Make ninemsn your homepage | Get ninemsn toolbar Classifieds Cars | eBay | Jobs | Real estate | Dating [ninemsn_logo5.gif] * News * Sports * Entertainment * Money * More * ____________________ Search * Hotmail * Messenger * Go mobile * Sign in flash_logo You need the latest version of Flash Player. Enjoy the most vivid content on the web Watch video without extra features Interact with applications on your favourite sites Upgrade now Home LONELY PLANET GUIDES features & Articles Gallery Map The Danube River, Vienna, Austria. Cycling along the Danube Story by Daniel Scott Early afternoon, late European summer time. I'm cycling softly down an asphalt track. Below me, a barge is pushing upstream against a muddy green river. Beside me stand scrawny vines abundant with blackish grapes. Ahead, a moustachioed middle-aged man is peddling toward me. "Grus Gott," comes his sing-song salutation as he slips swiftly by. In spite of many similarities with southern France, I am actually in Austria. In fact, I am two-thirds of the way through a bicycle-borne journey from the German border to Vienna. The river whose banks I am riding along is the Danube and the location of those tantalising grapes, the prime wine-growing region of Austria: the Wachau. Opened in the 1980s, the Danube cycle track follows in the hoofprints of horses, which for hundreds of years pulled barges upstream along these same riverside towpaths. Yet the path is still relatively undiscovered, other than by the Austrians themselves and some other Europeans. What they have been keeping to themselves is one of the most user-friendly cycle routes around. It is excellently signposted and largely traffic-free, making it ideal for family holidays. Also, paradoxically for a country renowned for its Alpine skiing, the Danube cycle path is almost entirely flat. The only puffing up hills required is to reach the monasteries and castles which periodically overlook the river. The route is well organised. It's possible to start the trip at any point by hiring a bike at train stations or hotels along the way. Since they also act as drop-off points, if you run out of steam you can cruise the remainder of the route by boat. The likelihood though is that you'll want to go all the way by bike. Typically, the journey to Vienna begins in the border town of Schaerding (by the river inn) before joining the Danube at Passau in Germany. From Schaerding, it takes between five and 10 days to reach the Austrian capital. My companion and I allow ourselves seven days to peddle the 300 kilometres or so. Most days, after a hefty breakfast, we are on the road by 9am and never cycle further than 70 kilometres in a day. We are usually at our destination, sipping a mug of beer in the square, by late afternoon. There's so much to see along the way that it would be tragic to hurry. The starting point of Schaerding provides a good introduction to what is to come. Like much of the route, it is picturesque, historical and frighteningly quiet. Sitting in the town's main square, facing the "silver row" of narrow, exuberantly coloured Baroque facades (each colour denoting the type of shop housed therein, ie. blue for bakery) is like being in toytown. The early part of the track is the most spectacular. Here the Danube carves its way through forested hills which create sheer cliffs on either side of the river. Linz, which we reach on our second day, is Austria's third biggest city. It's worth a visit for its impressive cathedral, its musical heritage (it was home to composer Anton Brueckner) and for a taste of its linzer torte, a sweet pie. Of those that line the way, Grein, where we spend our third night, is my favourite Baroque village. It is probably the sight of it perched invitingly on a bend in the river at the end of our longest day's cycling which does it. But a stiff amble around its cobbled streets, taking in the castle and the medieval theatre installed in a former granary in the square, confirms my first impressions. The following day we delve into Austria's Habsburg history at Artstetten Castle. The former country residence of Franz Ferdinand, this elegant, green-domed building has a palpable feel of the Emperor's life about it. One room details his assassination at Sarajevo in June 1914, which precipitated the First World War, including the blood-stained shirt he was wearing at the time. Further along the route is the enormous Melk Abbey, high above the river. Walking into its gilt-adorned library actually causes me to draw breath and that still doesn't prepare me for the even greater splendour of the abbey's chapel and altar. [danube_sml.jpg] Soon we are among the vineyards of the Wachau valley, with just two days cycling to reach Vienna. Here the Danube grows glassy and fine-flowing. In its reflection of the summer sky I can now see how it inspired the composer Johann Strauss to write the 'Blue Danube'. As we near Vienna, towns are growing in size and their stores becoming glitzy. Riverside marinas are proliferating and greetings from other cyclists are less regular. Our last night on the road is spent in Tulln, known as the birthplace and the first capital of Austria. Our final day's cycling into Vienna is a doddle -- just two hours into the city. Once there we discover that Vienna also has a labyrinth of cycle paths, making it possible to explore the city's sights by bike. But it is only when we lock up our bikes outside the awesome St Stephen's Cathedral that we allow ourselves to admit we have truly arrived. Cycling the Danube has been like being let in on a big Austrian secret: a journey that is healthy, fascinating, fun and environmentally friendly. 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