Saturday Bike Ride Along the Danube

It's been cool here, like autumn. A few days of rain, some cloudy days with no rain, and a few days with some sun. Yesterday was one of the sunny ones, so we got the bikes out for a final ride before I leave.

I guess the temperature was in the low 70s...a t-shirt with a long sleeve shirt was enough to keep me comfortable. No jacket required.

Back in the OKC, I don't ride a bike, but I want to change that. I like the relative silence of cycling---no noisy stereo, as in a car, no mechanical noise from your bike...just the sound of the breeze in your ears.

We went north on the Danube Island, then crossed the bridge east back onto the mainland and along the river. The usual quiet----other cyclists, roller bladers, joggers, walkers, people with their dogs. Along the side of the path, people on blankets...reading, writing, having a picnic or a quiet conversation. We even saw a couple of guys along a wooded bank making a small camp fire from wood they found.

After about an hour we came to a little snack stand, so we bought some apple juice and decided to take a rest. I noticed an old motorcycle parked nearby, and the guy was standing at the counter with us, so I asked him how old the bike was.

"60 years old," he said. He went on to explain the motorcycle had belonged to his father, and though it was in great shape, the paint scheme wasn't original. So, not a perfect restoration, but still, a clean machine. B took pics:

Puch 250

Reverse side of the time machine.

Ferry across the Danube. It goes back and forth every ten minutes or so. It's self powered but the ferry is held in position with the help of a cable that stretches from the stern to another cable high above the river; I guess the ferry doesn't have to spend too much energy fighting the current, that way.

Sitting on the grassy bank in the sun, looking the opposite direction from the ferry.

A good place to enjoy a drink after a bike ride along the Danube.

I've said it before, but Vienna is a town where a poor person has a lot of no-cost things to do, both in town and just out of town. You can take interesting hikes through the city, or take public transportation to the Vienna Woods and enjoy a hike/picnic/whatever in nature, or ride a bicycle onto the Danube Island for some people watching or a cookout or some quiet time staring at the clouds. There are a lot of place to get a rich person's view of the landscape, without having to be rich. Somebody in the past thought it would be a good idea to provide public space for fun activities, and I thank them.

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We returned the bikes to B's parents house, where they'll undoubtedly rest through fall and winter. No more riding this year, probably...

B's parents gave me a gift to take home. There's a drink called Underberg, which is a digestive liquor made from a bunch of herbs combined in a secret way. The bottles are tiny and Underberg made a leather belt, rather like a bandoleer, with which the dedicated drinker can store the bottles like shotgun shells in an ammo belt. It was a nice gift. Let's see how many of the bottles I can get through security. They're the right size, just 20ml, but the sum total of all your liquids can't be bigger than a 1-quart sandwich bag. 

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On the way home, we stopped in the vineyards for a glass of wine at the Sirbu, one of the Heurigen up here.

The view from our table---vine covered tables with the lights of Vienna in the distance.

Rick Steves tells you about the Heurigen

And, unknown to me until now, Rick likes The Herb. Another reason to respect Mr. Steves.

We drove home, where B graciously prepared a nice supper---mashed potatoes with truffle oil, Swedish meatballs, and a cucumber-radish salad----the cukes from her own garden. Delicious with a glass of white wine...

Mr. Natural

This afternoon we drove out to B's parents place, where she has a little garden spot in the backyard. About six by six, 36 square feet. A few tomato plants, some strawberries, an eggplant, a cucumber. Pepper plants, too, but they didn't give much this year.

The tomatoes gave, though, and still are. We pruned them back, harvested about 4 big ones and a lot of little yellow cherry tomatoes, and planted four new strawberry plants. I picked up about 20 fat garden slugs and tossed them over the fence into the alley. They may crawl back, or they may get squished. I'll let the God of the Slugs decide these matters.

Afterwards, B's mom made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for us and we watched slides of the family's vacation to Italy in 1967. I saw some of the places I knew, and was surprised at how much 43 years of change can affect a place, even Italy, which we mistakenly tend to think of as timeless.

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I've been following Lloyd Kahn's blog for a few years now, and have purchased three of his excellent books. Lloyd is the kind of guy I want to be if I ever grow up. 75 years old, lots of energy, rides a damned skateboard (!) and is sharp as a tack.

Below, a short film (actually shot on 16mm film!) some students did about Lloyd, and the ultra-cool house he built north of San Francisco. Lloyd really is one of my heroes, and I hope I get to meet him some day.

SHELTER from jason sussberg on Vimeo.

Arche Noah / Kittenberger Gardens

Another drive Tuesday, about an hour outside of Vienna, to Arche Noah.

