After 7 years of work, on November 22, 1993, I completed the defense of my masters degree thesis and received the approval of the committee. As I had promised myself some months earlier, I was on the phone to Backroads (the bicycle touring company) the next day to sign-up for their trip through Germany and Austria. This was to be a true "yuppie" tour: rent a bike from Backroads (so I didn't have to worry about shipping mine), stay in nice inns, eat great food, take lots of pictures. Basically, all that I had to do was to show up and start riding!

The general trip itinerary was like this: leave Reno on June 21, arrive in Munich around noon on June 22, catch a train to Traunstein on the morning of June 23 to meet up with the tour group and Backroads staff, take the next 8 days to ride from Chiemsee to Wien (Vienna), fly out of Wien on July 1, and arrive back in Reno the same day.

First, some overall tour impressions. The Backroads ride leaders (there were 2 of them) really knew their stuff, and the entire ride went pretty much like clockwork. The rental bikes were Miyata touring bikes with "BACKROADS" decals on them. I had a fantastic time!

Any complaints? A few, but not many. First, the weather was HOT! Not like it gets around here where it's hot with 2% humidity, but 85-95° F with 90% humidity. Everyone kept saying that it was going to rain, but no such luck! Even the locals were moaning about the hot weather. Second, the daily routes were described, verbally, in excruciating detail, but there were no maps, making it difficult to follow routes. Third, the rental bikes (nobody brought their own bike) were really dirty. Fourth (while on the subject of rental bikes), there's no way anyone will ever convince me that bar-end shifters belong on a usable bicycle. Finally, both Germany and Austria are an entomologist's dream; I've never seen so many bugs!

Now, in all its gory detail, is the blow-by-blow description of my first real vacation in over 7 years.

Monday-Tuesday, June 21-22, 1994. Reno to Munich.

After hastily packing everything on Monday night (cycling clothes, street clothes, bike seat and pedals, camera and film), I was off on Citifare to the Reno airport on Tuesday morning. The Delta flight went from Reno to Salt Lake City, I changed planes and headed to Cincinnati, and then changed planes again for the flight over the Atlantic to München. Transatlantic flights are not very exciting, fortunately, and I spent most of the time sleeping and eating Deltafood (which wasn't all that bad, really). It was totally calm in Salt Lake City, and the Great Salt Lake looked like a gigantic mirror. Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean it became July 22, and after a short stop in Zurich I arrived in München around 11:00 AM local time Wednesday. Once off the plane and through a cursory passport check, I exchanged some travelers' cheques for Marks and bought a ticket on the S-bahn to the hauptbahnhof in München.

The "S" in S-bahn stands for "Speed" in Germany, and the trip into town was pretty fast in spite of stops at all the small farming towns along the way. The final destination was the main train station, and my hotel, the Hotel Wolff, was right across the street from the main entrance. This was my first experience of a European hotel, and I was impressed by a couple of things. The rooms were small but comfortable, there's no such thing as air conditioning, the keys come attached to large and heavy objects, the doors are doubled - you have to open the hallway door and then another inner door, and Früstück (breakfast) is always included. I packed my camera and a water bottle into my day pack and headed out on foot to explore München.

One of the first things that struck me was the large number of cyclists and bicycles. There were bike paths everywhere, often sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians - I had to be careful not to get run over! Bikes were standing against just about any available object in spite of abundant (and full) bike racks. In many areas, especially near the hauptbahnhof, they were stacked many layers deep, and I wondered how people managed to sort them out when they arrived back from their train rides. There is apparently little problem with theft since even the fanciest bikes were usually locked with cheap cables and chains through the front wheel and around the frame. Very few were actually locked to a stationary object. When people got off work from 5:00 - 6:00 PM, the evening commute of cyclists was quite a sight! People of all ages were riding back from work.

My first stop was right across the street from the hotel again to check out train departure times for tomorrow morning. I then headed towards "downtown" and the university area. There is little or no urban sprawl, so everything is built UP. The university buildings are large and imposing-looking structures made mostly of stone and concrete. The Englisher Garten park is huge; I walked around there for over 2 hours and probably saw only 20% of it. München is a remarkably clean city for its size and population. People don't litter and public areas are kept spotless. In the heart of the downtown area, near the state symphony and opera buildings, many of the streets are completely closed to motorized traffic. There is also a lot of contrast in the city. Near one park you can see a new government building (of quite controversial design, according to a local Münchener), a very old city school building in the process of restoration, and the vine-covered remains of a structure destroyed in World War II.

