Wednesday October 9 - Linz Austria to Passau Germany

After a good quiet sleep, i was pleasantly surprised to enter the breakfast room, which was pretty full, and see a place set for one, at the window overlooking the square. And I made the most of it today, cold cuts and cheese, toast, muesli

with yogurt, oj, sparkle water, caffe w chocolate and cream, plate of veggies and fruit and Brie cheese. There was a table full of traveling business men at the next table, apparently they all eat hard boiled eggs for breakfast ? Anyway i enjoyed mine, then loaded up and checked out. 

Across the river to the north side EV6 route, wasn’t too far before i hooked up with a senior group on a group ride, turns out they were on a cruise doing a morning activity… woman i spoke with was from Nebraska, said it’s so hot there they keep the pool open in October! Anyway, her husband was struggling mightily so i left her behind and passed the others caught up with the tour leader, hey you better take a break you got two guys struggling back there…. OH REALLY?! lol…

Most of the day once clear of town was very nice, very undeveloped forest and hills, big hills… always looked like the path on the other side was flatter, but i made good time and a whole bunch of e-bikers passed me… so smug… one little group of three was out front of all the others and they zoomed by me like la dee da… so i thot well let me just see how fast they are really going, i guess I’m going to have to get one of those too… well, i kept up with them pretty easy for quite a while, the bigger group fell way back out of sight, then we came to a short but very steep climb and i thot oh geez this is where i get dropped and wish i too had an e-bike. But a funny thing happened, i clicked down a couple gears and got ready to attack the hill, and i saw the lead guy start to falter, like that heavy e-bike was too much, he really didn’t have much conditioning in the legs… so i respectfully stayed behind for a bit, but he was dying so slow i passed them three and lol gave it some gas… they were soon gone from sight behind…. About 20 minutes later i came to a big guesthouse restaurant at a marina with a big outdoor terrace overlooking the river, well it was lunchtime 120 or so and i stopped I’m eating whatever they got. As i was locking up my bike and unloading my iPad and passport…. Here they come… must have been 4-5 minutes behind me… the whole group…i gave them all a big smile and a wave and went in to eat… quirky i know, but i was feeling bad about not having an e-bike no I’m doing just fine, can’t go so far so fast, but don’t forget i AM riding for health too! 

Had a great buffet inside, hot food, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, pasta with red sauce, creme of broccoli soup, nice salad bar so i loaded up and ate big again… 

But when i got on the path again, there were some steep hills and i regretted my foolishly using up my legs early just because…. About 4-5 steep hills that were long, i mean down in the second ring and one i was all the way down in the first ring and thinking about getting off and pushing, but i made it through. 

Almost no development most of the way to Passau from there, just hills and trees and the river. Finally the last 25 km or so it leveled out and i made it in easily, and of course, you would know, Passau sits between the INN river and Danube confluence, so there are 2 bridges to cross and my hotel would be about 200 meters up a steep steep hill, but i made it up here, nice place good price, welcome beer and free breakfast and indoor garage for the bike. 

But after a shower i walked over to old town had a nice dinner and walked around, cute old town, lots of car free walking area lots of shops and bars and cafes, it’s a college town lots of college age kids and groups everywhere. Back in Germany now so more dark immigrant types and black people. 

So i forgot to mention my music, maybe i did way back but i usually have a couple songs of the day, yesterday it was angel from montgomery and piper to the end, today i got some cash out of the ATM so it was pocket full of change, lol, and somehow somewhere over the rainbow got stuck in there, along with easy money from Rickie lee jones. Anyway, other items of the day, saw a few leaves turning yellow and red, first good ones I’ve seen, everywhere else the leaves just turn brown and fall down. And about 80-90% of the people i saw on the path were riding e-bikes, it’s the oddball that’s not these days. 

I must have seen about 6 different touring groups, all on e-bikes, guess they take off from Passau and go south down river to Vienna or Budapest, i think most just go to Vienna, have their luggage taken to the hotel for them, wine and dine got to have fancy clothes, but as i got closer to Passau you could tell they just got started they were going to beat the band, like racing… oh well. 

So i now have 3 nights to get to Munich so i have to look at the maps and pick a route, continue the EV6 a day then turn south is what cycle.travel recommends, but the EV7 goes south from here through Austria then maybe there’s a German bikeway to get to Munich, I’ll look tonight figure out which way to go. 

Winding down, here’s some pics, didn’t take so many today it was all the same thing… mostly.