Day 11: Straubing, Germany to Ascach, Austria

Photos: The German Austrian border (no sign again, very annoying); Our river crossing (we tried to bribe him to take us down river instead of just across it, but he had spent the past 20 years driving his boat from one side of the river to the other, and the thought of going somewhere else clearly shocked and appalled him)






A splendid morning, our best start ever, we were in Passau and fixing bikes and doing blogs by 11.30 am. Unfortuntately, the bike took ages to fix so we didnt get away till 4.30 with another 50 miles to Linz. And it had started raining. Heavily.

We pushed through to a place called Ascach, just a bit short of Linz, but it wasnt easy. The legs get tired by mid afternoon these days and anything even resemlbing a hill at that time of day can completely destroy us. Cold and rain into the recipe dont exactly make for the most pleasant cycling. A shame because we both agreed the Danube is stunning at this point, were the the flat plains and farmland of Germany have given way to sharp valley sides and parkland in Austria. Great smooth surface here as well on the bike paths. Just need some more energy from somewhere!

Day 2,3,4 Dover to Arras to Rozoy-sur-Serre to Troyon

Just thought Id write this down as we're forgetting already.
Think the brain has a way of selectively forgetting all the pain.

Day 10: Neuburg to Straubing

Photos: The Danube, getting fairly full after 4 days rain which we've had the pleasure of sharing; Luke fixing his bike; Salvation in the form of a German bike shop, which we caught just in time.




Finally we got up to a morning without the perpetual steady drizzle we've come to know and love in Southern Germany. Still overcast but good riding conditions with little wind.
We were making good progress until about 20miles in Luke got a puncture. The rear tyre was incredicbly worn down and sadly our attempts to fix it on the side or the road only put pinch punctures in two brand new inner tubes. Just when the point of true despair was about to be reached, a German woman pulled up in a sparkling Audi 4x4 and insisted on giving Luke and his disabled bicycle a lift 5km into the town of Inglostadt. I cycled alongside, struggling to keep up while Luke sat in the passenger seat grinning.
The bike shop was closing for a 2 hour lunch so we had to make do with buying the parts and fitting them ourselves, but after a bit of a battle with getting the new tyre on we were up and running, albeit exceptionally behind schedule, again.
Missed out the city of Regensburg by diverting to the south, and stopped in a hotel in Straubing for the night, 50 miles from Passau and the Austrian border. Still just about on course for Budapest on Friday.

From Passau, Germanz (where y and z are the wrong waz round on the kezboard)
Phil

Day 9: Ulm to Neuburg

Photo: A true reflection of our time in Germany. Cold, wet, and on a cycle path that started out good and turned into a dirt track. Roll on austria.

While this is a few days after the fact, i've just read Carr's account of my navigation out of strasbourg and feel obliged to offer a response. I will start my defence thus: As Mr Carr entered a shop to buy water, i stood perusing a map of strasbourg to best effect our exit from the city. Committing to memory the requisite number of lefts, rights, junctions and bridges we had had to take i settled upon a route which would take us onto the Canal du Rhone et Rhine, our route to the next destination. I will designate this route out of the city "the Way". Unfortunately as we set out from the centre of Strasbourg we were somewhat stuck in the central traffic system and had to wait at a number of traffic lights. Of course, Mr Carr, the man-puppy that he is, soon got distracted while waiting for the aforementioned traffic lights to turn green. So, rather than follow the direct, planned route, he uttered something along the lines of "thAt cyclist over there looks like they know what they are doing, let's go that way" and set off. At this point we were no longer going "the Way" and instead spent a considerable amount of time re-consulting the map to see which of the numerous side roads Mr Carr had chosen to scamper down. Anyhow, the delays experienced whilst exiting Strasbourg were of entirely Mr Carr's own making and he was lucky he had someone with him who could read a map.
Well, now that is off my chest I can get back to today's subject, leaving Ulm. This started as any other day we have had in deutchland, another day of rain. While not strictly true, it just feels that way at the moment. Staring out of the window in the morning waiting for the rain to lessen ended with a call from hotel reception telling us it was getting close to lunchtime and it was time to check out. So, we clambered back into our slightly damp cycling gear and set out into the water strewn streets of Ulm.
Again we found it both easier going and more direct to stay on the road than follow the Danube cycle path however this does result in a lot less interesting scenery - either the featureless road ahead or another man's lycra clad arse, depending on which one of us is leading at the time.

