Attila

Woke up to a dark morning, but the overcast never amounted to anything. Nice and warm as we rode through the little village of Durnstein, where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned for a short time in 1192.  He wasn't going to chisel his way out of those three foot stone walls, for sure, but they let him go because of political reasons. The guy was 6 ft. 4in tall, and foolishly brave. Eventually he died from a wound suffered because he wasn't wearing his armor. 

The towns we pass through now are full of narrow alleyways, gothic arches, Roman towers and walls, and Churches that are sometimes as old as 300 AD. Other monasteries and abbeys, along with old castles that are high up on hills, look down on us, but usually we do not want to climb up the long hills to take a closer look. As one guy told us recently, castles look good from the outside, but inside they are just a bunch of cold gloomy rocks.

After a 74k ride today we are spending the night in a little town on the Donau called Tulln. This is the place where Attila the Hun met his future bride Gudrun. A statue along the river celebrates the event. Attila came through here raping and pillaging on one of his conquests back in the 5th century. The guy owned territory from the Rhine all the way to Constantinople, and from the Danube to the Baltic Sea. But never could defeat Saladin in Turkey or take down Rome. And he died on his wedding night after drinking heavily, passing out flat on his back, and choking on his own blood from a massive nosebleed. The statue here shows him as a big nice looking guy with a Fu Manchu.

Need a little lube for Laura's chain, but otherwise the trusty bikes are holding up. We hit Vienna today.  After days of quiet in the countryside,  we can now hear airplanes on final to the big city. We could use a little culture, so here we go.