Late Addition: August 26th Stage 28 Neuburg to Kapfelberg

 August 26^th  Stage 28 Neuburg to Kapfelberg  77 kms

Heavy rain again during the night but the campsite appeared less noisome in the early sunshine, in fact quite attractive. Already nearly a day ahead of schedule we aimed for an easier 70 kms or so.

The road runs literally straight (for almost five kilometres) out of Neuburg to the Grunau royal hunting lodge; very good for warming up. The next 20 kilometres to Ingolstadt were splendid, most of them through the fields and silver birch forests of the lodge’s hunting grounds, deserted this morning except for a surprising number of joggers and other cyclists, not all of them young by any means. One grey-haired gentleman was hurtling through the woods, arms akimbo, orange cardigan flying in the wind.

Ingolstadt, this Sunday morning, was very animated, and a cappacino and a croissant in the sunshine in one or the cafés below the Rathausplatz were difficult to resist. The guide book recommends vigilance in following the bike route through the town but it seemed to me that the streets were no less confusing than in most of the other towns, and streets such as Theresian Strasse with its outdoor cafes quite grand.

We chose to follow the river as closely as possible for the next longish section of the ride to the Weltenburg Abbey. The levee provides a good gravel surface for most of the way until the final section after Eining where it narrows to two rutted strips for several kilometres. The poor condition of the track, though, is more than made up for by the magnificent position, isolated, very close to  the water with the first cliffs of the Weltenburg gorge not far ahead.

Weltenburg itself, though, was a brutal shock. First an enormous car park followed by the crowds who had left their cars to walk the 500 metres to the Abbey, supposedly the oldest in Bavaria. I must say that there was little of holiness on display. Almost the entire courtyard of the abbey was taken up with trestle table after trestle table of people drinking the abbey’s famous dark beer. Tourists wandered bemusedly in and out of St George’s church, many of them like us perhaps, not quite sure what to make of this baroque interior. For us, perhaps the most curious thing of all was a small figurine of (presumably) the sculptor, looking down from the crown of gold on which all the other figures were angels or cherubs, circling the magnificent painted ceiling, with what I can only describe as a rather mocking, self-satisfied grin. Very strange. All over the church are ugly eruptions of stone which eventually we worked out are meant to be clouds. And over the altar an enormous ornate statue of St George killing the dragon!

The guide book strongly recommends taking one of the boats through the gorge to Kelheim. For cyclists this saves 6 kilometres and more importantly avoids a steep hill with heavy traffic. The gorge is reputed to be well worth seeing. This placed me in something of a dilemma. My objective is to cover every centimetre to the Black Sea actually on my bicycle, unless it is impossible to do otherwise (which is why I didn’t take the ferry across the Bodensee). Yet, like most people, I loathe riding unnecessarily in dense traffic.  However, I resolved the problem by eschewing the road and climbing very steeply straight  out of the monastery courtyard on the “”wanderweg” to Kelheim which was not only an interesting, though straightforward, VTT ride but far from being intimidated by traffic I saw not one car until I reached the bridge over the river in Kelheim. Another, perhaps even better alternative would have been to have taken the small wooden ferry just upstream from the Abbey and ridden along the footpath on the other side of the gorge. 

The usual search for a campsite ensued. We hoped to rediscover something more along the lines that we had been used to in France and we found it at Kapfelberg and at half the price!

77kms   Total  from Schaffhausen 412 kms  Total from Galway  2318 kms

August 31st Stage 33 Au to Persenbeug

August 31st Stage 33 Au to Persenbeug 51 kms

Today turned out to be unexpectedly short. But then the weather was unexpectedly bad! We woke to heavy rain which showed no sign of abating and temperatures which were considerably cooler. Nonetheless, the morning’s ride was one of the most enjoyable so far. To begin with the bad weather seemed to have driven most of the other cyclists away so that the levee out of Au, with the brownish-grey, uninviting waters of the Danube on one side and some quite dense woodland and scrub on the other was deserted and felt remote.  I cycled the 12 kilometres to the Wallsee power station seeing no-one except the pilots of two heavy barges.

Tree clearing operations on the road on the north bank to Grein obliged me to cross the river at Wallsee from where an excellent cycle path meandered through dripping woods all the  way back to the river at Ardagger-Markt from where I could appreciate the Strudengau narrows which in former times were dangerous for the Danube ship captains. Today they looked picturesquely bleak but not particularly dangerous although I must admit that two barges passing each other in this section would be impressive.

Grein is a pretty little town (even in the rain) with, of all things, a very quaint, even eccentric theatre gracing its small main square. We made the decision not to try to make it to Melk today but to look for accommodation at Persenbeug, 20 or so kilometres further on, dry out and push on towards Vienna tomorrow. If there was time we could drive to Melk later today to visit the abbey. Eager to warm up again I was reluctant to wait for the ferry back to the south side. This was a mistake because the “Romantik Strasse” along the north bank is potentially lethal, particularly in its first part where the so-called cycle track is so narrow that there are only centimetres between the cyclist and the fast moving, often double-barrelled trucks, which today were kicking up a nasty spray. There was nothing for it but head down and go for it….which, of course, meant that there was little opportunity to enjoy the spectacular view.

