,
Austria
Thursday, June 7, 2007
An hours drive had us in the beautiful Wachau Valley, the mountains, the hills with grape vines on the terraces, the Danube, the lovely houses and buildings - and indeed it was sunny and hot as Greg had told us it would be. At the first winery we went into a cool cave underground which was hand excavated by monks - we tasted some great wines learnt about the history of the valley and the wines - then the bike riding began! We were a little worried about riding the bikes, as we hadn't ridden bikes recently, but it all came flooding back and we were off. We cycled to a village where we tasted schnapps, liquers, and jams and knew we would have to bring a few home, they were fantastic (except the schnapps which doesn't taste like it does in oz, the real stuff isn't sugary at all)
Climbing up the stairs
.We then had the choice to remain in the village or to make our way up the mountain on foot to the fortress ruins of the Durnstein. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the valley from that height, so we made it up there as quickly as possible. About half way up, Trent and I had a bit of a competition and ran up the rocky steps only stopping to get photos from the various vantage points along the way. It was actually easier on the legs to run rather than walk. Once at the top we climbed right to the top of the ruins and the view was amazing, We then made our way down running, again only stopping for photos.
Back on the bikes we had a fairly long ride to another very traditional and long standing winery in the district - Trent and I went pretty hard on the bikes but we were having fun. We had some great wines and then had a bbq and salad with traditional vienesse meat and sausages. After lunch we headed over to the banks of the river Danube for some beach volleyball and a dip in the river. We then had the long ride back to a winery near the place where we tried the jams and liquers and the last hill was a killer - we pushed ourselves pretty hard on the whole ride back and our legs were aching by the time we hit the hill! We made it though.
After some wines we then went and purchased some jam and liquers which we liked from the tasting before. It was then back to the first winery to leave our bikes and head back to Vienna on the bus - we had such a fanatastic and exciting day, we would recommend the tour to anyone..,,well anyone who can ride a bike. After the hours drive back we had been out for about 10 hours and we headed down to the bar at the hostel to meet some other travellers to go out to dinner
From the fortress
. We went to a restaurant called the Centimeter, and wow what an experience! We ordered the sword, one for each table of 5 people. The sword is litterally a sword - with huge pieces of schnitzel, chop, mild chilli, onion, and lemon on it. Then underneath a pile of chips, chicken wings and chilli concarne! What a meal - we were all so full and it was so much fun eating the food. Cheap too - only 7 euro each for dinner!After dinner we headed back to the bar quickly to say goodbye to everyone, and we caught the train back to our hotel. Exhausted we quickly packed up for our trip to Salzburg and headed to bed!
S&T xx