Thursday, June 23, 1994. München to Traunstein, Ising.

I was up at the usual hour of 5:30 AM and walked down to the Isar River before breakfast. Even early in the morning there were lots of people cycling to work or to the train stations. The Isar is flanked by a park and walkway/bike path along its entire length through the city.

The Germans definitely know how to have breakfast. Lots of fresh rolls, fruit, juices, cereals, yogurt, cheeses, cold meats, and coffee or tea. Although this basic breakfast fare repeated itself throughout the entire trip, I never got tired of it. After breakfast it was time to pack up again and catch the train to Traunstein. While waiting for my more mundane ride to arrive in the station, I got to see a couple of the I.C.E. bullet trains depart - those things look fast even when not moving!

The train ride to Traunstein went through kilometer after kilometer of farmland and forest. I was told that only 11% of the land in Germany is "developed", with the rest reserved for agriculture or forest preserves. Upon arrival at the Traunstein bahnhof, I was met by the two Backroads tour leaders, Rob and Virginia, as well as the other 14 participants. A short taxi trip brought the entourage to the Gutgasthaus Zum Goldenen Pflug in the tiny resort town of Ising near the Chiemsee lake. We checked into our rooms and then met back outside to be fitted to our rental bikes. I installed my seat and pedals and tried to make the thing fit as best as possible. Once the fitting was completed, the entire group took a short 17 km ride through the surrounding countryside. That's when I noticed how grimy the bikes were. Even Nick Lee would have been proud of the accumulated grundge! I also noticed that it took 2 pages of directions to cover this short ride, and that there were no maps included.

Following this first ride, we had a more detailed meeting with dinner during which the remainder of the ride was discussed and people got acquainted. The tour consisted of a very diverse group of folks from all over the United States. Cari and Robert formed a daughter-father team (this was an early high school graduation present) and were from Georgia; Dave was an engineer from Pasadena; Liz was a computer professional from Chicago; Herb was a languages expert (Oriental, no German!) from Chicago; David and Kathryn were a couple of accountants from Chicago; Karen and Mitch were newlyweds from southern California (on part of their honeymoon); Holly, Niamh, and Christin were programmers from Silicon Valley; Nancy was an accountant from Florida; Denise was a computer consultant from New York; our two ride leaders, Rob and Virginia, were from the Bay Area; finally there was this computer geek, Tim, from Reno. The ability of the riders varied widely from people who had only been on a bike for a couple of weeks to yours truly who has been riding for over 30 years. Most participants were in their mid thirties to early forties except for Cari (only 16) and Rob, who was approaching the crisis age of 30! Us "old" folks gave Rob a pretty hard time about turning 30... I was surprised by the large number of data processing professionals, but I guess the secret is now out that computer people are die-hard cyclists.

Friday, June 24, 1994. Chiemsee area.

After breakfast this morning we began the serious part of the tour with a 92 km ride along the shores of the Chiemsee. People could leave at any time after breakfast and a brief talk about the day's riding, and most folks were in no hurry. I typically got an early start because I was stopping a lot to take pictures; I'd have to ride pretty hard between photo-ops! A good portion of the route was on dirt and gravel bike trails, but the long wheelbase bikes handled this with no problems - sort of like riding a skinny tire mountain bike! A short 12 km into the ride brought us to the ferry terminal to Herreninsel. The main attraction of this small island is Schloss Herrenchiemsee, a never-finished project to copy the Palace of Versailles began by King Ludwig. It's pretty impressive, especially the gardens and fountains. The remainder of the ride followed more of the shore of the lake. In the town of Seeon there was a church over 1000 years old. On the optional longer route, I passed through scores of tiny little towns and farming villages, each house with its garden and flower boxes in the windows. Dinner this evening was outside because of the heat, and consisted of a buffet with grilled fish and potatoes - all locally caught/grown.

