240513- Ascension Day

Thursday morning we packed up and headed to the castle in Passau on the other (north) side of the Danube. We found the road up to the castle – the very steep road. I could ride up (if barely). But Linda had no hope of riding up that incline. So we walked. I realized even walking Linda struggled, with me pulling (or in this case pushing) ahead. So I left my bike by the side of the road and walked back down. The rest of the ascent I pushed one bicycle up 50 feet, only to walk back to the other. Repeat.

We walked in and about the castle before heading out (and down!) to an easy ride along the Danube to our first planned stop — a LIDL supermarket. Which was closed. A quick Internet search showed I’d made a rookie mistake — a national German holiday of Ascension Day. We ate lunch with the last of our bread in the vacant market parking lot.

From there we continued onwards to the next castle.

While the castle included a ceramics museum, Linda found another playground.

Headed onward, we planned to change back to the southern side of the Danube, because the southern side had more public bathrooms and more campgrounds. However, when we arrived at the dam / crossover point, at the nearby cafe we learned construction meant the bridge was closed. However, we found a ferry a few kilometers downstream and switched to the southern bank.

We’ve cycled for days on lovely dedicated bicycle path, enough so I had forgotten to check the elevations on the southern shore. Which were decidedly not flat. As we repeatedly climbed (and fell), the other bank mocked us with a visibly flat cycling path.

While the road climbed with a relatively shallow grade, Linda struggled with the hills. We’d finish one ascent only to drop back down and repeat. Before we reached the campground Linda melted down from exhaustion. We stopped for a while to get our legs back under us, and finished the last few kilometers to a campground in Inzell, self-described as the most beautiful on the Danube. All I can say is, I hope not.

Fairly remote, Linda and I discussed our options. We took showers, and ate dinner at the campground restaurant. By the morning we’d come up with a plan, and also agreed that while camping isn’t out as an option, we’ll do our best to limit it.

I’d also identified a river shuttle that, while 30 km away, could bring us the last 10 km into Linz.

Not 100% certain we’d make it to Linz, we set off Friday morning without reservations for a place to stay.

We caught the ferry outside of Linz mere moments before it departed, and had a relaxing boat journey for the last leg into Linz. From the ferry we made reservations for a hostel in Linz, noteworthy because it was a new addition to booking.com. I assumed it was a new addition, but an established hostel. I was wrong.

From the ferry we rode through Linz to the hostel. We revised our estimate of how new the hostel was by the person painting the front entrance. We’d picked the hostel in part because the listing said the hostel included a garden. Which was still a gravel lot. But worst was the shower, which provided only cold water, and water that was not quite as cold, as the two temperature settings. Correspondence with the hostel staff over the next couple of days suggested that the hot water heater kept blowing a breaker. The water would be cold, start getting warm, and then return to cold each time I corresponded with them. Linda managed to catch one of the warm water windows.

The “hostel” also wasn’t really a hostel. No kitchen, no common area, no place to meet and interact with guests. Then again, we found a bigger problem. In the form of the tick attached to Linda’s shoulder. And we discovered Bavaria has both high incidence of Lyme disease and FSME — tick-born encephalitis. I managed to remove the tick, but left the tick’s head in Linda’s shoulder.

We stayed in Linz for 2 days, taking a break. The kind of break which includes walking to tourist information for medical care early on a Saturday morning. And then walking across Linz to the hospital, and then walking back across the hospital campus to the other part of the hospital which treats patients on Saturday but not emergency care. The staff cleaned out the tick bite and sent us on our way, recommending a FSME vaccine for future travels, which they could not administer.

After all the walking, I decided to learn how the public transport system worked in Linz. We picked up travel passes and for the rest of the day moved about much more quickly on the local tram system. We caught a tram back to City center. I browsed through the local flea market while Linda visited a cafe. From there we visited the castle museum, which had displays ranging from werewolves to coral reefs made out of yarn

to electric bicycles.

The strangest combination of things I’ve encountered at a museum.

Linda has struggled with problems with her wrists (Cyclist’s Palsy), so we decided to take a more extended break and catch a train to Krems, about halfway to Vienna. But I hadn’t realized that the rail system stopped paralleling the Danube. Our transition to Krems included three different train changes, with layovers ranging from only 4 to 14 minutes. But after only one moment of the train door closing behind me almost leaving Linda behind, we arrived successfully in Krems early afternoon.

Again, uncertain in the morning whether we would successfully arrive at our destination, this time not for distance traveled but successfully making all of the train changes, we didn’t make any reservations in Krems until we arrived. However, we found a lovely place close to City center. We spent the evening exploring the city and local churches.

We had chosen Krems in part due to its proximity to a couple of castles from my travels here in 2015, one to the west and one to the east. Monday morning I left Linda for an extended ride back to Schloss Durnstein, the castle reputed to have held Richard the Lionheart, during the period where the Robin Hood legend originated.

From there I caught a solar-powered ferry back to the south side of the Danube. I completed the circle back to Krems, although an archaeological dig distracted me for a while.

Tuesday we will take a train to Vienna, and spend a few days there before resuming our bicycle ride to Budapest.