{"id":17490,"date":"2015-07-26T01:47:44","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T07:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/?p=17490"},"modified":"2017-11-18T13:00:16","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T20:00:16","slug":"taucks-ms-savor-day-seven-wachau-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/2015\/07\/taucks-ms-savor-day-seven-wachau-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Tauck’s ms Savor: Danube Reflections, Day Seven, Wachau Valley, A Guest Pedals Along With Me"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leaving<\/a>

Leaving Grein. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThere are two kinds of people. One kind, you can just tell by looking at them at what point they congealed into their final selves. It might be a very nice self, but you know you can expect no more suprises from it. Whereas, the other kind keep moving, changing … They are fluid. They keep moving forward and making new trysts with life, and the motion of it keeps them young. In my opinion, they are the only people who are still alive. You must be constantly on your guard against congealing.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u2015\u00a0Gail Godwin<\/p>\n

I have spent a life in motion, an itinerant cyclist in my twenties (pedaling across the U.S., up the rugged West Coast, back to North Carolina through Canada, through\u00a0New Zealand, Australia, then Europe \u2014 I cycled all of those places\u00a0and more). During much of that time and since then, I have worked as a\u00a0peripatetic\u00a0journalist, sent on assignments around the globe. After graduating from\u00a0the University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism at Chapel Hill, I worked in an editorial capacity at both travel trade and consumer travel magazines. I wrote for a dozen years for United Airlines’ award-winning in-flight magazine. I loved writing and being on the go, with my family\u00a0or\u00a0without them, though I preferred, and still do, traveling with friends and loved ones.\u00a0What good is an experience, after all, if it is not a shared one?<\/p>\n

My life in motion has rewarded me with many\u00a0beautiful\u00a0experiences. Absorbing the\u00a0vibrance of the flower market\u00a0on a sunny morning in Nice, enjoying\u00a0coffee and cake in Vienna as Strauss plays lightly in the background, walking among Sweden’s yellow canola fields pitched against a blue sky dotted with cotton ball clouds, watching the dance of the aurora\u00a0borealis in the Norwegian Arctic, observing the Charlie Chaplinesque antics of penguins in Antarctica, traveling Russia’s Kamchatka region with my son and finding the elusive reindeer herders that no one else could find, cruising with my daughter across Sweden on the world’s oldest passenger ship and hearing her say after I had taken her to a concert where\u00a0her favorite pop singers were performing in Stockholm, “best night of my life dad.” I’ve dined in palaces and at roadside pizza kiosks. I’ve\u00a0sipped champagne in St. Petersburg,\u00a0Becherovka in the Czech Republic<\/a>, Gammel Dansk in Denmark and\u00a0Provencal ros\u00e9, \u00a0only a few weeks ago with my loved one in France’s Camargue region. I could go on.<\/p>\n

I was not born with a silver spoon. My family was poor. My father was a logger. At ten years old, I went\u00a0to work in the forests, driving a tractor to skid out logs. By age 20, I had worked for a decade in the woods. Aware\u00a0that logging would take my life (literally and figuratively), I\u00a0decided that I would pedal out of town on a bike. I trained, and on a warm Carolina day in March, I waved goodbye to my dad as I pedaled along\u00a0our gravel drive, my bike loaded with all that I needed to be self-sufficient, panniers stuffed with clothing, stove, tent and sleeping bag.<\/p>\n

I sometimes tire of travel but never\u00a0of motion. I never grow\u00a0weary\u00a0of spinning. At home, which is in Helsingborg, Sweden and in Asheville, North Carolina, I continue to spin. There is something about the motion of pedaling a bike that is soothing. The endorphins, the euphoria. Cycling becomes therapy in motion. Aside from that, it is downright fun to experience the world\u00a0on two wheels.<\/p>\n