Saturday, June 25, 1994. Ising to Salzburg.

Today's ride took us into Salzburg and Austria. Once again, I opted for the longer, scenic route, and got to see Hellbrun Castle outside of Salzburg. The border crossing into Austria was rather anticlimactic: a wooden foot bridge over the Saalach River with a guard booth on the other side. If the guard felt like it, he would check your passport, but apparently I didn't look foreign enough to bother. The route into Salzburg took us along the Salzach River bike path with a spectacular view of the old part of the city. The inn for the night, once the confusing instructions on how to get there were deciphered, was the Goldener Hirsch which is located right on the Getreidegasse; the house where Mozart was born was just a few doors down!

Once checked-in at the hotel, I was off on foot again to explore Salzburg. Nearly all of the old part of town is closed to motorized traffic, so it is easy to get around. I hiked up the steep hill to Stift Nonnberg monastery and the Festung Hohensalzburg fortress, and then spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening wandering around the beautiful churches and buildings in old Salzburg. I stopped at a local biergarten for a snack. The weather continued to be unusually hot and humid, the 3 people who attended a concert that evening were "well-done" by the time it was over.

Sunday, June 26, 1994. Salzburg to Steyr.

The first part of today's 59 km route was a short ride to the Salzburg train station for a train transfer to Wels. There were no takers on the century (165 km) option which would have meant riding the entire way. I considered it but took one look at the 9 pages of instructions, with the longest part of the ride a mere 5 km without a turn, and decided that I'd like to get to Steyr before dark!

Once off the train in Wels, we got our bikes out of the bike car and made it a whole 2 blocks before being stopped by a parade. When the polizei waved our group across, we left the town and picked up the Kultur Radweg (Culture bike path). The first interesting stop of the day was the town of Kremsmünster and the Krems monastery, home of one of the oldest observatories in Europe. Although the monastery was open, the observatory was closed for the day. Next stop was the famous spa of Bad Hall. In the main town park a band was sitting down to lunch, and people from our tour who passed through town later said that the party was going strong later in the afternoon. The first surprise of the day came as we left Aschach and headed towards Saass; we were warned in the ride sheets about a very steep hill when leaving town, and sure enough it was there. It was also closed due to a traffic accident and we were routed on an even steeper hill. I swear that the thing was at least 45°, and was almost impossible to climb in the granny gear on this touring bike! At one point, a passing car didn't look like it was going to make it to the top. From that point, however, it was easy going to the town of Steyr, which was entered along the Enns river bike path. Here is where the second surprise of the day was waiting: Cityfest.

Steyr is over 1000 years old, and every year the entire place has a party on the last weekend in June. Most of the place closes down, motor traffic is banned from all of the old part of town, and people generally drink beer and eat baked chicken and go wild. Actually, I was not surprised by this event since my pen pal Renate told me all about it. The rest of the tour group and the ride leaders were rather amazed, but somehow the leaders talked the polizei into allowing them to get the Backroads van onto the street behind the hotel so that our luggage was waiting when we checked into the Hotel Mader (owned by the Mader family for over 300 years!). Fortunately, Renate had sent me a post card showing the main square of Steyr and had circled Hotel Mader, otherwise I would have had a hard time finding it among all the booths selling chicken and beer!

Photo by R. Wallner

After cleaning up and changing into my walking clothes, I was off on a quest to find Renate in the crowd. She found me first as I stepped out the door of the hotel; the Steyr Computer Club booth was right outside the hotel entrance. Over the next 2 hours I received a guided tour of Steyr, including a walk along both the Steyr and Enns rivers which meet in town, walks down the cobblestones of the old parts of town, and an auto trip up to the top of a hill just outside of the city where we were treated to a spectacular view of Steyr, Linz, upper and lower Austria, and Czechoslovakia. We got back just in time for dinner in front of the hotel plus live entertainment in the town square - a country and western music band. They were pretty bad, actually, singing some of the songs in English and some in German, but the local population didn't seem to care. A few Backroaders tried to teach the locals how to line dance without much success but offering considerable entertainment value to them. The festival finally started to break up around 9:00 PM, and booth disassembly and cleanup continued well into the early hours of the next morning.

