Haibach ob der Donau

Thursday September 22
In Which we Cycle the Schlogen

Today marked the start of section three of our European Odyssey. This meant that we would need to collect new bikes to carry us from Passau to Vienna. This would have been simple if the bike supplier could have delivered them to our hotel, but they didn't. They instructed that we would need to collect then from their depot, about 6 km out of town.

Just to make sure that the handover of bikes would take place as efficiently as possible I rang the representative of the bike company the previous day and explained that we would be arriving in two groups of 14 people, about 30 minutes apart. "That is great, we will have the bikes ready and tagged with your names", she promised. It certainly never worked out that way.

We arrived at the strangely named "Globus Garage" right on time at 8.30 am, expecting to be able to collect our bikes and get going

The only person in the cavernous warehouse certainly did not seem pleased to see us.

"What do you want ?", he demanded
"Our bikes" (Why else would we have come to a bike storage warehouse?)
"You can come tomorrow", he growled
"Not tomorrow, we need them today !" (Why was my stress level starting to escalate?)

I handed him the vouchers, showing the date of collection. He just grumbled and went to look in a big book. Then he gets on the phone to someone from his company. Twenty minutes later there were still no bikes. Eventually he starts to just grab bikes seemingly at random from the hundreds of bikes at his disposal. None had been prepared in advance. The only thing that the guy gave out freely was abuse.

The shambles continued for the next hour while, one by one, we finally got a bike that was reasonable. This whole fiasco could have been been avoided if they had prepared the bikes like they were supposed to. While this was going on I rang the girl from the bike company and explained the disaster that was taking place. She simply replied that they could not be prepared as people needed to "try their bikes"

I was not impressed at all. Every other operator we have dealt with has been able to prepare bikes in advance, except this company.

The situation became more farcical when we asked for spare tubes and tools. I was met with the same torrent of abuse. Eventually he handed over one tube and a small box of tools. ONE TUBE for 28 bikes and about 500 km of riding ! The only way this grump would hand over another tube was when he was handed a 10 Euro bribe. We had also ordered one Ebike as part of the order and we discovered that the battery had only been partly charged, This was a really disappointing way to start this part of the ride and we were all glad to be finally out of the place and start pedalling our way to Vienna. Things could only get better from here - and they did.

At least the weather was superb as we followed the left bank of the river out of Passau. We were now cycling one of the world's premier bike paths and we all knew just how lucky we were to have such a privilege. As Passau shrank into the distance behind us we looked to the mighty Danube on our right hand side. The water from the three rivers that join at Passau each has a distinctly different colour, and you can see these different colours in the water for some distance downstream

After about an hour of riding we stopped to readjust our bikes and recover from the trauma of the bike collection, it was time for our first morning tea stop. We then climbed back on the bikes and continued till about 12.30 before stopping for a leisurely lunch. The last time we rode through this spot it had been a hot day and they had a sprayer rigged to cool passing riders. Today we had much milder temperatures and the sprayer was not required.

Although we passed the occasional rider the path was actually very quiet, again emphasizing that this is the VERY BEST time for this type of trip in Europe. The hotels are quiet, most of the tourist hordes are back home again and the weather is usually great for cycling.

It was interesting to pass the Gasthof Draxler at Niederanna, the place where our group stayed on our first Danube ride in 2009. I had many happy memories of that place and the fun time we had shared there.

The final section of the ride took us further along the left bank to to the famous Schogener Loop

This is where the Danube has to make a series of fantastic bends to get around some sizeable mountains that block the more direct route.
Opposite the little hamlet of Schlogen we all crowded aboard a tiny ferry to cross to the other side of the river. This is the start of the walk to the famous Schlogener Blick (lookout). This is surely the most spectacular view of the river that we will get for the entire ride and well worth the short but quite strenuous walk to the summit. We all admired the view and took a camera full of pictures before returning to the base.

Although we had originally planned to cycle to the hotel where we would be spending the night, I received an email the previous day to advise that the hotel would provide a lift for any that did not wish to ride (as it turned out everyone)

The only problem was the the mini bus could only take 8 people at a time and the ancient bike trailer took an eternity to load and unload each time. This meant that the final group to be transported were half frozen by the time it was their turn for the lift. Fortunately the hotel Kocher at Sankt Agatha was probably the best hotel of the entire trip and our hardship was soon forgotten as we explored this lovely Shangri La, high in the Austrian mountains

The views stretched out in all directions over the green rolling hills. Scattered over these mountains were the classic small villages, each clustered around their own church.

By the time I arrived in the final batch, most of the women were already enjoying themselves in the swimming pool. Since Maggie had the room key, I was locked out and had to languish outside our room while she enjoyed the warm pool. I eventually managed to shower and change and get to to the the dining room just in time for dinner.

The dinner was absolutely superb and so I was finally able to retire to bed in good spirits. It had been a long and very eventful day.Read more