To Tulln: A wander through the Wachau we have done over 2000 km

September 6, 2014

We had a lovely stay above the flower shop and decided today that we would take it very easily through the Wachau as this is a beautiful area and is in fact a World Heritage Trail. It is said that as early as the time of Charlemagne the forests were being replaced by vineyards and the terraces of these are characteristic of this lovely stretch of the Danube and of course all along are little wine villages oozing character.

Ken writes : This seems to be a very favoured area for grape culture. Not only are the grapes grown on south-facing slopes but they are also grown on North-facing slopes ! The fruiting wire always seems high and the grapes are pruned to 2 canes often turned down in a hoop. The trellises are high - no straddle tractors here. Much of the area is on terraces with one row of grapes per terrace, but much of the area is less steep and the rows are set out as in a normal vineyard. Grape growing has been happening here since Roman times. The work of making and maintaining the terraces is huge. We have several very small tractors with sprayers suitable for spraying the terraces. One was a small crawler which I am sure is very good, but there are lots of small 3WD tractors as well.

In spite of lots of rain and low temperatures this summer the grapes are in good condition and fairly ripe. Most are 3 or 4weeks from harvest -even the reds. Perhaps most suprisingly we can buy Austrian wines in the supermarket for 2E a bottle.

There was clearly going to be a wedding here today

We went to this museum but it was very disappointing NO wine making equipment as promised just paintings

Lots of cyclists - some of them have clearly not been on a bike for years and are scary because they wobble every where on these narrow tracks

The proud owner of his 2 cylinder Holder vineyard tractor

How they made these wooden screws for presses with such precision is a mystery

The gate leading to the aldstadt of Krems

Krems on a busy Saturday - I think they are mostly locals

An A45 vineyard Holder identical to one Ken has - it was for sale thankfully he couldn't get it home

This is a gold mine - it comes after 23km of rather boring riverside riding with no services - you cant resist stopping here

The Strum (wine that has just started to ferment ) is on in Tulln

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 2,009 km (1,248 miles)

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