01.05.2016

Well, it is Mayday and it is  just one month since we set off from the rear of our home in Chester on NCR5…. and today’s destination will be the last night we spend in Germany before we enter our third country on our journey… Austria.

Today wasn’t so sunny, but at least it was dry as we made our way out of Deggendorf eastwards on a quiet Sunday morning in Southern Germany. Our route took us across the Donau, but this time on a ferry, our first on the Donau.

We had a little rain in the afternoon, but we’re not anywhere near as soaked as we have been.

As we approached Passau we saw a barge just entering a lock; both were massive.

We watched for about 40 mins as it glided in, fixed to the side, gates closed, and the water let in

We arrived in Passau and found our accommodation near one of the bridges. Looking up, we could see some splendid old buildings high up overlooking the town. One of them was the youth hostel we thought about booking, but decided against it when we realized the location. Very glad not to have to get the tandem up that hill!

After an excellent Indian meal, we took a wander around the town,

the streets were quiet and we wibbled about for an hour or so. It was lovely wandering through history.

Nerd’s Corner

Deggendorf to Passau : 46 miles

Distance travelled do far: 1195 miles

29.04.2016

We spent the morning being shown around Ingolstadt by Svetlana our Russian Airbnb host.

We saw inside the Münster , a very spacious and lofty building.

She also took us to a Catholic Church, the Maria de Victoria Church, no longer used for worship it is now a museum and a performance space.

This had the most spectacular painted ceiling. Viewed from a specific point on the floor, all the perspective of the trees, fountains and pillars was perfect, but as you moved about the church the images no longer appeared as they originally did….wonderful. And as you walked about the space, one of the characters on the ceiling always had his eye on you!

We set off for Regensberg our next destination  at midday and left to the sound of a symphony of bells as various churches marked noontime…. the deep sonorius bells of the Münster mixed with the soft tuneful musical chimes of several other churches, each of which played their own tunes on their bells.

We followed the Donau for some way, but turned South here and there away from the river. Much of our ride is through very rural countryside.

We had been recommended to see Walensburg, a small town further along the Danube,  by Svetlana. But on looking at the contour lines nearby, and the lack of a riverside path we decided not to visit. Steep hills and a loaded tandem are not a good mixture.

However, we still managed to find some hills on our way into Revensburg. We had some difficulty with the chain jumping off when we were in a low gear ….. so more pushing the tandem up hill.

The last 3k into Regensburg were good – a lovely wizz downhill, we got up to 40kph (that’s 25mph in old money). In fact Simon’s hat blew off as we were speeding downhill,  which then hit Diana in the face and disappeared behind us! Thankfully we were able to retrieve it safely.

Here our night’s stop is a hostel.

Nerd’s Corner

Ingolstadt to Regensburg: 44 miles

Distance travelled so far: 1085 miles

28.04.2016

After a bizarre overnight stop in a motorway motel, with our tandem safely stored away in the stockroom we set out in bright sunshine to follow the Danube downstream.

Today’s ride was relatively easy, following for the most part well maintained paths on the riverbank – sometimes freshly laid gravel made the going harder work.

We occasionally cut off the odd wiggle in the course of the river to head off down quiet country lanes and cyclepaths, crossing attractive agricultural landscape.

Stopping for lunch at a crossroads of decently surfaced narrow agricultural tracks we thought it would be a peaceful spot…. however we were passed by several tractors with trailers, walkers and other cyclists. One of whom stopped to have a brief chat about destinations and starting points. Benno, we discovered, had set out from his home in Freiburg on a year long journey on his bike to get to China! He told us of his blogsite www.bennopolo.tumblr.com , so we gave him our card’ with our blogsite address on.

A sleety windy squall that suddenly arrived in the space of 10 minutes and broke up our chat. So we dressed up in our waterproofs and headed off again, fortunately being blown along by a brisk, icy cold westerly wind.

One particularly attractive detour cutting across river bends, went up and over beautiful woodland on a recently constructed gravelly cycle path…. unfortunately it involved a bit of climbing and our long ride yesterday meant we both had some difficulty peddling up the uphill required ….. after a bit of walking and several breath-catching pauses we reached the river again.

We passed through various historic looking settlements, often characterised in the Bavarian manner, by a substantial entrance of a gatehouse leading on to cobbled streets and amazingly ornate old buildings inside.

At one of these towns, Neuberg an der Donau, we stopped to have a very nice coffee, rooibosch tea and a beer, before having a quick wander around the ‘Aldstadt’ beyond the gatehouse.