Today on Tauck’s ms Savor, I was preparing for yet another bike ride. In the lounge, where I had a warm pretzel and a\u00a0couple of bananas (fueling up), I spoke with three people who remarked on my bike ride two days ago from Passau to Linz<\/a>. From Philadelphia, Pete\u00a0was traveling\u00a0with his wife and mother-in-law. “I’m going again today,” I said. “You should join me.” Pete\u00a0shrugged it off with a laugh as if to say it wasn’t for him. I went back to my room to prepare for the ride, packing my GoPro, my phone, three bottles of water and a first-aid kit. Was I ready? Then came the\u00a0text on my iPhone.<\/p>\n

“Ralph – Pete – on the ship with you – would like to ride with you. When are you leaving?”<\/p>\n

“12:10,” I replied, “bring lots of water!”<\/p>\n

I wasn’t sure if Pete was up for this. Suppose we had heat and hills like I had yesterday? Suppose we had fierce headwinds? We would need to cover 70 kilometers to reach the ship at 5:30 p.m. in Weissenkirchen. There were a dozen things that could go wrong, but there was one thing that could go right. I’d show Pete the beauty of what I had experienced on two wheels.<\/p>\n

Pete’s wife Lori gave him a hug and a kiss. His mother-in-law made me promise to bring him back safely. Sinead, our Tauck tour director, said, “We’ll be on the lookout for the Hawaiian shirt.” Yes, Pete was probably the only one in all of Austria wearing such a shirt.<\/p>\n

We pedaled out of the small village of Grein, sharing the highway for 30 minutes or so with traffic until we hit dedicated bike lanes. The opposite side of the river may have been a better choice for the start of our ride. Fortunately, however, we had a light tailwind and while the day was a scorcher, we were creating a light breeze by propelling ourselves along the bike paths.<\/p>\n

Our day is largely reflected in the photos below. The pedaling was easy, the scenery stunning. We had time to slow down and talk, riding side by side on the wide bike lanes. After two hours, we stopped to ride up on top of a lock for an incredible view of the Melk Abbey. An hour later, we\u00a0stopped for apricots, which were being harvested from groves in the Wachau Valley.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0pedaled along the gently rolling hills in\u00a0this beautiful valley, with its uber-charming villages set among the vineyards and apricot groves. As we approached Weissenkirchen, we saw ms Savor making her way toward its docking place. We arrived in time to watch the ship dock, having made it safely and with little\u00a0exhaustion but much exhilaration. Pete remarked that he would have regretted not doing the ride.<\/p>\n

Our ride revealed something of the river that Pete had not\u00a0experienced from the boat: the aromas of an Austrian summer, the flowers and vineyards and apricots and farmland. The ride also revealed something about Pete himself, and about me as well: We were a long way from congealing. We had put ourselves in motion, made “new trysts with life,” and we were indeed very much alive.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Blue Danube on our ride today. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Melk<\/a>

Melk Abbey in the distance. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cycling<\/a>

Sights\u00a0along the Danube. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Peter<\/a>

Pete and I cycling 70 kilometers today. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Getting<\/a>

Getting closer. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"On<\/a>

On our way to Melk. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cycling<\/a>

Cycling through Wachau Valley. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cycling<\/a>

Approaching riders in the Wachau Valley. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cycling<\/a>

Making our way\u00a0through the Wachau Valley. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cycling<\/a>

Charming towns in the\u00a0Wachau Valley. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cycling<\/a>

Fairtytale villages. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Apricots<\/a>

Apricots fresh from the farm in the Wachau Valley. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Wachau Valley. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Look<\/a>

Look closely, there’s a castle ruins on the hilltop. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tauck's<\/a>

Tauck’s ms Savor arrives in Weissenkirchen. \u00a9 2015 Ralph Grizzle<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Pete<\/a>

End of the ride in Weissenkirchen: Pete and I waiting for the gangway to be placed so that we could board ms Savor. \u00a9 2015 Lori<\/p><\/div>\n

Tauck ms Savor – Danube Reflections, Live Voyage Report<\/h2>\n