Today's journey: Linz-Grein
11.11am, In Linz with Ruth and Nicky, having a €1 ice cream. When we woke up this morning, the rain had stopped, thankfully, and the sun was out. We had our longest day of cycling ahead of us (almost 70km) and there were also a few sights along the way that we wanted to see, so we intended to set off early. But considering we hadn't been in to Linz yet, half of us decided to go in and explore the city, while the other half of the group relaxed by a beautiful lake called Pichlinger See. Linz is a really pretty city, I would definitely recommend a visit if you're nearby, but we didn't really have enough time to have a proper look. We went to the main square and ate an ice cream, had a wander and took a tram back to the train station. Whistlestop tour!
As we began our ride, we wove back in to the countryside. We were headed for Mauthausen, which is a very small town that had had a very large concentration camp in the hills above the town. We crossed the river to get to the town then began a very steep climb up the hill. Jack and Andy both managed it, but the rest of us had to get off and push. That was the first time that's happened this trip, though, so we weren't doing too badly.
When we arrived at Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp, the sun was high in the sky and we felt hot and tired from the hill, so probably weren't at our most emotionally stable. But I don't think any of us really realised how awful it would be in there. We had read a little about it but were pretty shocked to find out that is was a 'Grade III' camp, the grade given to only the toughest camps (for reference, Auschwitz-Birkenau was graded II; Dachau was graded I). It was known as a Vernichtung durch Arbeit (extermination by work) camp and up to 320,000 people died there. What was interesting, and awful, was that so much of the camp was open for people to see so, without really planning to, we all found ourselves in the 'extermination chambers' reading about the things that had happened there. I think it's really important that it's still open for the public to see and learn about – but a warning to anyone planning to visit, it really is one of the most harrowing things I've ever done.
Feeling pretty overwhelmed, we knew we had quite a lot of today's ride to do, so we left at about 3pm in a subdued group. An hour later and we found a beautiful and secluded spot along the river that was perfect for our late lunch. The sun was still out and we were feeling pretty blessed at how beautiful our route was, and how lucky we'd been with the weather.
Of course, as soon as we thought about how lovely the sunshine was, the clouds came over. When we had about an hour of cycling left, the heavens opened and it began absolutely pouring down. We all quickly found shelter in random bus stops/sheds and waited for the worst of it to pass but then decided to plough on regardless, as we still had quite a lot of ground to cover.
As we were approaching Grein, our mood had shifted again slightly. Though we were still on the beautiful route, we'd had a pretty full-on day, both physically and emotionally, and were looking forward to reaching our campsite. It was still raining – a lot – so the thought of putting our tents up wasn't a great one, though. However, when we reached the campsite, the owner told us he had room in wooden cabins if we wanted them, for not much more than the price of camping. As you might imagine, we jumped at the chance and started to feel a lot better at the thought of a warm, dry, comfortable bed. We all had hot showers, treated ourselves to putting some clothes in the washing machine, and headed to the restaurant for dinner and wine.
A kind of challenging day but a really interesting and fascinating one, and we all slept very well!
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