Passau to Vienna

alexanderomahon

Have managed to get my non cycling wife to agree to do a gentle 10 day cycle from Passau to Vienna. It is a self guided tour with the bike company moving our luggage from hotel to hotel http://www.eurobike.at/en/touren/Danube-Cycle-Path---the-easy-going-tour_8904.htm
Just wondered if anybody has done this before and how they found the weather and any tips they may have to keep the wife happy on a bike for that long.

el tel

I've cycled various sections of the route over the years, you should have a nice time. The weather can be very 'wechselhaft' so you could be talking anything from really hot to pissing rain. When are you heading? Will you be part of a larger group?

It isn't a very difficult route but it can be excruciatingly boring riding along the path. 10 days is a lot of time to do it but it's surprising how slow progress can be along cycle paths. Make sure you enjoy any towns, villages and sights on the way. Maybe try a ferry trip to break things up. Durnstein is cool, Richard Lionheart was imprisoned there. Eat plenty of schnitzel and ice cream and you'll be grand.

alexanderomahon

Thanks el tel. Heading over first two weeks in July. We are not doing it as a group and we will be taking a couple of rest days, or I should say vineyard days.

How wet does it tend to be and what sort of rain should I expect? When I lived in Munich summer rain tended to be short sharp thunderstorms, or should I expect having to ride through a couple of days of drizzle

Sagi

Hm the weather should be ok in general you might get into thunderstorms but those are mostly over rather quick, cycling along the danube won't be a very hard task and there are a lot of nice villages along the way, enjoy vienna, I miss it since I left last year

alexanderomahon

Thanks Sagi. Any recommendations on local beer/wine?

Sagi

There are plenty of good Austrian beers, I would recommend to go local nd get something from the area, for example Grieskirchner or Kapsreiter in upper Austria or Zwettler in lower Austria.

You will be cycling through a lot of Areas with vineyards, I do not have a real recommendation, but I would say that Austria is rather big on white vine then red, go to a Heuriger to get a good a nice glass and good food for a reasonable price

Sagi

Doublepost

alexanderomahon

Sagi, how do I recognise a Heuriger as opposed to a restaurant/bar. A special sign?

Sagi

You will normally see something like this

silver campaign

It's a trip I have I my list aswell, but you might need your swimming gear if your going anytime soon. Passau is flooded at the moment

alexanderomahon

Scheisse,it might turn into a canoeing holiday!!!

Sagi

I don't think it will be still flooded in a month, it's bad weather not the biblical flood that austria is facing at the moment.

But probably not all the damage will be repaired in a month time and there might be parts of the cycling way along the danube that are closed

munchkin_utd

silver campaign wrote: »

It's a trip I have I my list aswell, but you might need your swimming gear if your going anytime soon. Passau is flooded at the moment

yup, worst flood ever, and Passau is used to floods.
1501 was the last flood of this magnitude (thats 150 years before Cromwell came to Ireland, 350 years before the famine to put it in perspective of how long ago that is) and this is marginally higher.

Thankfully the river level is going down now but it'll be a while before the river level is back to normal and then weeks and months before the cleanup is finished and they are back in business.

EDIT: that'd also go for any businesses along the river into austria as obviously the flood water doesnt stop at the border. Vienna should be grand as they are smart and have a nice big flood plain to relieve the pressure on the river before hitting the city