Monday, June 27, 1994. Steyr to Kothmühle.

Today's 66 km route was easily the most difficult of the trip if the alternate route was chosen. It involved over 15 km and 1200 m of climbing in the continuing sticky heat. Before breakfast I took a walk around Steyr to take some pictures of places I spotted the previous evening but were too crowded to photograph effectively.

The difficult climbing to the tiny town of Saint Leonard was well worth the effort; the views on the way were straight out of The Sound of Music, and I was half expecting Julie Andrews to jump out from behind a tree and start singing! Saint Leonard itself was a small town built around an old church on the top of the ridge, and the view was spectacular. The descent was equally spectacular as the road curved and switched back down the face of the ridge. Another climb and descent were still to come, and yet another surprise was in store. The pavement ended, literally, and became a gravel road where it was being rebuilt by the Austrian version of NDOT. The climbing part wasn't actually too bad, but the descent on the other side, parts of which were 20% or better, got pretty exciting (I found myself wishing that I was on my mountain bike!). The pavement began again as the descent flattened-out and it was then just a few kilometers to the destination for the evening, the resort of Kothmühle.

After the noise and crowds of Steyr's Cityfest, the quiet rural setting was a welcome change of pace. The pub was apparently quite the local hot spot and there was a steady stream of Mercedes' and BMWs full of "young" people coming and going until around 9:00 PM. After that it was thankfully peaceful and quiet and I got a decent night's rest for a change.

Tuesday, June 28, 1994. Kothmühle to Dürnstein.

Today we rode to the Donau (Danube) and began the last stages of the tour by following the Donau Radweg to the ancient village of Dürnstein. As the unusually hot weather continued, the entire group started riding quite early in a futile attempt to escape some of the heat. Once again I took the long route (120 km) and picked up the Donau Radweg just outside of Grein.

To a person from a city where the length of bike routes is measured in blocks, try to imagine a bike route, much of which is bicycle-only trails, that is over 230 km long. That's 144 miles for those not on the metric system. The Donau Radweg follows the river through Austria from border to border and is kept in nearly perfect repair. There were hundreds of people out riding; I would pass groups of 25-50 cyclists, all riding their 3-speed commuter bikes and loaded up for picnics or camping trips.

The first major attraction was the optional ride up to Schloss Schallaburg, an old monastery noted for its terracotta figures and gardens. It was quite a steep climb, and somewhat disappointing. The terra cotta figures were impressive, but the rest of the monastery was filled with an art exhibit dedicated to coffee, tea, tobacco, and Coca Cola. (I'm not making this up!) The return trip took me (nobody else tried this route) back to the city of Melk. The appointed meeting place for the group was the tourist information center where some folks got a van ride to Dürnstein and we could lock up our bikes and hike up the cobblestones to the second major attraction of the day.

Melk is known for Stift Melk, a very large and quite beautiful monastery. I took a self-guided tour of the place and was rewarded with impressive views of the city and the Donau, marble hallways, an impressive library, an equally impressive chapel, and many rooms filled with art and other items collected by the monks over the years.

A few kilometers down the Donau Radweg from Melk put us in the Wachau wine country. Although the heat continued, the humidity eased up a bit (grapes don't like high humidity) and I was almost comfortable riding for the first time in several days. Near the end of the ride we took a small ferry across the Donau to Dürnstein and the Hotel Richard Löwenherz.

Dürnstein is a small walled village constructed upon the ruins of an old castle. You can still see parts of the old city wall, and the Richard Löwenherz is constructed from part of the original convent. The castle above the city, before it was torn down by the Swiss, was the place that Richard the Lionhearted was held for ransom when he came back from the Crusades. The main features of the hotel were a beautiful rose garden and a SWIMMING POOL! It certainly felt nice to catch rays for a while and then jump into the cool water!

Wednesday, June 29, 1994. Krems and Spitz.

Using the Richard Löwenherz as a base, the route today consisted of 2 out-and-back rides to the towns of Krems and Spitz. Krems was the location of yet another ancient church and monastery but the main attraction was the downtown walking area and shops (no motorized traffic allowed). Spitz was a much smaller village which also boasted a quaint downtown shopping area. On the way to Spitz was a beautiful chapel in the town of Weissenkirchen, and the tiny village of St. Michael had some neat stonework still left from the Middle Ages. Since the ride today was a short one of 73 km, everyone was back in time for a picnic lunch at the hotel before tackling the hike up to the ruins of the old castle.

