Bicycle Touring through Austria

on - 29/08/2018

The most popular cycling section of the Danube is the stretch from Passau to Vienna. We started it in August and it was the busiest by far. There was a constant stream of cyclists; day trippers, lycra-clad speeders, other independent tourers like us, but also arranged tour cyclists. Austria has multiple companies that sell a bicycle tour rent package, making it easy for people to fly into the country without bikes and then immediately rent one and start off on their cycling holiday.

We’re cycling East to West and so entered Vienna from Slovakia. The change in scenery and atmosphere was instantly noticeable. The cycling track is consistently paved alongside the river and much easier to navigate. Roughly half way along the route, the terrain changes from flat to steep wooded hillsides and vineyards.

My post about cycling Hungary and Slovakia ended with us sheltering from torrential rain in a football stadium just over the border into Slovakia. That rain continued for another few days, so my photos of Austria start off with miserable skies which then turn into blue skies.

The first thing we noticed was an abundance of abandoned pumpkins. We cycled past field after field of pumpkins that were harvested but abandoned, we considered acquiring one for supper but most were already rotting.

The next stop was Vienna but we managed to completely miss it. We saw the city on the other side of the river from a distance so we were on the lookout for a big sign saying ‘<– Vienna’ but such a sign never appeared. We were slogging through rain at the time and so didn’t check the map. About five miles down the river we started wondering what had happened to the city and so took shelter and checked. It turns out we had cycled right past it and the main cyclist bridge over was behind us. The rain made the decision easy and we carried on. The advantage is that I would be happy to fly there and visit it properly in the sun.

The day after Vienna the weather started to improve. It changed from cold and drizzly to sporadic showers and finally blue skies.

This is the point that changes from flat to vineyards and woodland. Cycling into it from the flat boringness of Hungary was a much-needed change of scenery.

We had a bit of a tyre disaster near Tulln. There have been bulges in the tyres since the beginning but we never managed to fix them. In the end we decided to ignore it and carry on, then in Austria Thomas’ tyre split and the inner tube started bulging out. We were 15 miles from the city of Tulln so disconnected his front breaks and wrapped up the bulging inner tube tight with duct tape and cycled on. I took most of the weight and we got to the city, it was a Sunday so we went to the bike shop early Monday. They said that the tyres weren’t seating properly and it just happens sometimes. We bought new tyres and used their automatic pump to increase the pressure a lot higher than we were managing.

It was a quiet, relaxed morning roughly ¾ of the way through Austria when Thomas had a near miss. We heard a rattling sound coming up behind us and kept peering over our shoulders to try and spot what it was. Both of us were munching on apples scrumped from a wayside tree and were feeling content amongst the woods and vines of Vienna.

The rattling grew closer and closer, until a trio of youths in convoy formation rounded the corner on bicycles. They immediately set about overtaking and we tucked into the right side of the bicycle lane. The middle bicycler was towing a trailer loaded full of wire fencing. He swerves and the trailer behind him takes to one wheel and tips over, spewing wire fencing into our path. My brother does an emergency stop and the convoy slows down and blocks the path. They set about resolving the issue and are soon once again wobbling along the path.

Most of this part of the route was lovely, relaxing cycling. It started off with vineyards and orchards and then gradually transitioned into a more gorge-like valley.

We had continuous views over the river of historic villages on the other side. I took many photos of the local style of boat, which have a coloured strip along the top and the name printed in big letters.

After Wallenbach we crossed over the Danube and cycled 22km up that side of the river. We then realised that we were the wrong side and not on the route, so the road joins a major road further on. We decided to cycle the 22km back the way we came and so spent half the day doing an unnecessary 44km. These things happen!

We found a field of huge plants whilst looking for somewhere to camp. Thomas is over 6 foot, yet these plants made him look small. Wild camping in Austria is forbidden, but we decided to risk it anyway since we have always found it pretty easy to hide away down small paths off the cycling route. We followed the stealth camping rules, so pitched late and left early in the morning. And fortunately weren’t spotted.

Not all of the route through Austria was beautiful wooded valleys. The route in Western Austria took us along the North side of the river and through the industrial sector of Linz. It was mostly factories, smoke stacks and rusted old boats.