It means "Noah's Ark" and they specialize in preserving heirloom seeds, biodiversity, and organic gardening / education. It was the most impressive collection of vegetable and herb gardens I've ever seen. There's a shop where you can buy all kinds of gardening books, heirloom seeds, or plants. B bought some strawberry plants.

The place is set in a tiny village overlooking a beautiful valley (where the next village is---easy to see from the gardens.) There's a cool old building on the grounds, which originally was probably used for storing stuff when this area was part of the castle garden (there's a castle right across the street, as opposed to sitting high on a hill like most other castles in Austria.)

Part of the garden at Arche Noah.

Chilies! They had many varieties, including habaneros.
Surprising, because I thought chilies liked hot dry climates.

Well planned gardens, with plenty of space to walk between them,

and plenty of space in the gardens themselves to get at the veggies.

Cool old building on the grounds---used as a classroom / meeting place.

Interior. Note exposed woodbeam roof.

A smaller version of this building would make a great living space.

The gourd garden. 

Each garden had informative plaques telling about the plants, and each plant variety was identified.

I like the way they did these tomatoes. Each vine was supported by twine,
tied to the ground with a stake, then twisted loosely around the vine and tied at the top to a wire.

Note also the plants aren't really bushy with leaves---more pruning = more fruit? Dunno.

Bell peppers.

How'd you like to have this in your back yard?

There were orchards behind the house---apple trees, plums, etc., all bearing fruit. There was also an interesting bee hive. Arche Noah cut part of an old tree trunk in half lengthwise, then covered the cut with a Plexiglas window. Then they put a door over that, to keep the hive dark inside. You could open the door and look at the bees through the Plexiglas, working inside. There was a warning posted inside the door about showing the bees "respekt," which is a good idea if you don't want your ass stung off. I looked inside for a few minutes and the bees ignored me. I kept my movements slow and easy and didn't make loud noises. Respekt.

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We drove to the next village to take a look at the Kittenberger Gardens. This is essentially a display of more than 20 back yards, all done in different styles to show you what kind of landscaping / gardening options are possible. There was some great stuff there and I got a lot of ideas.

A cozy Japanese garden.

A view of the village from one of the many "back yards."

A little backyard house with benches and table. Made from an old wine barrel.

Creative use of a framed-in woodpile as a yard divider.

Rooftop garden on a patio building in one of the "back yards."

A "fire art garden." The "matches" were purely decorative but there were steel fireplaces.
I think it would be neat to light three or four fires at night in these fireplaces, grab a chair, and watch the fire.

 Pendulum House. It's suspended about six inches off the ground.
They explain that when you step inside, you're kind of independent of the rotation of the earth.

Which I more or less feel more or less all the time, anyhow. Neat sensation, though.

The idea here is, a wall covered with these planters helps keep the house cooler, while giving the plants a place to thrive (southern exposure) and providing beauty / edible stuff. Smart, I think.

Yard art. Painted and stacked wooden chairs.

Interior of a space made of living willow trees, planted in a circle and woven together.
A pit in the floor holds aromatic evergreen branches, which are kept fresh by a drip system.
You lay in the hammock, hear the wind blow through the branches, and smell the evergreens. Nice!

Exterior of the willow house.

Fire pit made of old plate steel.

A pond full of carp. Nice deck, nice view.

Nice (expensive) grill. A competent welder could custom-make an approximation of this for about 1/4 of the price. I like the curved arm the pot is hanging from, allowing you to position it just where it needs to be for proper cooking of the yummy goodies within. See pic below for closeup.

The grills adjust up or down over the firebox, and you can hang a pot over the whole works to keep the beans warm, or whatever. The firebox needn't be as fancy as this one; a simple barrel or box would do.

I guess I'm getting to be an old fucker, with all this interest in gardening and yard art and all that shit. Next thing you know, I'll subscribe to cable so I can watch Home & Garden TV, and B and I'll be going to the fucking Home Depot every week to buy shit we don't need so we can "fix up" whatever it is about my shack that needs fixing.

Or maybe it's a backlash against the rush of technology we've all been riding through for 35+ years----a desire to watch things move slowly, instead of at lightning speed...like seeds to seedlings to plants to vegetables to harvest to eating / preserving. 

Maybe it's the idea that creativity doesn't have to involve time spent on a computer with Autocad or Photoshop or Garageband or Final Cut Pro, all the while viewing insipid "Tweets" or checking that stupid fucking Facebook every five seconds----sawing and gluing lumber, or hammering / welding steel, or re-purposing old junk into "art" can equally satisfy your creative urges.