Passau to Vienna

We both agreed that the river between Passau and the city of Linz in Austria was the most scenic of all.

Navigating the cycle path over bridges that cross the river and canals a number of times in Passau.

Passau, Barbara feeling sorry for those on a luxury, fully catered cruise ship with their own state room and balcony when, with a bit more effort, they could have been cycling and staying in a tent.

The cycle paths are wider and well maintained in Austria and the camping grounds have better facilities.

We decided to cross the river on the ferry to our next camp.

I jokingly asked the Skipper if there was a bar on board where I could get a beer and he reached down to to his secret stash and gave me an ice cold one.

The overcast weather made for cooler cycling as we headed for the city of Linz. We'd booked into a nice hotel in the city and arrived early to find a place to watch the World Cup Soccer Final. We had been barracking for Germany since the Aussie team was knocked out in the first round and found a great place in to watch in a Greek Restaurant with a big screen outside in the city square; Germany beat Argentina 1 - 0.

Another old relic.

Old relic close-up!!

We had been cycling for over seven weeks and notched up over 2,000 kms since leaving Rotterdam along the Rhine, Neckar and the Danube Rivers. We loved exploring Linz on foot for a few days and decided that we should do more of it in the cities further downstream.

It was time to off-load the bikes.

We were pleased with how far we'd pedalled (for non-cyclists) and although we were tired and sore we were were happy to quit while still uninjured and feeling good. We decided to take the bikes on the train to Vienna where they were sure to be snapped up by other "wanna-be" cyclists.

Linz

Vienna

We cycled through Vienna to our hotel not too far from the historic centre, cleaned the bikes up a bit and printed some "For Sale" signs (in German) that we hung of the back and front. We went into the city proper and parked them in full view of every one passing outside various cafes and tourist spots - never even got a bite.

We consoled our selves with shopping for clothes that we knew we'd need to start looking like regular tourists and decided to try selling the bikes at the main railway station the following day where we new there'd be plenty of student backpackers keen to have a bike to get around on. 

By chance the next morning, on the way to carry out our plan, we walked past a group of American construction workers having lunch at a cafe - they were working on the roof of the American Embassy nearby. They were thinking of buying bikes to save money on cab fares to get around in the evenings and within minutes we negotiated a price and we walked back to the hotel unencumbered and ready to plan our next stop down the Danube - Budapest in Hungary.

The Americans that came to the rescue!