But there was plenty of spectacle in the afternoon at the Abbey of Melk, a flamboyant, gigantic edifice dwarfing the small town beneath it. I especially enjoyed the library and the Italianate gardens with their groomed conifer walks which in the continuing drizzle seemed appropriately sober.

Total  51 kms Total from Schaffhausen 757 kms  Total from Galway  2665 kms.  

August 30th Stage 32 Passau to Au am Donau

August 30^th Stage 32  Passau to Au am Donau.  128 kms.

A long, interesting day of cycling maybe more difficult for Katherine in the “vehicule d’assistance” than it was for me. Our first meeting point was the bridge at Niederanna which required Katherine to take the south bank route and enter Austria almost immediately whilst I cycled the much more convenient north bank route passing through the border after the enormous barrage at Jochenstein.     The north bank route follows the main road on a good cycle track for 10 or so kilometres, then a minor road, finally crossing the insignificant border on a good track.  I decided to cross to the south side over the bridge at Niederanna which was probably a mistake, the Austrian road being busier than I had anticipated with hills and roadworks to boot. The north side route was clearly quieter with the attraction of the ferry crossing at Schlogen. Being determined, as I have already said, to cycle the whole way to the Black Sea, I eschewed all of the available river ferry possibilities today, and I think I made the right decision because the thirty or so kilometres on the south bank between Schlogen and Aschach (the famous Schlogen loop) were some of the most delightful touring kilometres imaginable. The river twists and turns on itself dramatically and the paved, traffic-free road hugs the shoreline. The views of the wooded hills of the opposite shore, the tiny villages clustered at the ends of the tributary valleys, and the occasional ruined castle is highly romantic. I could have gone on for ever and was a little disappointed to leave the pretty valley for the beginning of the open plains at Aschach, a town that has clearly seen better times when barge building was at its prime.

The next twenty or so kilometres towards Linz were pleasant enough along the track by the side of the river but just before Wilhering I thought I would switch to the north shore. Dipping down into pleasant birch woods I was soon at the Ottensheim ferry and pulled quickly across the river which is surprisingly narrow at this point. It was disconcerting, though, to ride through the suburbs towards the city of Linz, admittedly on a good cycle track but on the left side of the road and, therefore, into the streams of heavy, fast, rush-hour traffic coming towards me. I was glad when the city arrived and a wide promenade gave  impressive views of the imposing, almost austere buildings of Linz on the other side of the river. Once under the autoroute bridge the city showed perhaps its true face. First a lively fair-cum-market and then an immense area of  pleasing parkland in which people of all shapes and sizes were engaged in all manner of physical exercise.

I met Katherine at the camp site at Pleschingersee but we decided to keep going partly because tomorrow we will need to be in Melk in good time to visit the famous abbey, and Melk was still more than 100 kilometres away. I was feeling fit and it would perhaps be as well to knock off a few more kilometres before calling it a day. But the scenery was not conducive to energizing the spirits. Across the river was the most industrial scenery since Basle but, unfortunately perhaps, without the Swiss tidiness. I began to feel tired when a large powerfully built man, half my age, cruised past me on a mountain bike. I couldn’t resist tucking in behind him and for nearly ten kilometres we tore along the top of the unprepossessing levee. It was just what I needed to give me second wind and thanking my companion at Anwinder (where evidently his regular training run finished) I completed the last 15 kms in fine fettle. Katherine had found a lovely campsite at Au and we enjoyed large beer gazing out over the immense river under a gathering full moon to the hint of mountains in the far distance.

128 kms   Total from Schaffhausen 708 kms  Total from Galway 2614 kms

August 29th Stage 31 Nesslbach to Passau

 August 29^th Stage 31 Nesslbach to Passau.  33kms.

Perhaps it was the long day yesterday but this morning I felt strangely tired. It didn’t help that the guide book’s 23,5 kms to Passau was a little optimistic. I had to stop at the very attractive gasthaus at Gaishofen for a reviving coffee and call Katherine to tell her to expect me a little late at the Hauptbahnhof in Passau where we were due to meet my nephew at 12.30. As it happened this allowed Katherine to enjoy a short concert in Passau cathedral played on what is reputedly the largest organ in the world. The acoustics must have been magnificent, as I appreciated a little later in the day when we visited the large and impressively ornate baroque cathedral of St Stephen.

Despite my tiredness the ride was once again very pleasant, hugging the north bank of the Danube on, for the most part, well-paved roads all the way into Passau, except for the final few kilometres into the town where the route alternated between awkward gravel footpaths and cycle pistes alongside the main road.

Total 33 kms.   Total from Schaffhausen 580        Total from Galway 2486                          

We’ve left Germany behind and are into Austria still following the not so blue Danube (in fact a mucky brown !). One of the features of driving in Germany was the incredible number of  yellow Umleitung signs (deviations) that we came across. It was lucky that for this first week in Germany I had Magali as navigator as following these twisting, turning off- routes was none too easy sometimes. I really do think that every place we came to had these road works , a sure sign that the roads in Germany are being kept up to their very high standard  and anyway, maybe the end of the summer is the season for road improvements.

Katherine