July 4, 2018

A lovely flat ride today, just what I like. Actually, I don’t mind a few hills so long as they are about 5% not 16 – 18%.

We were late starting today. I heard our canoeing neighbours leave around 6:00 and decided I would have an extra half an hour, I woke up again at 7:35! Although we didn’t rush through breakfast and packing up the tent we were on the road by 9:00. We had decided on a short route today, so that we could get some brake pads for Ralf and I could get the washing done and maybe the bikes cleaned.

The route took us through the old city of Regensburg, which was another Roman City. Although the route the bike path took us along was very convoluted. At one point I felt I was playing that kids game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” We were turned around so many times I didn’t know which direction we were heading.

We saw the Danube a couple of times today and it looked very nice. Today’s route was on paved roads all the way into Straubing. There was one route we could have taken which would have been along the Danube, but it was gravel so we decided to stick to the farm roads.

There were some odd buildings today. This is part of the Romantic Road through Bayern and the wine routes. We saw one building that looked like a copy of the acropolis.

We don’t see as many castles in this area as the Germans didn’t have to fight the French as much in this area. We did see this lovely old castle.

When we arrived in Straubing we knew there were two campsites – another Kanu Club and one other one. There were directions to the second campsite. We decided to check it out as we need a washing machine, power and internet. Luck would have it, this is a municipally run campsite. The tent site is large and grassed. The showers are clean and hot. The washing machine was E3.50 which is a very good price and we are close to an Aldi. The internet is provided by the City and is free, although a little sporadic at the site, it works really well in the laundry room. All of this for the great price of E18.00.

The reception was closed for lunch when we arrived (12:30). We headed the 500 metres to the Aldi and had lunch.

On the way back we noticed a very large bike shop. We met Frank who was very pleased that we were fully loaded and \”no motor\”.  He had cycled from Passau to Salzburg and around three small lakes.  He asked a lot of questions about our trip.  He said he only cycled in Europe as he was afraid of flying.  I told him I was afraid as well but, I had to fly to be able to visit other countries.  He asked us if he could take our photo and assured us it was for him – no posting to the internet.  – We could have been \”bike porn\”.

We went in to the bike shop and it was huge. The store sold everything from motorbikes, motor scooters, ebikes and regular bikes.  However, I saw one lonely road bike.

Ralf got his brakes fixed and we put air in the tires. Because it was a rush job they charged Ralf double the price for labour! Almost everywhere else we have been as touring cyclists, we were not charged for labour. In Australia the owner asked us our favorite places we had visited and why – that was the charge for labour! However, in this region, because of the popularity of touring – even though they might be on e-bikes or credit card touring you pay double if you need the job done quickly.

While the washing was getting done, I looked for warmshowers hosts in Passau and Salzburg. We finally have a warmshowers host in Passau for tomorrow night. Tomorrow is going to be a long ride but it should be flat and paved.

At the moment I am sitting near the tent while Ralf has gone back to Aldi to get dinner. There is thunder rumbling around and the forecast for tonight and tomorrow is for thunderstorms. One of the other cyclists showed Ralf a \”Thunderstorm Warning\” on his cell phone. I hope it passes over and we don’t get wet. 

I didn’t get the bikes cleaned but that is o.k. if we are going to get wet anyway, I might as well wait until we get to Salzburg.

I can hardly believe we have finished the Rhine and almost finished this section of the Danube and we are not even a month in to the three months.

Windmills. Running Total is Ralf 14 Jacky 6