Day 21 Thursday June 23rd
Happy Corpus Christi – I think that is OK – as we found out with town bands and closed shops it was a holiday here in Germany. After the storm of last night we were wondering whether we would cycle much today but with the birds singing to awake the dawn it was another fabulous morning. Cloudy with occasional sunshine. We zoomed along and by just after 1pm had completed 73km and were in the city of Passau on the Austrian – German border. Within minutes of our arrival the rain came – not heavy but constant. After sheltering in a garage off a narrow cobblestone lane for about 10mins we could not decide what to do but having a flat tire the decision was made for us (to stay the night) so we had lunch.
On going to the tourist information centre we bought the guide for the next phase of our journey. Passau to Vienna – a distance of 326km. As the rain continued we contemplated taking a boat for part of the way and tomorrow morning at 9am will leave for Linz in Austria (a distance of 98km). This will give us both the chance to rest a bit. Lia in particular has had continuing trouble with her coccyx and some time out of the saddle will help a lot.
Passau is an interesting “young old” city with history dating to Roman times and situated as it is as the confluence of 3 rivers played an important part in the river trade. A massive castle dating from 1219 which overlooks the city was built to control commerce.
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In a walk around the city (in the rain) we visited St Steven's cathedral (rebuilt after a fire in 1662) had heard the massive 18,000 organ pipes (the largest Catholic organ in the world).
Passau Castle
Just before this we discovered that my North Face coat (bought in Kyrgyzstan) probably wasn't one as it started to leak (grhh – always buy quality!!!).
We folks – signing off from rainy Germany
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