Sunday 31 October 2010

Day 43 Austria 31/10/2010 Linz – Mauthausen – Grein – Ybbs. 54.07miles/87.32km, 4hr46minutes, Av 11.3mph.

Happy Halloween everyone!

We had a good night's rest; the extra hour in the morning was especially welcome! Breakfast in the hostel was the standard European buffet affair. Which definitely beats getting out of a cold tent to cook in the morning.

With full stomachs and still warm from the hostel ,we loaded up attracting a bit of attention as we did so. An Australian guy said good on us and wished us well for our trip. We rode out of the hostel in a cheerful mood.

The plan today was to ride about 60kms to Grein, where there was an open camp-site that had cabins if we wanted one. We had got away in good time this morning, and as the going was very easy we made good progress. It has to be said though that the first part of the route was pretty boring. There were however some quite dramatic skies early on and a terrific view of the mountains across the Danube.

Being Sunday pretty much everything was closed and even the first open bakery we came too had very little bread. The added problem facing us at the moment is that it is a Europe wide Catholic holiday tomorrow as well. Giving up on the bakery we continued on our way, reaching Grein at about 12:30pm. Much earlier than we had expected.

While eating lunch in a café we discussed what to do next. Stopping in Grein seemed a little pointless as we had arrived so early and had the chance to shorten two potentially long days to Vienna. Feeling fit after lunch we set off again bound for Ybbs, which was approx 20km further down the road. The route was mostly along a main road with a narrow cycle lane. The traffic was comparatively light though so even when the lane ended it wasn't too bad. The scenery improved dramatically as well, as we had entered a narrow valley. We got into Ybbs at about 3pm found a guest-house and got settled in. Dinner and a well earned beer soon, tomorrow could be interesting as we don't know what will be open!

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