Day 19- Passau to Lintz 102.5 kms

Today we started a bit later as we decided to have breakfast at the youth hostel rather than have breakfast on the road- so to speak when you are riding bikes.

Last evening we shared a room with a delightful young guy from central Russia who spoke very good English. He is currently doing some work experience in Germany as part of getting his law degree. He explained a bit about Passau and the fact that the church has the largest organ in the world.... well how about that!

We had dinner in the youth hostel last night as we decided not to travel down from the hill to the town. The food at the hostel was quite good with schnitzel, salad and chips....

Good tucker for the ride today 

The weather today started with cooler temperatures and warmed up to be quite hot when we finished at about 4.30 pm

The route today was fairly flat along the Danube on roads and bike paths. Today we really noticed an increase in bike traffic going both ways

The first stop for morning tea was about 25 kms from the start at a cafe near a hydro power station. The coffee was good but not as good as Melbourne... as has been the case so far.... I crave for a good coffee particularly as I have been off  the grog now for 3 day... a challenge for me is to be off it for a week!!!!!

After morning tea we traveled a short distance to cross in to Austria.... there was no real evidence that this was the case... no fanfare police or security guards.... just a river valley with a couple of signs 

After that we rode along the river making 2 crossings by punt which was different.

The river traffic was fairly light as I think the big Scenic Holiday type boats travel at night and berth at towns during the day 

At our lunch stop we were joined at a nearby table with a group of “ older guys” from Sydney doing a ride from the source of the Danube to Vienna. They were on heavy mountain type bikes with big panniers packed to the hilt.. far cry from our lightweight travel arrangements 

After the second punt crossing, which was about 15 kms from Lintz, we stopped for the mandatory ice cream and some ice tea which was interesting...

The ride in to Lintz was interesting and as I was the navigator for the day using Chris’s Garmin it was a bit of a learning experience.

Should be good to use the same navigation experience on my Garmin when I can get some maps!!!!

The hotel we are staying in tonight is outside of Lintz in what seems to be the industrial sector of the town. We are opposite to a steel mill which is interesting and the hotel seems to be the residential facilities for the local police. Most of the doors seem to have the names of the local police on them.... I think we might be safe!!

The other interesting thing about the hotel room we have is that is more like an apartment with cooking facilities and the like.... but there is no cutlery or crockery... funny that.

I am not sure where we will have dinner as we are well out of town 

In summary today was a great day of riding. We kept up our average of doing over 100 kms a day and we tried to do some bunch type riding with us taking alternate leads every kilometre... it seemed to work well 

Now for the photos...

Passau from the observation deck near our accommodation- up the HILL!!!!

Another view of Passau... it is the point where 2 other rivers join the Danube 

Early morning traffic on the Danube 

Some nice scenes across the Danube... note the river is brown as a result of flooding in the Inn river upstream from Passau 

At the border of Germany and Austria 

Crossing on the first punt... note the brown water 

The first punt...

The second punt.... much bigger 

Main square in Lintz 



Home for the night above....

And today’s ride below