Monday, September 25, Grein to Melk; 44 km

Starting selfie: morning bike ferry to cross the Danube from Grein

Our motto: More than you’ll ever want to know. And then some.

The best breakfast buffet yet, and we descend upon it like locusts. We’ve been assigned a discreet table in the corner, which permits “foraging” towards another picnic lunch. The dried apricots are particularly appreciated. The breakfast room attendant cannot be unaware of this practice, which we convince ourselves is universal, and we hope that we are being mistaken for Americans (and I will just note that the word “we” is very useful here, since it is difficult for the reader to determine whether it is intended to be royal or collective)

The wall of bread and buns (& crackers)

The yoghurts, and the yoghurt add-ons

The covered platters of cold cuts and pale cheeses.

The savouries, and some spreadable items

Frischkäse & krauter (and who doesn’t love frischkäse for breakfast?)

The liquid items

The yoghurts again, with jams hiding in a corner

…and the all-powerful coffee -generating machine

Later, after checking out, we reload the panniers on our bikes and coast down to the small ferry that will take us across the Danube. J has learned that there is no separate bike path east of Grein along the north bank for a ways, and that the road is narrow, and busy with trucks. Later, as we pedal along the quiet south path, we thank her profusely for this intel, for we can now pause occasionally to gather wild flowers, and to speculate as to how a passing “tugboat” can control a segmented, double-length cargo barge while pushing it/them from behind, around some fairly tight bends in the river.

F examines a mysterious, one-wheeled bicycle-like machine at our hotel.

Our bicycle ferry captain

Disembarking

The view from the south bank towards the north

Bedizened…

…with wild flowers (M&J; J2&F)

Along the south bicycle path

The distance to the Danube’s mouth is now 2075 km

En route

J, and cliff face

Jurgen, the owner and operator of that amazing bicycle-like contraption, which is beautifully made, and German, as is he.

Later, downstream, we cross back to the north bank, where there is now a proper bicycle path, and have a picnic-style lunch in the Persenbeug-Gottsdorf town square, shaded by a 700+ year-old lime tree.

Crossing back to the north bank via (passing over, rather than through) this lock, near Persenbeug-Gottsdorf

J approaches Persenbeug-Gottsdorf

Lunch in the Persenbeug-Gottsdorf town square…

…in the shade of a 700+ year-old lime tree

A box, for when you feel like spendin’

After lunch we malinger a bit, stopping frequently, as we cycle through a region of small farms: corn, being grown for fodder; mustard; and possibly horseradish (J2 having pulled one of the plants for examination). In one village we ask a local why the firewood here (stacked in cords beside the road) is cut twice as long as ours, 3’ rather than 18”; apparently the individual pieces will be cut again (halved, I imagine) before they are used. We stop again to watch a small, robotic mower cut the grass, and (when it turns towards us) imagine it to be following us, like some kind of blind, automatic dog.

Through farmers’ fields

Mustard (we think), with some sunflowers

J2 uprooting a plant for identification

We believe it to be horseradish, though we are also open to your suggestions

Even the pumpkins are friendly here

Roadside corn stand

Our automatic dog / lawn mower. Photo for our friends R&T, in Walnut Grove

We arrive mid-afternoon in Melk, where we will have a rest day, during which we plan to visit the amazing Melk Abbey. We celebrate our day at the Central Café in Melk, with coffees and a slice of Haselnusskuchen.

Melk Abbey. This version, Baroque, was built between 1702 and 1736, though the Abbey itself was founded in 1089

The central square in Melk, with Melk Abbey behind

Haselnusskuchen