In 2012, fifteen years after our first Danube bike trip, we (Fred Elder & Ardith Meier) decided to repeat our trek along the Danube, albeit in the reverse direction — this time beginning in Passau, Germany, instead of ending there. We were in Vienna for our annual visit and rented bikes there at Pedal Power, owned by a former teaching colleague of Ardith’s. On June 2, Saturday, we picked up our bikes and bike bags and took the nearest subway to the Westbahnhof (West Train Station) and at 9:20 a.m. boarded the train for Passau (City of Three Rivers) arriving early afternoon. After depositing our bike bags at modest but immaculate accommodations near the train station, we took a leisurely walk through the pedestrian zone downtown and then proceeded to the path alongside the Inn River. As we walked along the Inn, noting the colorful pastel colors of the old buildings across the river, an oompah band at a wedding reception provided lively background music. Upon reaching the end spit of land, we were able to see the three rivers, the Ilz, Danube, and Inn, flowing together, each with its own distinguishable hue of blue.
Beer Garden Entrance in Passau
Passau, is a university town with a population of about 50,000,located in the German state of Bavaria. The diocese of Passau, founded in 739, was the largest diocese of the Holy Roman Empire for some time and the mother church of the famous St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. Hence, it is not surprising that Passau is also home to an impressive, white Italian baroque cathedral, dazzling in the sunshine, which we reached by meandering uphill along a narrow cobblestone lane. The majestic organ, the second largest in the world, filled the cathedral with uplifting music as the organist practiced. Behind the cathedral, a small, outdoor café answered our need to re-energize with tea and coffee, which we enjoyed as we contemplated narrow three-story patrician buildings across the square, structures that have survived centuries.
Much revived, we continued on our way to an outdoor Bavarian beer garden near the center of town. Here we had our evening meal under a canopy of old chestnut trees, imbibing a typical fare of sausages and French fries, washed down (by Ardith only) with a grosses Bier (large beer). It was then time to disappear under the fluffy white Federdecke (down comforters) to get a good night’s sleep. Thus ended our day getting to the starting point of our bike trip.
Approaching Ottensheim by Ferry
Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny. After breakfast — dark bread, cheese, cold cuts, soft-boiled eggs — we attached our bike bags, donned our helmets, and mounted our bikes to begin what would be a long day’s ride. We found the trail easily as it was close to our accommodation. The only problem in Passau is making sure one chooses the correct river! The sun soon disappeared behind heavy, dark clouds that seemed wedded to the Danube valley.
Mid-morning, we encountered our first ferry requiring us to cross the river to the continuation of the path on the other side. Ferries were quite numerous during this trip (four on this day alone), a by-product of the huge flood of 2002 and subsequent floods of 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010, which necessitated the path being rerouted and different from that of our trip in 1997. As we disembarked from this first ferry ride, the heavens unleashed torrents of rain; we saw other bikers huddling under dripping trees. We opted, however, to keep pedaling since we were bound to get soaked no matter what. This turned out to be a good choice. The rain abated after about 40 minutes and had somehow spurred us to pedal faster; perhaps we unconsciously wanted to outrun the rain.
The sun appeared for the last hour of our cycling day, making an outdoor café at Ottensheim an inviting place for a brief and much-needed rest before we cycled the last 12 miles to Linz. We had not planned to do an almost 65-mile day, but indeed that is what we had done when we rolled into Linz late afternoon/early evening. Linz is the third-largest city in Austria with a population of about 205,000. Although Hitler was born elsewhere (i.e., Braunau, Austria), he spent most of his childhood in Linz and considered it to be his hometown, not something the local residents broadcast widely.
Our second cycling day began in rain, ended in rain, and continued in rain the entire day, accompanied by cooler temperatures. We put on our rain gear, covered our bike bags with bright yellow plastic rain covers, and off we set in defiance of the elements. Biking was wet, cold, and tedious, with little opportunity to enjoy the river scenery as we hunched over, peering at the path through a veil of rain. We stopped a couple of times for a warm beverage, and at Wallsee we pushed our bikes up the steep incline into the small town for lunch at the one Gasthaus that was open, the only day we actually stopped for lunch.
After making lunch last as long as possible and drying off somewhat, we reluctantly togged up again, returned to the rain, and retraced our steps down the slippery path to the Danube. We managed 55 miles that day, despite the rain, but were very happy to arrive in Ybbs (population about 5,500), where we overnighted.
