Danube Bike Tour Day 16: Deggendorf to Passau

by Cassie, November 25th, 2009 | No Comments

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Distance: 63km

This morning it was still cold, but we were glad that it had stopped raining.  Even though it was cold and cloudy, the ride was enjoyable.  We spent most of the day riding on bike paths next to the river alongside farms and through the forest.  The terrain was still hilly, and it was pretty to see the hills rising up from the river banks.  We stopped for lunch at a castle ruin by Winzer.  The castle ruin was on top of a hill with a great view of Winzer and the Danuber river valley.

Winzer Castle Ruins

Winzer Castle Ruins

On the way to Passau, we stopped at Vishofen, and they had a big festival going on in the city center.  They had a bunch of stands set up and a couple blow-up castles for the kids.  There was also a stage set up for performances.  When we arrived, a high school band was playing polka music wearing traditional Bavarian dress.  There was also a group that did some dances that were similar to square dancing, except with accordion music.  The highlight of the performances was the group of men doing traditional slap-dancing.  I felt like I was in the middle of a Rick Steves show. 🙂

Vishofen Festival

Vishofen Festival

Vilshofen Slap-dancing Performance

Vilshofen Slap-dancing Performance

As we arrived into Passau, we were surprised at the size of the city.  Passau had only 50,000 people, but it felt much larger than that.  There were a lot of suburbs as we rode into the city.  The campground and the hostel were next to each other, so we had to decide whether to camp or stay at the hostel.  It started to rain a little bit as when we got near the campground and hostel, so we decided to stay at the hostel.  However, we did not realize that the hostel was at the top of a steep hill next to the castle.  We were already tired from riding all day, so it was not fun to haul our bikes and gear up the hill to get to the hostel.  We asked if they had a double room available for two nights, but they only had a double room available for one night.  We would have to stay in separate men/women dormitory rooms the second night.  Since they didn’t have a double room available for two nights, we decided to camp instead.  The campground was at the bottom of the hill, so it was much easier to ride down to it.  However, when we arrived at the campground, it was closed for the season and the restrooms were locked up.  Since we had no other option, we decided to ride back up the hill to the hostel.  I was so exhausted after we arrived at the hostel for the second time.  It was too hard to ride up the hill with all the gear, so we walked our bikes up the hill instead.  The road up the hill was made of cobblestones that were very slick from the recent rain, so it was a challenge to walk up the hill with the loaded bike.  I felt like I had been lifting weights because my arms were sore from pushing the bike up the hill.  The weather turned out to be pretty unpleasant over the next couple nights, so we were glad that we decided to stay at the hostel.

The hostel was at the top of the hill next to the castle

The hostel was at the top of the hill next to the castle

Danube Bike Tour Day 15: Straubing to Deggendorf

by Cassie, November 19th, 2009 | No Comments

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Distance: 35km

We walked around Straubing in the morning.  They had a big market square with neat buildings.  There was also a 61 meter tall tower with five spires in the middle of the square.  Since it was Saturday morning, there were lots of people walking around the market square, and there was an open air market going on.

Straubing market square

Straubing market square

Since tomorrow was Sunday, we stocked up on groceries and got a loaf of bread at the bakery.  By the time we returned to the campground, it was already late, and we decided to relax for a while.  We got a really late start for our ride.  As we started riding, it began to drizzle, and it steadily turned into rain.  We had been lucky with the rain, and it had only rained at night.  This was the first time we had been rained on while riding.  We were wet, cold, and muddy by the time we reached Deggendorf.  We decided to find somewhere warm and dry to spend the night.  We had passed lots of guesthouses and rooms on the way to Deggendorf, but once we arrived in Deggendorf, we could not find a place to stay.  It was dark and still raining, and we were both cold and miserable.  We were about to give up and ride to the campground in the dark.  Then, we found a map of the city in the main square with the hotels on it.  We found the cheapest hotel listed in the back of our bike book, and fortunately, it was only a couple blocks away.  It was expensive to stay at the hotel, but we were happy to have a warm, dry place to stay.  We had our own bathroom for the first time of the trip, and we took advantage of it to wash off all our muddy gear.  We were tired and worn out, and it felt so good to lay down on a warm, soft bed and watch some German TV. 🙂

