Sunday, 10 June 2012

There Are No Kangaroos In Austria

Back from a weekend of getting a taste of two new countries that I haven't visited before.

This trip started with a flight at 6:00am (so had to get up before a Sparrow's Fart) to Vienna and then the Ferry from the center of Vienna to the center of Bratislava.  The ferry takes about a 1 hour and 15mins.  It's not the cheapest option and takes about the same amount of time as the train, but I'm glad I did it.  I caught the train back to Vienna and it was 15-20 cheaper than the ferry (depended if you catch in on a weekday or weekend).

The library and church are quite inmpressive (a bit OTT).
Stift Melk

I did attempt to walk from Melk to Krems along the Danube - what should have been a nice 36 kms walk.  After taking three or four incorrect detours in finding my way from Stift Melk (an Austrian Benedictine abbey) to the Danube Cycle Path (which added probably 4-6 kms to the walk) I only made it as far as Spitz.  This was a more sedate 17/18 kms.

You can actually ride the Danube from Passau in Germany to Vienna (378 kms) and onto the Black Sea.  I believe the most popular part is the Passau - Veinna section.  I certainly saw a lot of Europeans doing this as I walked along it. Although your can walk the route I wouldn't recommended it, as it is a bike route (only saw a handful of people note on bikes) and the distance between the villages is a bit too long (i.e. it would help with the motivation is the cute villages came along a more frequent intervals).  It got a lot better towards Spitz.  Having said that.  I'm thinking of going back and hiring a bike to do the route justice as it is very cool scenery.
Danube Cycle Path

{Map to be inserted.}

To be continue


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