The morning was bicycle touring perfection. The Danube was at its visual best, the temperature hadn’t yet reached 32 degrees and the wind was still asleep.
It was funny when I’d pass places and think, I remember that from when we cruised past 6 years ago. Sure enough, this evening when I looked at photos from back then I found some ‘duplicates’ The main different was the time of year – autumn vs late spring.
Unfortunately all good things come to an end and the path into Linz, beside an autobahn, against screaming traffic and a strong hot wind, did nothing to make me warm to the city of Linz. I didn’t really care for it last time so I kept on going.
Twice so far this trip I’ve gone a pedal push too far. This was the second time. As the afternoon drew on, the wind increased and my pace slowed. Google maps would tell me it was maybe an hour and 20 minutes to my next point. My legs told me 2 hours. At least the thunderstorms managed to avoid me – just. There are no photos of the second half of the day as my only view was limited to the 20 metres of asphalt in front of my bike.
But even the bad times stop and I ended up having a great supper in the backyard of a hotel (resturant wasn’t open) but the host put on food for myself and two other travellers. By the way Thressia (age 10) had just cycled 110 kilometres today. That put things in perspective. She and her father were cycling from Ulm to Vienna.