Day 3 - Friday, July 31, 2026

In the morning, I took another swim, already drying off and ready to roll around 8 am.

It was on the left bank of the Danube I was riding on, but consulting with a fellow local biker, he advised it would be prettier if I crossed to the other bank, so at Aschach I rode over the bridge. At a local Spar, I filled up my depleted supplies.

The advice I got was a good one, soon I spotted a nice castle up on a hill, Burg Neuhaus. To be honest, it was not yet another castle I wanted to take a better look at. Despite having lived in Austria since 1990, I had never yet visited the Schlögener Schlinge, or the Loop of Schlögen. The Schlögener Schlinge is a so-called epigenetic breakthrough valley. The breakthrough takes place in several meanders. At the first loop, the Danube turns 180 degrees from the southeast to the northwest in a narrow, left-leaning bend, followed by another 180° bend, this time to the right and with a larger curve radius. Other less pronounced curves follow.

As I was heading upstream, first followed the less pronounced curves. For me, this and the entire loop was probably the nicest part of the day - especially as I had not yet ridden on this bank (many years ago I did, on the other side, downstream, but this was more scenic). The river and its bike path(s) seemed so quiet, tranquil and peaceful - I did not feel I was on a major stream flowing through 10 countries, but a quaint stream quietly gliding through a British countryside of sorts. As far as I could tell, no roads were allowed anywhere close to the river - so it was just nature pure. Large trees provided shade and I was a really happy fellow.

After a bit of the few inclines that day, I stopped at a hotel, in front of which the remains of a Roman bath were uncovered. Well, the Donau deemed as the "limes", the Roman term for the border of the empire. I stopped to ask for some water, which was a good idea. Namely, there were a couple of leaflets describing the area and on the cover of one was a wonderful foto of the Loop itself. So back I went into the hotel, asking where the view was from. It turned out I would have to back-track, luckily, just a few hundred meters (and some altitude loss, which in turn would have to be regained, oh well), from where it was a hike up (biking would have been quite impossible, given the rugged, steep terrain). There was a house at the bottom of the hike, as rang the bell and a very friendly Austrian lady told me I could leave the bike on her porch.

So I started the 30-minute hike through a forest, I got to the top (well, at least to the observation platform) - and was rewarded by a wonderful view. Right up front, the river completely wraps around a densely wooded, tongue-shaped peninsula of land, making the water look like a giant ribbon winding through the landscape. No wonder it was named as a Natural Wonder of Upper Austria (in 2008 - what were they doing all the decades prior to that?). Would you say I was impressed?

Back at the bike, I rode up the incline (again) and then it was a relatively straight path. On the opposite side, came another chateau, called Schloss Freizell. I viewed this from a small village on "my" side, called Wesenufer. The bike path lead through the village and looking down, right next to the shore, was an amazing beach, with a nicely maintained lawn, deckchairs and even a shower - with only few people enjoying this otherwise free beach. I quickly ascended (a fellow rider lady from Portugal did the same, but she was not to keep to make contact, and actually, neither was I). The Danube seemed completely still and my plan was to swim across it. Well, that did not quite work - remember, this is a major river flowing across 10 counties - as soon as I was like 20 meters away from the shore, all of a sudden, the current picked up. As I did not want to walk miles and miles, I abandoned my intention.

After the swim, I was a bit disappointed to find out that the shower did not work. Here I struck up a conversation with a guy from the area. He told me he had intended making a vacation trip and traveling somewhere - maybe to Italy. He then thought, "heck, I have everything I could ever want right here". Small villages, beautiful castles and chateau´s (chateaux?), the river, Roman ruins, forest...so he decided to spend his holidays in his own backyard. He then suggested a couple of places I could ride to. Passau was only 35 kilometers away, so I had more or less completed this part of the bike trip. Also, I was looking for a bit of a challenge what inclines are concerned. Just up the road, he recommended, was a bridge and then a steep road led to a water reservoir called Ranna.

Having bid farewell, I crossed the bridge and yes, I had a couple of hundred meter of incline; and eventually, I arrived at Rannastausee, the reservoir. If the Danube back down was peaceful, here it was as quiet as Paradise must be. Large carps were lazily floating in the water, which was crossed by scenic, wooden bridges. After reservoir, I got to a "real" lake, called Ranna-Badesee, a small part of which was in Austria, a larger portion in Germany.

I already was thinking of the night ahead, however, there was no campground in the vicinity. I might as well wild camp next to the lake, couldn't I? But before that, I went in for a relaxing and looong swim, In fact, I swam right across the lake, spending close to two hours in the water, with me making a stop on the other side, in Germany - I thought it was quite funny. Returning at around 8 pm, there were quite a lot of people still on the beach, they quickly disappeared when it got overcast. Two couples remained, they seemed friendly and I asked them whether they thought it might be an issue if I camped there. They laughed and told me they were illegally parked on the German side with a camper car, but they were sure no one would bother me.

It was a nice lawn next to the lake, but I chose a spot a bit further uphill, behind some bushes - there I would be close to invisible. The sky kept getting darker, which worried me a bit, but then my tent was watertight. As soon as I pitched it, it started raining, so I quickly jumped in. The rain was not the issue, there was also lightning with quite a loud thunder, I was hoping it was pass. It did take its time, but it evetually did.

Thus ended the month of July. Well, this was just around 72 kilometers of biking with 600 meters of elevation, but then I hiked and swam three times that day - so I have an excuse.