Entering Wine Country

Austria's Napa Valley




There was no chatting as we biked, as we had a ways to go and I had to concentrate. Usually, Val would bike alongside me and we would have wide-ranging conversations while we enjoyed the scenery. Myrna would have shot off like an arrow long before, and Charo would either be chasing after her or lagging behind watching out for birds, photographing and sometimes calling out to them. I was the slow poke, always struggling to keep up, while Val patiently kept me company -- I didn’t realize her patience until she admitted that the rides didn’t really challenge her and that she hardly broke a sweat the whole time! Later on, when she and Myrna biked without me and Charo and she was free to go as fast as she wanted, she easily outpaced Myrna, up to that point our star rider.

Spitz was the starting point of the Wachau Valley, the main wine-growing area of Austria. The cornfields abruptly gave way to vineyards and a series of beautiful little villages came one after the other. But all deserted. We came across a roadside fruit stand (the only one we came across in the whole trip) that was unmanned; one just left payment for the plums and pears in a box. Meanwhile, right next to it was a plum tree loaded with fruit free for the picking. All along the bike path we had noticed apple and pear trees groaning under their load of fruit but no fruit stands from which to buy, and we hesitated to just help ourselves.

There were a lot of little shrines along the road, again surprising me at how devotedly Catholic they were. But no farmers harvesting in the vineyards. The light was failing but we just had to stop at a flower-filled square for my daily helping of cake and coffee. Shortly after, we cycled into what looked like another quaint town but it turned out to be the old part of Krems. A kind lady volunteered to show us the way to the hotel, which was quite far -- she really went out of her way for us. Krems was bigger than we realized. The quaint town gave way to buildings, and before we knew it, the Baroque era was left behind and we emerged, reluctantly, into a big
modern city.