Day 16 Melk, Austria - A Dark Part of History

Tony's View

 I am having such a wonderful time. Things are so beautiful here and bicycling like this we get to see things completely at a slow pace. We meet interesting people, or should I say I get to watch Joan talk to such interesting people?  We started out today and I got off track a little. and We found ourselves in a middle of a major industrial area. The picture to the right shows the industrial area and a big puff of steam. When we got close, we saw what was happening. The picture to the below left shows this very hot stuff going into this stack where they were trying to cool it off and another major puff went off.  The picture to the bottom left was another cool bridge. It was nice to see because we were back at the Danube, It was tricky getting off the bridge and down to the bike trail. but us adventurers figured it out. 😀 

We were now on the path to Mauthausen Concentration Camp. It was quite the climb up. It was over a 400 foot climb and some of the slopes were 14%. We made it and were glad we did that climb. On August 8, 1938, five months after the annexation of Austria to the German Rieich, the first inmates arrived at Mauthausen. The inmates were put to work for the granite quarries. Most of the people killed here were from illness, being overworked and malnutrition. All told, the SS camp administration registered men, women and children from more than 40 nations. The camp was liberated by the US Army in May 1945. Thousands of prisoners were beaten to death, shot, murder by lethal injection, or froze to death. At least 10,200 inmates were murdered in the last months in the gas chamber.  This was a working camp so the majority were just over worked and starved. The picture (upper right) shown is the "Stairs of Death" was the scene of many deaths, particularly of inmates from punishment detail. Inmate commandos were forced to carry heavy granite blocks up the stairs from the quarry to the camp. Inmates were pushed into the quarry to their death over the "Parachute Jump".  The other two pictures above are of Memorials of different nations. There were many memorials. 

 
The gate to the left was the only entrance to the detention camp where the concentration camp inmates lived. It was heavily guarded.  

 The picture to the left is a picture of when the Americans showed up in their tanks to liberate the camp. 1000's were so ill, they died even after the Americans showed up. When we were going through the museum and seeing pictures of both the German guards and the inmates, it put reality to it and made you sick in the stomach. It is amazing that something like this could happen. The picture below is where newly arrived inmates had to line up at the "Wailing Wall", where they often experienced mistreatment for the first time at the hands of the SS. They would then after hours of abuse, send them down these stairs to the below right to be shaved completely with cuts, then showered and given clothes that didn't fit. They said they didn't even recognize each other afterwards.

The barracks were designed to accommodate 300 inmates. Some would house over 2000 inmates. It was eerie walking through them knowing what happened there. In front of the barracks, the inmates were required to muster in the roll-call area three times a day. This could go on for hours, just to show their authority. The picture to the right is the "Ash Dump" and was outside the camp perimeter. This is where the ashes from the crematoriums were dumped.

 The pictures on both sides is the one of the three crematoriums that survived. This is where the inmates were incinerated. They had cooling rooms for all the bodies in the previous rooms. They couldn't keep up. In the end they just threw the bodies in a pile outside the area. When the Americans got there, they buried thousands of people and there is a large graveyard there. There is so much more to tell you. We spent over 2 hours there. It is something to experience, but it does make you sick to your stomach that something like this could happen.

When we made it up to Mauthausen, there were only 2 other bicycles in the bicycle rack. As you can see, when we left there were many bicycles up there. Many had electric assist. The picture to the right are people we met from Australia. We watched them arrive right after them finished the big climb to Mauthausen. They are going to Vienna and heading back to Australia. They flew into Zurich with their tandem, and took a taxi to the beginning of the Danube. Not as adventurous as us, or cheap, whatever. They go around 25 miles per day verses our 60 miles. They were amazed when we said 67 miles today. One interesting thing they said was, "did you guys notice there were no signs or anything when you left Germany and entered Austria?" We thought exactly the same thing. We weren't sure whether we were in Germany or Austria.


After leaving Mauthausen, we had 55 miles to go to get to Melk. We got on some nice paths and ran into a big fish. We had to stop for Bud. Instead of us eating the fish, the fish was eating me. Below is just another cool castle that we saw. We didn't take pictures of all of them, just a few. All along the Danube you see ones that are kept up and many that are now just ruins. 

