Bruce and Elly do the Danube, Vienna and lots of vaseline!

Passau to Schlögen to St Agatha, Sunday 1 July

upstream from bridge at Passau

downstream from bridge at Passau

downstream from bridge at Passau

north from bridge at Passau

looking all around bridge at Passau
(movie)

Us!

poster at Jochenstein

poster at Jochenstein

My phone had snorted something!

In cafe at Jochenstein

Funny story?

Where we were

fountain at Jochenstein cafe

Where we were

We were still in Germany.

heavily-guarded border!

heavily-guarded border!

heavily-guarded border!

heavily-guarded border!

heavily-guarded border!

heavily-guarded border!

heavily-guarded border!

heavily-guarded border!

Where we were now

looking across to hotel

view of Schlögner loop

view of Schlögner loop

view of Schlögner loop

view of Schlögner loop

And on and on...

Where are we now?

Poster at Schlögner loop

bike-ferry ticket

lunch-stop at Schlögner loop

My lunch wobbled!
(movie)

My lunch (still)

Moving on past Schlögner loop

looking back from Schlögner loop

It's a big boat.

contrasting boat sizes and speeds

Random Bozo with helmet-hair!

Entering St Agatha

view from our room

Elly with Eiskaffee

Storm closing in

View from dinner-balcony
(movie)

View from dinner-balcony (again)
(movie)

Elly

Rain approaching?

Rain approaching
(movie)

Rain getting closer
(movie)

Rain getting closer still
(movie)

Who cares about rain - we have food!

Yum! The thunder and lightening
evolved into a real rainstorm just
after this arrived. Food pleasure
wasn't at all dampened - but we were!

Hotel details: Revita Hotel Kocher, Stefab-Fadinger Strasse 6, 4084, St Agatha, Ă–sterrerich

Distance cycled: 31 miles

First stop backerei! Bought rye bread for me and salad/cheese roll for Elly.

So pretty. Overtaking lots of tourists!

Stop at kraftwerk (hydro power station) at Jochenstein for cold drinks. Power on to Schlögen loop.

Tiny bike ferry. Lunch on sarny (E) and fresh sliced rye bread (B). Then into cafe for coke (E) and mangosaft (B). Yum. More photos (photos will be posted later when I have wifi!)

Then very hard cycle 8 km uphill to hotel. It's lovely here: they make a big thing of health tourism. There's a pool but I have no trunks and get a hard state when I ask if I can go in wearing clean cycle shorts. Get me a cold coke and Elly an Eiskaffee: she seems to like it

Shower and clean clothes (shorts) then to hotel terrace for more drinks (lager followed by earl grey tea = civilisation!)

Listen to pool and quietness, thinking about tomorrow. BTW, here's what I emailed about my lunch:

Mein Mittagessen: frisch Rogganbrot
Lovely course texture, reminiscent of tempeh bacon slices
I must be getting middle-aged!

Here's today's cyclemeter map. (JPhone ran out of juice about 6km from hotel.) We didn't need to do this bit: the tour company would normally collect folk from Schlögen but we liked the challenge. 

I've called my bike 'Curt' because he's shorter than Lev Davidovitch (and so has a very upright cycling position) and the Germanic for 'short' is 'curtz'. So Elly has called her bike 'Vonny' after Kurt Vonnegut. Breakfast of champions!

So just after posting this, I retreated to our room and an hour of dozing. We went to dinner on the hotel terrace where we'd had drinks. Here's some of my thoughts thereon:

Just had another food-gasm: potato dumplings (half-moon shape) filled with herbs on a vinaigrette of herbs, with lovely salad. Elly had turkey schnitzel with boiled potatoes (I helped her with those) and again salad. My vinaigrette was so good I had to ask for some bread to finish it. The bread that came was that lovely rye bread with carraway seeds. Photo to follow.

As we were starting to eat, the thunder and lightening evolved into a real rainstorm, so we abandoned the terrace for the dining room, juggling plates and causing merriment. Back in the room: the clothes Elly had washed and set to dry on the balcony had become rain-soaked. Mice & men! Despite the rain's temporary cooling effect, it's still somewhat muggy. Oh well: as the evening progresses it will cool.

Other emails:

Hi Bruce, This is where German becomes a pain because of multiple meanings of a word. This one is interesting but only helpful if an inner tube is not repairable with normal kit. der Schhlauch = tube This could be a garden hose or an inner tube or any other sort of flexible tube. But to other more interesting things. How goes it with the bike ride? I hope all is going to plan & is not proving too strenuous for you both. Looking forward to the next progress report. Cheers, Dad
I was just amused by biking being so popular that you could buy inner tubes day and night, and that the box wasn't vandalised. It can't be that the roads are so poor that punctures happen every day: this is in germania!
Hi Bruce, I was amazed to see that such a facility could be provided & maintained. Well done the providers! I've downloaded your latest emails & printed them so that Mum can see what you have sent. I will open your blog & do the same with that each evening. How are the bums & legs coping? Did taking your own saddles cause any concern & has taking them proved to be an aid to your comfort? We're looking forward to your next report. Cheers, Dad
Hi dad. I took my pedals: they have clips, which makes my pedalling easier. I wish I'd brought my own narrow saddle because the wide saddle is lightly interacting with bits of my arse that prefer no interaction. This also impedes my cadences slightly. Elly brought her own saddle but didn't bring the saddle post, because that was what we were told to do. But her saddle didn't fit on her rented bike's saddle post. She's used to a wide saddle so this one isn't so bad: she says it's slightly less comfortable than her own but no real problem. B

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