Boog's Blog

May 13, 2008 Arrival in Melk

After an annoyingly wind-in-the-face ride, the hearty Sacking Krewe arrived
in Melk, home of the famous Benedictine Monastery started in the 11th
century. Like many other buildings here, it was Baroqued during that period
(photos). The onions on top are decorated like pastry.

Brought to you by Tip Top Tea (The Tea of Record). This week's special is
the Bike-in-the-Wind blend, a hearty blend for those days when the wind is
always in your face.

Dinner notes (photos): Sharon had "pikeperch" a mysteriously named fish that
tastes and resembles plaice or maybe cod, if there were any cod left.
Accompanied by a glass of Most, the cider from the Mostviertel region. Very
sneaky liquid. Strong coffee was needed for dessert. Jeff had a "Wachau
Turkey Stew" but without the schlag (well, a little was snuck into the
bottom of the pot). This dish had turkey, spaetzle, and some fruit
(including a slicce of banana (?).

Hmmm… just tried to upload the pictures from Enns and Melk, along with the
dinner pics. Nope, flickr did not want them today. Strange, this happens
from time to time with the program Flock

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13 May

Austria appears to be a long birthday party. Cake, ice cream, strudel, ice cream deserts, and of course beer.

Maybe more ice cram eating than smoking and there is a lot of smoking.

This Gasthaus in grein, family owned and managed like seemingly all, is a very friendly one with an excellent shower.

The bread of Austria looks a lot like the bread of Bavaria but it is very different. Has the consistancy of wonder bread. Looks good, tastes ok but like good German bread.

The cathedral is big. See Wikipedia for details or wait for visit pics tomorrow.

Will try to update flickr pics later tonite my time. Maybe even a dinner pic.

across the river.jpg

more beauty.jpg

melk.jpg

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So- has the very good Gasthaus been there since 1468 or 1563 (impressive
either way, but a 100 years is still a long time by our colonial
standards).
Libby

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12 may

Yesterday there was a Headwind of 30 to 40 km per hour according to the news. Today it is is only 10 to 11. Doubt we could have made Grein yesterday. The wind direction and strength is to change on Thursday.

Up to the hill city with castle of Wallsee. We are now in Most country. Have seen some orchards but not nearly as many as we expected.

Grein is a small town situated on the water's edge and rising steeply well up past the castle. Our first choice hotel is uphill by car over 10. We found a good, very good, Gasthaus in the center. No net. No English TV. Good beer and food. Friendly. Perfect.

The rathaus was built in 1593 and the attached state theater, the oldest still standing in Austria was built in 1791.

The band is currently play Danke Schon, the Wayne Newton version according to QB. The band is local and plays each year on Fietsten Montag.

crossing Enns.jpg

wallsee.jpg

grein.jpg

we are not alone.jpg

our hotel.jpg

original rathaus.jpg

a welcoming brass band.jpg

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QB pictures of the day now up on flikr.  

They include a visit to the Roman period museum (tourist interests expand dramatically on three day holiday weekends when virtually nothing is open).   Museum turned out to be mildly interesting, especially their attempt to put up foods, stuff, and items of the time with prices in Denara.  Could compare the price of a chicken and a beer and an egg with a slave or lion for the arena.   Some pictures were taken, not sure if you will be able to resolve the prices.   At the front desk I asked for additional literature or a postcard or pamphlet  etc. on  this portion of the museum. 

"Ja, sehr interesant aber wir haben nicht mehr"     Nada, nothing. 

The clothing exhibit of 1st -2nd century woman's dress looked liked modern Scottish.   At the front desk I said to the Austrian desk employee that this is Scottish and not Roman.  In her most sincere manner she pulled out a book and showed me that it must be correct as "it is heir schreiben"  it is here written.   That was the last word (Don's expression of a circle with an x in it).

QB could not resist the picture of a dry cleaning store described as a "putzerei"  See flickr.

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11 May

Took a rest and sightseeing day in Enns.  QB wandered the town, Konditori, and Schloss.  I took a side trip to Sankt Florian a town with a major church and some nice architecture.   As QB has the camera, pictures of her day later, I had only the cell phone.

The blurry one is the inside of the rather large structure started in about the year 800 making it very much  Carolingen.   The inside is a mixture of many styles representing its varied history – but quite beautiful in much of its simplicity. 

To see better pictures look at

http://cms.ttg.at/websites/stflorian/intro.htm

Nice bike ride over to the town except for a ferocious  wind  – one way was  real  easy. 

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10 May

Leaving Linz and its original Linzer torte behind. The version here is much more crumbly and need of coffee than what we get in Cal.

Scottish couple on your, maybe visible in pic. They are well travelled.

Short ride today as we wished to leave Linz and have to plan hotels and cities carefully as this is a big holiday werend and ww are very close to Vienna but do not need to be there until the 18th.

Enns claims to be the oldest city in Austria. Its central tower and rathaus is all in Latin.
Ride today through fields of garlic and the start of the orchards for Most. This area is its heartland.

First really windy day. Headwind of course.

The town is lovely. Does not have the small windy streets of Passau but the tower with Latin is good on the eyes. The sundial, yet again, was off by an hour.

The church seems to have a garlic dome.

Dinner wa defense against the heavy wurst art.

abwinden.jpg

power work.jpg

holiday weekend dinner.jpg

maypole and turm.jpg

dinner.jpg

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Jeff,

Loved the cloud photos–been doing some here, as they have similar characteristics (to the German/Austrian variety) and different somehow from our California clouds.