 Here you see Joan really studying the map. She must be losing confidence in my mapping. I know I have been questioning it quite a bit. We have been off my plans more than I would have hoped. We are making it there, just adding more miles.

 We have seen many soccer fields throughout this trip and this is the first time we have seen anyone on one. Therefore, we had to stop and take a picture. It could be because we go through during the day or everyone is on Holiday now. Pictured below, Joan stayed on the other side of a bridge because it looked so cool to take my picture. We ate lunch in the town in the background. The picture to the below right shows a typical small town we go through. We go through so many of them and it is such a way of culture here.

 We see many cruise liners and I have to get a picture every so often. This one really has the boat shape in the front. We must see at least 8 a day and I know we miss some. The picture to the right is of of two automatic mowers that are mowing the soccer pitch. Must be the way they keep all of them over here so well groomed, like golf courses.

One last picture of the day. I know many of you are not as impressed with bridge pictures as I am, but you got to admit, this is a cool way to get the bicycle path up to the bridge crossing the Danube. This was an amazing day filled with many miles and adventures and lets not forget the dark part of history.

Joan's Extras

We definitely put on the miles today, but it worked out that with this day is in the middle of our trip, my legs are much better prepared for those extra hilly miles. We picked up a few extra miles today doing some turnarounds, or rather quite a few turnarounds. At one point, we came to a crossroad near a corn field. We could go left, straight or right. We did all three! Even better than that, Tony decided to go back to the road that we turned off from, which happened to be the direction of most of the other riders. We just wave at the riders that we pass, and then smile and wave some more as we pass them again because we did our little backtracking thing. No matter how off track we get though or how we have to change our route because of unexpected detours, Tony gets us there with his excellent GPS map reading skills. He still loves to do the civil engineering / map thing, you know.

I get to share two nice scenic photos. The first one on the left is our view during lunch in Grein, Austria. We ate upstairs on a shaded terrace with a great breeze.

The next one is another distant castle photo that Tony liked along our ride today.

One blip happened today. Tony's diabetes sensor for his continuous blood glucose monitor went haywire. He spent half of the day without it. When we arrived at our place in Emmersdorf (which such a cute small town), he was able to get it to reconnect. Funny, the last time that happened was on our last blogged bike trip. You can read older blogs if you want to see how he solved that one.

Dinner tonight was here in Emmersdorf, just down the winding, cobblestone road. Tony got his large beer, and I went all out and tried a apricot liquor home made by the owner. Of course, I topped it off with some apple strudel.😍

Day 15 Linz, Austria. Wet & Wonderful

Joan's View

Yes, we got wet today, but I am so thankful that it was today instead of our previous ride days since today all of our travels were on paved paths. I can only imagine what some of those gravel paths that we've ridden on the last few weeks look like now. 
We mostly followed the Donau as it flowed in and around the mountains in Austria. The view was spectacular even with the rain clouds and overcast haze. 

We usually see some swans on our daily rides as well, but today was the most ever. We watched them, along with the ducks, dive for food and just do their graceful floating. If you see foggy pictures, it's because of all of the rain. I'm pretty picky about pictures, but when it's raining, you just gotta get pictures when you can.



We took a picture of where the river does a big U-turn. The sign explains to bike riders how to get around massive cliffs on one side of the river. We reached that point where we needed to take a small ferry because the cliffs were approaching on our side. It was our smallest ferry yet, and the cheapest. 😁 Tony's plans were to go back to that side once we passed the cliffs, but we never saw the ferry that was supposed to take us back, so we continued on the side that we were riding.

Where the Donau does a big U-turn.

We see Mary statues or crosses every day, but today was a first. There was a monument out on a huge rock in the middle of the Donau. Very impressive.













There were lots of other long distance cyclists riding on our side too, included some guided bike tour groups. 

