27 May 2007

Brunn to Zwentendorf

We said our farewells to our fantastic hosts. They will never know how much we appreciate all they did for us. Leni even sent us off with a bottle of wine!
As we figured, we had a little trouble getting out of the city but with some help from a couple of folks we were soon on our way. The city traffic was very light being a Sunday morning. Our packs were also a bit light because we had very little food and could see trouble ahead because all grocery stores are closed on Sundays and tomorrow is a holiday and everything will be closed again. Our only hope will be restaurants and gas stations.
Our plan for the day was to return to the good old Danube. The route we had planned was a squiggly one and some of the roads were very minor. In Breitenfurt we climbed the steepest hill of the trip so far. It was only about a 1/2 km long, but it was a real lung burner.
We faced a little confusion on the bikeway in Tullnerbach-Lawies where we met Rudolf and Haimo who said we could ride along with them up to their turnoff point but didn't recommend the route because the hills were too steep and we wouldn't be able to climb them with our gear. We accepted their invitation and appreciated their hospitality. They left us after about 5 kms and then we climbed the long hill ahead which wasn't all that steep.
We found a pizzaria open in Sieghartkirchen and enjoyed a nice pizza pie while learning a couple of new German words. From there it was smooth but very warm sailing to the Donauradweg (the Danube bikeway). The trail was quite crowded. Within the first 2 kms, we stopped at a small refreshment stand where we enjoyed a new bakery treat called Bauernkrapfen. It is a light, fluffy sweet bread covered with powdered sugar. Who would think that something with "krap" in the name could taste so good.
After passing quite a few cyclists and even a couple of horsedrawn carriages, we arrived at the campground in Zwentendorf. We paid for our campsite at the nearby bar/restaurant where we were told they closed at 4:00 today (it was now 3:45) but there were other cafes in town. So we set up, showered and walked through town stopping to take in a few minutes of a soccer match going on just up the road. Back at the campground there we now 2 other touring cyclist couples. After enjoying a nice dinner in town, we shared stories with our camp neighbors, Marieke and Harmjan, from Munich. They helped us enjoy the bottle of wine that Lena sent with us.

Kms 55.21
Time 3:27:14
Avg 15.9
Max 51.3
Total 824.3