The Alternative Grand Tour Part 1 Continued …
Day 31 21st April Friday
AUSTRIA
Gottsdorf to Neustift 3
At last a cycling day – into Austria… After a peaceful (we were the only ones on site!) comfortable night and a lie in on a real bed we had some nice breakfast, including German baked beans. After some general pottering we donned our bicycles and many clothes and set out for a shopping trip to the next village, Neustift, across the Austrian border. Only 2.5k downhill so it didn’t take long. The supermarket was closed so we back tracked to a garage which had a bar and small supermarket. After some lunch and some simple shopping we headed back up the hill with my battery looking quite low as I hadn’t charged it for a few days. We got back ok though without any extraneous pushing and settled down to tea on the patio, a walk in the woods (which has a small, church like, lonely chapel) and a meal in our, now, favourite restaurant. A walk back up the hill, some German telly and bed.
Total to date 1842
Day 32 22nd April Saturday
Neustift to Grein 112
Another cycling day. We left Gottsdorf with some reluctance and headed down the hill towards Waldkirchen which confused Tommy no end so we switched him off. Eventually we got to Schlogen, donned bicycles after a restaurant lunch and rode the Schlogen bends before the rain came in. We then switched on Tommy, set him to Austria, and drove on to a campsite in Grein. We booked in, set up camp, had our picnic lunch sandwiches, walked into town in the rain, returned and listened to Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Ambrose Field.
Total to date 1954
Day 33 23rd April Sunday
Grein to Ybbs am Donau 22
Cycling again. Got going on our bikes, before 12, on a cool, partly cloudy day and headed towards Ybbs. Lunched lightly in Smaringstein in a friendly hotel and eventually arrived in Ybbs after pleasant riding alongside the Donau and a slightly fraught bridge crossing from Persenbeug. Returned into wind on the opposite bank with a tea break in a GastHof roughly half way. Returned to the campsite by crossing the bridge west of Grein. Cycled into town to sample the evening (17:00) café life style and in my case a lasagne and Kate a Moussaka with a grosses beer each. Returned to camp and settled down to blogging and learning German.
Total to date 1976
Day 34 24th April Monday
Ybbs am Donau to Klosterneuberg 124
A cycling day – just. Left Grein (and Ybbs) at 12:15. We had to see the camp commandant before we left. We couldn’t find him until gone 12, but sitting in the glorious morning sun while we waited was not an issue. We started out and retraced our steps of the previous day and then motored on past Krems stopping for lunch at a little place called Grunneggworth. The bakery/café proprieter’s Austrian German and our English made for an intriguing but a pleasant stop nonetheless. We eventually arrived, almost incident free, at a nice campsite (Donau Camping) Klosterneuberg. We set up camp, cycled to the shops (the Spars here are amazing…) and then beer in the evening sunshine, salad for tea and old Youtube Top Gear.
Total to date 2100
Day 35 25th April Tuesday
Klosterneuberg to Vienna 12
Got going eventually and spent the afternoon cycling into Vienna. Following the Garmin caused problems, but some locals put us right and we got into Vienna by 14:00. Not specially bike friendly and a lot of traffic but we found some nice lunch in a large café in Kolingasse. Looking carefully at a detailed, hard to read map showed us the main Tourist information office which we headed towards after lunch. This took us nicely into older Vienna, through Graben and down to the State Opera House. Looked at various pieces of tourist info but decided against going to a concert – I didn’t have my black tie… Had some lovely Italian ice cream and retraced out steps more or less to get back to camp through the evening rush hour and via an Aldi.
Total to date 2112
Day 36 26th April Wednesday
Rest Day – no official miles
Relaxing morning getting chores done etc. Afternoon spent cycling a whole 2k to the Sift Klosterneuberg monastery. Apfel strudel at last for lunch in the monastery cafe and a walk around the corridors and the grounds. Steak and austrian potates tonight, Slovakia and maybe Hungary tommorrow…
Day 37 27th April Thursday
Rest Day again – no official miles
Much rain today. Wouldn’t be much fun going anywhere and the campsite is sehr gut… but we did wander around the shops. Schnitzel and mixed brassica – kohlrabi, cauliflower and broccolli gratin and mystery white sauce for tea.
Total for Austria 338 (including the 65 to the Hungarian border). Bernie did 85.
AROOD - a record of our doings 