We passed this one group of American guys several times. We knew they were Americans because they are part of a select few who yelled out stuff about our tandem in English. We came to the point where we had to take a ferry back to the other side, so while waiting for the ferry to arrive, we chatted with the Americans. These guys are a bunch of fraternity brothers that never went to school together or even to the same school. They come from different parts of the country. The one guy owns a bicycle shop, another is an attorney, and another has lived all over the world but now lives in Lakewood, Ohio. They have done several long distance trips together in different parts of the world. Later, we saw them when we stopped to decide which way to go, and the guy that owns a bicycle shop offered to let us try his electric bike. Tony thinks an electric single bike would work for me when we travel with a motor home. 

A couple of other fun things we saw included these barrel shaped camping cabins. They have lots of camping places here, but many of them are very basic. This was neat to see and the trail went right through the campground, like many others.

Tony spotted this rider with a sign advertising our name, Schroeder, and he managed to get a great picture of it. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the umlaut (the 2 dots above the vowel) to work on blogger, but if you remove the umlaut, you must add an "e". That makes Schroeder! I do know that the Schroeder ancestors spelled it with the umlaut as well.

Speaking of names, we see tons of Mueller names here, Cindy. It seems like there is a Mueller something in every city, on vehicle advertisements, restaurants, road signs, etc. They have the umlaut as well, but I bet your ancestors changed it somewhere along the line, too.

The next picture is where we took a short break. There is a court in the background for a game that is foreign to us. We'd love to learn the game though if anyone has a court like those near them!

Getting closer to Linz, the trail again forced us to take a ferry back to the side we started on. We talked to the American group again, and this ferry was much bigger. The picture of me in line is me paying after the ferry started moving. The other picture I got is a view of Tony's dirt splattered legs. I am usually nice and dry covered by the fairing, but Tony gets all of the splatter from both tires on him. Tony said that he kind of drinks grit when it rains like this because the dirt sprays up on his water bottles too. The whole bike had a layer of grit on it by the time we got to Linz. We also took a spill coming into Linz. Tony is a great driver and it takes lots of strength to hold the handle bars sturdy with all of that weight, but we were trying to hop a high curb in the city, and with the cobblestone wet and the curb wet, the front tire slid along the curb and we fell. Fortunately, Tony was not clipped in and he just jumped off. I skidded a little, but I am buckled in and I had leggings on today. We are ok, just even more dirty. Thank goodness our airbnb has a washer.

We spent a long time when we found our place cleaning up the bike, the bags and us. Tony oiled the chains as well. 

It's still raining as we write this, but tomorrow looks clear again. We went to a grocery store and brought back food for dinner. I got some yummy fish, peaches and a kohlrabi. Tony got a salad, bread and peanut butter. He is second guessing his choice of bread and peanut butter because he is walking around grumbling about how this stuff would never sell in the U.S. Haha.

Finally, it's Grandma Monday missing her favorite smiley Luke & Todd faces, so you all get to share in a picture that I got of these cuties. 

Tony's Extras

It was an interesting day. It pretty much rained all day and brakes don't work that well either. When I crashed the bicycle in Linz, the traffic was bad and I kept my feet unclipped into the pedals in case I needed to use my feet for adittional braking. You know, like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. Good thing I wasn't clipped in. It could have really injured me. Thank goodness Joan was okay. 
Yes, if peanut butter tasted like it does here, we wouldn't have it any where either. 😆 It is neat seeing all these signs of friends names back home. The one to the left is one that reminds us of Eric and Ann Marie Baumgartner. How cool that they have their own beer? I sent a picture to Fr. Chris Geiger today also. There are Geigers all over the place, too. I haven't seen any Geiger beer even though he makes great beer. It took a while to get the bicycle cleaned up today and Joan was of great help. It had about a 1/4" of sand and grit over the entire thing and sticking to everything. It is cleaned, oiled and and polished again, ready for tomorrow. The guy from Lakewood, Ohio near Cleveland, told Joan how lucky I was to have a wife that would go along, especially on a rainy day. That's something I totally agree with after riding 60 miles in the rain and crashing her along the pavement and curb. 

Day 14 - Passau

Tony's View

 A day off in Passau. Let me begin by showing you our AirBNB. It is an awesome place and has all the amenities. Free beer, champagne and beautiful furnishings. I really like the coffee maker and thought I would like to have one for home. It cost well over $1000, oh my. 

