Day 3, Linz - Passau; July 21, 2003

Start at 6:30, actually earlier for I still did not get used to sleeping mattress plus other people started to get up and every now and then you could hear unzipping sounds. After seven half of the camping was up. I pack the tent and can see that whole inside of the outside layer is wet. It must have been very damp during the night. No time, have to pack anyway. I will dry it later.

 8 km later I find Spar and buy something to for breakfast and sit down at a coffee house near by. Real feast for €4.

With full stomach I continue - ~9 a.m. I ride and ride, pass numerous towns after Linz. Have to get used to different signs here (bicycle route signs), they are slightly different that in Lower Austria - green, while my eyes are still looking for blue ones.

Slightly different landscape, river is turning more often, more climbs. Often on top of the hills you can find (see) a nice old castle or at least some ruins. Small re-route and have to leave my river :-( Hot again: Back on real track and getting really close to Passau (relatively):

Half way through the day (~50 km) I have lunch. Spoken to the waiter and to check what to expect, and was told that will have to cross the river by ferry. Here there are less and less bridges. But is getting also much much quieter.

Heat is beginning to be unbearable, and I am standing there waiting for the boat. In the sun it must have been well above 50°C.

Funny thing - you can wait for the boat for half a day o nobody will come to pick you up but... you will find a small iron bell and a hammer. Few minutes later I was on the boat (€1,5).

Luckily I was in the shadow under the trees...

While fixing the problem few other bikers passed me, and must say all of them asked me if I needed any help.

Roughly one more hour and I reached Austrian-German border (for the 1st time that day)... Saw others riding in opposite direction and asked if they could make a picture for me :-) See above.  

So after 3 days I left Austria, not for long though. While north bank of Danube already belongs to Germany, south one for another 15 or so kms is still Austrian. So it wasn't long when I reached another dam, crossed it and appeared back in Austria :-)

Old brick building which was part of the dam with very small gate and huge sign "Übergang nach Österreich" Here I had a huge problem - had to climb up the stairs!! Tried few times and that was it. No way, had to wait till for somebody to help. Fortunately it is quite a busy spot, so in few minutes I was at the top and took this picture

Actually stayed there for a while and was watching how water level in the chamber was rising. When the ship left I also carried on with my trip

Last several kms before Passau were hard. The wind started to blow, was still climbing and it looked like it was going to rain.

See? there is no sun any more. Plus this part of the route actually ran along normal road with cars and some of them mostly German forgot about speed limits.

What was it 5 or 6 pm when I entered Passau. Noticed a bike shop and bought two more tubes having in mind problems from few hours ago. Better to be on the safe side. At the shop also asked how I can find camping site. Unfortunately had to get to other side of town but finally made it.

Camping in Passau (there is only one) is run by Polish family :-) So I even got hot cabbage soup for free. For the beer I had to pay though

Later on I met a couple from New Zealand and we had a short chat. They were heading to Vienna.

Distance: 107 km

Average speed: 17 km/h

Total 305 km so far!