Danube Bike Tour Day 14: Regensburg to Straubing

by Cassie, November 19th, 2009 | No Comments

Friday, October 9, 2009

Distance: 45km

The highlight of today’s ride was visiting Walhalla, another of King Ludwig I’s monuments.  Walhalla was modeled after the Parthenon, and it honored the important German figures.  It located on the side of a mountain, so we saw it from a long way away.  There was a great view of the Danube from Walhalla.  Past Regensburg, the Danube becomes truly navigable, so we saw our first barges and ships on the Danube.  Inside the monument, there are busts of all the famous Germans.  King Ludwig I had the biggest monument with a big seated statue of himself dressed in Roman garb.  There were a few women represented in the monument.  One of the women was Empress Katarina of Russia, which I found interesting.  Albert Einstein’s bust was the funniest.  There was not much fine detail, and it looked like it was made of plastic from a Mold-A-Rama machine.

Walhalla

Walhalla

Busts of famous Germans inside Walhalla monument

Busts of famous Germans inside Walhalla monument

King Ludwig I gets the biggest monument

King Ludwig I gets the biggest monument

Funny Albert Einstein bust

Funny Albert Einstein bust

The rest of the ride was pretty along the mountains that were pushing the Danube southward.  We stopped in Worth for lunch, but it was not much fun getting into town.  There was tons of traffic on the road into Worth because Worth was next to a major four-lane highway.  We ate lunch in a square by the church, and it was a happening place.  The kids in Germany only go to school until 1pm, so they were already out of school.  The church square was the main hangout spot for the kids.  As we were leaving Worth to return to the bike route, we missed the turn to cross over the highway.  Instead we accidentally turned onto the on ramp for the highway, but we quickly realized our mistake and turned around. 🙂

The campground at Straubing was one of the nicest campgrounds.  The restroom, kitchen, and washroom buildings were immaculately cleaned.  However, they had the craziest reception hours.  Reception was only open from 3-4pm daily.  We arrived after 4pm, and we were planning to leave before 3pm the next day.

Danube Bike Tour Day 13: Regensburg

by Cassie, November 19th, 2009 | No Comments

Thursday, October 8, 2009

We spent the day exploring Regensburg.  Most of the city is designated as an UNESCO world heritage site.  It was a really neat city with nicely preserved old buildings.  We walked along the Stone Bridge, which is the oldest bridge in Germany.  There are great views of the city from the other side of the bridge.

Stone Bridge

Stone Bridge

We went inside the cathedral with its twin towers.  The towers remained unfinished for a long time because the church ran out of money.  In the 19th century, King Ludwig I financed the completion of the twin towers.  The cathedral was enormous inside, and I felt like I was inside a big cave.  They were completing the installation of a huge new organ.  They had a short church service everyday, and we stayed to hear the organ music.  The rest of the service was in German, and we didn’t understand any of it.

Cathedral

Cathedral

Cathedral

Cathedral

We found a sausage stand set up in a square next to the cathedral, and they actually had turkey sausage!  Usually, they only had beef or pork, and that did not work well with my dietary restrictions.  We finally had an authentic Bavarian lunch with sausage and a big pretzel.  The only thing missing was the beer. 🙂  We spent the rest of the day walking around the city admiring the neat, old buildings.

