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Published: August 10th 2023
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Yes, I'm a Beatles fan and that title track came to mind as the day's weather unfolded. Nice to see you after you hiatus Mr Sunshine.
Breakfast wasn't available until 8am so we got another sleep in. We were ready to leave about 9am. On the way up to the hotel yesterday afternoon there was some very aggressive and down right dangerous driving going on. Jeff felt we should take an alternate route back to the Danube for today's ride. This meant completing the climb we had started all the way to the top of the hill and then back down the other side via much quieter roads to the Danube below. So that's what we did.
What we didn't realise was just how steep the 100m meters we had to climb was at 13%. Again, we were beaten, and had to push the bikes up the last little bit. The view from up top was well worth the effort though. Rolling hills and farmland suspended a couple of hundred meters above the level of the Danube.
The ride back down the hill to the Danube tested out my new brake pads and it's made a huge difference,
I definitely feel better descending now.
The first part of the ride was just majestic. A very wide Danube deep within the river valley. The forest covered hills either side climbing steeply up to the 200m range. The bike path is bitumen and super smooth, hardly a bump to be felt. There are lots of swans on the river which is not something I was expecting. There are lots of cyclists out as well, which we should expect to see more of the closer we get to Vienna.
We had a late morning break at about 11am in Aschach. We enjoyed a cup of coffee while relaxing under an umbrella (for SUN shade) watching the world go by. After Aschach we crossed the river and the hills either side melted away and we now had plains on either side of us. Our path wandered from the river bank for a while and wound in and out of the crop fields before returning us to the river.
The Danube would have to be close to 200m wide now, and it moves with quite a current. We passed two hydro power stations on the river. Massive turbines are submerged
in the middle of the river and the current spins the turbines to generate power. Each station can produce a continuous output of about 1.1 Megawatts.
We haven't really navigated much today. We just stick to the path by the river and follow the little signs with bikes on them, it's pretty much like a bike highway here. That being said we did ignore the chance to catch a ferry at one stage which meant our last 6kms into Linz was on a road rather than a bike path.
We've picked a nicer hotel for our rest day, we're on the 6th (top) floor and have a nice view of the river (when we open our room door). It also has a sauna and a wellness centre so I might check out the massages again.
Distance travelled today: 53kms
Distance travelled so far: 2,246kms
Note: Problems with photo uploads again. I'll fix when I can.
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