September 12, 2010
Tulln
We left Melk across a long bridge and almost immediately I lost Ken. I went back and as I had suspected he had spotted an old tractor and was talking to the owner. The owner took him around to the back of it. Ken thought he was going to show him the three point linkage but oh no he opened a box took out two glasses and a bottle of grappa and they toasted two cylinder tractors.
The Wachau is one of the loveliest parts of this journey along the Danube. This is an area of apricot orchards and vineyards on a huge scale. The grapes were all through veraison but no picking had started -that was probably a couple of weeks away. The vines are meticulously tended even to Ken's eagle eye and it was suprising to usthat the fruiting wire was so high. The small towns we went through were charming and absolutely packed with people on a Sunday outing, there were so many we frequently had to push our bikes.
After Krems the landscape changes abruptly and we are into corn. Our trip was made more interesting because we were joined by Stephen. He is an Aussie cycling from Barcalona to Adelaide (and I thought we were going a long way!) He left us at Tulln (yes I have spelt it correctly there is no i) He was going on to Vienna where he said there was a good camp ground. We have a ' last minute'deal at a hoteland are very comfortable with CNN and good WIFI. There was a Weinherbst on in the town which is an Autumn Wine Festival so up we rode to the town. Most were dressed in traditional Austrian clothes and all were having a very happy sociable time. Out lack of German came to the for and we ended up buying mugs of cloudy grape juice at great expense rather than wine. At this point we gave up and went to a restaurant then wobbled 'home'
Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 1,900 km (1,180 miles)
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