Sept 16, Au An Der Donau, Austria

Hi Everyone! I’m in awe. Actually, it is spelled “Au.” It is supposed to start raining in 30 minutes, so I am going to be quick. Today was the easiest 85 km of the tour so far. Nearly all was on a paved dedicated cycle path, with no hills.

The perfect ride along the Danube

Every so often, I’d pass a shrine of some kind.

Shrine

The interesting thing is that there is no way to get to these shrines except via this path. The river was loaded with swans too.

Swans on the Danube

This was otherwise an uneventful today. Very relaxing and peaceful. I checked into the campground at Au; the  tent site is actually in a fenced-off area with a combination lock on the gate. After I set up my tent, a man and 4 women came through the tent area pushing their bikes. Somehow, they had managed to get into this area and needed to get out so they could get signed in at the camp headquarters. But the lock on the gate worked both ways.

They said “hello” to me as the passed and started to try to figure out how to get past the gate. I, of course, knew the combination and started yelling it to them–but in German. Then I realized–they had not said “Hallo,” they had said “Hello.” These were Americans! The woman at the gate was getting so frustrated because she couldn’t understand me. Then I walked up to her and said, “Relax. I’m from Colorado.” I keyed in the combo for her. We had a good laugh! These folks are from Minnesota and had biked all the way from Prague.

Tomorrow is going to be a tough one–rain all day and 80 km. I will let you know how it went!

Scott

At one point, the route was supposed to take me to the north side of the river, via a Ferry. But it had just left when I got there, so I opted to take an alternative route, staying on the south side. This saved time and energy, but it put me on a busy road with no sholders and lots of traffic. But, it was over after about 10 km.