The steep walk to the castle ruins ended in disappointment: the place was swimming in garbage from the local party animals. Some attempts had been made to stabilize the structure from erosion, but what little of the place that was left had been trashed. Only by hiking a few kilometers down a small trail was I able to find a tiny outpost that was pretty much left untouched. Most of us spent the rest of the day sitting around the pool and relaxing.

Thursday, June 30, 1994. Dürnstein to Wien.

After breakfast, we were on our own for a last short ride around the Dürnstein area or a walk along the Donau. At around 9:00 AM we met for group photos and good-byes to our tour leaders before boarding a chartered bus to Wien. For the first time in 8 days we found ourselves on a major highway for autos! The automobile traffic in Wien was incredible, as was the dirt, noise, and pollution. The final destination was the West Bahnhof where folks said "good-bye" and caught trains to their next destinations.

Since my flight back to Reno didn't leave until tomorrow, I got directions to my hotel for the night and then purchased a 24-hour U-bahn (subway) pass and an S-bahn ticket for the train to the airport on Friday. The underground rail system in Wien was not nearly as clean as the one in München, but the trains ran frequently enough to get me to most of the attractions that I wanted to see in such a short time.

The Hotel Tigra was just a few blocks from a U-bahn stop so I checked-in and unpacked my walking gear. The strangest thing was having to lock the room door after so many nights in places where it was unnecessary. Then once again I loaded up camera and film and headed out on a quick walking and subway tour of Wien. My overall impression was that of a big dirty city in a state of decay. Much of the once-beautiful architecture is suffering badly from the effects of years of pollution and neglect. Within walking distance from the Tigra and inside the "Ring" was St. Stephan's Cathedral, the Imperial Palace and gardens, and the State Opera House. The entire downtown area, especially near the Opera House, was thick with soldiers from the Austrian army troops all armed to the teeth. Just on the other side of the "Ring" was the Rathaus building and park (roughly equivalent to our City Hall), and the Natural History Museum. The main pedestrian areas of Graben, Kohlmarkt, and Kärntner Strasse were lined with shops and were obviously the most popular with the tourists. With the little afternoon time remaining, I took the subway out to Schloss Schönbrunn for a look at this impressive palace and even more impressive gardens which covered about 3 sq. km. The palace, too, was literally surrounded by Austrian army personnel. Between my bad German and one soldier's equally bad English, I was able to find out that all the security was due to Luciano Pavarotti singing at the State Opera House that evening. He was staying at the Schloss Schönbrunn and would a little later be going to the Opera House for his performance. I guess the Wieners take the protection of opera stars quite seriously! Finally it was back to the hotel Tigra and a good night's rest before the long trip home tomorrow.

Friday, July 1, 1994. Wien to Reno.

After breakfast it was only a short walk to the subway and then to the City Air Terminal to catch the S-bahn to the airport. In Wien, the "S" must stand for "Slow" as the train was not only late, but took quite a while to get to the airport. Once at the airport it became obvious why the ticket indicated to check in early. It took nearly an hour to go through all the passport checks, questioning by airport security personnel, and to have my two bags X-rayed and thoroughly hand inspected. There were soldiers everywhere, all wearing Kevlar vests and quite heavily armed. The aircraft were not located anywhere near the main terminal. Instead, passengers were herded onto buses after having tickets, passports, and luggage checked again, and then driven out to the troop-surrounded planes. There was no "boarding by row numbers" - basically it was every man/woman for themselves!

I thought that this would be the end of excitement for the day and the beginning of another long, boring airplane flight. Wrong. In München a group of tourists from Budapest boarded the plane, and they were convinced that every small bit of turbulence encountered would bring the L-1011 crashing into the sea. I was seated next to a girl from a Texas high school group that was returning from their tour of Europe; since there are no drinking age limitations on international flights, she kept herself pretty well pickled for the entire flight. The Budapest group would let out screams of terror with every bump; I almost expected them to kiss the ground when we landed at JFK Airport in New York.

