There was a choice of four different tours today: Salzburg and Cesky Krumlov day trips; or two local ones, a walking tour or a bike tour. We plumped for the bike tour and we were the only ones.
Salzburg is famous as Mozart’s birthplace and also The Sound of Music. The other daytrip was to a charming mountain town on the Czech Austrian border, so I see the appeal of those. Really Linz is not a particularly exciting place. But it was fun having a guide all to ourselves, plus the Wellness Host Milos who was obliged to come also for safety reasons. He did say it’s usually the least popular of the bike tours.
Our guide was a lovely lady called Doris. We cycled around the local area for about an hour with many stops for chats. Because it was just the two of us we got to talk about all kinds of things including language and politics, and how NZ compares to Austria. She said my German accent was good so that was nice. Not sure if Simon rolled his eyes or if that was my imagination.
After lunch we went for a stroll around the city centre, to take photos and for one last gasp attempt at buying the computer Simon is looking for.
Success on the photo front but no luck alas for Simon’s IT needs.
We had the use of our bikes all day so after getting back to the ship and a quick change, we set off by ourselves to explore. The sun had come out after an overcast morning so it was lovely. We cycled downriver for a while and then did a loop through the belching chimneys and burning furnaces of the industrial zone. Linz is famous for its steelworks apparently.
As we were crossing one of the bridges, a cyclist coming up behind me said “Achtung!” as she overtook me, presumably because I was at risk of wobbling into her path. It brought back memories of the Commando comics of my youth. What I should have said is “Gott in Himmel!”
When we got back to the ship, we had a short break to catch up with sporting news. Team NZ has secured the America’s Cup in Barcelona, much to my excitement and Simon’s indifference. The cricket test v India has swung back NZs way, we should win tomorrow barring torrential downpours or a catastrophic batting collapse, always a possibility.
Tonight is the farewell cocktail party, where we get introduced to all the staff on board, and we have to dress up posh. Some of the people on my conference have made friends and have dinner together, there were two couples sitting across the aisle from us at dinner having a whale of a time chatting and laughing. I just don’t have the social skills to do it. Ah well, Simon and I enjoyed ourselves. Now we are back in the lounge awaiting the night’s entertainment.
I wanted to share something that has blown my mind about the bikes we’ve been using. We got instructed on the first day not to pedal when we change gear. Apparently that was for old fashioned bikes. I had no idea, I thought you always had to pedal while changing gears, it’s what I’ve been doing all my life and what I taught my children. Am I changing gears wrongly on my bikes at home? The last e bike I bought I paid extra for so that I can change gears while I’m waiting at traffic lights, rather than changing down as I approach a stop as I’ve done all my life. What if that’s completely unnecessary? Am I being gaslit again?