Austria was a delight. I crossed the border just after the punningly-named Haus an der Strohm, where there was a Rad station. Free tools (on security wires), pump, cafe, free maps, advice....why can't we do that?
Lots and lots of flood damage, where heavy rain had flooded the side streams, which were running so fast in some places that they were tearing up the tarmac and pushing it downhill in great folds.
One of the features of this section is ferries. There is a great S-bend at Schlogen, where I took a tiny wooden ferry specifically built for bikes across the Danube, and then back to the left bank. Clouds were lifting through the trees as I stopped at Obermuhl, and it was a gorgeous view.
It was more of the same to the edge of Linz, crossing the river on great hydroelectricity dams, but the approach to Linz itself can only be described as a Bit Crap, with a farcility that ran beside a very busy road and then began stopping for all the junctions. Just like home.
Linz was bypassed through a riverside park in the rain, past a swimming lake with families under trees as damp barbeques steamed, and I stopped at a sort-of-hostel in Steyregg, spending the evening talking about all sorts with a great German lad called Lars (as well as drinking beer...)
Back on the road, and into chocolate box Austria. The only exception to this was a charming little town called Mauthausen, with prosperous houses, a pretty flower shop (called 'BlumenEck'...) and a concentration camp out the back. Riding was through woodlands, and orchards, steadily changing views across the river interspersed with loops 'inland' on quet roads. The scenery changed from a narrow gorge to an immens plain, and back to a gorge, and then opened again. I was doing my usual chatting with the locals, and seeing a small selection of cyclists that I would pass, and then see again as I took a coffee. At Grein I said goodbye to one pair I had ridden with for about ten miles as they headed back to their hotel, and the rain came down in torrents.
It rained all thw way to Ybbs....but the next day was fine, and I was coming into the officially most scenic section. Lots of vineyards, lots of little castles and churches, and the vast orange abbey at Melk, which meant more cruise crowds.
Schonbuhel came as a surprise, with an actual HILL that was a little bit of a grind, but gave my first chance of a decent descent , always fun fully loaded. The floods were worse along here, and near Durnstein I had to ride across folded tarmac through running water. The ferry to Durnstein gives views of the castle where Richard I was held hostage as well as a truly pretty blue and white church.
And more cruise crowds.
Then Krems, which oddly seemed to have two "old towns" and which I left following a filthy and smelly canal, no hotels, no camp sites, no food along there till I spotted a garage and grabbed some sarnies. Middle of nowhere, it seemed, then I spotted a church and yes,the village had a Gasthaus. With food, a room, and beer, but not in that order.