Two trains to Donauwörth

We were up and ready for breakfast before the staff were at the Blau Bock. So we started getting the bikes ready to roll. Breakfast was messy :-) but the quality really poor :-( I have no idea what trip advisor says about this place, but it's not going to last much longer in the world of social media. 

We rode gently towards the station picking up food and other bits of shopping on the way. We had some time to kill when we got there, but there is nothing more exciting for a three year old than watching trains:

Even in the rain.

Luckily there was plenty of space for us and the journey went well.

A delay meant that we were a bit worried about our connection, but what with a friendly conductor who made sure we knew which platform we needed to be on, and some speedy chariot hitching we made it with time to spare.

This train ride was also fine although Yannick and Emil didn't sleep as much as they have been used to and were rather unhappy and tired by the end of the journey. 

Yannick distinctly not sleeping. 

Once back in Donauwörth we rode to the same B&B that we stayed in at the start, dumped our gear and went for a walk so the boys could finally get some sleep, before supper at the local Italian restaurant. 

Sonja and Hannes looking for fish after supper.

The car is nearly all packed and we start our drive north, tomorrow night we stay with the Maultzsch clan in Pinneberg. 

Three rivers

After a day in Passau, I am sad to say we didn't really click. The place seems rather to have had its soul torn out by last years floods, and looks like it will take quite some time to get back on an even keel. 

Getting around the winding old streets is an obstacle course between building work, narrow pavements and cars. Not enough of the town is pedestrianised, so we seemed to be constantly dodging one thing or another. I somehow ended up feeling rather sorry for the place as some if it is lovely, just not quite right. 

The view from the castle on the opposite bank of the Danube is worth the trip, but get a lift and avoid walking the 22% cobble street to the top!

Going down is much easier, and we did feel we deserved our cake stop in the afternoon, which was one of the best of the trip. 

Tomorrow it's the start of the journey home, with a train trip, with bikes and chariots back to Donauwurth before we start the drive north. 

Cooked in Passau

We had a lovely start to the day, all the boys happy, and a cheerful breakfast on the grass outside our tents

We got an idea of how the day would be as soon as we started packing away the tents, it was already very hot work.

As we had a road free start to the day Hannes rode his own bike for the first bit.

Once we got to the road again it was back to normal.

The route was mostly paved cycle route and although quite fast rolling, it was a bit hilly too, which made us put a few big efforts in, it was also not very interesting scenery. By lunchtime we were in need of a break, fortunately just then we came to a little riverside restaurant with grassy bit at the side! Perfect.

After lunch we rode on to Passau again with more hills, and as so often, the approaches to big cities are rather industrial and not much fun. The dam with locks, and power station was the exception and was an amazing brick and stone structure, and looked lovely as it hummed away producing power for the city. 

We looked longingly at a few sandy swimming spots, but wanted to get into town so we could find somewhere to stay.

 Sonja negotiated with the tourist information and we found a room in the blue bock, which is a bit shabby but will do. We saw that the place was badly flooded last year and many places, this one included must have suffered a lot.

Last years floods were nearly the worst in record.

We had time for an ice cream and a play before back to the 'Blau Bock' for supper . It went up in my estimation as the meal went on, the food was good. 

It is still hot, but nice not to be in a tent as we have had some thundery showers.

We are looking forward to a day being tourists tomorrow.

L'etape Reine

Well, what to say about today, it was very hot and we rode a long way into a headwind.

We were happy to leave a mosquito infested campsite in Straubing with unnecessarily unfriendly staff.

Hannes was very excited to see some combine harvesters actually working in the fields. 

We benefited from the kindness of strangers, having asked someone who was working on his house if we could use his tap to fill our water bottles, after letting us fill our bottles, he came out with two bottles of cold water from the fridge. Just what we needed!

We couldn't find our usual play park for lunch and sadly the river bank was a poor substitute today, as it was hard to access and dirty once we got there. 

So after a quick lunch we rode on to Deggendorf for an ice cream stop which was sorely needed by this stage.

Then we started looking for somewhere to stay as Sonja and I were both pretty knackered - but none of the B&B's looked very interesting so we continued on to our planned campsite at Nesslebach. The site is small and the locals friendly. 

Tomorrow Passau is within striking distance, we are looking forward to exploring! 

A long day to Straubing

We were up and on the road by about ten this morning as we had a long day if riding ahead of us. Campsites are sadly not evenly distributed along the route, and we had to ride just under 60 km today. That may sound nothing more than an afternoon ride to most cyclists, but with all our gear we don't really go much above 13kph on average, so it takes a while.

Luckily the boys were keen to get their chariot ready this morning

Pass that here, I think I've found a space for it!

