Enter Austria
This morning at some point as we crossed a river we moved on from Germany to Austria.
Another cool clear morning with wet tents. We've all rediscovered the principle that dry tents mean bad weather. Unfortunately, or actually fortunately for us on most days, the corollary is true also - our tents are wet when we get up.
Most of the group made the decision to go to church today and hear the daily organ concert from the biggest organ in the world. So we got up at the usual time and followed the usual schedule and got into old Passau about 9. That was just on time to make a thorough visit to the Friday market in the church plaza. You should see all the fresh fruits and veggies, not to mention the several meat and cheese and bread and pastry stalls. Even though it was only an hour and a half since breakfast we managed to polish off a few fruits and pastries before church.
Just like the book said the door opened at 11:20 to sell tickets. It's another impressive church. No stained glass in this church but many large fresco paintings all over - ceiling and both walls. Lots of intricate statues and carvings. The organ concert was great though others thought it was just long enough at a half hour. Composers from periods from mid-1700 to 1990. The organ is actually five organs - 3 in back and 2 in front all controlled by one keyboard.
Once the concert was over we had sandwiches and fruit that Jenny had brought up for us. Then we had to make travel decisions. Sheila, Walter, Lincoln, and Randy planned to take it relatively easy and first check out the cruise ships from Passau to Linz. Brian, who returned from Munich yesterday headed off early by himself before the concert. Joy twisted her ankle walking around Passau this morning so decided to hop the Jennyvan for the day.
Chuck had had enough playing around for the day and wanted to RIDE. I guess I had too for I chose to ride with him and let him pull along for the 90 km remaining. It was about 115 km for the day including the ride into Passau. Except for the last 20 km we rode the south bank of the Donau. It was a great day for just riding. We had a little gravel at the start out of Passau then paved cyclepath (we're starting to call it the "psychopath") for the rest of the day. The first 30 km were hilly and often on roads. After that it was an 8 foot wide paved path about 6 feet from the river and made for good riding.
We did that 90 km in about 3.5 hours of riding including a couple P stops and a stop for me to call Randy to find out if they took a boat and what their schedule would be. We'll find out about that trip tomorrow. Near the end we took one bad turn when we went over to the north side and ended up on a peninsula - had to retrace our ride for 15 minutes. After that Mr. Competition had to chase down a group of 8 locals who had passed us so I struggled to keep up with that for 10 minutes.
We ended at the campsite, gave Jenny Randy's message and got Craig to haul us into town. Felt a lot better after a good cleanup and dinner at an Italian restaurant with Brian (Sheila still on the boat). Brian and I walked down to city center to check out ANOTHER festival but were glad to have non-festival food for a night.
|
Posted August 19, 2005 by Tour Participant
Austria |
|
