Passau to Brandstatt

Our first day "in the saddle" was absolutely spectacular: the weather was picture perfect (literally...you'll see) and the temperature was a very comfortable mid-20's with low humidity. We made our way from the hotel around 8:30am to pick up the bikes. After a casual 15 minute walk to the Ober Osterreich Touristik (Upper Austria Tourism) bike depot, we learned that something got fouled with our bicycle order and they had no record us. Argh! Cycling trip without cycles. "Haben Sie noch endere?!? Nehmen Sie Kreditkarten? Bitte?" (Do you have any others? Can we pay by credit card? Please?) Phew, we really didn't have work that hard. The operator spoke English very well. And yes, they had plenty of other bikes but No, we would have to pay by cash: 550 Euros for the 10 of us (we will settle up with the tour operator later...hopefully).

Bikes acquired, paniers filled, seats adjusted, we set off to catch a 10:30 tour boat to take us from Passau, 17km downstream. We disembarked at Kasten an hour later and pedaled to a monastery which dated back to 1293. We poked around a bit, took some pictures, pedaled back a few clicks to grab some lunch. Around  2:30pm we set out again for a picturesque 55km ride which included two ferry crossings and some gorgeous vistas. 

We arrived at Brandstatt -- our destination for the day -- about 5:45pm. It had been a  beautiful ride but we were truly ready stop. We rested a bit, cleaned up, and headed down for a 6:30 dinner. I won't bore you with the details but we had a fantastic meal, lots of laughs and finally called it quits at about 10pm. Just enough time to post the blog and upload a few pictures before turn in around 11pm. Gotta get the requisite 8 hours sleep. Day two starts a 8:30. 

Here's a few pictures of the day. Click here and enjoy