Author: Brian Burger

Hot today, up to 32 C and probably warmer out in the open with no shade.

We started off in Kelheim and after braving that 22% grade back down (still not fun, especially with the bikes fully loaded) we cruised across the old town to the boat docks and stuffed fifty plus bikes into a riverboat for the 45 minute ride up the Danube gorge just upstream from Kelheim, which saved us 300+ metres of climbing on the first few kilometres south of Kelheim.

The gorge was spectacular; after ten days biking along the Danube it was nice to see things from the water for a bit. We even saw a cave that had supposed been used by Donau pirates at one point, which nearly lead to this post being titled “The Pirates of the Danube”!

Because of the ferry schedule we started later than usual and got to bike well into the hot afternoon, not getting to Ingolstadt until 1500 or so.

Ingolstadt looks lovely, an old university and army town full of neat buildings. The hostel is an old 19th C barracks on the edge of the old town, with massive thick brick walls keeping the worst of the heat out.

I’m planning a loop around the old town and its surviving fortifications tomorrow when we ride out; we walked part of the town tonight but heat and fatigue kept me from seeing everything I wanted to see.

Off to Donauwörth tomorrow, weather supposed to be just as hot and about ten clicks more that today’s fifty-some km!

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.

Rode about 55km today from Straubing to Regensburg. Hot all afternoon – up to 30 C – but we were done riding by 1300 or so.

Halfway between the two towns is the German Hall of Fame, known as Walhalla (Valhalla). It was built by the famous (mad) Ludwig the First of Bavaria in the 1830s and is an exact 1:1 replica of the Pantheon in Athens on top of a hill beside the Danube.

It’s as peculiar as it sounds.

We left the bikes locked at the bottom of the hill and walked up the front, saw the monument full of names and busts of famous dead Germans. Then we decided to take an alternate route down… which dropped us off the side of the hill. Attempting to find another path lead us back up to the monument and we took the safer path down this time…

Got into Regensburg in good time after that diversion. Lovely hostel and another beautiful alte stadt to explore.

Off to Kelheim tomorrow, just 36km or so. Nice easy ride, and we should be able to get the ride over before the heat really gets going.

(No WiFi at last night’s hostel in Straubing, so you get this a day late from Regensburg. Today’s post later, after a reader…)

Longest day of the whole trip today at about 105km, and also the end of our first full week on the road, having started in Vienna last Friday.

While wandering around Passau yesterday we found part of a scale model of the Solar System, done at 1mm equals 1000km, so the Earth is a ball bearing about 6mm wide.

Riding out of Passau today, we discovered another scale solar system on the north bank of the Danube and actually got to ride the whole length of this one, from the Sun (over a metre wide) to Neptune almost 5km later.

Despite being so long today’s century (100+km in one day) was generally an easy ride, mostly through farm areas and small villages on the north bank of the Danube. Tiring, though!

Straubing looks like a nice city, although we didn’t have much time or energy to explore after eight hours on the road from Passau.

Straubing hostel is a real retro throwback, no WiFi and super basic. Good location just outside the old centre, though, and clean and comfortable enough.

Off to Regensburg tomorrow, fifty odd km to a big city, hopefully with hostel WiFi so I can actually post this!