We started the day at Eferding under threat of rain. Forcasted high today was 62 F. Last year, the high for the same day was 86 F.
The crossing of the hydro electro generating dam complete with locks that allow boats and ships of all sizes to travel past the dam in both directions was the highlight of the day. We had some unexpected but welcome sun, saw swans in gaggles in the river on a number of occasions, and passed through some beautiful wooded areas along the path. We passed the Regatta Center with its rowing center and got to see the laser timing equipment used for judging races that is normally submerged in the water.
Shortly after that it began to rain, which wasn't bad, until we were pedaling along and the chain broke. Definitely a showstopper! Luckily, there was an underpass and John had brought his multi tool, which had a chain tool. He took out the broken link and used the old pin to temporarily put the chain back together. While not recommended as a permanent fix, the chain was back together in short order and it sure was better than any of the alternatives which included waiting for the bike rental company to dispatch someone to make a repair or to walk. Since we were not going to have cell phone coverage or data, prior to the trip John downloaded an Open Street Maps ( OSM) app and offline database to use for such an occasion. The OSM app has all the roads and lots of points of interest much like portable GPS units have. The OSM app showed that was a bike shop about 8 km up the trail in the next major town. So, we pedaled with limited pedal force to prevent the temporary chain repair from breaking. We arrived at the bike shop and were bummed to find out that it had closed 30 minutes before we got there, and they aren't open on Sunday (the next day). Faced with a bad situation coupled with more bad news, we decided to use a lifeline and call a friend. We called the tour company, conveyed our situation and requested that a new chain be delivered to the destination hotel that night.
We were on a tight schedule, but Sue really wanted to see the Postlingbergbahn, the steepest traction railway on Austria and perhaps take a ride. We got a little turned around in the rain and ended up meeting the train on the mountain instead of at the main station. They wouldn't take our bike on the train, and we are running out of time to get to Enns, our stop for the night, before the bike repair man came, so off we headed for Enns with only a brief visit in Linz. It was raining hard in Linz and all the things we were interested in no longer sounded great in the rain, so we headed out of Linz and set our sites on Enns, the final destination for the day.
After arriving at our intended destination of Enns and getting cleaned up we waited at the hotel until 7:30 but the bike repairman did not arrive. So we asked the innkeeper to just let him in to work on the bike and went for dinner. Spaghetti and meat sauce for Sue and Tortellini with garlic cream sauce for John, along with a big Italian salad. Triple chocolate gelato for dessert. Yum!
We went downstairs about 9:30 and the poor bike repairman was working away. His wife was with him in the Euro Bike van. John found out he came in off a boat that had a bike tour going on just to save our vacation. What dedication!
Here is the link for the daily route: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1PQcHyIo4PBZ0NmeU9vVk9CYjQ/edit?usp=docslist_api
Enjoy the pictures and catch us tomorrow!
Sue and John
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