Monday. 10th. June. Vienna to Cologne, Germany by trains.

Munich

Munich

Yesterday was quite a challenge, having left our apartment in Vienna at 8.00 am and finally arriving at our hotel in Cologne in Germany at 11.30 pm. We had to change trains four times on the way because of the flood situation. The time allowed for the change at Stuttgart was only 11 minutes, which was virtually impossible when one has to transfer bikes and panniers. Fortunately, the conductor phoned ahead to ask the Cologne train to wait for us. There were 8 cyclists on board who had to catch the connection, so it was a very happy result.

We met a delightful and very adventurous couple from Vancouver, Canada, who regularly cycle in all parts of the world. They had cycled through Tuscanny and to Venice, but then had to change plans because of the floods, and were on the train to Cologne.

Sunday. 9th. June. Vienna.

Vienna is truly remarkable.

Tomorrow, we are making our way by train to Cologne.

Friday. 7th. June. Vienna

The more we see of Vienna, the more we like it. It's more than the beauty of the city, it's also the cheerful, peaceful atmosphere that seems to pervade everywhere. We cycled back to the Danube to check on the water levels, and it is only slightly down from it's peak. All the cruise boats are still shackled together on the docks, because they have not yet had permission to go out onto the river. We also went back to the Albertina Museum in the city centre, where there is a little kiosk which is reputed to have the best bratwurst. Well, we tried the bratwurst and it was excellent and so was the draught beer.

Thursday. 6th. June. Vienna.

It has slowly dawned on us that the floods were much more serious and dangerous than we had realised, and that we were lucky to make it to Vienna without any problems. When we went to the railway station to book our tickets to Cologne, the trains with bicycle wagons were almost fully booked in every direction. The lines around Salzburg are still under water, as are Dresden and Meisner. There were many cyclists standing in the queues behind us.

Paris is beautiful, but Vienna puts Paris in the shade! There are hundreds of beautiful and majestic buildings, each one a work of art. It's not surprising that so many of the famous composers and artists lived in Vienna. We have been scooting all around the cycle-friendly city on our bikes, and also doing the recommended walks. We drank some excellent beer at the "1516 Brewery" on Schwartzenbergstrasse, said to be the best in Austria.

Tuesday. 4th. June. Tulln to Vienna. 44km.

Tulln turned out to be a very pleasant little town. Our ride to Vienna was remarkable, because every time we were about to make a wrong turn, someone popped up and pointed us in the right direction. At one stage the cycle path was flooded and the road ahead was blocked by landslide, but a motorist gesticulated to us to go over a nearby bridge, and we found a way through a well hidden lane.

Vienna has also been affected by the floods, but not as drastically as Passau. I saw on the news that the Passau floods are the worst since 1501!  I've just checked our bike computers , and my total is now 4976 km and Les' is 14229 km. This means that we've ridden 3020 km since leaving Bristol on 2nd. April. Les' total shows that we've cycled 14229 km since we first started out in Wellington, New Zealand. We are in Vienna for six days well-deserved rest.

Route: Tulln - Altenberg - Hoflein - Kristendorf - Klosterneuburg - Nussdorf - Vienna.