August 28th Stage 30 Regensburg to Nesslbach 110 kms
After a splendid early breakfast in the 14th
century dining room of our hotel overlooking the façade of the cathedral we
were ready for a long day. Our first meeting place was to be Sulzbach under the
curiously anachronistic copy of the Parthenon, Walhalla, perched on the wooded
hillside above the river. We decided we didn’t have time to climb up to it and
then later regretted our decision as, apparently, it contains a tablet
commemorating the three signatories of the Rutli agreement, effectively the
founding of Switzerland, which we would have liked to have seen.
But I was already making good progress along the floodplain
of the Danube on excellently paved cycle paths and minor roads which, though,
unfortunately, tended a lot of the time to be below the levee of the river thus
obscuring the view. Because by now the Danube is impressively wide. I would
stop every so often to watch the enormous barges plying the river, and wonder
how long it would take them to get wherever they were going. It was extremely
pleasant, even relaxing, to be able to move at more or less a constantly good
speed, through the prosperous villages and the Bavarian countryside as
manicured as in Switzerland. In one such village a young mother shot past me in
the opposite direction on her roller blades, pushing the pram, and greeting me
with that cheerful “haallo” which is ubiquitous and so friendly. I caught up
with a man my own age from Stuttgart and we chatted for five minutes or so.
Everything seemed quiet and as it should be. The old lady at the bus stop told
me politely that the village I was looking for was still another three
kilometres. I thanked her and cycled on. I felt as if I could go on for ever.
During lunch with
Katherine at Kussnacht I called my nephew from Ireland who by a nice
coincidence is in Munich. We can meet tomorrow at Passau; all the more reason
for putting a few more kilometres under my belt.
Bypassing Straubing by the Beggergraben levee where the
cycle track deteriorates somewhat Riebersdorf and Bogen were easily reached
along excellent cycle paths. In Pfelling I missed an excellent opportunity for conversation with a
middle-aged man with an artificial leg, carrying a heavy rucksack and a stick.
I would really have liked to know where he was going but he seemed not to be in
the mood for chatting. Doubtless he had other things to think about and in any
case my German is very poor. Protected from the wind by the Danube levee the
ride from Pfelling to the wonderfully named Mariaposching where I had arranged
to meet Katherine was effortless.. The traffic free road wound in and out of
small woods with every so often views of the ever-widening river through breaks
in the protective dyke. Katherine was waiting at Mariaposching, watching the
old wooden ferry as it skilfully negotiated the swift currents and I accepted
the invitation of a fellow cyclist, to try out his low-slung, very sleek
tricycle. I envied him his marvellously comfortable seat and believed him when
he told me he could ride 200 kilometres a day quite easily, but lying back and
pedalling with your feet in the air, not to mention the vulnerability in
traffic would take some getting used to. If they were as good as he claimed why
isn’t everyone riding them. This one was only the second I had seen since
Galway.
After refreshment in the simple gasthaus in Mariaposching,
it was no distance into Deggendorf, first along the grass and shingle of the
river bank with the locals enjoying the sun, then through the very busy
town and out along an adequate cycle
path past the old port, looking a little sad these days, and back into the
countryside again where a cheerful old farmer on his tractor virtually pulled me
along in his wake for a good few kilometres.
Passing the 100 kilometre mark I still felt strong, so
strong in fact that momentarily I was regretting not having decided to continue
all the way to Passau. But Katherine had found an excellent campsite at
Nesslbach where I arrived with a very friendly local chap who insisted on
showing me the way for the final few kilometres; a very appropriate ending to
an unspectacular but thoroughly satisfying day out on the bike.
110 kms Total from Schaffhausen 547 kms Total from Galway
2453 kms
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