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 Apparently the book is out of date.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.