David and Goliath mural

David and Goliath mural

We stopped at bookstore because we had run out of reading material.  They actually had a large selection of English books, and we were surprised to find a book about a library cat named Dewey in Spencer, Iowa. 🙂

On our walk back to the campground, there were people everywhere in the city.  There were two universities and a college of music, so there were lots of students walking around.  We ended up following a large group of students as we were walking, and we thought we would end up at a wild party.  Instead, everyone was going to see a play at a theater. 🙂

Danube Bike Tour Day 12: Neustadt to Regensburg

by Cassie, November 19th, 2009 | No Comments

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Distance: 49km

Instead of riding through cornfields, we rode through hops yards for a change of pace.   The hops had already been harvested, so we only saw fields of the tall poles on which the vines grow.  We took a detour to Eining to visit the ruins of a Roman fortress.  The Roman fortress called Abusina was a huge structure when it was built, but not much was left.  The foundations for the buildings were all that was left.

Abusina Roman fortress ruins by Eining

Abusina Roman fortress ruins by Eining

Instead of backtracking and returning to the bike route, we found another gravel road along the river.  This part of the Danube has big cliffs on either side, and the trees on the cliffs were changing color.  It was a beautiful ride along the river, nicer than the official bike route.

Danube

We arrived in Weltenburg and tried to find the ferry to take us up the river through the gorge to Kelheim.  There was no one at the ticket booth, and there was a sign in German that we could barely understand.  We asked someone, and they explained that the water level of the river was too low for the big, ferry boat to navigate.  We saw smaller boats that were going up and down the river, and we saw a woman get on one of the boats with her bike.  We put our bikes on the boat, and we thought it would take us to Kelheim.  However, we went a short distance upstream, and the boat pulled over to the shore.  The woman got off the boat, and the captain of the boat said this is where we needed to get off for the Danube bike route.  We realized that there was a bike path on the opposite shore of the river.  It costed 5 euros per person to take the boat only 1km upstream.  This was the most expensive 1km we traveled on the bike tour.  The smaller boats did not go any further upstream than where we got dropped off.  It was only a scenic tour of the cliffs in the gorge.  The ride to Kelheim was very scenic with cliffs on either side of the river.

In Kelheim, we visited the Hall of Liberation, a monument built by King Ludwig I for the soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic Wars.  In King Ludwig I style, the monument was enormous and completely overdone.  The monument had a huge ornately decorated dome, and there were series of oversized marble angels stand in a circle holding hands.  We climbed to the top of the monument for a great view of the Danube valley.  The monument was on the top of a cliff, so it had a great vantage point.

Hall of Liberation

Hall of Liberation

Hall of Liberation dome

Hall of Liberation dome

Hall of Liberation marble angels

Hall of Liberation marble angels

View from Hall of Liberation

View from Hall of Liberation

It was already 4pm by the time we were ready to leave Kelheim, and we still had 38km to ride to get to Regensburg.  We rode straight from Kelheim to Regensburg. It was a beautiful day, and most of the ride was along the river.  We were worn out by the time we made it Regensburg, and fortunately, we found the campground easily.

Danube Bike Tour Day 11: Ingolstadt to Neustadt

by Cassie, November 18th, 2009 | No Comments

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Distance: 37km

We were surprised to find clear, blue skies when we woke up this morning.  The rain had cleared up, and it was a beautiful, sunny day.  I was mostly recovered from my stomach sickness, so I was up for continuing on the bike route.  We spent the morning exploring Ingolstadt.  Ingolstadt was a really neat city.  The city center was a pedestrian zone, and there were people riding bikes all over the city.  It reminded us of Freiburg.  Across the river from the city center was a big fort with thick walls.  The fort had been bombarded during battle because there were marks in the walls from bullets and cannon balls.

Ingolstadt fortress

Ingolstadt fortress

Ingolstadt also has a palace, and there were a bunch of cannons in the palace yard. One of the cannons was ripped through the middle.  The walls of the cannon were really thick, so there must have been a big explosion to rip it into two.

Ingolstadt palace

Ingolstadt palace

We also went inside the Asam church.  It topped the Dillingen church as the most ornate church I had seen.  The altar was covered in gold.  The frescoes on the ceiling painted by the Asam brothers were incredible.

