Home at Last

While I love to travel and see new places, eat new food and learn new things, I also love the getting home part. Is there anything better than returning to the place you love? If I can see the skyline as we land, I get a stupid smile on my face. No view today, so it didn't happen until I walked out of the international terminal and saw a "Welcome to Chicago" sign. Ahh.

It already feels like my ride was ages ago, even though this is only the 3rd day since I finished. I miss the riding. I didn't know if I would like touring, but the answer is definitely "yes!" It somehow strikes a perfect balance between my need to pushpushpush and my desire to slow down once in a while. I would definitely be interested in doing another one.

Reflecting on my ride, by the numbers:

• Countries biked in: 2
• Kilometers/miles biked: 494/307 (damn!!!)
• Hours biked: 25-30
• Churches visited: umm, lost track
• Abbeys visited: 3
• Churches and abbeys passed without visiting: lots
• Abbeys where I bought beer: 1
• Flat tires: 1
• Blue herons observed: 1
• Wild deer observed: 1
• Domestic herds of deer observed: 1
• Deer eaten: <1
• Beers consumed: umm, around 15?
• Glasses of wine: 5
• Shots of slivovitz: 1
• Naked Germans spotted: 1
• Packers fans met: 1

Heading home... slowly

Today was my last day in Austria. Which required eating an extra roll at breakfast, and eventually buying 2 more to stick in my luggage to ease the withdrawal.

The one thing I wanted to do today was go to the Leopold Museum. Bridget and I had tried to go 3 years ago when we were in Vienna, but their credit card machines were down and we didn't want to withdraw more Euros before heading back to Hungary. So I was curious to see what we had missed. First, though, off on a wild goose chase to store my luggage for the day. I managed to snag the last locker at the Westbahnhof (you'd think they' have more!) and had to do some fancy rearranging and shoving to get it all in. But I did.

It was a nice collection, not - in my mind - worth the $15 it cost to get in. But I'm not a big Klimt or Schiele fan, so maybe some people would have enjoyed it more. It wasn't that large of a collection either. The text was interesting to an extent, commenting on political and social movements at the time of the art, but sometime - again, in my opinion - overanalyzing the ties between the two.

Then off to the Naschmarkt for lunch, where I had the obligatory wienerschnitzl.Yum! I walked around after and bought some cheese (if you know me, you know I had to!) and my rolls.

I decided I wanted coffee and dessert before heading to the airport, so started walking to the Inner Stadt. But on the way I came across this HUGE festival, with national park kiosks, wine/heuriger stalls, and food stalls - woohoo! What a find! I got some apricot ice cream and some Most, which is like a very lightly alcoholic apple juice - not as tangy or alcoholic as cider. Very tasty.

Then it was time to head to the airport... which was an ordeal in itself - there's a fast train (16 minutes!) but it involves roughly 30 minutes of walking and 129 steps. Next time, I'll take the bus.

Now it's off to LHR for a brief hotel stay and an early flight. I can't wait to get home, I miss my little fuzzball and all my friends & family.

Exploring Vienna

Friday was a full day for exploring Vienna. I decided.to go with the flow and see what the day brought. It was hard to leave my awesome, 260€ a night hotel (not what I paid!!!) but eventually I got.moving and checked out the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Truly an amazing place - I spent 1.5 hours in the Flemish/German/Dutch wing alone. After that though, I was museumed out. So I grabbed a bike share bike - you didn't think I was done biking, did you!?- and biked first to a store then back toward the hotel, where I picked up my bags and switched hotels. Eventually I got around to heading to a brewpub where I got a sampler. Then I started to head to the UBahn to go to a heurige (wine place), but in a square on the way they were just starting a live broadcast of the Vienna Opera's performance of Don Carlo. I watched it until intermission, when I was too cold to hang out for another 90 minutes.

Day 6: Tulln to Vienna

And on the sixth day, there were saddle sores! :-(  Thought I thoroughly applied the anti-chafing stuff this morning but I guess not!

The day started gray and dreary, and as I headed out it began to sprinkle. I rode out to the road, thought, then turned back. Bags are supposed to be in the lobby by 9 am but I noted that the closer I got to Vienna, the later my bags were picked up. So I ducked in to the hotel and got my jacket out of my suitcase. Smart move - as I rode in to Tulln, it started to rain,and I would also need the jacket later in the day as the warmth that was forecast never appeared.

I loitered in front of the Egon Schiele museum for 1.5 minutes until opening time, then went through the small museum. I vaguely recall his trial and jailing from art history but not his art, so it was somewhat interesting.There wasn't much of his work - for that I need to go to the Leopold Museum in Vienna.

By the time I finished, the rain had stopped. The ride was pretty uninteresting through Korneuburg (although I added an 11 km detour to a boring town), where I was thoroughly frustrated by the bad signage. I wanted to see the fountain of the pied piper - the town claimed the Hamlin legend as their own. I never did find it, and hunger won out so I headed to the ferry.

I crossed to Klosterneuburg and had a tasty lunch of cream of carrot soup (!) and pork with carrot gravy and a HUGE ball of potato dumpling. Yum. Then I biked up the hill (argh!) to the abbey.

The abbey was founded in the early 1100s by the ruler of Austria. He had a huge plan, but only 1/8 of that plan was ever fulfilled/built - and it is pretty darn huge. I took a tour which was in German, but they gave me an English audioguide so I listened to that while the actual guide spoke. But she said a lot more, so I would listen after my audio ended and try to pick up stuff. One couple had been at Egon Schiele at the same time as me in the morning so they filled me in on some parts, and another woman joined in at the end, telling me the "bricks" we were standing on were wood! So the horses didn't clatter as loudly when they passed through the hall.

After the tour it was onward to the hotel in Vienna. All was fine until I got in to Vienna, at which point the ever changing road names became difficult, and the bike lanes only on some streets complicated matters. By the time I made it to the hotel, my 40 k ride had become 60 km - bringing the grand total to 494 km from Passau.

I rewarded myself with dinner and beer down the street, then headed to a brewery for more beer. After my 1st (small) beer, the guy next to me started chatting - he was from San Francisco. We chatted over my 2nd (small) beer then parted ways. That's one of the fun mysteries of travel - meeting people and chatting, ships passing in the night (or bar or plane or museum), never to meet again. Connecting to other people just as you connect to the places you visit for a moment in time.

Tomorrow, museum(s)!

Random piccies

Solved the photo posting, so here are some pictures... enjoy:

Ready to ride, day 1! 

On the ferry

Maria Traferl church

Melk Abbey

Wine country

Krems

Day 5: Krems to Tulln

After breakfast (no rolls, boo!), I asked reception if I could leave my bike in the garage while I walked around. She said sure, so I went to the city vineyard store and bought a bottle of wine, then walked around for a bit. My Austria book had a cool-sounding museum in it but when I went to the address, it was a less cool city museum. Apparently the book is out of date. I took that as a sign to head out.

I backtracked to Durnstein, as I had missed the monastery yesterday. I was glad I went back, as it was beautiful. I also got to go on one last ferry ride to the south bank!

The ride was fairly unexciting for the next hour or so. I eyeballed Stift Gottweig way up on the hill for about one second before deciding against it. After a bit, I stopped to eat a sandwich for lunch and although I had seen nobody for hours, suddenly a ton of cyclists appeared! All eyeing me and my sandwich! I stopped in Mautern but there wasn’t much to see there. I then rode to Traismauer, which also had nothing to see.

Eventually I came to teeny Kleinschoenbischl. The cycle path blows right by there, but I saw on the information map that there was a heurige (wine house) right in town, so I biked up to the town and around the corner. The heurige was open! I hung out for a while, having first a glass of light red wine then a glass of “sturm” or very young wine, like grape juice with a small kick. I debated getting food but didn’t – a good thing, as it turns out.

When I checked in to the hotel in Tulln I asked about dining. The woman advised I could go to the sister hotel or back to the town center. I looked at the sister hotel’s menu – expensive. So I got on my bike. In normal clothes. In the dark. On the road. With NO HELMET. And it. Was. Awesome.

I had been reflecting all day on how I have not been enraged, or even angry, once while biking here. There is such a different culture that I haven’t had cause. Cars stop for bikes and for pedestrians. They wait until they can pass bikes with a generous space in between, and don’t tailgate or lean on the horn or get aggressive when they have to wait to do so. Drivers do not treat other road users as 4^th or 5^th class citizens, but as equals. It is mind blowing. Europeans who turn up their nose at Americans riding even the shortest distance with a helmet have no idea – they don’t understand the reality of the hostility and danger we encounter every day. How could they? It’s so different from the reality here.

So anyway, I biked to the center for dinner, parking at a post office so I could find the bike later and wandering on foot to look at menus. I liked the looks of the Brauhaus and ordered a beer (duh) and a rustic forester plate. I could tell it had sausage and sauerkraut, which sounded good to me. It was amazingly good!!!!!!! Possibly the best meal yet. Blood sausage, white sausage, wieners, sauerkraut – sour like I prefer – and dense potato pancakes. I tried to eat it all, but there was no way.

A gentle rain was falling as I biked back to the hotel, reveling in my freedom and safety. To go from being hit by a car to feeling utterly safe on the road was an amazing sensation and I almost turned around to ride a little while longer. But there’s always tomorrow and the day after. Then it’s back to reality.

* piccies*

Just want to say sorry, for some reason Blogger is not showing a way to load pictures at the moment... as soon as possible, I will!