Picture the scene; it is twilight, my wife, my eight - year old son and myself are pushing our bicycles up a busy country road in Austria - suddenly three supercharged motorbikes whip by like bats out of hell. There’s an oncoming juggernaut ahead so without dropping below 80mph the motorbikes have to swerve inches in front of us leaving us frozen with fear. The roaring horn of another giant lorry charging up behind us breaks the silence and sends us diving for the ditch - except that there isn’t a ditch just a dense forest so we huddle together at the edge of the tarmac as the monster machine rattles past. My family burst into uncontrollable tears and I feel vulnerable AND very angry. Welcome to the first day of the Morris family cycling holiday –It wasn’t meant to be like this, the idea was to gently introduce my loved ones to the joys of discovering a country on two wheels. Only eleven hours into the holiday and it was doubtful whether they would ever get back on a bicycle again.
Before the Austrian adventure my son Ben hadn’t cycled much further than this local school and my wife had given up pedal power after a nasty encounter with a white van when she was a student. To win them over I had to make sure our first family trip was as stress free, safe and pleasure packed as possible. I began my research by excluding any tours that included hills, heavy luggage, rain and most important of all terrifying traffic. After first homing in on Denmark as a safe Scandinavian bet I came across a specialist travel company called Hooked on Cycling who suggested the River Danube Cycle Way in northern Austria as the best bespoke route for beginners. Their tour expert Jon Hook explained that the traditional route followed the Danube gently downhill all the way from Passau on the German border through Linz and onto Vienna with ninety per cent of the journey on dedicated cycle paths. Flattish and car free - wunderbar! And better still, the seven-night package offered by Hooked on Cycling included bicycle hire, maps, decent hotels, luggage transfers and a local back up team all at a very reasonable price. Sounded like the perfect choice for cycle tour virgins, so where did it go wrong?
In short, our first day’s ride was too far for beginners- 42.5 kms not 31kms as advised. As a result we missed the last bike ferry and were then badly redirected by our Hooked on Cycling Route /Map onto a busy road on the opposite side of the Danube. Grim first impressions are difficult to wipe out - unlike vulnerable cyclists on an autobahn.
As for the problems of the rest of the trip I mostly blame myself. Rather like our disastrous naturist holiday when my wife hadn’t fully grasped that going to a nudist camp actually involved taking her clothes off – I hadn’t fully taken on board that a week’s family cycling holiday does involve a lot of cycling. I remember reading the itinerary beforehand and thinking that 265 kms in seven days per did seem a tad ambitious but spread out over a week not impossible:
Day 2 Passau to Wesenufer 31 kms (easy but wrong) - Day 3 Kramesau to Linz 45kms (manageable- just) Perg to Maria Taferi 58kms (better hide that one from my wife) and so on.
Actually in isolation a full days cycling of about 35kms was fine, it was the accumulative effect of several days on the bike that was the problem. So for my poor wife, tired legs, sore hands and the delicate problem of her undercarriage versus her saddle turned her holiday into more of an endurance challenge than a relaxing break.
My own problem lay with the luggage. The idea of having our heavy bags transported for us sounded like a luxury but soon became a dreadful daily chore. By eight thirty a.m - way before your holiday espresso had time to kick in, our entire luggage had to be packed and ready for collection. No mean feat for a family with a scattergun approach to unpacking - one big bang and we can cover an entire hotel room in seconds.
Our belongings then went onto the next hotel so we were tied into covering a pre determined (longish) distance just to catch up with a clean pair of underpants. The rigid schedule is of course essential for the difficult logistics of transporting hundreds pieces of luggage along the Danube route. It’s all rather impressive in a Teutonic way; it just felt like the tail wagging the dog and didn’t fit in with the spontaneity and freedom that I normally associate with cycling. Similarly dragging my son away from the many excellent Austrian playgrounds and outdoor swimming pools along the route in order to keep up with our tight timetable didn’t feel much like our normal freewheeling holiday either.
Of course the journey wasn’t all about traffic terror and damaged derrieres, we did managed to enjoy some fabulousarchitecture and scenery along the route. The steep sided Danube Ring around Schlogen was stunning and the whizzing through the cornfields - as high as cyclist eye- around Feldkirchen well worth the detour. But the real discovery of the holiday was the Wachau wine district 70 kms north west of Vienna. Winding between the medieval towns of Melk, Durnstein and Krems the Wachau valley is stuffed full of fairy tale castles, Baroque monasteries, over-the-top abbeys and best of all rolling vineyards that produce complex white wines. Its a rich, cultured landscape that’s quintessentially European and one that is best savoured from the saddle of Europe’s finest form of transport, the bicycle.
*If you are a beginner and want to do the whole route between Passau and Vienna spread it over two weeks rather than one. That way you can build in rest days and enjoy all treats along the Danube without the rush.
*Steer clear of the cheap river cruises. In the summer the boats are hot, smell of chip fat and are crowded with the very coach parties you have been trying to avoid
*Ditch the excess baggage and be spontaneous. We would have had a much more relaxed (although slightly smellier) holiday if we had carried our own reduced luggage. It is worth aimingfor the larger hotels but if you get stuck there are plenty of bed and breakfast room along the route. Or if you are willing to carry you own tent there is always the option of camping at one of Lower Austria's fine campsites
*If you are a sucker for a good hotel stay in just one place and explore the Danube Bike Trail to the east and west. Any of the towns in the Wachau region would make good bases for your tour
My real complaint with the holiday is not with Hooked on Cycling, who as far I could gather are doing a fine job providing grown-up trips for experienced cyclist. My worry is for families like my own who are likely to be put off cycling by unsafe and over ambitious routes. I had always believed that the cycle paths of Europe were vastly superior to the patchwork of routes that we have in Britain. The truth is that Danube route suffers from the same problems we have in the UK. Without the proper provision of traffic lights, tunnels or bridges the sections where cars and bikes mix can be very dangerous. Similarly dedicated cycle lanes may sound safe but where they run too close to a busy roads or worse still actually face oncoming traffic you have to question their recreational value. Try watching an eight year old on a small bicycle wobbling along on a cycle route smack up against a steady flow of euro lorries and you’ll agree.
The Danube Bike Trail is supposed one of the best and safest in Europe yet there wasn’t one whole morning or afternoon of our trip when I felt completely relaxed. Surely there is somewhere in Europe where it is possible to experience a weekend’s worth of family cycling without worrying about motor vehicles - I would welcome any suggestions from readers.
THREE out of FIVE Good value for money but much more suitable for experienced cyclists than novice families.
Hooked on Cycling telephone 1501 744727 www.hookedoncycling.co.uk the site is well organized and includes an independent very positive account of the Danube cycle trip from experienced cyclists. Self guided tours Passau -Vienna Tour start at £389 per person based on two people sharing and including bike rental.
Austrian bicycle Tour operators Donau Touristik www.donaureisen.com (the ground handlers for Hooked on Cycling) offer a wider range of cycle tour packages along the Danube.