August 11th 2012
It's Saturday today, so I didn't have class, and there were no actives planned for our study aboard group for the weekend. We were all free in Vienna for an extended period of time, and everyone in my class was scrambling to come up with something fun to do. A group of people chose to go to Prague for the weekend, but all they would really have time to do was hit the bars, and I didn't really feet it would be worth the train fare just to part for the weekend. So, against my better judgement, I decided to join a group that was going out on a bike ride along the Danube river in order to visit Durnstein, the castle in which king Richard the lion-heart of England was held captive on his return for the crusades. I was very reluctant to go on this excursion at first, because I'm not exactly in marathon shape. I've been obese since I was in grade school, and I haven't ridden my bicycle in Davis for at least 12 months, but two of my classmates convinced me that I could do it, as the biking gang would break up into different speed groups so less skilled people could still come.
I wasn't entirely persuaded, but I was deeply enthralled with the history of king Richard and his captivity at Durnstein that I decided to go ahead and risk whatever humiliation or physical aliments might result from biking 25 miles. I first learned about Richard the Lionheart in a previous history class at Davis. I instantly found the personality that I could infer from his actions and history to be immensely likable. I fancied him to be somewhat similar to a medieval Teddy Roosevelt, charging in to fight in the crusades himself, despite his high social status and wealth. He was greatly successful in his military campaign, but he was captured in Austria on his return as part of a diplomatic diabolical. According to Pearson Cultural History of Austria, Richard removed the heraldry or an Austrian noble during his the siege of Arce. The noble apparently never quite got over the insult and imprisoned him in Durnstein castle, demanding a ransom so large from his acting regnant Prince John, that it nearly bankrupted the English crown (In fact the ransom was so large the that Prince John's efforts to raise it cast him in the role of the tyrannical Prince John in the Robin Hood Legend). The history is fascinating, but I'll also admit that I favor Richard in part because of his sexuality. There is a great deal of evidence to support that Kind Richard was a homosexual, such as a tale of a male troubadour known as Blondle (German for Blondy, the man was known for having long locks of golden hair ) searching all over Europe for Richard during his imprisonment (Pearsons 131). Being a gay historian myself, I'm especially found of how Richard's heroic warrior image contrasts with the often negative effeminate stereotype applied to gay men today, and I've come to be a fan of the English king because I see him potentially positive gay historical figure. So, in this spirit, I decided to put my fears aside and follow in the footsteps of Blondle, as I set out for Durnstein in search of King Richard's history.
Our group woke up early to rent bicycles for out trip, before taking the train up form Vienna to Milck. We briefly toured the Baroque monastery before setting out on the bike trail, along some of the most beautiful Austrian countryside I have ever seen. We were biking through farm land for a good portion of the trip, and I even had the opportunity to by apricot jam and even apricot brandy at a local farm-side stand. About two hours into our bike ride, we stopped at a wine garden, where we were able to sample more local brandy, made from apricots and walnuts. We continued until we found an the ruins of an old castle, known as hinter-hold, unexpectedly. We decided to get off our bikes and hike up a small trail and explore the castle. It was a great deal of physical work to climb up the uneven steps and unsteady rock work to see the castle, but it was well worth it, as the view was incredible. We continued on for another hour before stopping for lunch at a lovely beer garden in a small Austrian country town. We were fortunate enough to sit down just as a local band was playing at the beer garden, so we got to enjoy our lunch in a traditional beer garden to traditional Austrian classical music. It was truly a wonderful experience. From there it was only another hour and a half ride trough beautiful countryside before reaching Durnstein.
At this point, I was exhausted from the trip, as we had biked at least 4 hours, and had gone up one hike to see castle hinter-hold. I was not pleased to discover that from the town at the base of the mountain, the hike of to Durnstein was harder. There must have been at least 2000 of what could lonely be called stairs in the most liberal sense of the word. The stone steps up to the Durnstein ruin were worn to the point of being complete uneven, and at parts, unsteady and unsafe, resembling more of a step rocky hiking trail than stairs. However, after what must have been 20 minutes of exhausted climbing, I managed to make it to the top of Durnstien, where I saw the cell where Richard was held prisoner, as well as the keep overlooking the entire valley below.
I took a while to savor the view before climbing back down and completing the additional hour bike ride to the train station that would take us back to Vienna. In the end, I managed to endure a 25 mile bike ride, and 2 mountain hikes in a single day. That may not be very impressive to most people, but for someone in my physical shape, it was quite the accomplishment. I managed to do everything on the trip, and until the very last stretch of the trip, I had no trouble keeping up with everyone else on their bikes. I concluded the day with a great feeling of pride in myself, and a new found sense of what I could accomplish physically (in addition to a great deal of pain of course). I look forward to seeing what other new challenges I can overcome during my time in Austria, as well as the knew places I'll have the opportunity to see and explore.
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