The Wachau Valley.

(Pronounced "Vah-cow", not "Wah-chow")

We had a quiet, low key first day in Vienna yesterday, which included little more than a delicious breakfast, discovery of the Naschmarkt, which is a HUGE outdoor market similar to the farmer's markets in the States except gigantic, more extensive, and every single day, and lots of general walking around the city. And TODAY, we had an AWESOME time on a wine tasting bike tour in the Wachau Valley!

The Wachau Valley is about an hour outside of Vienna, and it is one of the major wine-making regions in Austria. They do some reds but are bestknown for their whites, and almost all the wineries in the Wachau Valley are small-scale producers, who focus more on selling good wine to Austrians rather than trying to expand outside the country and adapting their wines to the taste of the general public outside of Austria (with some exceptions).

My hopes of a sunny ride were dashed the minute we woke up; it was cold and drizzly instead of the sunshine and heat that we've gotten used to in the last few weeks. Boo. Oh well. Time to dress warm and bring our ponchos! We met with the guide at one of the smaller train stations in Vienna and took a train to Krems, a small town that basically marks the eastern edge of the Wachau Valley. We walked to a small garage where we were all given bicycles to use for the 16km bike tour to wineries up and down the banks of the Danube. Steve was stoked because he loves to bike but didn't get to do much biking when he started working. He jumped on his bike and was ready to go! Oh the benefits of being on vacation!

I eagerly hopped on my bike and remembered, much to my dismay, I HAVEN'T BEEN ON A BIKE IN ABOUT EIGHT YEARS.

AAAHHHHHHHHH!

Not only have I not ridden a bike since probably middle school, I've never ridden on the road before. Not a road that wasn't part of my neighborhood. Nor have I ever tried riding a bike on COBBLESTONE!!! so while Steve was zipping along like a pro as we (our tour group of about twenty) rode through busy streets made of rough, bumpy cobblestone to the edge of town where wine country began, I went through various stages of panic, anger, embarrassment, and misery. I was certain I was going to die, or at least crash into a parked car. Thankfully, I made it out of town alive. The mostly flat paved road that the tour actually began on ran along the banks of the Danube and reminded me of the Sacramento River Trail in Redding, which is really the only place I'd ever ridden a bike before other than my own neighborhood. This familiarity had a calming effect, and I was finally able to enjoy the ride (and the view! Oh, the view!) despite the fact that it was raining (drizzling, really).

Our first winery was Domaine Wachau, which is one of the biggest wineries in the region. Its tasting room was not unlike some of the wineries we've been to in California. Our guide explained some of the different technicalities within the naming protocol in Austria and Steve impressed him by asking questions about chaptilization. (Yes- we are kind of wine snobs.)

NOTE: Chaptilization is the process of adding more sugar to a wine during fermentation. The purpose of this is not to make the wine sweeter, but to increase the alcohol content, since alcohol is the by-product of yeast and sugar. Chaptilization is illegal in the Unitrd States because most of our growing regions (like California) get so much sun that our grapes have enough sugar (or too much, really) and thus our wines also tend to be higher in alcohol (think 14% versus the European wiines, which are around 10-11%). Chaptilization is not illegal in Europe because many of their growing regions do not get enough sun and their grapes don't have enough sugar to convert into alcohol for their wines.

Anywho. All the wines we tried were very good and I was particularly fond of them because their whites are more of a tart-crisp flavor rather than oaky and/or sweet like most California whites, and that is more my style. We ended up buying a small bottle of their beerenauslese, whichwas very very good, and a bottle of brandy, which we didn't try but for a bottle from a small-production lotat that price? Too good to resist.

After the visit to this winery, we biked to the village of Durnstein, which is famous for the castle above the village which once held Richard the Lionheart as captive. Steve and I had opted out of paying for the tour restaurant lunch and had bought sandwiches at a delicious bakery to take with us. While the rest of the group left for the restaurant, we hiked up the hill to the castle ruins. We took a little video so you can see what it looks like!

After a short, steep hike, half a bottle of Katsensprung wine, and those tasty sandwiches, we made our way back down to the little shop where we were supposed to meet back up with the group and taste some Austrian chocolate and apricot schnapps. Apricots are one of the most popular fruits in Europe, it seems, because they make all kinds of things from apricots. We ended up buying a little bottle of apricot liqueur (which means that anyone who is eating dinner with us once we get back to the States will be in for a treat, because this apricot liqueur is delicious and will go excellent in or with dessert) (this also means that if we don't curb our buying, we will hav very heavy backpacks). And then onwards to the next winery!

It had just started raining when we arrived at the second and last winery of the tour, so we all crammed into a gazebo to try the next flight of wines. We had a little bit of time after the wine-tasting to just chat and walk around the property, so the two of us, a couple from New York, and a couple from Australia tried to have a conversation with a group of Russians who were on the tour with us, only one of whom spoke any English. That was a fun experience, mainly because we had thought that Russian and Ukrainian were similar enough to understand each other, but everything we said we knew in Ukrainian (which admittedly isn't much more than "yes", "no", "thank you", "beer", "two tickets", and the various kinds of food) had a different word in Russian.

We then took a crazy raft across the river which Steve took a video of and began our bike ride back to Krems. We stopped at a little beach where, typically, they have a volleyball game and people go swimming in the river, but as it was gloomy and drizzly, no one was up for a swim.

The way back to town was a little bit more hilly than it was on the way to the wineries, but the exercise felt good. It really has been a while since we got some real exercise (not counting walking) and it was exhilarating. It was towards the end of the tour that I fell in love with biking (even if I am still a bit shaky) because I haven't felt this good physically in a while, considering I have been in a mostly sedentary state after blowing my knee out at the beginning of April.

The train ride back to Vienna was very quiet, as everyone seemed worn-out from the ten-mile ride. We laid back, finished the last of the Katsensprung, and dozed off a bt holding hands.

It was a very good day.