September 25, 2022
Mauthausen, Austria to Bad Leonfelden, Austria (Sept. 25, 2022)
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Our plan was to head north and climb out of the Danube valley in order to ride to the Czech Republic. I couldn’t find much in the cycling journals on this route (thank you Tricia Graham for one of the few reports). I mapped out the Eurovelo 7 (called the Sun Route, which cracked us up because at least where we were it was NOT sunny) through to Cesky Krumlov, a 2 day ride north from Mauthausen.
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The weather was predicted to be sketchy with a window of no rain between 10 and 2 which coincided nicely with our normal riding patterns. It was about 50 degrees (F) when we left. Given it was Sunday the morning ride was traffic free through to Gallneukirchen on small roads. The ride is not marked the Eurovelo 7 but it is also Austrian R 28 (Gusentalweg) and it was clearly marked as such (until Affenberg when it becomes the R5, or Muhrvietlerweg). At Gallneukirchen the ride is on a larger, busier road all the way (25 k) to our destination Bad Leonfelden. It was okay because traffic was light and motorists were polite. At that point it became one long grinder climb of about 1500 feet for 15 k. I am trying to use less power on my bike, ie: improve my fitness, so this was a good day to work on that. Because of that I ride slower which isn’t as much fun for Dave although he doesn’t complain. We were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere - either rural or forest - and the only industry seemed to be farming. The small towns looked comfortable and prosperous and clean, much nicer and healthier than any rural communities we see in the US. (This was the same in Germany and Slovenia). They do something right in Europe. And in Affenberg where we stopped for lunch at a convenient bench near the end of the ride there was quite a bit of housebuilding going on, of large, sturdy homes. After the climb we had a very nice swooping descent into Bad Leonfelden, a town of about 4,000 that was selected solely because it was a good stopping point near the border with Czechia.
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As is typical, Dave was ahead of me on the descent so I lost sight of him and we both wound up following our Komoot navigation to the inn, which were NOT at the same place. I vaguely recalled the hotel mentioning there was an annex so this wasn’t entirely weird. I was inspecting the place (it didn’t look that great but not awful) and I couldn’t find Dave so I just assumed he had gotten lost when he called to report he was outside the inn (and it was scary looking). We met up and yes his Leonfelderhof was pretty iffy from the outside.
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As we have discovered on this trip, the budget places have all turned out to be fine and so it was this night. We were lodged in the Leonfelderhof Annex. It was clean, the bed was good, it even had a tea kettle, a tub (an uexpected and pleasant surprise), and fine garage parking with a charging station for the bikes. Dave could even get a beer out of the vending station downstairs (as well as condoms, toothpaste and a few other items, had he so chosen!) The heat was centrally controlled so we couldn't make adjustments to it and the decor had that pink 60s look in the bathroom…..we could live with that (it had a tub afterall!). It did however, have the wimpiest European breakfast of the entire trip. Well, for 116 euros, you get what you get.
Given it was Sunday night we had few choices for dinner, either dine at the Leonfelderhof restaurant on traditional Austrian food before it closed at 19:30 or the Latino Bar (which served burgers and cocktails) and was open late. We had a fun FaceTime with our grandchild Nick and his family back in the DC area and then split a fine burger and cocktails at the Latino Bar. Life was good.
On to Czechia in the morning.
Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 1,509 km (937 miles)
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