Danube Daze

For the past week we've been pedaling along the Danube River, through nearly freezing rain and warm sunshine, making our way from our wonderful hosts in Kelheim, to Paul's equally hospitable family in Waidhoven, Austria. Here's a recap of our journey between:

After saying our goodbyes to the Anzinger family in Kelheim, we rode off through the drizzle of rain down the Danube. It was cold that day. The light rain and cold air kept us from stopping. When we stopped we got cold. As long as we're on our bikes we're warm. At least until the wetness soaks through, that is. By early afternoon Sara's gloves got wet and she couldn't get her hands warm again. We decided to stop for the day rather than have her suffer the rest of the ride. Luckily we were right outside of Wörth a.d. Donau.

We rode in to the tourist information office to find a room. The woman set us up with a private room (a spare room in a house that is rented out for vacationers) for just €38. Not a bad deal considering we had a balcony, a large bedroom, a kitchette, and large breakfast included. The lady of the house was very nice and quite a talker. She was so impressed that we were riding our bikes in the cold weather. After dropping our bags of we biked to the store to grab something to cook in our novel kitchenette.

The next morning we headed off on our bikes again. This time without any rain, though it was still a bit cold. This made it much more pleasant. It felt good to ride. The Danube valley was very open here, and the land was filled with little farms and towns. We rode in to Deggendorf in the late afternoon and ended up in a hotel right in the middle of town. Although all of the interesting sites were already closed, we walked around town and enjoyed the pleasant evening atmosphere.

After a restful night and a good breakfast in Deggendorf we rode on to the relatively bustling city of Passau. Today's ride was nice and warm. At tourist information we found out it was Halloween (we tend to lose track of the date while we're riding). After a lot of trouble riding to various private rooms and hostels we finally found a cheap place to stay just outside of the city. We managed to haggle with the manager to drop the price since the room we were staying in wasn't heated. Despite no heat the room was quite warm. Good deal for us.

That night we attempted to find some Halloween party action. Of course it felt much later than 7 pm for us early-to-bed-cyclists, and the first bar we stopped at was completely empty. This made for an awkward exit. (It's hard to slink out the back door when you are the only customer.) Eventually we ended up at "Nixnuts." The place seemed quite calm for Halloween. I guess despite the fact that they are definitely aware of Halloween, they don't get into it at all. So we sat for a couple drinks and played "Zombies!!!" one of the many board games available at this joint. In the middle of our silly board game a large birthday group joined, or should I say took over, our table, crowding us deep into our booth and blocking both exits. They seemed amused as we moved miniature plastic zombies across our boardgame, which took up a disporportionate amount of the table, as the lady smashed next to Sara opened gifts.

The day after Halloween we spent a lovely rest day in Passau, then rode 3 days to Waidhoven to visit Paul's family. These 3 days were progressively warmer and sunnier, and by the time we arrived at Waidhoven, what should have been a snowy November day ended up pushing a toasty 73 degrees. What strange weather: we left Kelheim bundled in all of our cycling clothes and entered Waidhoven in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt!

The first day riding day out of Passau along the Danube was beautiful. We finally entered Austria, the last country along our journey. The Danube Valley grew very steep and seemingly remote. There were no highways along our trail, just forests, hills, the river and our path. At many times we were the only people inside that deep, windy valley. No doubt this path would be bustling with tourists in August. This is the one advantage of riding here in November, that, and the beautiful fall colors igniting the hills and sweeping along the road.

We seemed to have ditched camping now that the days are more often dark than light, and we've mostly been sleeping in private rooms. Some have proved very interesting: Once, an old lady sent us away because all of her rooms were full. But luckily she spied on us while we returned to our fully loaded bikes in her driveway and opened a map. She must have felt sorry for us because she offered us what appeared to be her son's old bedroom in her own apartment. So we pushed aside a few stuffed animals and got comfy his twin bed. We've also stayed in a old converted dining room with the formal dining table still there, looking sadly abandoned between our two beds. It seemed only right to eat our Uncle Ben's instant dinner at the table under a sparkling chandelier.

Finally, we left the Danube, and followed the River Ybbs into the hills to Waidhoven. At first the land was open and mostly farmland. Then the hills slowly gathered and crowed around the Ybbs River until Waidhofen appeared, nestled in a picturesque valley. Forests and farms sit high on lush green and gold hills above the lovely little town.

We rolled our bikes over to Paul's Aunt and Uncle and once again got to make a surprise appearance after ringing the doorbell. After a warm welcome and a hot bowl of soup we dropped our things off at the hotel room and made visit to Paul's grandfather across the river. He was very excited to see us and offered us a glass of wine while we shared a few stories of our trip and he shared a few stories from some of his travels. That night Christa and Walter (Paul's aunt and uncle) took us out for a delicious seasonal dinner at the castle, then we turned in for the night in our funky, retro-looking private room.

That's been the excitement the last week or so, and we'll be sure to make another update after our time here in Waidhofen is over. We have only 12 more days left in Europe, so we'll see you all soon (all of you in the greater Seattle area, that is).

-Paul and Sara

---

---