30 May 2007

Grein to Linz
"Crack of noon Ron" day
It rained lightly most of the night and was still raining when we woke up at 7:30. So we rolled over and slept some more. When we awoke the rain was very light, so we ate breakfast and packed up to go. The church bells were chiming 12:00 as we were pulling out of the campground. We joked calling this a "crack of noon Ron" day in rememberance of our friend Ron that we rode with in 2001 down the west coast of the U.S. He always slept late and napped throughout the day but still made it into camp at the end of the day at the same time as us.
It rained on us lightly for just a little while but then stopped. Today again was very cool and the dampness added to the chill. We rode taking short breaks until we got to Mauthausen at about 3:00. There we decided to be like the Europeans and have a substantial lunch and a smaller dinner. Plus this would get us out of the cold wind for awhile. John had a plate of grilled sausages with french fries and Marie had some delicious dumplings stuffed with meat and some sauerkraut on the side. To top this off we went next door to the bakery and enjoyed a piece of Sachertorte.
Then it was back out into the cold for the last 25 kms. We lost our way a couple of times, but otherwise it was smooth sailing until the light rain began again with about 15 kms to go.
The campground was right next to the bikeway, so we pulled in and set up. John rode his bike about a km. into town to get us some groceries and took a little spill on his way back but only scraped his elbow and hip a bit. Then after his shower he was tightening the screw on his glasses so the lense wouldn't fall out and the frame broke. This was a serious problem and we spent most of the rest of the night thinking of ways to deal with it. Tomorrow will be interesting.

Kms 58.33
Time 3:42:32
Avg 15.7
Max 32.4
Total 999.3