However, we did find that riding single file in this fashion not only fulfilling our quota of disturbing images but also resulted in the trailing cyclist being constantly drenched by the rear tyre of the person in front. So we soon switched to a tactic of using the fairly wide cycle path on open stretches and only nipping onto the road when going through villages/towns as it was at these points that the cycle
paths tend to take on their most random and frustrating courses. This went without a hitch until we were leaving one particular town when a red van driver took particular exception to us using the road when he obviously felt that there was a perfectly usable cycle path available somewhere in the vicinity. This displeasure went to such length that once he had passed us he felt the need to pull over and shout german at us as we went past. The fact that he was red-faced, rotund, bearded
and ponytailed did not help us take him at all seriously. Anyway once he had said his piece he was on his way once more, duty fulfilled.
Eventually we found ourselves in Neuberg and have managed to find a nice hotel which served a belting mixed grill. Duly stuffed I'm now going to bed

Luke

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)

Day 7: Freiburg to Donaueschingen

Photos: Us ready for action before the big day of climbing; A giant hairpin, the road here climbed about 200m in the space of a couple of km; A massive hairpin, the road continues up to the right; A photo from the summit, 918m according to the Satnav, the valley we'd climbed out of to the rear of the shot; Us by the start of the river; Luke in the hotel room, efficent no-frills decor. Our first night apart in more than a week tho :(










A brutal day, climbing pretty much the whole way. Started late,
weather was overcast, a nice change from baking heat of the last few days in France.
Again we started off trying to follow the offical german cycle paths but after being sent from pavement to gravel track to bus lane to cul de sac we got pissed off and joined the main road, much to the apparent consternation of a number of car drivers who seem to think it's ridiculous that anyone would want to cycle on a road when there's a perfectly good pAvement next to it.

The road started to steepen after 10 miles as se climbed I to the valley and after 20 we we're blowing, bottom gear ad just grinding out the meters as the road started switching back on itself. Our secret weapon, a box of cliff shot blocks, basically super charged wine gums filled win caffeine, sugar and electolytes cMe in very handy and eventually, after hours of hard slog the road started to flatten off, and unbelievably roll down hill as we got into the top of the valley. A bit disappointing as we hadn't planned on multiple hills but the rest of the route was along sweeping hills in the roof of the german alps, sometimes getting far too quick for our unstable rides (I topped out at 40mph at one point) punctuated by some more sharp ascents.
We reached Donau... at about 4 in the afternoon and went straight to the source of the dAnube (the confluence of two little rivers) for photos. Everywhere to eat wAs closed it being the middle of the afternoon so we sat on a bench inthe rain eating salami and bread which I had a lot of trouble sourcing from a butchers where noone
spoke english and my protestations that I didn't care which of the 13 different kinds of salami they had I just wanted lots of it were only met with crescendo of german coming back at me. Next chance I'll get I'd better get a phrasebook. Luke, who studied german for a whole year at school claims not to speak any at all, much like his french which I noted he avoided using for a whole week in france. And he even had a gcse in that. So much for grammAr school educations.

As it had by that point stArted pissing down we sacked off any more cycling and booked into the cheapest hotel in town. The decor hadn't been changed since the fifties at least (they even had a wireless in the sitting room), but warm showers and comfy beds are alwYs a blessing to the cold and hungry cyclist so we settled in and went out for a few steins to celebrate the first stage of our journey being complete.

A consult over the next stage and we've set upon Budapest on one week as the next target. 700 miles approx so we'll be bumping our average up significantly but as we're now (hopefully) cycling much more on the flat we should start to make good time.

From donau..., Germany
Phil

Day 6: Heming, France to Freiburg, Germany

Photos: Luke at the end of the day preparing for a days climbing as only he knows how; Us at the German border aka the Rhine. (no sign, bit disappointing); Me in Strasbourg, looking a bit sunburnt after a few hours or mid day sun; Luke cycling along the Marne-Rhine canal, a truely wonderful invention; the Ship Lift we were planning on bumming a ride up, disaapointing to find ourselves already at the bottom and going downhill; Our first view of serious mountains in the morning on thursday )we avoided them!)
üp






Our longest day so far, did 105 miles, at least 10 of which we're in pitch black after we again misjudged how many miles we could do in the evening session.

We started out with some trepidation expecting plentv of hills as we passed from the River Marne vallev over to the Rhine and the border, but a short stop in the tourist information in Sarrebourg and it transpired there was a canal that took us all the way to Strasbourg. Excellent cycling and a fair bit of much needed shade as it was again totally scorching weather. Still managed to top up our sunburn tho.

Stopped in Strasbourg to let the day cool down and took the opportunity to book a room in hotel in Freiburg in anticipation of the toughest day yet climbing into the German alps to reach the source of the Danube in Donaueschingen. Our first night not in the tent and very much needed if only from a hygiene point of view.

45 miles to get to Freiburg seemed doable after we left at 5pm but for the fiorst time on the trip i let Luke navigate because he had a city centre map of Strasbourg and he duly got us totally lost (the satnav having lost all will do live a day or two ago after we neglected to feed it electrcity). We hit the Rhone-Rhine canal for 20 miles, and planned to cross the border at Rhinau, but got accosted by a delightful French chap on a carbon road bike called Arnaud who decided it was his dity to show us across the border along the offical EU cycle path, which involved 11miles of gravel track on an island in the middle of the river. I didnt have the energy or the french to tell him we'd prefer to do it our own way.

So very much behind schedule we cycled onn into the evening/dusk/dark until we hit the hotel.

Getting kicked out of the library, bit more to follow, plus we have lots of badly taken photos that ill tag on.

From Donaueschingen, Germany
Phil

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