Cycling the Austrian Danube: Passau to Vienna

Fresh milk machine?
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Okay, so we cheated a little taking the train, but our first day in Austria boded well.  The Danube had morphed from an underwhelming little thing into a massively wide daddy, definitely a mighty river now.  Straight off the train we took off down the trail.  Just a few hours of easy riding brought us to the "town" of Au, and possibly a big problem, right around the time the sun was going down.  To continue on the trail, and to the hotels we could see across the river, we had to cross the river via ferry.  The problem?  It seemed the ferry was supposed to have stopped running about 3 minutes before our discovery of this fun little fact.  A man rode up on a bike and let us know that the snack bar up the way also provided lodging.  As it turned out, he was a friend of Friedrich, the owner of this very cool and cheap little guesthouse.  Friedrich also captained the ferry in this little town that seemed to consist only of their operation and one other house, from what we could tell.  As their snack bar had only cold eats, they were kind enough to share their dinner with us - freshly caught and grilled Danube fish with fixins - yum!!!  We ended up spending an awesome evening hanging out, and even checked out the baby photos of their very cool and impossibly huge dog (to whom Tole of course took an instant liking, and the feeling was mutual).  :)

The bike ferry across the Danube at Au, Austria.
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The rest of the trail through Austria was extremely pleasant, but not terribly adventurous.  The worst place we stayed had to have been Linz.  We couldn't quite put a finger on it, but the place had an unpleasant vibe.  The Wachau region truly is a beautiful area, though, and it made for scenic and pleasant riding.  We especially enjoyed an amazingly delicious dinner at an inn and restaurant in Tulln, about 60 kilometers west of Vienna.  The place served a mean house-made brew, to boot.  Tole recalls it as the best dark lager he´s ever had.

and a mean house-made brew, to boot

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We cycled into Vienna after just 4 days of cycling in Austria.  Vienna is one regal-looking city, thanks to its distinction as the seat of government for the Hapsburg dynasty that managed to control much of central and eastern Europe for a few hundred years.  Taking in the majestic and massive baroque museums and palaces on the "ring streets" circling the old town was definitely memorable.  The old town itself is quite beautiful, as well.  St. Stephen's, with its mosaic tile roofs, was one of the more unique cathedrals we saw in Europe.  I was fixated on the food, of course, and I was beside myself with joy upon discovering Vienna has a relatively large Asian population that had, thank the lord, resulted in some Vietnamese and Thai restaurants around Vienna.  Yes!!!  I also had a mean, red-hot spicy shoarma that left my tastebuds in a grateful mindset.  FYI, kebabs, shoarma and gyros are the burritos (or hoagies, I guess, if you're an East Coaster) of Europe.  From Germany to Romania, every good-sized town has at least a few kebab shops.  I still miss my California burritos, but I'm developing quite a taste for a nice, spicy gyro.