Engelhartszell to Ottensheim – 60km
Breakfast was at 9am this morning and a carbon copy of yesterday, I have no idea how she does this on 20€. There had been heavy rain during the night again and the day started wet and heavily overcast again. But she promised it would clear by lunch time.
Now we are in Austria the sign posts have changed, we are following route ‘R1’ which is still called the Donau Radweg in places but our old friend the little coloured silhouette has gone. The positioning of the signs has not improved, you still have to slow for every junction to try and spot them as early as possible but that has become part of the fun now.
Leaving with a wave and a farewell from everyone we cycled the 20m back to the little ferry, there is a choice here of the north bank or the south bank. North has a number of ferries but little traffic; south has heavy traffic but no ferries. We decided on a combination of the two. Setting off on the north bank we avoided the traffic on the road out of Engelhartszell and had a quiet ride on a good road for about 17km. Then we crossed the river with one of the small wooden ferries costing us all of 3€ for both bikes. A few kilometres later, and two Dutch caravans muscling past on a CYCLE TRACK (if we did that in their country……..) the option to cross back on another ferry or to stay on this bank arose. We decided to stay on this side as there were more ferries to come on the other side.
We had put our waterproof jackets on at the hotel and made sure everything was protected from the rain that was bound to come. This resulted in me being totally soaked in sweat but the bike dry as a bone. The clouds were there all the time but left us alone. One of the advantages of the north bank is that there are a lot more places to stop if it does rain but we did find somewhere for the second breakfast at another ferry crossing (we had been warned by previous travellers that not all of the crossings were there but we have had no problems today).
The plan now was to go to Aschach where there was a bridge and cross back to the north bank to avoid another busy section of road into Linz. This would take us about 3.5 hours cycling time as we were flying with the wind behind us (average over this section is 22km/h).
I am beginning to realise why so many places are closed now, we stopped for lunch at a large caravan site at Kaiserau and there was one other group of four cyclist there, there is no way they can make a profit like this.
Coming into Aschach M started to drop back to do some filming for the YouTube part of the blog and we were separated when the official route took a sharp left and he turned right. As a result I waited for him under the bridge as he crossed over it. This is just the situation we bought the radios for, we were able to talk to each other and meet up again quickly.
Back on the north of the river the steep valley we had been riding all day suddenly burst out into open countryside again, we could see for miles not a few hundred metres! But, the rain that had held of started to fall all around us; we could see black clouds and heavy rain in front of us and more coming out of the valley behind us.
Approaching Ottensheim, about 10km before Linz we catch up with one of the big ferries that carries tourists from Passau to Linz and back as it entered a lock. Hoping to film it as it descended the path suddenly turns left away from the river! It takes us round a large pond that is used for rowing. It must be well used as it is set out in full length lanes, has spectator areas all along the side and has a large boat house complex at the end. We stop here for a coffee and watch the rain clouds unload on Linz. OK, we are staying here tonight!
Once again we use the guide to find a private house and while it is not as good as the last place, they are very nice people and the room is great. We have to share the bathroom but I think we are the only people here tonight. The market is in town and we have had a good look around. Again, to save money we have opted for a picnic dinner not a restaurant. I have noticed that while accommodation has become cheaper in Austria the price of food and beer has gone up by about 20%.
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