The campingplatz was the size of three football pitches with 7 or 8 tents dotted around. Tonight it as if we are camped in someone's back garden. It is an ACSII inspected site with good facilities but we are squeezed into anotherwise Motorhome and Caravan site.
However the standards on German and Austrian sites are very high. The showers are quality and the fixtures and fittings are well put together and solid AND they provide toilet paper. None of the unedifying sights of people off to the toilet with a toilet roll in hand.
I was on the road by 08.30 and it was on the road at first. The same road that had kept me awake for long periods of the night because of the sounds of lorries thundering along and other traffic which went on all night. These same lorries were thundering past me for the first half an hour or more. I checked my Danube Cycleway book only to find that I should have taken a ferry on to the other quiet side. OOps. However after a while there was a bike lane alongside the road which morphed into a properly separated newly laid bike path. The path scarcely left the Donau - at times I was scared I might wobble and fall in.
It was a fine morning which gradually clouded over but remained still and flat and empty all the way to Melk (with its famous Abbey of which there are may photos) After Melk it was into the Wachau valley Austria's best wine growing area. Surprisingly the wind got up and it was not surprisingly IN MY FACE.
What had been an easy 47 km now promised a not so easy last 40 kms. The Wachau valley is quite attractive but you are not allowed on the main road and the cyclepath goes UP into every little village of which there are 14 before reaching Durnstein (the prettiest of them all) Durnstein which I reached about 14.00 was heaving with tourists. I could hardly ride my bike on the road of the main street and didn't waste my efforts with my bell because they would have been futile. I had toyed with the idea of revisiting our October cruise by staying in the camping at Durnstein. The hordes of ants made up my mind and I continued on through another five villages to reach Krems a town of 24 000 people. Unusually I found the Campinplatz first go and I was in the shower with the tent up by 15.30.
I am camped beside an elderly German couple who are cycling from Passau to Vienna. He speaks excellent English and wants to engage me in conversation all the time. I am trying to keep a little distance but a little distance is all that is possible. I hope he doesn't snore. After putting all my devices on charge in the handily provided room which also has a fridge and a telly, I set off to explore Krems.
It is constrained by the steep hills of the Wachau valley and the Danube so it is long and thin. I explored I snapped a few photos I walked back and now I am very glad to be sitting down typing this. I am knackered.
I have finally given in to the desire to plan ahead and it is almost impossible to reach Budapest by Wednesday unless I do nothing other than cycle. That seems like a poor option since the object of the exercise was to see the places we had visited on our cruise, better and in more detail, with time to "smell the roses" So it looks like I will cycle to Vienna and decide between Vienna and Budapest for a more in depth explore. It may come down to what is possible on the trains.
distance cycled so far: 861kms
Delighted to read that you are on a roll now. Be a tourist and get the train. Enjoy whatever you do. Always interesting to read your exploits and to find out about your neighbours or travel companions.
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