Lots of Layers Through the Woods

Today, is Wednesday, Day 4 of riding. We started in Czech Republic and bid farewell to this country and we shuttled by van to Austria to a small village, Ottenstein. There our guide, Karem, prepared an Austrian picnic with meats, cheeses, schnitzel, salads and of course strudel. He was quite excited and proud to welcome us to his country. Crossing the border was uneventful although randomly there are checks with all the refugees. There was an immediate difference noticed between the two countries. One of the first Was the austerity of the Austrian people. Their homes are larger, spread out, better kept, there are more commercial business in the towns. The landscape also changed as we rode into the heavily darkly clad pine woods. Someone said one of the best things about riding through a country is that you get to smell the land. You certainly do as we smelled the fires of the farmers, cut wood, cut hay bails, or course manure, fall leaves.... It's wonderful. Our ride was beautiful through such heavy woods with Rivers winding along side us until we reached the Danube in the city of Wachau. 

Now and then a castle peeked our from an overhanging cliff or hill... It's hard to imagine what has all transpired here. 

As the pictures show, we had little sun today but it didn't damper our spirits on our 29 mile ride. Thank goodness for layers as it was chilly and I believe I had about 5 layers on. Knock on wood, we've had no rain. 

The region  we're staying in is famous for its white wine and there are grape vines lining the streets and also wine tasting. Hmmmm.Perhaps I best head out and do some tasting. 

Old castle marking our bike route. 

View form our rom, on the left and right is the Danube River.