We passed yet another one of many hydro-electricity plant built to take advantage of the waterflow from the river. Each of these formed a lake in the river behind the low dam walls which invariably provided a home to broods of geese with lots of little goslings in tow (usually we were hissed at by the parents to keep away!)

We also observed lots of other birdlife swooping and darting to catch the insects over the water – usually, swifts, swallows and martins. Hearing a few Cuckoos in the woods suggest spring and warmer weather is not far away.

We arrived at the beautiful old town of Ingolstadt on a chilly but sunny evening to meet our Airbnb host Svetlana who showed us our interesting and attractive apartment for the night.

Ingopstadt is the northernmost point on the Danube as it wends its way eastward  to the Black Sea.

Ingolstadt is also the home of the car manufacturer Audi… and we noticed quite a high proportion of the cars locally were of this luxury car brand.

After a really nice meal at a vegetarian restaurant recommended by our Airbnb host Svetlana called “Swept Away”  we had a lovely wander through the attractive streets of the  Aldstadt in Ingolstadt

Nerd’s Corner

Donauworth to Ingolstadt: 43 miles

Journey so far: 1,041 miles…….. our first thousand miles!

25.04.2016

We had planned our journey to Ulm in short hops, because we know there are hills to be climbed on the way –  however as it turns out, today there was not much hill climbing.

Also, finding somewhere to stay at convenient points is not always easy (and it is too cold to be camping right now!), so some stages are shorter than perhaps they could be.

We sat by a river for lunch watching lots of House Marten’s swoop and dive over the water snacking or feasting on insects over the water.

Although Stuttgart is reputedly the warmest part of Germany, it has become unusually cold for the time of year and snowed a little today!

Nerd’s Corner

Esslingen to Göppingen: 22 miles

Distance travelled so far: 897 miles

24.04.2016

Although this section of our journey towards Ulm and the Danube was relatively short we found today’s ride was rather more tiring than previous days; partly because there were several ups and downs but also because we had a few hailshowers and cold weather to contend with.

Our German based bike route planner helped us to find some lovely back lanes to reach our destination,  finding ways under busy roads and through woodland…. however some of the woodland tracks became paths …. then …. disappeared … in the middle of the woods … or suggested a path that just didn’t exist!

However, fortunately,  we managed to push our trusty steed to reach a track again and we eventually reached our Warmshowers hosts for the night, Frank and Ho Pheng their 6 year old daughter Inge and their little baby Jan.

Their home was in Esslingen near Stuttgart, a lovely old house fitted out inside with lots of woodwork and homely touches.

Nerd’s Corner

Leingarten to Esslingen: 42 miles

Distance travelled to date: 875 miles

Height climbed 267mtr

23.04.2916

We left Heidelberg in the rain along the Neckar for a few kilometers, then turned up another river valley following this for some way.

Although Simon asked the website he used to give us a flat route, we did encounter some hills. However we are skirting around the Black Forest, so what would you expect?

Glad to say we didn’t have to resort to pushing the tandem up the hills, but for one hill we did have to stop a while to catch our breath.

We found a little shelter to eat our lunch….

Then, later on, when we stopped for a hot drink, Simon wrung the water out of his gloves.

When we reached our Airbnb host, Susan, at Leingarten, there was a lovely fire going and lots of hot water for a refeshing shower.

Nerd’s Corner.

Heidelberg to Leingarten : 39 miles.

Distance travelled so far: 833 miles

21.04.2016

We learnt from our welcoming warmshowers host, Angela, that the historic city of Worms is reputedly the oldest city in Germany. However  very little had escaped the intensive allied bombing in the latter days of World War 2 in 1945 so few historic buildings have survived.

Unfortunately the ancient Lutheran church didn’t survive the bombing, (Luther/Diet of Worms etc.) with its replacement being built in the 50’s.

Apart from the Catholic Cathedral one of the few remaining historic buildings is the impressive gate house on the Nibelungen bridge across the Rhine. We crossed this as we left the Rhine and headed for the Neckar River to reach Heidelberg.

Most of the bridge was bombed out but the gate houses survived, although only one is now remaining.

We left the Rhine at Km443 , so we have travelled along it for a total of about 300Km

Then our route to Heidelberg took us through a narrow path in a field……  thank you Google maps! At least there was no locked gate to negotiate this time.

Coming into Heidelberg we could see what an attractive city it is, especially the “Altstadt”.

Having found our airbnb host in a small village beyond the city, we unloaded our tandem and caught the bus in to the city for a bit of a wander.

We’re staying a couple of nights here before following the Neckar towards Ulm and the Danube.

Nerds Corner

Worms to Heidelberg – Just 33 miles

Total distance travelled – 794 miles