For some of this to make sense, you might need to read Elly’s and my Facebook pages. Here’s the map.

Bit spaced just now. Elly’s post mentions the drop into Linz. Usually I enjoy them – the reward for toiling up the hill in the first place! But this one had me slightly concerned: would our brake-pads last? Would I keep concentration? I was also freaked by how closely some cars passed Elly. I think the lack of en-route photography is understandable!

I’d like to do it again, on a road bike to see what speed I could achieve. I was holding back quite a lot, mostly to stay behind Elly but partly because my luggage made Lev feel slightly top-heavy. Still, if Cyclemeter is to be believed, earlier today for a moment I was going downhill at 46mph. It would have been on a descent before Vyšší Brod. There was a crazy descent along a forested road to the Vltava: it was even marked as dangerous!

But enough of the negatives because they are minor. The major things today were cycling on beautiful tarmac though stunning countryside with my better half, Lev Davidovitch and Fidel taking on cobbles and loose gravel – and winning! – their seeing others enjoying the river, getting back on track, fab weather, passion fruit sorbet in Zwettl an der Rodl, seeing roadents going **up** our fearsome descent, the feeling of slight burn in my feet, meeting a roadent who had cycled from Vienna to Linz (220 km = 140 miles) today as part of a trip to the source of the Danube, and tonight’s dinner!

Never has tea with soya milk, a beer (Edelweiss Hefeweizen), Petersiliekartoffeln) boiled potatoes with parsley and a mixed salad been so enjoyed. The salad even had thin strips of pickled beet root, some kidney beans and a few Essiggürken (gherkins). Now I know I’m in Austria!

Not sure what we’ll do tomorrow. We know we could reach Vienna: the route is just about flat and we have a good guide-map from last year. (The route strays away from the river quite a lot.) But the last few hours would be just grind, so we’ll set out and see where we get to. Watch this space!