Today we left our riverfront hotel in Tulln on our last day of riding headed for Vienna. Because we wanted to see the abbey in Klosterneuburg and ride down the island in the middle of the Danube for the lead in to Vienna, we had to do some backtracking which we didn't mind at all since that just meant that we got to do some extra riding.
We started the day along the South side of the river with an occasional drizzle a couple of times for the first 45 minutes with a temperature of about 63 F and no more rain the rest of the day.
In Klosterneuburg, when we bought our tickets for the guided tour of the Augustine Abbey, they informed us that the next tour wasn't going to start for another hour so we took the opportunity to eat our lunch that we had packed in the morning.
The baroque abbey and abbey church were beautiful, but we especially enjoyed seeing the original Verdun Altar. Hard to believe the age and condition of some of the artifacts we are seeing here.
After the tour, we pedaled back up the river near Korneuburg, the city of Pied Piper legend, and crossed to the North side of the Danube at the dam to continue back toward Vienna.
The path led us onto the island in the middle of the Danube, which is car free and great riding. After riding about 10 km down the island, we came to the bridge that we wanted to use to cross the Danube and we entered the city around 6 pm. The hotel was not easy to find, but the Open Source Maps for Austria which was loaded on the Garmin bike GPS prior to the trip, provided street level turn by turn routing to the hotel. The GPS once routed us on a one way street the wrong way (which we graciously declined) but overall it did a good job of getting us to the hotel. Along the major streets in Vienna, there are dedicated bike lanes that are separated from cars. On these major streets, the bike lanes are half of a wide sidewalk with the other half for pedestrians - both of which were clearly marked.
Maneuvering a tandem in a city during rush hour over unfamiliar streets, an unfamiliar route, and on an unfamiliar bike path structure was a bit of a challenge. For instance, there were separate turn lanes in the bike path and dedicated bike lane red lights. The Venicians are serious about their biking.
We had to have the bike back to the destination hotel by 8 pm with all of our equipment removed. We made it to the hotel with ample time to remove our equipment from the bike. While Sue checked us in and started shuttling our bike bag contents to the room, John removed the seats, pedals, and bike GPS.
We were a little sad to be leaving our KHS Tamdemania behind, but at the same time glad that we were at the end safe without any problems (save the broken bike chain a few days back that the Euro Bikes tour company came out and fixed right away that night after we got into town).
We got all cleaned up and went out for some late dinner. There was a good wood fired pizza oven place just up the street where we had a great dinner. While translating the ingredients on the pizza menu, we noticed a theme. Quite a few pizzas had corn on them. I can't say I've ever seen that ingredient listed on a pizza menu before (and we've eaten a lot of pizza) but what the neck, we tried it and the pizza was very good.
Today we rode 71 km over the following route:
Tomorrow starts a rest morning and 4 days of Vienna on foot and by train.
Stay tuned...
John and Sue
Augustine Abbey
Augustine Abbey church
Augustine Abbey church ceiling
Original abbey stained glass windows
Verdun Altar from 1181
Last dam crossing with another castle on Sue's right
About to cross the Danube into Vienna
End of the 409 km bike journey
A great ride you will always remember!!! - JimK
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