Day 17 (17. Tag) 17th September
Zwentendorf - Vienna 51.6 kms (904.0 kms from start)
Zwentendorf - Tuelln - Burg Greifenstein - Klosterneuburg - Wien
Click here for Day 18 - Vienna - Bratislava
The day dawned cool and cloudy but thankfully the rain had stopped. Don recharged his phone and second camera battery the previous night. This was a regular job and was easy if we had a room. When we were camping he used to sit in the shower block doing his crossword for the hour or so it took to recharge. We had breakfast at 8.00 am and spoke to a young Japanese man who had holed up in Zwentendorf for a few days. We paid our host and left. The Radweg was very straightforward to Tuelln. We rode on the right bank Treppelweg all the way rather than going inland to Pischelsdorf. The Treppelweg went under the bridge just before Tuelln and then around an inlet and back to the river where we saw a rather nice sailboat moored. There was an exhibition of Hundertwasser artworks in Tuelln. Hundertwasser is one of my favourite European artists but I'd seen most of his work already so we didn't stop for the exhibition.
As we rode through a parkland we came across a wonderful set of scuptures depicting East meets West from the Nibelungenlied Old German saga. The sculptures were larger than life and absolutely superb. The plaque reads: "On her bridal journey into the land of the Huns, Kriemhild met King Etzel and his followers her in Tuelln. This meeting was described by the poet in the noble form from 1200AD. Kriemhild alights from her horse, two princes carry her train and Count Ruediger, her chaperone, introduces her to the King and his numerous followers, Germans and Huns. In honour of the queen, a knights tounament took place on the fields of Tuelln, where Etzel was able to show the enormous might of his empire. This event is worth hundreds of verses for the poet. They then moved on to Vienna where there was a magnificent wedding. That the poet used Tuelln for this important meeting in the saga, demonstrates the importance of the town around 1200. Of course the memories of the poet have some influence - 250 years before his time the border between West and East (Germany and Hungary) stood here".
This memorial fountain which symbolises the meeting of East and West was constructed in 2005.
From Tuelln we continued on the Treppelweg and along the way we dropped down near Langenlebarn for coffee and cake. The kiosk was a real dive and at first there was no cake but then the waitress found something in the freezer. Not the best cake we'd sampled but it had to do. It looks much better in the photo.
The track now went through some nice forest and leafy suburbs as we approached Klosterneuburg. The Radweg got a bit messy because of roadworks. We picked our way around all the detours, riding through an industrial area on the edge of town, until we headed once more for the Treppelweg along the right bank of the river. As we approached Vienna we could see all the bridges in the distance.
We rode along the Treppelweg under the Nordbruecke, the Florisdorferbruecke, the Nordbahn, the Brigittenauerbruecke and up to the Johann-Nestoy-Reichsbruecke which we crossed and we then found ourselves coming out at UNO city. Ursula had already told us to take the U-Bahn to Kagranerplatz. We managed to get the bikes into a lift (one at a time) to the platform and rode the wonderful metro train to our destination. I rang Ursula again for directions and we slowly rode to her place. It was wonderful meeting up with her and Otto again. We stayed in their son's apartment for the next few days doing some sightseeing and taking a short day trip into the Czech Republic.
