Day 28 – 15 October 2012 – Linz to Grein – 68k

We were up early, some time before dawn broke over Austria. We needed to call at a ‘Bunnings’ type store to purchase a few things before finding our way out of Linz for the Danube bike path. It was not a great sleep at the Hotel Garni Wilder Mann, but nevertheless we were out the back before 8am packing our bikes rather excitedly knowing that it was SJ’s first day of cycling the great Danube with her Mum and Dad.

We ate a quick breakfast at the corner ‘Bakerei’, and negotiated the traffic filled streets and lanes for the few kilometres to the ‘Bunnings’ store. They had what we needed, so it was another few kilometres through busy city traffic before we negotiated our way up on to the large bridge that spanned the Danube.

It was a cold, overcast day requiring our winter cycling gear. It also threatened rain, so it was not the best conditions for enjoying the Danube or its beautiful countryside. It also did not help make lovely photos. We paused on the bridge to enjoy the scene, and then turned and headed east on the northern bank of the Danube. The air was cold on our faces, but it didn’t detract from the beauty of the colour of the autumn leaves in the large trees running alongside the Danube.

We passed fields and parks, but also for many kilometers on the opposite bank we were overwhelmed by the extent of heavy industry and even mines, with factories belching huge columns of steam and presumably smog into the atmosphere.

It wasn’t long before we came to the lovely village of Mauthausen, not widely known for the WW2 Concentration Camp where over 120,000 people were forced to work to quarry granite nearby before being put to death between 1939 and 1945. We stopped for coffee in the beautiful village which today stands in lovely contrast to the darker secrets it harbours from its WW2 past.

We were making great time today. Firstly, the newest and youngest member of the team was riding with fresh (and young) legs and pushed the pace a little. We also had a slight breeze fanning our backs. The path was perfect and it was totally flat, so it all combined to lifting our pace much higher than usual.

The scenery was beautiful, although dulled by the cold, blustery conditions of the day. We enjoyed seeing occasional castles and ‘Schloss’ from afar, and beautiful large estate homes many of which were centuries old. We crossed from the northern bank to the southern bank at a weir across the Danube, so that we could ride through the ancient village of Wallsee for lunch,with its ancient Schloss perched high on a massive outcrop around which the small village had been constructed.

However, we were making such good time that we decided that our hunger could wait until we reached our destination at Grein some 20k further east. The countryside was just lovely with large open farms with farmers working the land. We rode closely by one farmer driving his massive tractor spraying the most putrid smelling fertilizer on his fields. The smell was choking us, and we held our breaths and quickened the pace so we could out-ride the intoxicating smell!

There were so many things of interest that kept us stopping for photos. Here a farmer had constructed a massive wooden bike with car tyres which he had on display along the track. The thing that really amused us though was the ‘Parlament Bridge’, and when taking the photo we noticed that the beautiful building in the background was something similar to ‘House of Parlament’! We couldn’t resist the photos.

The riding through this section was beautiful. The track was good, but the sights of the castles, churches and manor homes on the hillsides were just as attractive as the luscious fields some of which were under cultivation.

We came back to the Danube’s edge and, before our eyes, down river we could see the beautiful yet ancient town of Grein, with its 17^th century Greinburg castle the dominant feature on the left bank of the Danube. Grein dates to at least the 10^th century! It is a model Danubian town, and so beautiful. It is closely packed around tight, narrow cobbled streets, with typically coloured buildings that make every angle a photographer’s dream.

We stopped on the massive bridge that spanned the Danube some 2k short of Grein, which took us back to the northern bank. It was here that unfortunately Julie took off her rather expensive but critically important optical sunglasses to take a photo, and apparently rode off with them sitting where she put them on the back of the bike. It was only when we got into Grein that she realized they were missing, but thought that they had been left some 20k before at our last ‘loo’ stop.

We intended camping the night. We went to the camp ground which was just as we entered the town, only to find it all closed up. There was no one around, the reception was cold and dark, and the facilities were only available by a key-pad code. It was very cold and had already started to rain, so we found a local ‘pension’ for cyclists, which turns out to be the deal of the century.

For not that much more than the camping ground would have cost, we scored ourselves a 4 star, two bedroom suite with all facilities including breakfast right in the middle of town, for which we thank the Lord very sincerely.

Julie was really disturbed by the loss of the sunglasses. She was inspired while walking past the local optician, to enquire if anyone had handed them in. The fellow said ‘no, but I have just driven over the bridge and saw a pair on the footpath in the middle of the bridge’! Of all the shops in town, Julie chooses this one. It was too far to walk, and now too wet and cold, but I made the magnanimous offer to ride back down river to the bridge while the girls enjoyed coffee.

Alas, after a thorough search the sunglasses could not be found. Many cyclists had passed over the bridge since us. We can only assume one of them could not resist a lovely pair of women’s sunglasses, not knowing the pain of the one who lost them. We were close to getting them back, but not close enough.

After a lovely stroll in the cold and wet through the gardens of the Schloss, and enjoying the views over Grein and the Danube, we decided to have lunch/dinner (it was now late) at the local restaurant on the Danube’s edge with top floor views up and down the Danube, watching the dusk roll in while we enjoyed a remarkable deal from the staff, none of whom could speak any English.

Reflecting on today, it was very disappointing for Julie to lose her sunglasses which were not only valuable and precious, they were important for her daily use. Due to their value, we were not prepared to give them up without a huge effort to find them. It wasn’t easy for Julie to walk into a strange shop in a strange country and despite language barrier try to tell the story of her lost glasses. It was certainly no fun to take to the bike in the cold and the wet and set off back up the Danube to the place where we thought the glasses might still be. Even though our search failed, the fact that we searched at all was indicative of the value to us of what was lost.

The Bible tells us about God’s attitude to lost ‘things’, meaning people. There are three stories told by Jesus in quick succession in Luke 15 about a lost sheep, a lost coin and ultimately a lost son (the prodigal son). The shepherd searched for the sheep until it was found; the widow searched for the coin until it was found; the father looked longingly for his son to return home, until he did. In all three stories, Jesus told about the intensity of the search and the overwhelming joy when that which was lost was in fact found.

He told the stories to illustrate the attitude of God toward ‘lost’ mankind, the intensity of the longing for that which is lost to ‘come home’, and the joy when the lost returns.

Life is more than sunglasses. It is good to know that we have a God who never rests until that which is lost is found and is brought home. It is worth thinking about.

From the beautiful little Danubian town of Grein, in the shadow of the great Greinburg castle, we send our love.

Kelvin, Julie and Sarah-Jane