After customs and changing flights in New York, it was off to Salt Lake City and finally home to Reno. It was good to be back home again.

Some overall impressions.

Germany and Austria are both amazingly clean. On the entire riding part of the trip, I never saw a piece of broken glass on the roads or bike paths. There was very little trash until I got to Wien. As a matter of fact, there's more garbage and trash along the streets and paths within a 3-block radius of my home than I saw on my entire trip, and I live in a pretty "clean" neighborhood.

Even the funkiest farm road, and I travelled on a few hundred miles of them, was in better condition than 95% of the streets in Reno. As a matter of fact, even the dirt bike trails were in better condition than most of the streets here!

Folks over there are very much involved in recycling. You only saw trash cans in major cities such as Salzburg and Wien and seldom just one; typically there were several for various types of glass, paper, and cans. As near as I can tell there are few, if any, landfills. The train from Salzburg to Wels passed through a major recycling center.

Drivers in both Germany and Austria seem to ignore speedometers but are very aware of cyclists. I never once had a close call with any of the numerous motorists trying to set land speed records on the narrow farm roads that we mostly traveled; they would slow down, pass when safe to do so, and then blast off again! Drivers in general seemed much more courteous to each other as well, always signaling turns and obeying traffic lights and signs. Never once saw anyone pull the customary rolling stop at a stop sign or try to blast through a light on yellow. According to my friend Renate, penalties for such behavior are quite severe, and if a motorist hits a cyclist, the motorist is automatically at fault. The legal proceedings for traffic violations are also very different: once you get a ticket, that's the end of it. No lawyers, no courts, no appeals, no BS.

There are lots of cyclists in Germany and Austria but very few "recreational" riders. People use bikes to get around daily (i.e. a bicycle is considered to be real transportation!), and they mostly ride what we would call 3-speed clunkers. They're all equipped with lights, fenders, and a bell.

The punksters and what I refer to as Mountain Bike Nazis are the same abroad as they are here: same clothes, same equipment, same attitude problem.

The dangers of smoking and second-hand smoke are apparently unknown to the Germans and Austrians. There are very few non-smoking public areas except for some spots in airports. Trains had non-smoking cars. My guess is that about 40-50% of the population smokes.

I never saw a drinking fountain.

The drastic time zone change (9 hours!) didn't bother me very much. I napped as much as possible on the plane flights, kept well hydrated, and tried to get into my usual routine in the local time zone as quickly as possible. I was a little tired on my first afternoon in München and on the day after I returned to Reno, but that was about all. I think that all the activity of walking and cycling helped ease the transition.

Nobody except the Backroads group wore helmets, so we were easy to spot. Most of the people out on tours or day rides wore cycling shorts and some sort of t-shirt; only the half-dozen or so racers I saw were wearing jerseys of any kind. Few cleats, clipless pedals, or toe clips and straps.

By European standards, airport security in the United States is a joke.

American hotels/motels could learn a thing or two about "breakfast included" from the German and Austrian innkeepers. The Germans and Austrians could learn a lot about plumbing and room ventilation from the Americans.

On European TV, they show entire mountain bike and road bike races. I should have stayed long enough to watch the beginning of the Tour!

Given the amount of farmland I rode through, I saw almost no dogs. Lots of cats, however. In the cities I finally saw people with dogs. It looks like the cats do the work on German and Austrian farms, which are mostly growing hay and grain.

I'd go back again in a second! Before the next trip, though, I'd definitely need to learn some decent German. If I could redesign the Backroads tour, I'd add at least 2 days and spend 2 days in Salzburg and 2 days in Steyr. On my own, I'd spend at least 4-5 days in München, the same in Salzburg, and 5+ days in Wien. I'd also make the effort to bring my own bicycle although I'm not sure I'd want a really nice racing bike - a touring or mountain bike would be more appropriate and useful. The best way to see this part of the world would be to take a train to a town and establish a "base of operations" for touring around the countryside on day tours or occasional overnight ones. I will probably go with Backroads again on other tours but will think carefully about renting a bicycle from them in the future.

Next summer - Ireland????

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