Day 16, Aschach to Linz

Another short day to give us a bit of time to look around Linz, but boy was it hot. We left the rather fabulous schloss hotel with a starting temperature of 24C. We crossed the bridge back to the south side and rode onwards, again on fine smooth tarmac following R1, as the cycle route  is designated in Austria. We passed a rather impressive hydro dam and debated crossing to the north side but decided to stick with the plan and continue, through shaded forest cycleway, to the cable ferry at Ufer that crosses to Ottensheim. This was a fascinating contraption that uses a motor only to align itself at either end, but then orientates itself at an angle and uses the current to push it across the river whilst tethered to a cable. Very clever, but can only operate if the dam upstream has its sluice gates open! 200m later we stopped for a welcome coffee and cake. The cycleway continued by track and road until it funnelled us rather misleadingly across a road onto a cycleway that followed the main dual carriageway into Linz for 5km. It was a miserable, noisy and unpleasant ride separated from the traffic by a strip of gravel and a line of plastic posts! And by this point the temperature was well up into the high 20s, in the shade, and there wasn't much of that. Pushing the bikes round the busy centre was no fun so a visit to the old and new cathedrals was all we could manage with a biergarten between the two. Then we headed off to the Youth Hostel which looked like a flat run on the map, but it was up a seriously steep and long hill. 90% up there ensued a lively debate regarding the optimum route to our destination. This resulted, to cut a long story short, in a circuitous return down the hill to where we started. We then took a more direct route ... which resulted in climbing the hill again along a different road!  

A visit to a Spar supermarket for some fruit and yogurt followed checkin, then we retreated to the adjacent Botanical Gardens for a shady wander, our snacks, and later, a coffee. Believe it or not, the Tropical House was actually cooler than outside!  Spar was revisited and, in marked contrast to last night's indulgence, bread, cheese, tomato & pasta salad was purchased for an excellent tea, along with a beer, on the hostel terrace. By 20:30, the temperature has at last dropped to 'bearable', but only in the shade, in the breeze!

22.3 miles (including the 2 hill climbs) at and average of 9.4 mph (including pushing around town - it was 11.2 on arrival at Linz). 2 hours 22 mins moving time to ascend a knackering 225m ... all at the end.