August 31, 2014
To Braunau am Inn
Today was a less exciting days cycling. I think we must be getting very spoilt. For most of the time we were ridding along a gravel track between the river and rather scrubby forest so there was not that much to see. Along this part of the Inn it is extensively dammed I said I thought that there were 8 dams , there are in fact 17. The wonderful wild water of above Innsbruck is now gone and you are left with something very sluggish. I think of Hammish at Haiming with his rafting trips and the extreme kayaking - it is all so sedate down here.
We stopped for coffee at Marktl the town that is famous because Pope Benedict was born there and lived there till he was about 3. This is extremely important for the town - there were Pope pictures everywhere. We saw his birth house and the very modest church he was baptised in. There were lots of pictures in the church of babies recently baptised there - a very poplar place for a baptism.
Then back along the river bank to Branau. We had stayed here 3 years ago on our trip up the Inn. The Hotel Post is the same comfortable place we stayed in. Branau too has a very famous son but they are not at all proud of him and he is not mentioned. The only mention of him is a plaque on a rock outside his birth house decrying his philosophy - yes it was Hitler.
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 1,623 km (1,008 miles)
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