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Published: August 13th 2010
Hearing thunder while in a tent usually means a ruined trip. But spirits were very high among the four of us, despite the ominous rumblings of the coming storm. We were set to start our ten-day bike trip the next day.
We were in Passau, Germany, full of grins and camping equipment. It was my better-half, Delphine, her friend Laure, her boyfriend Christoph, and myself. Our goal was to make it to Vienna in ten days by bike, 320-odd kilometres, without being soaked to misery. And we made it, too, on schedule and without having to spend more than one occasion biking in the pouring rain.
"YEEEEHAAAAWWW" I yelled, struggling to see through my rain-spattered glasses. Chris, close behind, was half-nervous and half-amused by the ride through the heaviest rain I've seen in years. The restaurant - salvation - was only about 200 metres away. The girls were more cautious of the reduced traction of their tires, taking it slow. But where's the fun in that ? YEEEEHHHAAAWWW ! Faster; up up and away ! I arrived first, my bags soaked and grin huge.
We had at some point that day (maybe even the day before?) crossed the
Flak tower, Vienna
Simply amazing. They used these heavily fortified structures to house their flak guns.boarder into Austria. I was sure of it because unexpectedly there were smokers in the restaurant and unhappy anti-smoker French girls across the table, making sure that the Austrians saw their exaggerated waves of hands, shooing away smoke.
We camped for ten nights, almost all of which included major storms and good food. We averaged about 50 km's a day (when we moved) and rested on the rainiest days. We saw Linz, Hitler's home town; Melk, home to one of the loveliest Abbeys of the world; Krems, a nice but not particularly noteworthy Austrian town; and finally Vienna, a gorgeous mini-Paris with good coffee and impressive history. But the most memorable stop had to be the concentration camp in Manhausen.
No amount of reading or movie-going can prepare you for the stark horror of a concentration camp. Every one of us was shaken to the core by the visit, each of us left with one enormous question: how can humans do this to each other? We walked through a gas chamber. We took photos in a room used for medical experiments on prisoners, many of whom died painful deaths as a result. We saw the cremators used to
dispose of thousands of tortured men, women, and children. No words can suffice. How, how could people do this to people? Night was coming, back on the bikes.
The four of us got along very well, especially considering that I had never met Chris and barely knew Laure. Lots of card playing, lots of story telling, and lots of pedalling. Just the way a bike trip should be.
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