Finally a goooood night's sleep. I woke up well rested and hungry so I headed on straight down to breakfast. A great breakfast was provided, just love the cherry jam here. I packed up my stuff and went downs to load up my bike. Waiting to start their journey down to Vienna were a group of tourists from Australia. They are doing it the easy way. They bike 30km without bags and then arrive at their next gasthof to find their luggage waiting for them. It's gonna take them 10days to get down to Vienna, it's gonna take me three.

Not a sunny start to the day but not rainy either. My destination today was Linz in Austria.  I had about 20km to do before I would cross the border. Once across I stopped for some warm kirschtorte and another coffee. At this stage of the Danube it is possible to go either on the north bank or the south bank, i had chosen the north. It is not had to understand why so many people chose this section of the Danube over the rest. The bike route is flat and the views are spectacular. I would say that 90% of today's section was alongside the river, a river that is continuing to widen as I make my way down it. At one point, at the famous 's' bend  at Schlögen, I had to switch banks which meant loading my bike on a small wooden ferry to be taken to the south bank. Then after passing through Aschach I switched back to the north bank until I made my way back into Linz.

The route really was wonderfully pleasant to pedal along until of course I neared the city when it gets busy and loud and frantic. There are definitely more people on this section of the route than what I found in Germany. As I cycle past fellow riders I try and sum them up into certain categories. You have your 'locals'; the ones who live in the area, generally older and who use their faithful two-wheeler as a means of transport, come what may, rain or shine. They might greet you if you are lucky but are probably so fed up of saying 'morgen' every time a tourist passes them that the try and avoid eye contact. You then have your 'fitness' cyclists. These are generally men in tight shorts who neglect to wear underwear so when they tear past you all you get is an eyeful of their crack with no 'morgen' to be heard.  You have your 'Daily Trippers', generally families on a day out with a picnic and a dog in tow, they are in no hurry to get out of your way nor to their destination, in fact they probably don't know where they are going. Then there are the 'Stagers', generally couples who are completing one of the stages of the Danube and have their bikes loaded up and will go home happy once they reach their final destination and will come back another year to do another stage. AND then you have the f***in idiots called 'Hannah' who think that they can do the whole bloody Danube in one go. They have a heavy trailer in tow which everybody stares at, and which quite frankly slows you down and if y not gonna use the tent etc.... That it contains then what's the point? These people, greet all of the people above and make faces at them when they get no response. They are suffering with bad knees and sore parts and are too tired to do anything when they get to their destination :-).

Anyhow! Linz seems to be a nice little city. There is some type of medieval fair going on so lots of horses and men in armour. Tomorrow I will be off to Melk, one step closer to my day off in Vienna. Bring it on.........