Phil and Anne Cycle the Danube: Day 17, Linz to Grein

We were awoken by bells again for a third morning! No big deal this time; first morning was 05:30, second was 06:00, this morning was 07:00 so not long before alarm. We had to check out by 09:00 anyway, so an early rise was a good idea. And, it was going to be hot so an early departure was a good thing. A Youth Hostel breakfast was predictably, shall we say, basic, so no hanging around there. We left around 08:30, at a pleasant 21C, straight down the hill so that Anne could demonstrate the direct route we could have taken to the hostel yesterday. Whatever. After crossing the bridge back to the north side we joined the cycle track by the river (apart from diversions around building works - Austria will be a nice place when they finish building it!). The route continued past the industrial zone on the far bank, on the flat, through nowhere in particular so a mid-morning coffee potential did not present itself. Never mind, Mauthausen looks a nice place at half way. It wasn't. It was approached alongside a main road ; we diverted in and failed to locate the centre, let alone a coffee shop; burst through the other side onto a big swirly junction where we dodged traffic to gain the cycle path over the girder bridge. Things quietened down after that. We passed a cyclists' shelter (banana and biscuit stop) then nothing else until Wallsee was reached. Even the ancient wooden bridge that the Guide talked about was absent, replaced by a new one presumably having been wiped out by the 2015 floods (the year the Guide was published). The cycle route skirted round Wallsee village for good reason: it sits high on a sandstone outcrop on a bend in the river (the source of all of the millstones for the area in times gone by). By this time we were ready for food and beer so the big climb up to the market place was welcome. We collapsed in the shade of a tree in a gasthof biergarten and ordered omelette and pizza for a cheap price (& beer too, of course). Really, meal portions here are ridiculous: I still have half the pizza in my pannier. It's been so hot that it's still at the temperature it was served at! We left after a long pause in the cool of the shade and a nosey at the castle (privately owned by descendants of the Franz Ferdinand family - no, not the rock group, the Archduke whose assassination started WW1). The last ten miles to our destination was purgatory. We just tried to ride fast to keep the cooling breeze going. It was punishingly hot. The Garmin Edge registered 51.1C after being parked in the sun at lunch. The shade temperature was 31C, and we weren't in the shade. Tonight's accommodation, at the Donau bridge, was reached just after 15:00 with some relief. A shower, laundry, and beer/wine followed in that order. The remains of my pizza will go towards tea and maybe just a salad bowl in the restaurant will round it off later.

43 sweaty miles at 10.6 mph avg. 4 hrs and 3 mins to ascend 175m.