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Day 10: Melk to Vienna

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Another long day and, although the last 40km were a grind, there was much to see on the way. Ready to go. The Hotel zur Post surpassed itself on the breakfast and we were ready to go pretty early. It looked like a cooler day and so we were keen to get out on the road before the heat built up. A combination of nurofen, paracetamol and wine seemed to have taken the sting out of the dental problem but it was something that was going to have to be dealt with in Vienna. I hadn’t started the route at the right place so there was 3km of quite difficult navigation getting to the bridge over Big D to get to the northern bank. Getting to the north bank included a 22% incline which we sensibly walked. Up on the bridge we had a great view down the Danube and the area we would be cycling through. Big D in all it’s glory. The northern bank of the Danube is known as the Wachau and is one of the main tourist destinations in Austria. The vall...
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Day 9: Linz to Melk

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This was a long and, by the end, a tough day. The main square early in the morning in Linz. Our “boutique” hotel managed to do the business overnight with decent aircon although, once again, a non-functional heated towel rail. We had a filling breakfast while sitting in our slightly moist kitchen and, after some necessary bike maintenance, we were on the road around 7:30. We negotiated the terrifying urban tram tracks and young people stumbling back from a long and obviously enjoyable Saturday night.  We crossed the river onto the northern bank where there was a lovely riparian park with people running, walking and playing with dogs. It was very pleasant and a lot more salubrious than the other side bank of the river which was heavily industrialised. This was perfect in the early morning. The southern bank had more of a Mordor-on-the-Danube vibe with blast furnaces and large industrial facilities. For those of you missing the gravel pile photos of ...
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Day 8: Passau to Linz

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A truly stunning day with amazing scenery, great weather and boats. Lots of boats. Stunning scenery along the Danube. Unfortunately the Passauer Wolf hotel not only lacked air conditioning, it was also on a fairly noisy street. The receptionist did provide us with a somewhat ineffectual fan but it wasn’t the most comfortable of nights. That being said, we were up at 6am because this was a 95km day. However, it looked like I had screwed up the routing somehow and we were regularly on the wrong bank of the Danube — the hilly bank. We decided to follow the signs rather than my somewhat suspect Garmin route. Which, as you will see, turned out very well. All packed and ready to go. After leaving the hotel, we navigated the cobbles of Passau pretty well, crossed the Inn and almost immediately we were in country number three. The Donauradweg becomes the…Donauweg. At this point, the Danube enters a narrow wooded gorge between th...
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Day 7: Deggendorf to Passau

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A short and easy day with little or no drama. We were checking in at the hotel in Passau at 11:45… Another classic picture of the Danube cycle paths heading east. The breakfast at the truly excellent Gastof Höttl was great and we were ready to go at 7:30. There was a minor problem with some leaking chain lube but it was easily cleared up and we were on our way pretty quickly. The by now familiar farm paths and dedicated cycle paths led out of Deggendorf through some light industrial parks and onto the Gäuboden Plain. The Danube is wide here and it’s done a lot of meandering and flooding in the past creating a wide and fertile area of farmland. Most of which, like everywhere else in Germany, is given over to growing vast quantities of maize. The villages came and went and apart from all having a giant fire station, they also all have a Donaustraße. If we could do the stats, I suspect that over 10% of the time on this trip we have been on one...
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