Day 21 - Furth bei Göttweig, Austria - The Donau Vineyards Ride

Joan's View

Deja vous. We've been here before! It was another beautiful ride along the mountains of grapevines tiered above the trail while we reminisced about the time we rode the same path in 2019. Refer to blog day 17 date Sept 4, 2019.

Warm Apple Strudel was waiting for us for breakfast, freshly baked at the cafe down the hill that Tony discovered last night on his wine searching outing. We chatted with the owner and another customer while enjoying our tasty breakfast since our ride is only 28 miles today.

 Exactly- "one for you, two for me." I got the second one to go.😁

Beginning our ride, we passed this roadside stand grilling this delicious looking fish, but we had just filled up on apple strudel.

Lots of cyclists today going both directions. Most seem to be from the Danube cruise ships because they have the familiar maps on their handlebars. We talked to one lady from Vancouver, Canada that said their group was on a bike and boat excursion. 

Our planned route was on the east side of the Danube, but the cafe owner said the west side is much prettier. We went with her suggestion even though we had no navigation on that side, and it turns out that is the same route that we took in 2019. That's why sights were so familiar! No pictures of the mountain slopes covered in grape vines this time. We probably could have taken some although to compare the quality of the vines given our vast knowledge of wine. 😂

We started reminiscing about how we stopped and bought some wine from a vineyard on one of our trips, but neither of us could remember where it was. Accordingly, we made a few attempts today to appease Tony's wine appetite. One place said that they had none but would have some after the harvest. Another try was this Karl Mayr Winery. The sign read wine to buy (in German) but the place was closed.

Another try was this vending machine outside of a church courtyard. That failed because you had to enter a European ID. 

In the meantime, we saw some small tractors hauling carts full of grapes, aka future Tony wine.

We made a stop at St. Michaels Church. Just looking at their holy water font tells you how old it is.

Centuries of usage

OK. We stopped there before

 but it's still pretty.

We also browsed the cemetery outside the church again. We might have found some of your relatives, Gary & Terrie Schwaiger!

Continuing on the WCT, we stopped at Weißenkirchen in der Wachau. You have to be dedicated to go to mass here because there were at least 50 steps to get to the entrance. The steps continue to the left and right after you get to the top of this flight. I guess it puts your heart in the right place after all that heavy breathing.

Since we take turns watching the bike, I started to explore some more to the left of the church stairs while Tony was checking out the church. There was a hallway that takes you to this 600 year old theater. It even has priority seating on the left and right. I would definitely go with you to that theatre, Tisha, even if it was a musical!😉 

I stopped to talk to the ticket booth attendant and the encounter made my day. I used my Theresa DeLand intuition and asked her if she was Catholic. It's a tradition of mine to give the Medjugorje rosary that we use to pray each day to someone on our trips. This attendant said yes and told me that her cousin had just gotten back from Medjugorge last week, but did not bring her anything. She seemed honored and excited to tell her cousin.

Farther down the bike path, we passed these people bottling wine. Tony stopped immediately. "Ask them if they sell wine" he says. In my choppy German, I find out they do! Tony picked 2 bottles, a sauvignon blanc and a riesling from Lehenstiner. Remarkably, our Airbnb even has a wine cooler!

Some serious wine contemplation going on

We hear how Sidney is having cancellations due to the extreme heat. Today has been our hottest day yet, 85 degrees. We had to go to the nearest grocery store for dinner tonight since we are in a small town and the restaurants are farther away. The grocery store was about a 1.5 mile walk and the engine was leaking lots of fluid due to the heat. Amazingly, we have air conditioning tonight, the one time on this entire trip and Tony never even planned that!

We have a great Airbnb tonight. They have these cool knives with the handle perpendicular to the knife. Wonder what the OT, Marla, thinks of these???

Tony's Extras

One thing to note: At one winery where we stopped, they said they didn't have any wine ready yet because they were in the middle of harvesting. However, the winery we saw bottling wine along the bike path was willing to sell us their fresh wine. That got me thinking about the times I would buy kegs from Lisa and Nate at Yellow Springs Brewery. They are supposedly my friends, yet they would only sell me the older beer instead of the fresh beer! 😂

To be fair, they do make some of the highest-quality, true-to-style beer around. It really is outstanding. Still, it's amazing that people on the other side of the world were willing to sell me fresher wine than my friends Lisa and Nate would sell me fresh beer! 😂🍷🍺

Tomorrow is our last riding day as we head into Vienna. Right now, rain is in the forecast for the morning, but we'll wake up and see what it actually looks like. I'm hoping to get there as early as possible so we can take the tandem apart and get everything packed for our flight home on Monday.