Czeching out Austria

Austria and Czech Republic, September 8-23:

The Real Bud in Ceske Budjevice - on train to Ceske Krumlov

Ceske Krumlov, The Czech Republic

Viennese Host Heinz and his partner with Ian

Coming in to Passau, Germany on the Bike Trail along the Inn River (from Salzburg)

Further down the Danube just past Grein, Austria

Austria's mountains and the Danube River called to us, so we caught an early train from Lucerne to Zurich and onwards to Salzburg in Austria. Along the way, we passed through lush Liechtenstein, along steep river banks, and spied the Tyrolian alps shrouded in wisps of mist for most of the day. In Salzburg, we camped on the outskirts of town with a view off to the castle and a good, warm restaurant on site when the weather turned wet. We explored the ancient castle with its grand views over the old town, the latter filled with historic churches, squares and quaint store signs hanging over the street.

It was then time for us to saddle up and sidle down the Salzach River. We enjoyed pleasant shoreline riding, with a few strenuous climbs up to a plateau above the floodplain. We arrived late afternoon in one of our favourite towns across the river in Germany, Burghausen, and checked into a youth hostel attached to a music school focussed on jazz! We enjoyed a sunset stroll and then, as we were returning to our lodgings, followed the sounds of a jazz standards concert by a young trio in the medeival heart of the old town. Next morning we hiked up to Burghausen's castle, the world's longest (1.3 km or so), stretched in dramatic fashion along the top of a ridge and entirely surrounded by the winding river below and its natural oxbow lake. Quite a delight to discover this town with a flare, both old and new, cultural and natural!

Our journey downstream led us to the confluence of the Salzach with the Inn River, bordered by an international nature reserve of lowland forest and floodplain. We encountered a succession of old towns with colourfully-painted buildings, ancient fortifications and "cyclists welcome" signs on guesthouses and streetside pubs - at one, a fellow cyclist approached us and invited us to stay with him outside of Austria! The Inn led us down to Passau, at the dramatic junction with the renowned Danube River. A few hours exploring the pedestrian-only core and we then set out along the well-marked cycle trails beside the Danube. What amazing views of treed shorelines, steep hills, peaceful trails, and passenger and freight ships, shared with a fair number of fellow cyclists on day- or multi-week trips. At Schlogen, we arrived at a splendid bend in the river with a small farm/restaurant/ferry service/campsite, and settled under the apple trees for the night. Our only neighbour was a French cyclist from Lyon. After a cold night with lots of dew, we had a chance to dry everything out and add to our breakfast fresh cow's milk - about half an hour out of the cow!

At Linz, we stayed at a suburban hostel, got cleaned up and indulged in a typical buffet breakfast of buns, cheese, cold cuts, cereal, coffee, tea, juice - and cake! Linz was Europe's cultural capital in 2009 and has a suite of dramatic architecture along its main square and roads, plus a new modern art gallery lit up at night along the Danube. We enjoyed the historical treatment of Austrian works, particularly learning of the mayor's social actions in the 1940s and artists' resistance to Nazism (this, after all, was where Hitler went to school and first declared the anschluss of Austria). We also were amazed by the light waves show across the river at the Ars Electronica Centre.

We wanted to see a sampling of the Czech Republic and took a train from Linz to Prague, crossing the former Iron Curtain along the way. How things are so different now - no border controls throughout most of Europe, use of the Euro pretty much everywhere (but not in Czech or Hungary), and an international exchange of people, ideas and culture that was smothered for 50 years until the dramatic peoples' (largely) peaceful revolutions in eastern Europe. Prague, as we had heard, was magnificent architecturally - the old clock tower, Charles Bridge, churches, synagogues, central squares, public edifices and buildings along every downtown street. The castle was extensive (the world's largest), with King Wenceslas' tomb in the cathedral, but we actually enjoyed some of the other smaller castles more, such as the one at Burghausen. Despite some rain, we appreciated this centre of culture, including a classical symphony concert at the Municipal Hall. A brief visit to the Unitarian church near the Charles Bridge helped us connect to our wider Unitarian community beyond our own Peterborough Fellowship.

After a tip from some Italian women cyclists we encounted twice along the Danube, we extended our Czech leg to the world heritage site of Cesky Krumlov, between Prague and the Austrian border. This is an intact medeival town along a curling stream, overlooked by another ridgetop castle and gardens. The buildings were in good shape, full of shops, accommodations and restaurants, along active streets - with loads of tubers and kayakers running the rapids before retiring to the pubs! The surrounding hills, forests, brooks, ponds and villages were also a treat, as were the old centre and beer of the original source of Budweiser Beer - Ceske Budejovice!

Upon returning to Linz in Austria, we moved on to Mauthausen, the site of a Nazi concentration camp and centre of a network of some 80 work and transportation camps across Austria. Over the course of 7 years, some 200 thousand people passed through these camps, of which about half died from deliberate execution or deplorable conditions. You could feel the weight of such horrors there. We spent most of our time absorbing the impact of this era through the numerous dramatic memorials just outside the camp's walls - to the children, Jews, homosexuals, Roma/gypsies, Russian prisoners of war, and people of many nationalities, especially from eastern Europe. One of the more moving monuments was to the American soldiers who died in the fighting as they moved forward to liberate this camp, with others helping its survivors to recover. Exploring the Old Jewish Quarter in Prague impressed upon us again the magnitude of the losses to the Jewish, Czech, European and world communities of so many Jews during the Nazi regime. Few synagogues now operate and the Jewish population has contracted so much, both here and across Europe.

We spent three nights in Vienna, graciously hosted by Heinz, a fellow cyclist we had met further up the Danube. We had a whole basement suite and went out two nights to different wine taverns in the Klosterneuburg area where Heinz lives. One must do in Vienna as the Vienese do! A wine tavern is run by the family of a local vintner and they serve they own wines and terrific traditional foods. We think the tradition could be worth replicating! During the day, we visited St. Stephen's cathedral, gawked at the architecture along the ring road (built on the former land of the medieval wall), visited the Hofburg Palace and the Albertina on opening day of a fantasic Picasso exhibit. The exhibit was called Peace and Politics and delves into these aspects of the artist's work and life.

The ride out of Vienna was less than stellar with the classic lack of signage which characterizes so many long distance bike routes in and near larger centres. We eventually reached Bratislava, Slovakia. We had a quick, but thoroughly rich experience in Bratislava before heading off to Hungary along the well paved Danube River trail, which is part of the long distance EuroVelo Route 6.