1 June 21007

Linz to Au
A perfect day -- almost!
The sky was as blue as can be as we said goodbye to our Seattle friends and headed for the Danube. It was an absolutely glorious morning. We did pretty well getting out of Linz which is a fairly big city. At one point we discovered the bikeway on the other side of the busy road and had to do the limbo with our bikes and ourselves under some railroad barricades and across some tracks to get there. But from there it was smooth sailing. We are amazed at the number of people we see cycling this bikeway. There are young and old and everything in between. There are the bikers clad in bright Spandex with fancy bikes and there are people wearing jeans riding very simple bikes. There are commuters, people just out for the day, overnighters staying indoors and campers loaded with gear. We've seen a number of large family groups with the kids hauling their share of the load. Last night there was a group of women at the campground that looked like it included grandma, mom and !
daughters. What a great family outing!
Today's route was again very flat. At one point we took a bit of a detour because of a big rowing competition that was happening on the river. This took us through some farmland for a short time and then back to the water. In Aschach we crossed over to the south side of the river and ate some lunch on a bench on the waterfront.
The river made a number of big turns today and made for some very pretty views with wooded hills on both sides. At one point we saw a swan with 7 fuzzy cygnets. The entire morning Marie commented on how the weather today was ideal, not too warm, not too cool with a gentle tailwind. However, as we rode we saw some clouds building ahead of us and with only 5 kms to go to get to our destination for the day, thunder rumbled and the rain began. We waited out a few heavy showers under some trees overhanging the road. We were able to get the last 5 kms to the ferry crossing in without any rain, but more came as we approached the ferry landing. There is a big hotel in Schlogen, so we parked under an overhang and headed into the restaurant for tea and coffee. Sitting in front of the large windows watching the showers come and go, we were looking at maps and began contemplating leaving the river and going to visit Prague. This morning we met some Aussies who had cycled from Pr!
ague and said they really enjoyed the whole Czech experience. The rain subsided so we went to the small store and bought some eggs tc cook up for dinner and took the ferry across the river to camp on a farm that our Seattle friends recommended. Some more rumbles of thunder could be heard in the distance as we ate. After eating we ducked into the dining area for the people staying in rooms at the farm. There were two groups of people and they were all talking with the owners in German. Eventually we got in on the conversation and before we knew it we were both being served a shot of their homemade Schnaps because they all wanted to make sure we had a good time. We smiled and painfully swallowed the potent potion. We talked a little more with the cycling family from Munich, mother, father and 2 quite young daughters no older than 6 years. We were impressed. Tomorrow we enter Germany.

Kms 60.71
Time 3:27:56
Avg 17.5
Max 36.9
Total 1075.4