Day 8: July 15, 2025

 Today was day 4 of the VBT trip. We started the day in Melk and ended the day in Durnstein. Tonight we will sail to Vienna.

There is an early morning exercise class every day, and Walter and I went to talk to the woman who was running it to see what she typically did. We weren't interested in cardio - we do enough of that on the bike. We were interested in stretching and she said she did a combination of conventional stretching, yoga and pilates. (My gym, the JCC, calls it yogalates, and while the name is cute, it doesn't do either well IMHO.)

We couldn't fit it in today because the morning schedule was very tight. Breakfast opened at 7:30 and we had to be off the boat and ready to ride at 8:30. That's two hours of activity squeezed into one.

VBT does a route preview every morning before we start riding.

On this trip, the van and the bikes park near the ship, so we get off the boat before riding. Here's Natalia giving us the low-down.


And we're off. The route is again on a series of bike paths along the Danube. 


It's important to point out bathrooms on the route. Some require payment. 

There allegedly was a nice public bathroom into our morning ride. Here we are in the space where the bathroom was located. Unfortunately, we were unable to get the door open. Turns out we were just weaklings with skinny biker arms.


Public urination in not illegal in Europe as long as it is done discreetly. The expression is to find a "green door".  


The owner would probably not find this amusing.

Natalia told us about a neolithic stone carving, created by a early hominid. If that is true, it is a pretty refined piece of art. We had to elbow our way into a German tour group to get this picture.


Here is the VBT van at a snack stop. The terraced hills are for grapes.


I took that picture from a bike rental shop (below).


We met the ship at Durnstein for lunch.

Morning stats: https://www.strava.com/activities/15122116949, 22.5 flat miles.

The afternoon ride included a stop at a church with a feature Natalia refused to divulge.

The cemetery contained well-maintained family plots rather than individual burials.

This was a typical scene from today's ride.


There were 12 of us on this tour, four of us plus eight others. Six of them were on ebikes. 

On more than one tour, we were the last ones to finish because the ebikers were much faster going up hills. Because this tour was much flatter, we were often the first ones to finish.

Because today's route involved a lot of stops, we did a lot of leap-frogging with the ebikers.


The afternoon loop included a ferry across the river.


Oddly, the boat travels sideways, or so it appears to me.




Here is Walter relaxing on the boat. No lounge chair needed.

Approaching the dock.

They grow apricots in this region.

Afternoon stats: https://www.strava.com/activities/15122116949, 14 flat miles.

VBT organized a wine-tasting tour after the ride. I passed.

And now we are on the move to Vienna.

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