leaving Linz

     leaving the excellent student style apartment in linz in the morning wasn't easy at 39 euros a night ideally placed and it being wet outside! i tried to talk myself into having a day catching up with organising flights and the route ahead, it would have been great to have had a day wandering around the shops and then have dinner and beers in town there seems to be a good ex pat community here they even have rugby clubs, i took my time getting organised having the bike in the room i  should have been quicker but it was still 10AM before i got going. my breakfast at denns bio was ace.
   

i basically got back to the waterfront then went for the same bridge i crossed yesterday then swung a right and headed downstream it was as easy as that to get back on excellent cycle paths, the cycle path signs changed style entirely in Austria from Germany there wasn't as much detail most of the time and occasionally the actual cycle route is on both banks of the Danube so the sign for your destination can sometimes point two ways? i knew i had some distance to do so i kicked up a pace, until about five mile out of town, i stopped as I recognised the Scottish fella i spoke to briefly the previous evening, turns out he was also a Kenny and Kristy was an american from LA,

           we cycled together until two PM chatting non stop along excellent country cycle paths we even stopped to try a bit of stolen raw corn on the cob, It was a bit dry mulch like but ok, i later discovered it was probably the type of corn they use for cattle feed a harvester just mulches up the whole plant its not harvested for the corn as such, we cycled into Austria`s oldest village a place called enns, where we had lunch we had a chat  over lunch and a radler about our cycling objectives, their pace was slow and they had lots of tourists sites they had circled on their map that they would like to visit, I looked at their wish list, i was loving their company and the banter was great but! there was no way i would get to my objective that day (our objective) the town of melk was a long way down the river, our lunch was nice and we headed of in different directions i took the direct route they went to visit the concentration camp and the Celtic village,

      i took the less tourist a swift route supposedly, we parted at enns after a very pleasant lunch together,  I took the fast bank they took the tourist bank! my route was well marked and paved with not that much to stop and see, i just kept cycling the rest of the afternoon, I was still ten mile from melk when i had to stop and get the batteries for the head torch in and put it on as light was fading fast, It was off with the sunglasses and head-torch on for the last hour, i eventually rolled into town at roughly eight at night i had a daunder around then opted for a beer in a central location to find a place to stay, i asked the waiter for a dark beer and sat down, my beer had just arrived went i got a tap on the shoulder I turned around and it was Kenny and Kristy, I had to say there was no way they had cycled into town, they laughed and said OK we wont lie we talked a man with a van into taking us here before it got dark.

      I asked the waiter if there was rooms available here and if so how much he said 70 euro 60 I said OK i will take it once i had signed the paperwork with no price on it I worried about it all night he must have got the room price wrong! the place was a palace like spacious room with a chandelier and all the opulent trimmings, i had put the bike away in the garage and quickly showered before joining Kenny and Kristy for dinner the kitchen was closing at nine i just had time we were there last customers and had to go find the late bar for the end of the evening