From my
generous host and his girlfriend, I cycle down in the direction of the Danube.
He pointed out the route via a GPS site. Still it’s not easy, because here
there are many routes marked, some for mountain biking, some for touring. Which
road signs, with the wanted village names, I need to follow is very unclear.
Asking does not help. Some people are car drivers and they don’t know the cycle
paths. Others are cyclists, but the instructions become too detailed and complex.
A map of the area would help, but would also force me to stop every time a
decision needs to be taken at a cross road. With reading glasses and my cycling
sunglasses this takes time and it requires a map that is small enough and easy
to reach. A GPS is no luxury for these circumstances I realize now. But the
landscape I have passed through was beautiful and that was worth the
frustration of heaving to turn back a couple of times.
In more
time than expected I reach Ybbs. On the market square I buy several home
cooked/prepared Sicilian goodies and eat an extensive lunch. Refreshed, I then
pick up the Danube cycle-path.
Along the
Danube the usual Eastern wind is out there again. That makes the weather stable
and warm with dry air and the sky again steel blue, as well as the Danube, but after
4 days of head wind, boy, do I long for my eBike! The extra 10 kilograms I’d
take for granted. I remember the wise warning words of my colleague Camille!
But lets say it’s just an extra training.
Reaching
Melk, I have to take another good rest. Sweating I climb up to the enormous
Monastery. It appears to be tourist trap, with a large flock of Americans. I am
having a nice chat with two over-sized pensioned species. But they do like my
undertaking and wish me all the best. Americans can always appreciate an
adventure even more when it takes a sportive effort.
On my last
resources, I reach Oberarnsdorf, where I negotiate me into a pension. It’s
Saturday evening and every room seemed to be taken and reserved. At a ‘Weinstubl’,
I am treated as a king and they give me some fruit instead of bread. Broken but
not beaten, I sleep like a baby.
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