Tag: Au an der Donau

Au an der Donau to Grein – 29km

Only 14 degrees today! When we arrived at Au an der Donau at gone 7pm two days ago it was 27 degrees. A shorter day by far, that started after breakfast in the campsite ‘pool’, another lovely natural pool, but which must have had its source from elsewhere. It was so refreshing it left me tingling with cold. Too cold and deep for Evie, she practiced her sitting!

We set off in the rain, but it didn’t last too long, nor was it too heavy.

First thing of interest was at Machland; a fish ladder, considered Europe’s largest. They’ve even built an impressive viewing tower to look down on it.

…. and a massive man-eating fish!

After a while the cycle path left the Danube and headed inland. We were thirsty and in Mitterkirchen, a small little village, was an amazing restaurant called Radlerbauerhof, Familie Moser. I thoroughly recommend a visit if you are passing through this village.

Evie got to play in the pumpkins!

We got to drink homemade award winning cider and wine! And eat very tasty homemade soup.

It turned out they had a shop and were also a hotel. Somewhere I would happily return to stay. And that they made a large number of different wines, schnapps, brandies and even a whiskey!

Sadly it was time to leave again. So we cycled off through now very agricultural land, fields filled with corn and sugarbeet.

Before we knew it we were back by the Danube and in woods

Then the scenery changed again and the river got narrower, we were definitely going downhill (it’s the hardest gear I’ve needed to use yet!). It’s has also become more woody again. Sadly no sun to bring out the colour in the trees but pretty nonetheless.

Then suddenly…. we turned a corner and there was Grein in front of us. Even from a distance you could see it was a pretty town.

But it did have a short sharp hill just to get into it!

Having struggled up the hill to our lovely guesthouse, a lady who speaks no English welcomed us into her home. I was glad of my (somewhat terrible) German. I think she would have played with Evie all evening if we had hung around!

It wasn’t till we went to walk back into Grein I realised that the hill up really was quite steep, so I needn’t have berated myself for not being able to cycle up it!

We went up to the Schloss, but were to late to look around. The view was good though!

I knew Grein was old, but not quite how old. First documented in 1147, with major renovations in 1642, after a great fire had consumed most of the city.

We had an interesting hour looking around, in part because we accidentally visited two places at the same time as an American tour group off a Danube cruise was being shown around.

The Old Rathaus, from 1563, converted into a Municipal Theatre in 1791 was very interesting.

It was very quaint inside

Bit of particular interest were its original ‘locking seats’ – you owned a seat and locked it up so no-one else could use it

A loo with a view, so if you needed the toilet during a performance you could peep through the curtain to continue watching!!

And the fact that there was a prison cell attached to the theatre, but there was a peephole through, so the prisoners could watch the performances!! It is even said that folk brought them brandy and food to keep them quiet!

And the theatre is still in use today, but we didn’t get the chance to see a performance.

On into Grein church, with beautiful vaulted ceilings

We were lucky in that the American group, and therefore us to, got a short organ recital, which was very nice to listen to.

Then out for dinner, which is becoming ever more entertaining with Evie!

Tonight, she was after my wine big style!!

From there an amble back up the hill, in the rain. I had not taken out the bundle bean as I wasn’t expecting rain again, so ended up in mums waterproof worn backwards!

And the all essential evening play!

Mühldorf to Au an der Donau, 51km – 23/08/18

I promise I won’t generally write about hotels, but Hotel Schloss Mühldorf was a pretty special place, and because of this we struggled to leave!!

We started the day with a swim in what was actually a pond but made to look like a swimming pool. And it’s water filtration was a reed bed. In fact all but it’s shape was very natural and just delightful.

Even the grey cat was pondering a swim!

From there to breakfast….. I’m not sure I have ever seen such a beautiful breakfast buffet!

Well, we stayed long enough but could have stayed for hours more!

One final stroke of grey cat….

….. and, at nearly 11am, it was time to leave.

Evie was asleep within 100m of cycling off after the excitement of the morning. That was the upside to leaving so late. The downside was it was hot hot hot again.

Our first place we cycled through was Goldwörth, where they tried to pan gold somewhat unsuccessfully. We peddled along pretty lanes surrounded by agricultural crops until we met up with the official route again.

This section of the Danube is very wide and is surrounded by much flatter woodland. We even saw the bees that made the mornings woodland honey! Well the hives were very jolly and in woodland anyway.

Inspiration! Came across a family from Canada who are away cycle touring and camping for two months! It can be done. And they had two children, a 6 month old and a 2 year old. All they had were pannier laden bikes and a laden trailer. They were even carrying a balance bike for the 2 year old. Their secret, only to aim at about 30km a day in one hour stints.

The main town of note was Ottensheim, with its lovely main square. Had Evie not still been sleeping then it would have been a fabulous place to stop and relax over a drink. It’s church was surprising. Looked super old on the outside and then modern on the inside.

The next stage of the journey was not so nice, we continued on the north bank as there was a cycle path off the road, so there was no risk from traffic, but it wasn’t pretty as we cycled through Linz suburbia. The South path though was on the road, even if prettier, not recommended when towing a child.

We thought that we would go and see The old part of Linz, so cycled into its Hauptplatze. It was nice, full of cafes. But we were hot, we had a packed lunch, so the shores of the Danube were calling louder! And somehow Evie was still asleep.

At this point we were back to Costa del Danube, with the pebbly shores full of sunbathers and people enjoying swimming safely downstream before getting out, walking back upstream and repeating the whole thing.

Even Evie had a bit of time in the very shallowest parts of the shallows. She wasn’t so sure of the waves from passing boats but did enjoy splashing and playing with pebbles. Without knowing it I’m sure she also enjoyed cooling down!

Highly reluctant to leave, but we still had nearly 30km to cycle in the unrelenting sun. Thankfully the break had tired Evie out and she slept again, but we were running out of energy.

Still, trying to see the positives, there were lots of beautiful swans, and the distance to our end point was getting closer, even if it didn’t feel like it.

Evie woke at an appropriate moment, and we found ourselves in a ‘Texan’ bar, where we parked our bikes in the ‘Harley’ spaces! The music was great so Evie had a dance. Then there was even some live music. Evie got into the swing off it, desperate to join everyone else drinking from beer glasses! Sadly we had to leave the fun behind, and Evie was NOT happy to go!!

This made the last miles very hard, and seem even longer than they were already feeling. Typically, she fell back to sleep just as we were arriving at Au an der Donau! But that was a good thing as it took us a while to find our accommodation and get sorted…..

Looking forward to a day around here tomorrow.