The 22% has nothing to do with Bavarian schnapps or some other liquor, which wouldn’t really have been a problem until tomorrow morning, but the entirely insane slope heading up to the hostel here in Kelheim. Everyone walked their bikes, even those of us younger than most and carrying fairly minimal gear.
Cursing in a variety of languages was also audible, trust me…
Aside from that Kelheim is a lovely town, especially the old town where the Donau and the Altmühl rivers meet. Nice easy 40-some km ride along the Donau to get to Kelheim from Regensburg; including a very leisurely coffee break and a pretty slack pace we left Regensburg just past 0830 and arrived at the hostel around 1215, after the lunatic slope slog.
We were chatting yesterday with a German couple who were riding to Regensburg for an afternoon and dinner who also mentioned that a rather unfortunate number of Bavarian hostels were at the tops of notable hills, so its not just our experience, it’s a thing.
“Flat along the Donau except for the cliff before the hostel” is becoming one of our standard group jokes over breakfast.
Off to Ingolstadt tomorrow, fifty some km after a short ferry ride down a gorge to avoid a gnarly set of climbs.
