RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY OR A STORY OFTEN TOLD We stayed at a fancier gasthaus this time, with free shampoo packets and everything!  Well, they also did have free internet and a really nice breakfast.  It rained during the night, but when we got up it wasn’t raining and we were able to ride out with no rain.  I stopped in a vacant field and picked a few apples for our lunch. We rode the radweg along the Inn River, but we are finding that riding along the river levee is kind of boring.  Eventually we struck out onto the roadways and passed through several little villages.  We had a bit of rain, but nothing serious.   The beautiful Alps are behind us now and we are in rolling hill country. We are running out of map and a larger town is coming up, so we planned to go into Wasserburg to buy a map so we could proceed on our travels. After some riding around in circles we hit Wasserburg right at rush hour.  This happens to us at least once every trip, and any of you who have read our previous chronicles will have heard this story before.  As usual, Don wanted to ride into the old, gated town on the cobblestones right at rush hour.  His approach is to just get in the road and take up space and not allow all of the home-rushing natives to get by.  I hate to do that, and usually end up walking along the sidewalk, slowing Don down.  Once again, we ran into this dilemma.  So, Don bulled on into the town and I walked along, dragging my trailer behind me, grouchy as a bear.  We eventually met up again, and decided not to argue about it.  We arranged a hotel in the old town and put our bikes away in the garage and took our showers.  After a glass of wine and a nice Indian dinner we were at peace again and had a good rest. Awakening the next day we found serious rain.  We decided not to ride in the rain, so we arranged to take the train to Passau.  We lucked out and bought a Bayern pass on the train, which allowed us to ride all day for $10.50 each.  What a deal.  We took the train in the rain, north along the Inn River to the city of Passau, where the Inn meets the Danube.  The train arrived at 4pm, and I had fears that we would have a repeat of the rush hour stress, but Don worked out a great route out of town and as we crossed the Inn River and hit the Donau (Danube) Radweg the church bells were striking 5 o’clock.  We were out and away from the city hubbub and I was happy as a clam. The ride along the Danube had great bike paths, except for the surprise staircase with a nice ramp for cycles, but which would not accommodate our trailers.  We settled for the night in a nice zimmer in Pyrawang, had our dinner in the local gasthaus ($24.80).  Our gasthaus was right on the Danube River and as we enjoyed our meal we watched barges and cruise ships and kayakers pass by.  It seems that Fall has fallen all of a sudden.  It is cooler and seems to be getting dark earlier and we are starting to see autumn colors on the trees on the mountainsides.                                                                                                                                                                                                     I don’t know what tomorrow will bring—bike riding, boat riding or blobbing??? It rained pretty hard during the night and when we woke up it was still lightly raining.  We hung out for a while hoping that the rain would stop.  Finally, about 9:30 we headed out in a very light mist.  The Danube Radweg is very good—paved and wide and very well marked. Pretty soon Don stopped and put on his waterproof socks to keep his toes warm.  He headed out and it seemed that he was all of a sudden roaring down the road.  I just couldn’t keep up.  Then we stopped and put on our rain pants on the theory that this would be the best way to get the rain to stop.  This technique worked.  It stopped raining and the sun even poked through the clouds. Don was still steaming down the path and I was pumping like crazy to try and catch him.  I finally decided there must be something wrong with my equipment and called to him that I was going to stop.  Sure enough!  I had a flat on my trailer.  So we stopped for a bit while Don fixed that.  Now I can keep up with him again. Our ride in the morning was on the Austria side of the river.  The other side is Germany.  After awhile the boundry changed and now both sides are Austria.  I don’t think we will see Germany again until we change planes in Frankfurt on the way home.  We decided to cross the river on a big bridge and found the other side to be just as nice for scenery and quality of the route.  As we were riding along we came to a big sign and a fellow who stopped us and gave us a sales pitch for taking his ferry back across the river.  We paid up our 4 euros and took the short bike ride across.  Actually, he was right.  The bike path on that side stopped shortly after, or you had to climb a big hill and leave the riverside.  Our path continued to be really good.  We can heartily recommend this route to anybody who wants to do a beginner bicycle tour.  The route is pretty, flat, very well marked and nicely paved. We are starting to see lots of cyclists on the route now.  This is the most popular bicycling route in Europe and even now, after the high season, there are lots tours and individuals on the route.  We were riding along when we spied a fellow sitting on a bench having lunch and his bike was parked behind him—a penny farthing!  We stopped to talk and it turns out that Geoff is doing a world tour over two years on his penny farthing.  In case you don’t know what a penny farthing is, it is one of those old, 1890s bikes with the big, huge wheel in front and a small wheel in the back.  We had quite a long talk with Geoff and found out all of his plans.  He expects to go through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India!  He sold everything he owned and only has his camp gear, penny farthing and the few personal items he is carrying with him.  He is trying to do it all on $5 a day.   http://www.pennyfarthingworldtour.com We are finding the Danube Route quite enjoyable.  The scenery is pretty and green.  Once in awhile we spot a fortress or castle up on a hill overlooking the river.  This afternoon we traveled through a beautiful gorge, twisting and winding along the river.  The river is getting very wide—maybe a block wide now.  There is lots of river traffic—barges, tugboats, cruise boats, and even a Viking boat.  Often we see groups of swans calmly gliding along, long necks gracefully arched, the blue water accenting their snowy white feathers.  Every now and then we come across another set of locks.  We went across one lock in hopes of seeing it in action, but there wasn’t a boat in sight. Soon after crossing the river we stopped in a little town and arranged our lodging for the night.  When we turned on the TV for news we learned that Johnny Cash died today.  Tomorrow we will be in Linz and try to find a cyber café to post some more reports and catch up on email.  We have about 200 kilometers to get to Vienna.  We expect to be there on the 16th.