The Danube

20/8

Tag team exercise as we’re free camping so I head off first for an hour’s walk (rehabilitating the achilles as I ‘should,’ not as I would like!) through the corn fields and past gorgeous farm houses.  Peeping over the top of the tall crops marking the small village centres are many different coloured & sized onion spires, characteristic of the Baroque architectural flavour of the region.

Back home, I do some mat work and Jeff does a cracker 30 minute run averaging 12+km/hour before his mat work.

across the Danube from night stop, after the am swim

No school today as we plan spend all day dribbling through the sights of the most beautiful UNESCO recognized stretch of the Danube from Ybbs to Krem.

First, a massive shop at the local SPAR.

The hamlet of Maria Tarfel sits at the top of a hill climb and offers beautiful vistas across the broad Donau (=Danube) valley from it’s promenade.  The church is suitably splendid with twin onion domes and an ornate gold & marble interior.  Wil is captivated by the glass chandeliers suspended by red velvet ‘strings‘ beaded with small gold bobbly nodes.  We talk in the car about the contradictions of church opulence, the often quite poor parishioners offering their tithes and the confusing feelings of quiet, calm and appreciation of, at times, the extraordinary artistic beauty.  Wil finds himself imagining a service in the cool, airy spaces and says it relaxes him.

Maria Tarfel church

view from Maria Tarfel

Next, only a few kms along, we park at the most known spot, Melk where on top of the hill sits an enormous Benedictine abbey, the "Stift Melk."  It makes Maria Tafel look like a miniature.  Apparently it was the home of the founding Austrian monarchy, the Badenburgs in the late 800s.  It took 28 yrs to refurbish finishing in 2006, now a major tourist attraction, not a clergy person in sight.

The Stift

Despite a hot, sticky 32 degrees we wander the beautiful cobbled streets and admire wonderful river, garden and roof top views.

Baroque Opulence

Always on the ball, Jeff drives us past a sports store to get a new tyre (and some noodles to float in lakes and paddle the rivers on) before we find a terrific shady park beneath large leafy trees for lunch (wonderful fresh bread, wurst, sauerkraut & salads) - preluded by a noodle naked swim. 

All refreshed, we pack up, offer around the gum-gum and settle in for a drive to Spitz, Weissenkirchen and then a campsite at Tulln………. 

But only a few kms down the road we spy a free riverside camp with basic facilities and a river beach.  Mmm, we’ll stop here, swim, cycle, walk, swim and enjoy a morning exercise on the lawns before all of the above!  Life’s good. 

The evening is beautiful, dropping from 32 to about 25 degrees and on our bikes we cycle past warm & then cooler pockets of air as we get a totally different look at things on the smaller fahradwegs.  Enchanting small hamlets of only about 6 houses lace the hillside growing apples, pears, grapes and the abundant marillen (apricots) which they make into everything from jams to kuchen, strudels, liqueurs and nectars.  

schloss on a rock

Small wooden tables display the house specialty for sale on an honesty system.  It all looks very French and tasteful.  We stop to inspect the grapes berries that are now about 1 month off harvest and recall seeing them as just stumps in February when in Spain, a little longer in France in April.  Beautiful golden lights enhance the beauty of this amazing valley.  Jeff stops to take photos and the kids ride along behind discussing how we would equip touring bikes to do this under our own, not Ed’s team one day.  Another swim cleans away the sweaty day and then we dine on local poppyseed strudel, topped with marillen jam, vanilla yoghurt and blueberries.

bath time

clean (for trailer trash)

21/8

After a (bloody) walk again, Jeff & I did our 10BX exercises on the beautiful lawns watching the Danube whizz past and then grabbed the sleepy heads for a swim in our undies.  Fresh & energized, the squids smashed school and we set off looking for St Michel’s church.  Just on the banks, it sits high on a cliff top, ancient & old with gorgeous round curvy bits and 7 curious terracotta ‘animals’ along one roof.  All sorts of legend explain them such as the deep winter snow drove them high up where they turned to stone & /or they depict the wild hunt and actually consist of a hunter at the back, 5 hunting dogs and a chased stag at the front……..anyways, the best bit is in the tower by which the church is accessed and consists of an enormous terracotta concrete biblical relief the entire height of the tower. On the church plateau is a serene and very  picturesque  graveyard.

Just a few kms along is, in our opinion, the highlight of the Danube, enchanting Weissenkirchen.  It is a simply stunning wee village winding artistically and colourfully along the hillside.  Hardly any tourists are here.  Why?  Maybe there’s no big church - just a small, atmospheric small one.  Maybe there’s not enough kitsch souvenir shops?   Maybe it's too early.

On foot, we zigzag around, exclaiming at every turn and taking ridiculous numbers of photos.  If I was a movie director and wanted the prettiest, cleanest, oldest, most quaint European hillside village set amongst vineyards and stone fruit crops for a sweet romantic arthouse movie, I’d bring my cameras here.  I must say, I was unsatiated on leaving - would love to be on our bikes and staying in a pension overnight with plans for a meal at the local wine house.

Shortly after Krems, the Danube loses its charm and becames just a massive boring transport river on flat plains.

We pull into Tulln where we’ve sourced a campsite with internet, free showers & washing machines.  Just next door is an enormous lake off-shoot from the Danube - The Aubad.

Once settled in, we head off in swim gear with our books and wave goodbye to the kids for 4 hours.  They go up and down slides, swim out to a gigantic floating octopus and squeal with peers 'til their lips are blue and their fingers wrinkly.  

At 2000hrs, I finally call them in as darkness threatens. Just in time, we feed and shower them before they fall apart from exhaustion.  (Won’t tell the losing the jeton for the washing machine story!!)