The Bikes Roll to a Stop

Day 6 16 kms

Once again, Charo and I took a train, while the intrepid bikers, Myrna and Val, rode ahead. We had a leisurely morning, waiting for our bikes to be delivered from Krems. When the tour operator arrived, we had her check our tires and, lo and behold, both of mine were very soft and needed pumping. The reason, I instantly decided, why I could not keep up with the others no matter how I huffed and puffed -- that's my story and I'll stick to it! Charo and I would train it to Greifenstein and then we would all ride into Vienna together. This time there was no problem with train schedules: they left every half hour, filled with commuters. All of a sudden, the city seemed closer than the country and, as we elbowed our way into the crowded train feeling clumpy and out-of-place in our helmets and shorts, we felt the bike tour was coming to its end.

But before that, we had one more wine-tasting stop planned at Klosterneuberg Abbey. The little town at the bottom of the hill was very touristy and the trek up the hill was a killer, with cars whizzing by. The entrance to the abbey was very impressive: giant baroque Atlases holding up the ceiling and in the center, a very sleek desk made of brushed stainless-steel.

Unfortunately, there was no wine-tasting that day because a load of grapes had been harvested just the day before. So, disappointed, we went on our way. The ride was uneventful, the sights unspectacular until, finally, Vienna! What relief, joy, pride, wonder and satisfaction we felt! Myrna said that the Danube bike trail was 400 kms long; we calculated that we rode about 250 kms of it.

What a sense of accomplishment I felt when we tucked our bikes away for the last time! How nostalgic I felt as I peeled my gel cover off the bike seat for the last time! And how happy I was to remove those padded biker shorts and not have to rush to wash them for the next day!

We toasted ourselves and our odyssey not with wine but, fittingly, with coffee and cake -- to be exact, with apple streudel and sacher torte.

Our bike tour was over, but it wasn't the end of the odyssey, we would proceed on to Budapest the conventional way. The story continues, watch this space .......