The view over Passau
Well it’s been a mixture of events this week riding through Austria from Passau in Germany to Vienna, the Austrian Capital. Some highs of great food and friends in Linz and then some lows regarding a Wild Boar near Tulln and a cold night on a bench, but lets start at the beginning…
Herd of sheep outside Dillingen. Quite eerie, if you expand the picture you’ll see nearly all of them making eye contact.
Well I’ve just reached Passau, the end of the Danube in Germany, on my last leg from Dillingen. Nine days cycling with no rest days (only one 50km half day), all camping bar one night in a hostel and I must say I am weary! Whilst I am significantly fitter than I was when I left I’ve found that gradually, when cycling everyday, I still seem to build up fatigue. At the start of the 9 days I slept 7 hours a night, at the end I am up to around 12. I think I may be pushing too hard but it’s good to learn what I am capable of whilst still in the safe surroundings of western europe. Anyway on with a quick summary of riding this leg.
My pace is starting to pick up now and I’m well on my way down the Danube, it’s been an interesting week or so since I last posted on the ride from Luxembourg to Strasbourg. Firstly I spent a day off resting in Strasbourg and spent a couple of hours seeing the place, I don’t know if it’s because I had no real expectations of the place (mainly stopped there as it was a logical place on the route to the Danube) or because of the nature of cycling all the way their but I really enjoyed just walking about the town.
Strasbourg Cathedral
The Cycle path entrance to Luxembourg City
So the next little leg of the trip to Strasbourg is now complete and I’ve got myself another day of sightseeing tomorrow so I thought I’d do a quick write up whilst having a night off in the hostel. Last time I left you in Hollenfels, Luxembourg where I then did a short 18 mile cycle into Luxembourg city, the first 5 miles towards Mersh through winding forests being some of the nicest cycling scenery I’ve ever seen!
Admin building at Beelitz Heilstätten
I’m confident this installment will be a nice mix of my “Weekends away” series and my regular theme of slightly unusual trips. A while a go I stumbled upon a blog post talking about a set of abandoned hospital buildings south of Berlin in a town called Beelitz Heilstätten. They were originally a set of TB hospitals which were then converted into military hospitals during the first world war (Hitler received treatment in one of them) and then Sanatoriums after the war. Eventually they were re-purposed again by the Russians when they occupied East Germany after the second world war.
James Finnerty 