You can see the living room/bedroom and bath in the picture to the right. The TV has a Bose soundbar and a subwoofer. 

 The kitchen to the right has features we would like to have in our new house. The light under the counter is so cool.

Below, I am sitting in one of the chairs that are completely automatic. They were great to do three blogs in. Jan really liked playing in them last night, almost as much as I liked playing in them. 

I got up around 7:30 this morning; needed to sleep in a little from the late night last night. The coffee maker that grinds the coffee beans and automatically makes coffee was awesome this morning. Joan got up a little later. We went to Mass at St. Stephan Cathedral.

The Mass was in German, which helps Joan learn more German. I could tell where we are in Mass. I just don't understand what they are saying. One thing I found interesting was that the last two Sunday masses only had one reading. I'm not sure if that is a German thing or not. As you can see from the four pictures, it was an amazing Cathedral and the organ is the largest pipe organ in Europe. They give daily organ concerts as well, and we were blessed with a free concert right after mass. They have 3 Sunday masses and the large church was pretty full with both men and women. 

 After Mass we visited St. Paul's church, which is near our room. It has some neat features too. The picture to the top right shows Jesus chained up for scourging and a statue of the sacred heart.

The church had a cool contrast between black and gold. It is neat how the Tabernacle really shines in this church more than any other. You can see in the pictures how it just glows. It really looks special when you are there. The picture to the right shows the many side altars in this church. Each had a theme. 

 We  decided to walk to the point in Passau where 3 rivers come together, which is why they call Passau, "The Three Rivers City." Yes, it reminds me of three rivers stadium. yuk, Steelers. The picture below show a bicycle self service station outside a bicycle shop. We plan to stop there tomorrow to pump up tires. A floor pump is so much easier than my hand pump.
You can see from the pictures where the rivers come together. The picture below shows Joan running to get in the picture. hehe. You can see from the map I took a picture of, how these rivers come together and double the flow of the Danube river. At 2800km the Danube is the second largest river in Europe, after the Wolga. Orginating in the Black Forest (Germany), the Donau flows through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldava and the Urkaine before joining the Black Sea. The three rivers coming together are the Danube, the black Itz from the North, and the green Inn from the South which is the result of melting of Alps snow. The Inn river doubles the flow of the Danube. As you can see it is starting to get big. Remember how small it was when we started?

After checking out the confluence of the rivers, we saw these young kids playing on this long kids' zip line. We decided to wait until they were done so that Joan could try it. I was pushing. Joan said not to hard of a push. Wrong. I went as high as I could go and then let her go. Joan said I was so determined that I had my tongue out. hehe 😇  I let her go and got a picture of her coming back. She was holding on tight. My inner Wade came out to let Mom have it 😂.  Here is another Wade story, or at least one he would enjoy. There was a free toilette and I decided to go. When I came out Joan had eaten a few strawberries that others had left to share. That is something Wade would do because of his fruit addiction.

Later down the trail I ask Joan to test out how cool the water from the Inn river was coming from the snow melt of the Alps. She said it was pretty cool and refreshing.

Joan's Extras

We are resting up this afternoon in our automatic leather lounge chairs, and gearing up for our 1st day of riding in the rain tomorrow. We have been blessed with 2 weeks of straight sunshine so far absent all rain so maybe those many farms that we've passed on our travels could use some rain.

I thought this lone miniature scene in St. Paul's was so unusual. Of all of the passages in the Bible, this scene depicts the story with Martha and Mary. In German, their names are Marta and Maria. Changing just one letter, Marla is a Bavarian form of Mary. Marla says that Spank, her Lehman religion teacher, was the first to inform her of this definition.

Speaking of Marla, we need to give her a huge thank you for patiently doggie sitting our dog, Luna. We have been video chatting with some family members now that it's weekend, and we found out that our psycho dog had a close encounter with a skunk this past week. I guess Marla had to stay up late on a weekday night cleaning up stinky Luna along with her bedding that she joyfully rolled on while she savored her skunk play time. Marla had field work / clinicals the next day. Thank you Marla!!!