Day One: Passau to Feldenkirch

Apologies in advance for typos - I can't get the hotel WiFi to work on the netbook, so am typing on my Droid! Alas that means no pics today. :-( I woke up to the patter of rain... Ugh. Luckily it stopped while I was eating my delicious German breakfast. I love German breakfast! Bread, cheese, meat... Yum! First stop was Stift Engelzell, the only trappist abbey in Austria. I love trappists - they make awesome beer. This one started brewing in July. I was sad that, due to the occur weather, my panniers were fairly.full with extra layers and raingear; I could.not fit the 6 pack I wanted to buy. Rar. I pedaled on for a few more hours before stopping for lunch. Thee gasthaus I stopped at was full, so I rode.on to a little roadside grill and got the last table. A couple walked in moments later and after I said it was fine, the waitress sat them at my table. The moment they spoke to each other, I smiled - English! Everyone else so far had been German or Austrian. They were from Toronto, and we had a nice chat over lunch. They have bike ferries every so often - the first one I took across the Danube had a few other bikers on it with me. The 2nd was just me, and the captain asked where I was from. When I said Chicago, he thought and said "Sears Tower," very pleased with himself. After a.minute he added, " the river is green for St. Patrck's day." Ha! That cracked me up. I rode about 10 km down the river only.to find the ferry does not run today. Gah! The trail is impassable, you have to ferry across! I realized all I could do ease bike back to the previous ferry, which I had no idea then how far it was. And as I rode, I.realized I didn' t know what time.it.stopped. I hauled ass as much as I could.on the heavy bike, got to the.landing, and saw I had plenty of time. I had to ring a bell - a.real bell, not.the button for.a bell I.envisioned when I read about this - to get the ferry from the other side. He pulled up and said."Hey Chicago, you are back?!" He didn't know.the other ferry wasn't't running, either. He told me exactly how far I had to ride to Feldkirchen, which as helpful. By the time.I got.to the hotel in Feldkirchen, I had ridden just over 100 km today, a metric.century. That's about 25 km extra! Hopefully that doesn't happen too much! At least it only rained a bit after lunch, although it was chilly. Off to read my route for.tomorrow - tschuss!