We said farewell to our Belgian friends who were not going the whole way to Straubing today but were going to have a night in a B&B. hopefully we will meet up with them in Passau.

Luckily most of the road was paved and we made good progress in the heat. 

We also found a great play park for lunch complete with shade from Apple trees and a view of a pretty church. 

We then rode on to Straubing with the kids sleeping like angels - or maybe passed out from the heat...

The town is pretty and we had a lovely meal, complete with high chairs so we were able to eat hands free! What a luxury :-)

There are a lot of French people here, part of it a large group of friends out for a few weeks tour. We also have a rookery just by the campsite - bit that has just quietened down for the night. 

Tomorrow is another long day due to poor campsite distribution, I hope a bit cooler than today!

A day in Regensburg

What a lovely place, I am sure we could have spent days here. Every street is more lovely than the last, and each full of buildings around five hundred years old, with quite a few older. 

We started the day with a trip to the oldest bridge in Germany and the oldest surviving crossing of the Danube. Sadly t was being repaired, so all we saw was a lot of scaffolding.

After that a bit of a tour round town, including exciting places like Edeka Markt to buy supplies - getting low on nappies is never a good thing.

Luckily wandering the streets here is a very pleasant undertaking. 

We visited the big cathedral - again lovely, and then found a park for a long lunch break with a playground.

For all the sights of the old tow an open space a pile of gravel and a slide is a significant find for the little ones.

Back into town via a Romanesque church, the contrast with the baroque made more striking by its proximity to later churches.

And a lovely Danube sea monster - be good or else this will get you:

It's not all old stuff here:

But I won't tell you what Hannes said about this picture...

We headed home in time for a quick swim before supper.

Hops, strawberries a snake and 5 star camping

This somehow is out of order, it should come before sunshine and beaches, will try to re arrange it later bu can't see how to on my phone

Yes, well that about sums up the day. Sunny most of the time, we rode for 35 km or there abouts. Quite a lot of the day was spent riding on leve top paths with a tail wind, which is brilliant as you get a great view of the surrounding landscape. Towards the end of the day we arrived in Hop growing land, we even have a field of hops by our campsite

We picked up some wonderful fresh juicy strawberries which all seem to have disappeared as did the bottle of excellent local beer. I noticed that we also have wheat or barley in an adjacent field, so pretty much all you need is within grasping distance. I think we have happy campers 

We also have happy parents as this place has the most amazing showers I have ever seen in a campsite, as our French neighbours said, they are better than many hotels. 

The final verdict on the phone charging widgets I will leave for now, they were not  much use today, but that might be my fault for wiring the back lights incorrectly, maybe... 

Oh yes! And we saw a snake, a very little one, but it was a snake. It looked scared and wiggled off into the grass. 

Sunshine and beaches

After a routine morning: boys wake up, we wake up, Sonja gives little ones milk, I get breakfast ready, Yannick screams, we have breakfast, Yannick screams, we finish breakfast, Yannick get tired of screaming and wants to sleep. Yannick sleeps, Emil sleeps, Hannes plays on a tractor, Sonja and I pack up the tent and get the bikes ready for the road, and somewhere around 10:30 we are ready to roll.

An unremarkable riverside ride this morning eventually get us to a really lovely lunch spot with a beach at Matting. After lunch on recently mown grass we went to the beach for a paddle, much muddy sandy wet fun was had by all.

We then rode on along a lovely street of beer gardens and pretty houses, including one where we stopped to buy honey from the beekeeper - looking forward to eating that when we get home. 

The on  short ride to Regensburg and another big town campsite. We met up with the Italian couple who were also at the farm last night and the Belgian family we met a few days ago. 

After pitching tents and eating ice cream we went to another riverside beach, this time pretty busy, to enjoy the sun. Sonja and I both managed a swim... Brrr, short.

We are at the unreccomendable campsite restaurant. Just good enough food, but with slow service a bit of a drag.

Right now, as Sonja puts the little ones to bed I can hear Hannes squealing with delight as he and the Belgian kids charge around the campsite. I guess he will sleep well. 

Riding, oldest monastic brewery in the world, ferry and a farm

We starte the day in excellent style with fresh bread rolls for breakfast, I thought I had factored in enough for a picnic lunch, I was wrong; the boys were happy. 

We rode out and quickly were back on the leve path, and a lovely detour amongst the fields of the flood plain

The official path then went inland and over some hills, we chose the off road but flat alternative down by the river which was the better option, but still a bit hard going at times. 

We the came to Weltenburger Kloster, an using the bottle of beer purchased there as my guide, I will calmly announce that they have been brewing there since before Britain became French, 1050... and are the oldest monastic brewery in the world. 

