Today we rode 75 km on the Danube River bike route. It was flat, the surface was excellent and the scenery and villages were exceptional. The signage on this route is about as good as you will ever find. However, the route is extremely popular with bicycle tourists and the bike path can be very busy. However, it was a lot quieter than riding yesterday on a Sunday The ride today was an excellent test for our battery as we had a few hills and rode a good distance. We used less than 30% of the battery. I am sure that we could easily have ridden over 200 km on a single charge. When we were at he train station in Passau, Mary Ellen went into a bookstore and accidentally found the Bikeline guide Passau to Vienna and it was in English. Usually we have to struggle through German versions of Bikeline guides. It was a real pleasure to have Mary Ellen read about all the villages and sights that we were riding through We had a great sleep in our little guesthouse by the Danube River in the wee village of Kasten. Being such a busy part of the route in it has become our challenge to find reasonably priced and available accommodation. We have used Booking.com and the Danube site to search for places to stay. When we travel with our tent, we just start looking for a place to stay wherever we end up at the end of the day. Yesterday we noticed private zimmers available in villages that we passed through - we will try doing that today as we like staying in places like this and they often cost less and include breakfast. Hopefully this will work out!
Welcome to Austria! Our room at Gastehaus Donautal was charming and made us feel at home in Austria. A large balcony was the icing on the cake.
At the beginning of the day the countryside was rolling hills with farmland along the Donau (Danube). Later today we will ride through a rugged area with rocky cliffs and forested peaks and castles.
Well, this enticing entry to the Power Station at Jochenstein reminds us of a funny mistake from our first trip along the Donau six years ago. It looks nice bere, but soon you must climb 90 steps, navigate the narrow area at the top and then descend 90 steps to the other side. Mary Ellen somehow missed the detail on the map showing that a ferry for bikes is just beyond this power station to help bikes across. Not surprisingly, it is not recommended to take this route.
On the other side is another bell to summon the ferry
It looks harmless from here. But this time, we are smarter and we'll take the ferry instead.
Also, when we were here before, the weather was terrible: heavy rain and blowing winds. We had taken shelter from the storm and Mary Ellen had the brilliant idea of crossing here as we would be out of the elements. Well, 3 or 4 trips up and down the steps with our bike, trailer and panniers was not a good thing.!!
We took a long ferry ride to get around an area where it is not possible to have bicycle paths due to the cliffs and rugged terrain. These ferries are amazing - they run continuously throughout the day. It's like a mini cruise for us. Who needs Viking?
Another area where we must take a ferry. You can see that there is no possibility of a bike path due to the terrain. This area has many castles and ruins atop the cliffs.
These ferries are very busy and it is not easy to load them with fully loaded bikes. Seavo got his own side of the boat as the captain wasn't sure how to handle our bike with the others.
