Kraftwerk

What is this Kraftwerk? Since we’ve been riding along the Donau there’s been signs everywhere. Do the ladies of the GCWA (German country women’s association) get together at frequent intervals along the river to crochet and quilt? (Go on, shoot me for my outrageous generalisations. I like a good craft hobby as much as many others and I know a number of women in the CWA who get together and happily craft. I don’t know so many men who do the same.)

Anyway, that theory seems unlikely.

What about the German band Kraftwerk, pioneers of electronic music and eventual anti-nuclear influencers? There’s some pretty permanent signs around and almost every time we see a Kraftwerk sign we are diverted away from the river for a time. Perhaps not the band then.

The Danube is a fast-flowing river with a natural steep gradient, which makes it ideal for hydropower stations. In the first 1,000km of the upper Danube there are 59 hydropower stations meaning that the river is interrupted on average every 16km by a power station.

And that’s what kraftwerk means: power station. Mystery solved. Of course, because the river is used intensively by river traffic each of the power stations also needs to have locks to allow the movement of all the rivercraft up and down the river. Most of the hydropower stations must also be terribly top-secret to cause all the diversions of the bike route as well.

Today’s ride is fairly long but fairly fast because the wind gods are on our side and we are blasted from behind which is great. We’re at the end of a long four-day stretch and have a three-night stopover planned in Vienna. Getting there quickly will be a good thing.

We ride across a kraftwerk today. It’s not the first, but one of only a few that we are not diverted away from. We hope to see one of the large riverboats come into the lock, but all we see is one audacious small boat as it motors into the lock. Will they operate the huge lock for one tiny vessel? Or does it have to wait for one or more of the big boats to come along? We will never know, because Vienna is calling.

The approach to big cities is not always great. Ten years ago Neil and I rode a long and winding way into Vienna along busy streets and twisting bike lanes. It was that trip into the city that made us vow to look at alternatives for getting into major cities, like taking trains instead of riding. That doesn’t fit too well with this trip as we are both determined we are going to ride every single kilometre to Budapest.

Luckily the ride into to Vienna, though not really interesting, is easy. While the early part of the ride are mostly on paved tracks alongside the river, the latter part is along a bicycle super highway that runs for about 10km between the Donau and the New Donau. We’re staying in an apartment fairly close to the Donau so in theory getting there should be easy. It’s not as easy as hoped (navigation in big cities can be pretty tricky) but we eventually arrive, stash our bikes, clean up and relax.

Does Ikea have an AirBNB furnishing service? Our apartment is almost entirely equipped by Ikea: balcony furniture, crockey, cutlerty, plasticware, curtains and tracks, living room chairs, tacky wall art … you name it. But it is large, airy, light and quiet, even though we are right on a tram line, there is a secure place to hang our bikes, there is a washing machine … and it is air-conditioned!

We foray into the city for dinner. Vienna is a such a grand old place with the most elaborately decorated buildings and the vibe of a city that knows how special it is. The place is humming on a Thursday night, welcoming us for a long-awaited revisit of this lovely city.

Stats for today:

• Distance: 81.29km
• Climb: 86m
• Average speed: 18.7km/h
• Average temperature: 27C
• Moving time: 4:21:21
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken on the balcony of our apartment, sitting at our Ikea table on our Ikea chairs with their Ikea cushions.

Along the way today: