Biking along the Danube, from Passau to Vienna (Day 3)

After a good night's rest in Linz, we found the city even more appealing than the evening before ;)

The nice, long parks are just perfect for spending weekends and free time. It was Sunday morning and Danube's banks were already a very joyful place: people of all ages were highly engaged in sports: bike-riding, skating, ball-games and so on. We were passing them by, with a smile, gaining energy just by feeling this pulse of this community...

When I come to think about it, this is the best type of travelling I've tried so far :) Meeting other tourists on the cycle-path, proved to be an interesting feeling, because you already know you have something in common - the taste for cycling. From athlete cyclists, that were passing by, in the blink of an eye ('cause they were fast, not 'cause we were slow :-) ), to families with small children that were pedaling on colorful small bikes.
Cyclic, similar to walking, gives you the great opportunity to feel the pulse of the places, see details and things you would otherwise miss. But, unlike walking, it is not so tiring and of course you can ride tens of kilometers each day.

We've had days when we cycled from town to town or village to village and we've also had days when we cycled in nature, without too much civilization. Each experience is unique and gives you a proper amount of satisfaction.

Now we were back on Danube Route 1 (or Eurovelo 6) and Vienna seemed so far away :-) actually about 227km far away :D
The third day of our trip was rich in beautiful places to see, both nature and civilization.
The plan was to have a break in the small town of Mauthausen. Before the proper town visit, we recharged our batteries with good food, coffee and drinks.

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Later on, we reached Au an der Donau, a nice location - with some natural lakes, camping.. and of course - packed with tourists... :-) It seemed to be a great choice for a hot summer day, especially when I saw some teenagers jumping in the lake. However, we were "on the clock", so no bathing, just sunbathing on the bike :-)

The destination for this third day was, again (just like the first day), away from any city, town or village, in the heart of nature: Gasthof zur Donaubruecke, a small, but comfortable accommodation villa, just a few kilometers before Grein town.

Away from the town, but with a great panorama over Grein, from the terrace.

[... continued here]

Biking along the Danube, from Passau to Vienna (Day 2)

Wake-up!
Eat!
Cycle!
Take DSLR Pictures!
Cycle!
Eat!
Cycle!
Take phone-pictures cause getting the DSLR out takes too much time!
Cycle some more!
Eat!
Drink local beer (it's a must)!!!
Sleep like a rock :-) ... till the next breakfast!

...This would be a short version of the next days that followed the first post [read part 1 here]
However, I must tell the whole story! ..as there were some great moments between those cycle-eat-cycle sessions :-)

The second day of our adventure, started with a rich breakfast on the Danube shore...
I always used to say about myself that "I eat to live, not live to eat!" :-) Suddenly, eating became a high priority for me, as water & food are the "bike-fuel" and it's consumed incredibly fast!

Second day's target was Linz, a large Austrian city, settled 50~something km downstream on the Danube. So, we were biking again... surrounded by a fresh and wild landscape... The route was on the southern bank, a small forest on the right side and the Danube waters on the left.

The trees were protecting us from the shining sun, it was a good decision to cycle on that side... the other bank of the river was fully exposed to sunshine... and it can get quite hot in July!

The view, the trees' shadows, the sun, the river, the cycle-path... I loved this part so much!!! ... come to think about it, that part from Donauschlinge to Aschach was my second favorite part of the entire bike-tour.
Now that ranking came up ;) my favorite (#1) part was somewhere in the second half of our journey... and it involved wine fields. But, that's another story :-)

As I mentioned before, at the end of this enchanting forest-path, we reached a small town, Aschach, As a small break from cycling, we "recharged our batteries" with knowledge :) ---> we visited a local crafts' museum where we learnt some interesting things about evolution of boats, tools for building them and other local crafts. In the picture below, outside the museum, a transportation boat build recently for an exhibition, based on the old prototype.

Except for this small town and one other village, we did not see much civilization that day.

As we approached Linz, our destination for the day, the clouds started gathering, but fortunately it did not rain (much :-) ).

Linz is one of the largest Austrian cities and capital of the Upper Austria. Even if we arrived there in the late afternoon, we still got around for a city walk and dinner in the city center... :-) 

[... continued here]