The local tourist information office directed us to a Gasthaus (inn and restaurant), where we were ever so thankful to store our bikes and shed our wet clothes. After hot showers, we felt reasonably revived but were not game to go out in the pouring rain; hence, we enjoyed a quiet meal in the Gasthaus restaurant, with Fred having his second Wienerschnitzel of the trip. Needless to say, we did not explore the town after eating.
Benedictine Abbey at Melk
Day three, Tuesday, we were almost fearful to look out the window to learn what the weather was like. In the 5 minutes it took to get ready to go down to breakfast, about 3 types of weather could be observed; only one had sun in it, and that was short-lived. After a breakfast that was much the same throughout our trip, we got our bikes and took off in light sprinkles and significant wind. The wind, however, was mostly at our backs and pedaling took little energy.
After about 18 miles, we made a slight detour up to the picturesque town of Melk with its Benedictine abbey towering over the Danube. (Cycling to Melk and its abbey presented a steep and difficult ride.) Melk itself is a small picturesque town with a population of about 5,000, but the majestic Melk Abbey with its superb vistas of the Danube valley is a major tourist attraction. We arrived at the abbey in time for a guided tour in English followed by a daily 15-minute prayer service conducted for the 30 monks in residence – only 6 were in attendance, however. The monks run a private high school and spend their time in this beautifully restored, gold-filled abbey, which consists of seven courtyards; it is immense. One of our favorite rooms was the library with its 90,000 volumes and rare manuscripts. After our tour, we were ready to cycle on, entering the beautiful Wachau valley.
Leaving Melk, we had to cross a long bridge high above the Danube in 
VERY high winds. With heads down and hoping for the best, we pedaled on, buffeted by the winds, both thinking we might soon end up swimming in the Danube after being blown off our bikes. Once on the other side (relief), the wind was mostly at our backs again as we wound through the Wachau with its rolling vineyards and apricot orchards. High above us, along the way, were remnants of Roman fortresses.
As we cycled through the tourist-filled villages, our already tender backsides had to endure many a cobblestone street. At Dürnstein, we cycled below the castle where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned on his way back from the Crusades. We feared rain again as clouds continued to blow in and out during the afternoon; fortunately, we were spared. However, the sun was never out long enough to entice us to make a real stop, except to collapse in a rare moment of sunshine at the
side of the path. Our 40-mile cycling day took us to the eastern end of the Wachau valley to the town of Krems (pop. 24,000), about 43 miles west of Vienna. We were re-entering “civilization” as evidenced by our accommodation at a large hotel rather than a small, local Gasthaus. We had now finished the majority of our cycling trip and the morrow would only be a short day of about 27 miles.
Wednesday’s breakfast had a different feeling from our solitary breakfasts on previous days; this morning breakfast was in the form of an expansive buffet in a breakfast room shared with an entire tour bus of retired people. After our morning’s fortification, we set off in excellent biking weather; the sun was shining, the wind was quiet. Now that we were close to our chosen end point of Tulln, half an hour from Vienna by train, there was less urgency in pedaling.
The highlight of the day for Fred was 
a stop for a snack near the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant.
Zwentendorf Nuclear Plant
The latter is most interesting as its construction was completed, but it was never fueled due to a referendum in 1978, in which a narrow majority of Austrians voted against the start-up. A small hut there, almost directly under the power station, serves snacks for walkers and bikers and provides outdoor seating. We spent some time there enjoying the views, tea, coffee, and the comfort of chairs as opposed to bike saddles.
From there, we pedaled only 8 more miles to Tulln, where we found the train station, bought tickets and boarded the train for the half-hour ride to Vienna, feeling a sense of accomplishment at having cycled almost 180 miles. Once back in Vienna we returned our bikes and re-entered “city life” with its public transportation and dinner at our favorite restaurant. We still had a couple of weeks to enjoy Vienna, friends, concerts, museums, coffeehouses, and not least, pastries!
Note: Biking the Danube Path during the week (as opposed to weekends), and also before most of Europe is on summer holidays, entails minimal bike traffic as well as easy to find accommodations. Except for rainy days, the Danube Bike Path offers a tranquil and easy ride at the edge of the Danube with its ever-changing picture-postcard scenery. Our lunches usually consisted of nuts and raisins along the river bank.
