Day 8: Donau... to Ulm

Photos: Danube with fountain; Luke ticking the miles off in the rain; Ulm cathedral, clearly not very tall; The end of a lond day in the rain, smiles as we'd still managed 100miles; Lunch of bread cheese and sausages in a barn; Our refuge in Germany, a warm service station






The day started out as promising. Forecast to rain yet it seemed to be holding back as we set out from donaueschingen along the cycle track that followed the river. Early progress was good as the tarmac path offered a smooth surface on which it was possible to motor on at a decent speed. Even the onset of some slight drizzle did little to dampen spirits as we had our first chance to don our waterproof
apparrel.
Pro lems started to arise as the valley narrowed and the rover began to meander considerably between the steep sides. We found ourselves constantly doubling back on ourselves with the river's course. Also at this point it seemed Tarmac ran out as we were introduced to the gravel surface which we found co era large sections of the cycle track. This caused our speed to drop considably and we were forced to switch to the road to take the more direct route. Despite a few horns from motoroists not understanding of our situation we smashed through the rest of the day, with the rain coming harder and harder and made it all the wAy to Ulm, much further than we had planned at the start of that looked likely half way through.
One of the pleasures if road cycling in hermnay we've discovered are service stations, where an alarming number of people seem to go for a few beers. We're more into the wArmth, dryness, food and toiletsthat they offer and we seem to have settled into a pattern of taking all our breaks in them, much better than the barn or the underpass which was the best we could do on the damn cycle path in the morning.
Ulm's a nice city, one the largest we've been in for a few days. It's got a cathedral with the tallest spire in Europe apparently, but I stood next to it and I'm not sure it's bigger than the church of Salisbury. Got a photo, will attach when we can connect the camera..

Next stop is regensburg. Maybe. Quite a long way may be a day or two, but the Austrian border is only a day behind that which is the next big milestone.

From ulm, germany
Luke (finished by phil cos luke needed to take a dump)