Category: Travel

A second night without WiFi – coping quite well, actually.

Back to a longer day on the road, from Dilligen to Blaubeuren, 85km or so. Warm but not seriously hot, but more humid still.

We also passed from Bavaria to Baden-Wurtemburg, or as a Bavarian I met once put it, from Bavaria to Germany…

Blaubeuren is a compact little town up in the hills above Ulm, about 20km from the Danube. Nice to get away from the river a bit and see some different terrain.

One of the things that has been neat to observe on this trip has been the slow shift in architectural styles as we bike through Austria and Germany. Up here in Blaubeuren the traditional older buildings are mostly half-timber and plaster, not the white plaster over brick we’ve seen along the river.

With the hills crowding close around town and the closely packed half-timber buildings below, Blaubeuren tickles the mythic and storytelling parts of my brain. It’s even got a bottomless water-filled cave right on the edge of town next to the old monestary complex… Things to conjure story with, perhaps…

Out of the hills back to Ulm down on the Danube tomorrow, just a short ride and partial rest day.

(The nuns we stayed with Wednesday night lacked WiFi and so did last night’s hostel, so you’re getting this late…)

The storms blew over during the night, leaving us a humid but mild morning to ride in.

Donauwörth to Dilligen was an easy 35km, mostly away from the Danube through flat farmland. Found a tiny village bakery for coffee enroute, then Martin got a flat on the rear tire of his Brompton, which wound up taking about an hour to sort out.

Dilligen is a nice smallish town and our lodging for the night is an actual cloister run by Franciscan nuns. The rooms are clean and only double occupancy, the dinner was lavish and they sell cheap local beer, so the sisters are running a good show.

Off to Blauberen tomorrow, a full day at 85km, but it is supposed to be a lot cooler, 24 C max.

Obligatory religious joke, apologies to the nuns of Dillingen Kloster: Why don’t religious buildings have WiFi? Because religion can’t stand dealing with an invisible power that actually functions.

Thank you, try the veal, I’ll be on my bike.

Still hot but much of today’s ride was away from the river through farmland, so more shade (a lot of the riverside paths are up on the dikes, quite exposed) but more hills.

The small group I have been riding with decided to leave Ingolstadt early, just past seven this morning to beat the worst of the heat. It worked, it was just getting really stinking hot as we rolled into Donauwörth around 1230.

This did come at the expense of seeing more of Ingolstadt, which is unfortunate. I had wanted to take an hour or two in the morning to see the military history museum, which is apparently very good. Next time I’m in Germany!

Donauwörth has a small old town section alongside the Danube which we biked around a bit after we dropped our bags off at the hostel. Then we learned of a public swimming beach at a lake just south of town and headed there for a few hours – a wonderful way to beat the heat!

There are thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow afternoon, but luckily we have a short day of under 40km to get to Dilligen and should be off the roads before noon.

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!