I took a train from Hauptbahnhoff at Salzburg around 3pm and it took 3 hours to arrived in Vienna's Westbahnhoff. It was about a 30 minute walk along a few medium sized but quiet streets (e.g. Lindengasse) from the train station to my hotel near MQ (Museumsquartier) I'm tired from walking and hungry too. I walked down the street passed Volkstheater towards the Museum of Art History and Natural History and saw the Wienerwald restaurant, which looks kinda like a Perkin's (those lived in Midwest know what I'm talking about) or Applebee's (I guess it's the green-ish logo) I haven't had an indoor sit-down dinner at a restaurant for a while and decided to give it a try (most importantly, the menu is in English!) I had roast pork and bread dumpling (safe choice!) It's probably not too authentic but I couldn't care less that night. Then I walked around the Vienna central area (National Library, Neue Burg, Michaelerkirche) and took a few pictures and called it a night to get ready for the long bike ride (75 miles) to the Wachau region the next day.
Because of my unfamiliarity with the area, I wasn't really well-prepared for the ride in terms of food and drink supply. All I got was 4 bottles of water and 3 kaisersemmel rolls (BTW, I had probably eaten 10 of these during this week altogether. It's plain and thus deemed "safe" to me) from a bakery. (I misunderstood the directions to the nearby supermarket provided by the "emotionless" hotel receptionist) Plus 6 of the 8 Clif Bar (energy bar) I brought from the States (2 were consumed already) Then the lady from the bike store (Pedal Power) arrived with my KTM Life Fun touring bike (and 2 huge pannier bags on the rear rack) at 9am. I told her my plan of riding to Melk along the Donauradweg (Danube BikeTrail) and she said I should stop by their store to pick up a guide book for that. I got the directions from her and headed there. Her directions were actually quite clear: I needed to get on the "Ring" (a series of streets encompassing the downtown), cross the bridge over the canal and go to the roundabout and then go out to the street with the ferris wheel. Their store was right there. For some reason I overlooked their store even though I went to the right street (the ferris wheel was huge and hard to miss) Eventually I figured it out but it's already 10:30 when I picked up the guide. Now that I have the guide, I'm much less worried about getting lost. Call it my safety net if you will. Still, the chance was there. After all, I don't have a visual GPS to show my exact location. (I do have a GPS watch for recording my routes and speed)
The GPS route I loaded was for riding on right bank between Vienna and Krems, and left bank between Krems and Melk. The Austrian government deserved a lot of credit for "doing it right": plenty of signs (or painted arrows on the roads) made it easy to follow. Nevertheless, I still got confused by some of the signs and made a mistake such that I went from left bank to right bank unnecessarily. I had to go back to the right bank near Krems and I just trusted their signs even though they led to some roads away from the Danube. Eventually the signs changed from Krems to Wachau and Melk and I knew I was on the right way. Another surprise was that Melk was closer than I thought: I remember incorrectly that it's 32 miles away but actually 32km! There are good reasons to get on the left bank there because it went through beautiful vineyards, churches and cobblestone roads (it's not comfortable but it's authentic European!) Most importantly, I knew this route went through Willendorf. So, what's the big deal? Well, just google Willendorf (one 20000+ year old piece of art work, a female statue called Venus of Willendorf, was found there in 1908. The statue itself is in the museum in Vienna but a real person sized replica of it was erected when the discovery was made! That's an important site for art history student like me.) I was surprised that the replica was really close to the main road. I made a small uphill detour and climb some stairs and I was right there! The feeling was unreal. And the city of my hotel of the night was not far away: Soon I saw the sign "Emmersdorf." I thought I passed the hotel so I rode on the streets near the sign but eventually I asked for directions from the guys in front of a building that looks like Fire Department. And I needed to go a few km further to Luberegg. The hotel itself was worthy of a few pictures and it gotta be one of the better looking "Best Western" in the world. I had no energy to go anywhere else for dinner so I had a meaty one at the hotel's outdoor patio. It's unbelievably romantic, even though I went and eat by myself!
After a good night of watching Olympics opening ceremony and sleeping, it's about time for my return trip to Vienna. I visited the world-famous Stift Melk, a magnificent abbey/monastery before I said goodbye.
Here is the link to my pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment