September 22

Rain spritzed on us a little today. We took a short ride up the River Inn to Scharding in Austria. The start was dicey, because we had to wheel our bikes through a multitude of students on their way to school. I almost created an international incident as a little boy darted in front of my bike while I was trying to stay vertical at 0.5mph. I ticked his leg and he fell down. But his teacher ran to him, picked him up and started yelling at him, in German of course. I don't think he was going to have a good day.

We arrived in Scharding simultaneously with cement trucks, buses and too many cars. During a very slow climb up into the main square, Mary fell off her bike, giving her a very impressive strawberry on her thigh. When asked how she was, she responded "Oh, for me that's nothing compared to the rest of my falls!"She continued biking, but we got the hell out of this rather ugly town, and hightailed it back down the other side of the Inn. When we arrived back in Passau, some of us went to the confluence of the Inn and The Danube for picture taking. We then hurried back to our hotel to change for lunch.

Betsy, George, Mary and Nick took a taxi to the castle high on the bluff across the Danube and enjoyed a real drunk-up lunch at the German restaurant there. A terrific fish and chips and many beers later, we felt we could float across the river to our hotel. But before that, Mary and I knocked off a half-kilo of apfel strudel mit schlag. Then we walked down the escarpment on a very long series of stairs. As we were part way down, up came a large group of teens, mostly girls, cursing as they pulled enormous suitcases up the stairs and wet gravel to the hostel they would stay in that night. Some numb nuts bus driver had left them off at the bottom. I recalled similar bad planning from trips of my youth.

Mary and I then went to the St. Stephen's church, but it was the wrong church for finding out about Wenceslas, Charles IV and other Holy Roman Empire dignitaries. That would have to wait for our return to Prague in several weeks. We then wandered into the shopping area, and found a terrific hat store. I bought a hat on sale. Then, Mary looked around some, and we then bought and paid for a hat for her. Then, we both looked around and found a third hat, and paid for that. The shop owner most likely thought we were demented, but she took our money.

That evening, we joined George and Betsy again for more beers and dinner in a pub around the corner from our hotel. A liver dumpling in the chicken soup and a couple of sausages plus beer 'put paid' to the evening.

At least one couple in our group had a more classy experience. Mary Ann and Jane found a terrific bar. They described a nicely crafted cocktail with fresh fruit and a ton of Granite Gin. We missed that.

A lot of cruise ships are docked near the hotel. One Viking cruiser lines its guest bathrooms up with the lobby and first floor of our hotel. So you can see all the hanging laundry. You could also see any misbehaving occupants if you were unlucky (or lucky) enough.