Well, we have now gone from shmucks to the Canterbury Tales, wo willst us gehen next? Not only is there this Danube-riding follow the exciting boog adventures as cyclists, but we are all getting a fine education. I hope the proper degrees will be distributed at the concluding ceremonies.  The male boog continues his practice of distributing homework to the innocent masses, even from a bicycle!  Truly amazing.  Even the Pope replies.

By the way, is the "Bouygues" telephone company in France one of the Boog subsidiaries?.

BTW, Jeff: this "Bio" stuff seems to very prominent in the supermarkets we frequebnt in Paris.  Even the chocolate. Must be very reassuring to people, as the magic word "organic" seems to have this mesmerizing effect on the Californians and others who can afford it.  Let's hear it now for organic junk food. Is this a contradiction in terms or just good marketing? 

Dee

—–Original Message—–
From: Jeff Gray
Sent: May 9, 2008 12:45 PM
To: vox <980286c3a15f1c66@moblog.vox.com>
Cc: sacking@netbox.com
Subject: BSD Aschach

8 May  in Aschach

This post is out of order as we could not send this one earlier so used the cell phone to update and send pictures. 

Not sure yet but may revert to the older method of using the cell phone for posting, sending camera pictures only to flickr and add comments, like this one, when connections are possible.

  The ride out of Passau to Aschach was probably the best ride of the trip so far.  Scenery and weather both cooperated.  That and one ferry ride, we could have taken more but the ride was so nice we took the road.
 
Once on the South bank the area became rural and very quiet.  Stopped at a farm for lunch and had our first "Most".   Did not realize at the time, read about it later in the day, that this area is famous for its "Most", a light colored but strongly alcoholic (clost to 5%) apple and pear cider.   On the 9th we will go through a village that has special orchards and a museum of "Most".

Don pointed out correctly (discussed this with some locals) that  we were at a "jausensatation".  This I learned is an Austrian word and does not really exist in German.  The beer garden in Linz on the 9th had a variation on the spelling Jaus'n or some close variation.

The number of fellow traveler has increased dramatically; maybe more in one day than all previous days combined.  The weekend ride will be very crowded, maybe we will need a number to get on the road. 

We met couples from Check and from Slovacia, they asked us for advice as their german was non-existant. In general much harder to strike up a conversation as so many are going the same way it is like being in a popular resort.

Walked around the lovely town of cafes and riverside views.  Went into the shops and found that we could barely understand the local dialect. The items on the menu are very similar but the spelling and punctuation are quiet different.  The dialect is something like Mulhlenfrienden.

QB found a number of Gartenswerk (gnomes) to both admire in the shops and photograph on the road.  Their pictures as well as others are now on flickr.

Linz is a one day city so we will move onto Enns tomorrow.  Enns by their marketing is the oldest city in Austria. 

—
Please mark your address book – my new address is jwg@boogs.net

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8 May in Aschach

This post is out of order as we could not send this one earlier so used the
cell phone to update and send pictures.

Not sure yet but may revert to the older method of using the cell phone for
posting, sending camera pictures only to flickr and add comments, like this
one, when connections are possible.

The ride out of Passau to Aschach was probably the best ride of the trip
so far. Scenery and weather both cooperated. That and one ferry ride, we
could have taken more but the ride was so nice we took the road.

Once on the South bank the area became rural and very quiet. Stopped at a
farm for lunch and had our first "Most". Did not realize at the time, read
about it later in the day, that this area is famous for its "Most", a light
colored but strongly alcoholic (clost to 5%) apple and pear cider. On the
9th we will go through a village that has special orchards and a museum of
"Most".

Don pointed out correctly (discussed this with some locals) that we were at
a "jausensatation". This I learned is an Austrian word and does not really
exist in German. The beer garden in Linz on the 9th had a variation on the
spelling Jaus'n or some close variation.

The number of fellow traveler has increased dramatically; maybe more in one
day than all previous days combined. The weekend ride will be very crowded,
maybe we will need a number to get on the road.

We met couples from Check and from Slovacia, they asked us for advice as
their german was non-existant. In general much harder to strike up a
conversation as so many are going the same way it is like being in a popular
resort.

Walked around the lovely town of cafes and riverside views. Went into the
shops and found that we could barely understand the local dialect. The items
on the menu are very similar but the spelling and punctuation are quiet
different. The dialect is something like Mulhlenfrienden.

QB found a number of Gartenswerk (gnomes) to both admire in the shops and
photograph on the road. Their pictures as well as others are now on flickr.

Linz is a one day city so we will move onto Enns tomorrow. Enns by their
marketing is the oldest city in Austria.

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9 May

Ride to the Austrian city of Linz, known primarily for steel and chemicals and Hitler's intended empire capital.

Just like the Canterbury tales, the weather has changed, pilgrims are on their way, strangers sharing stories, all headed to the same place.

If someone would email the first 12 or so lines it would be appreciated.

Another town, another beer garden. Another town and once again a lack, read none, of stands for Pommes frites or waffles or wurst. Only in eating places.

The German word Kartofflen has changed to earth apples like the French. Italian and Spanish for potato?

The Dom here claims to seat 20000. Good stained glass windows.

on the road.jpg

same road.jpg

Linz.jpg

beer garden.jpg

napkin on wurst.jpg

Dom.jpg

festival.jpg

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