It was huge, and obviously very wealthy. I am still slightly stunned here, every time we visit an old church is is just packed with gold covered this and that, in full on high baroque style, wow. In the chapel in the monastery St Georg (I guess) is giving a pretty fierce looking dragon a uncomfortable moment with the pointy end of a sharp stick - sorry,  iphone photo...look into the light!

After a lovely lunch - the purchase of two lovely earthenware half liter beer mugs, and a stop to play on the stones

we got on a ferry to avoid riding over some hills, it's also quite fun, and many other cyclists were doing this.

We rode through Keilheim, which again has a very lovely old walled centre and on to our farm campsite. 

Supper was bread, cheese and beer from the monastery followed by lovely fresh fruit that we picked up in Keilheim for pud. 

Daddy I am going to eat a fat one! Thanks for that information Hannes, I hope you enjoy it. 

1-0

The streets of Ingolstadt are rather quiet on a Sunday morning. The churches however are packed. We want into one for a look around while they were celebrating mass, every row was populated to some degree, families all dressed to the nines. I have never seen a church that big that full in the UK.

Audi runs this place, you can go to Audi summer concerts, borrow Audi money, see Audi ads on the busses etc, I guess you have to be based somewhere. 

We had a very lazy lunch playing in a great big park by an old fortification out of town.

When back we played on the play park at the camp site and Hannes amazed us by going down the biggest slide there all on his own. He had played there in the morning with some slightly older kids, who had taken him down it on their knees. Amazing what a bit of peer pressure can do!

After supper I wrestled with Yannick, who should have been sleeping, but wanted to explore all four corners of the tent... for an hour or so...while Sonja and Hannes wet to watch a very tight World Cup final, which thankfully Germany won in extra time. I joined then eventually.

Tomorrow we will find out if the new,really hard to find, bike widgets that we managed to get a few days ago actually work. My phone is about out of battery, so can the B&M Luxos U light come USB charging device charge it up by the time we get to our destination tomorrow, all will be revealed one way or another! 

A very Saturday sort of day

We had a lovely day today. Starting with a wander around Neuburg. A wander round the market where we bought the most yummy cherries and apricots, and a roast chicken for supper, and then up into the old town. 

This place must have been seriously rich, so many big houses and the huge Schloss. This had a few really unusual alcoves one all decorated with sea shells, and one with rocks and a sculpture of Neptune. 

We had lunch before riding on, past one more amazing Schloss on the outskirts of town

There looked to be a wedding party arriving here, so we didn't linger. 

We rode on though fields and woods, mostly away from roads today, and mercifully all flat.

We are now in Ingolstadt, in a big campsite, which is great in some ways: tables and chairs around the place, baby bath and a shop, but a bit noisy. You can't have it all. 

We are camping next to a Belgian family who are riding the whole Danube down to the Black Sea. They have anine year old son and six year old daughter, sounds like quite an adventure! 

We celebrated the fourth anniversary of our civil wedding with a bit of chocolate once the boys were in bed :-) 

An almost perfect day

Sunshine, happy kids friendly people along the road, and at the campsite. 

It is also worth noting that no matter how hilly a route is, it is possible to find a scale upon which it appears flat. My cursory glance at the route profile confirmed my pre made judgement, this would be a flat holiday. That is a lie. We suffered like dogs on a few climbs, one we had to stop and push up. This is so hard I can almost not do it. The same is true for Sonja.

On the subject of crazyness, we met a French family, who have been on the road for eleven month, touring Europe, they are on  the last leg home now with maybe one month to go.

They are riding recumbent tricycles - cool!

  We met at the most lovely playground with a flying fox, much fun was had by all

Hannes flying high!

Lots of lovely places to see and when we got in the boys all played together for ages which was lovely, they seen to like camping. 

Now, eventually, we have sleeping littlies, and a thunderstorm! What fun. 

A day in Donauwörth

We enjoyed a day wandering the streets of Donauwörth. This included a visit to the church of the holy cross, which was built to house a 'certified authentic' price of the cross sometime in the eleventh century.

Pretty amazing inside, as it was done up during the baroque.

We were reminded that back then, they weren't afraid to use a bit of gold here and there:

This is in honour of St Stephanus, and yes, I missed it the first time too, but what remains of him is right there enjoying a gold encrusted repose:

Jewels, crown, cushions with gold thread, the works. May he rest in bling, or something like that. 

His mate, St something else, was lying over the other side, decorated in a similar fashion, and also looking quite the envy of any christal slurping rapper. 

We ate, played at the play parc, shopped, wrestled with poo-y babies and started to get our minds in rose for riding tomorrow... 

Oh yes, and here is where we ate yesterday: Bum Johny*  Fortunately much better than either the name or exterior decor would suggest. We never did find out who Johny was...

*I have since been informed that I just can't read and it says Zum Johny which translates as Johnys, or Johny's place.