//Day 3 /14-03-22 /Linz-Melk

I was writing a lenghty post of my today’s adventures until the blog app which I’m using crashed…So it will be an shorter post  than planned….

This morning I woke at 7.00 thanks to the 130 I cycled yesterday. After breakfast I saddled Black Horse to ride to Melk leaving a hotel which was probably used for a dark thriller movie in the 50’s. Strangely there was a stark contrast between the corridors which were dark, old and gloomy and the rooms which were light and quite modern…the twilight zone…..

Leaving Linz, 3rd biggest city of Austria and considered by Hitler as his hometown, brought me through a chemical industrial area pranged between the city center and the Danube. Once I crossed the bridge and on the left bank ready to head to Melk, my destination of today. 

The day could be described as the perfect mix between uneventful and perfect. Why ? In no order of importance : 

1. Great weather ; blue sky again and warm enough to cycle without jacket from 10.30. I noticed a slight sunburn this evening, so I will have to buy sun cream much earlier then expected. 
2. Although most pubs/ restaurants are closed I had no problem to find a shop to secure lunch which I consumed in the sun enjoying a great vista.
3. The Danube runs now in lower Austria so the river is less embedded in a valley which results in more scenery views with Alps in the far distance and castles near by…a bifocal landscape….
4. No headwind but back wind. I released the reins of BH and made an average of almost 23 k/hour with  130 K of range available  when arriving in Melk.

In my initial, crashed, post I had more reasons…but bottom line is that It was a perfect mix between uneventful and perfect….

Probably one other reason was that the Eurvelo route did not always follow the Danube banks but often swirl inlands bringing me though fields and small farmer villages.

Most of the villages on the Danube banks are in winter sleep awaiting the cyclists and cruises. In one such village I encountered an old friend. If one can call signposts friends. The signpost was directing to Santiago de Compostela, only 2990 K away. As I did not have my running shoes with me nor am I in a  Compostela running condition I hopped back on Black Horse and headed to Melk.

 The last 20 K I rode on a European sponsored silk cycling path which would take me in less then an hour in Melk.

Melk is known for it’s splendid Benedict Abbey which is build on big rock overseeing the Danube and the old village of Melk. After having checked in in my hotel I strolled through the old town and climbed the stairs to the abbey, expecting the building would be closed. The Abbey receives more then a half million visitors a year but was in deep winter sleep. Luckily the courtyards were open and I enjoyed the beautiful restored barok building which made it quite clear why it is flocked by that half million tourists. I assume though that the 30 monks still living at the abbey appreciate the silence of the winter sleep.

After my visit I enjoyed a Radler on a empty but sunny terrace before heading back to my hotel to compose the now crashed post.

Tomorrow I will ride to Vienna where I will stay 2 nights to visit the Vienna,some photo festival exhibitions and eat a real Wiener Wiener schnitzel….The weather continues to co-operate…no rain foreseen in the nearby future.

Lessons learned :

• Uneventful can be perfect.
• There are worse thing then  blog apps crashing. Planes….
• So far so good.

Song of the day : Wait so long / Trampled by turtles