Ingolstadt Asam Church

Ingolstadt Asam Church

The campground was on the eastern outskirts of Ingolstadt, so we decided to ride along the gravel roads by the river instead of backtracking to get on the official bike route.  We had an adventure riding along a road that was under construction, but we rejoined the main bike route with no problems.  We stopped in Vohburg, which is a neat town with a cool gate.  My stomach was feeling so much better that I was able to eat some ice cream. 🙂

Vohburg gate

Vohburg gate

When we arrived in Neustadt, we stopped at a grocery store.  We went to an Aldi in Ingolstadt, but the Aldis have horrible selection.  Small town grocery stores have better selection than big city Aldis.  The grocery store parking lot had a monster truck parked in it advertising a monster truck show.  Unfortunately, we were not going to be in town for the monster truck show. 🙂

Neustadt Monster Truck!

Neustadt Monster Truck!

The campground at Neustadt was really nice.  We were camped at an old farm, and our campsite was next to a stream with ducks swimming in it.  We had also entered a big hops growing area.  There were hops yards across from our campsite.

Hops yards

Hops yards

Danube Bike Tour Day 10: Neuburg to Ingolstadt

by Cassie, November 18th, 2009 | No Comments

Monday, October 5, 2009

Distance: 24km

We had a short ride to Ingolstadt, so we spent the morning walking around Neuburg.  Neuburg has a huge palace, and the courtyard of the palace had two creepy statues of a man and a woman.  The woman’s statue was missing its nose and looked like something from a Tim Burton film.

Creepy statue at Neuburg palace courtyard

Creepy statue at Neuburg palace courtyard

We also went inside the palace chapel, which is called Germany’s Sistine Chapel.  The ceiling had amazing frescoes.

Neuburg Palace Chapel frescoes

Neuburg Palace Chapel frescoes

We also walked by a store called the “American Store”.  Its display windows contained a Confederate flag, guns, and knives, giving the impression that Americans in charge of spreading hate and violence.

Neuburg American Store

Neuburg "American Store"

There was a playground nearby the campground, and we discovered the best playground toy!  It was like a combination of a trampoline and teeter totter.  With two people jumping on it, it was so much fun!  One person could be launched high into the air when the other person landed.  This playground toy definitely would not be allowed in US playgrounds.

The bike path from Neuburg was along a bike path next to a busy road.  Instead of following the bike path, we decided to follow the river by riding along gravel roads.  We navigated our alternative route very well, and we rejoined the official bike route at the hunting palace in Grunau.  The palace in Neuburg was not big enough, so they built an enormous hunting palace outside of Neuburg in Grunau.  What happens to these palaces once the nobility is no longer in power?  This palace was being used as apartments.  However, there were probably hundreds of rooms in the palace, but there were only about 10 names on the buzzer.  The palace looked like it needed some repairs, but it must be incredibly expensive to maintain such a large building.

Grunau Hunting Palace

Grunau Hunting Palace

We found the campground in Ingolstadt easily, and we ran into our German friends from the last couple nights.  It was always fun to run into the same people again. 🙂  Our luck with the weather finally ran out tonight at the campsite.  It started raining when we began to cook dinner.  The tree was the only shelter we could find, so we were pretty wet by the time we were done cooking dinner.  Fortunately, the weather had warmed up, so at least we were not wet and cold. We also had great luck with our health on the trip, but I was sick to my stomach after dinner.  I spent a miserable night with a really upset stomach, but fortunately, I felt much better in the morning.

Danube Bike Tour Day 9: Donauworth to Neuburg

by Cassie, November 18th, 2009 | No Comments

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Distance: 38km

We spent the morning walking around Donauworth.  It was a beautiful old city.  There was an old city wall with neat gates.  The main street, Reichstrasse, was lined with beautiful, old houses.  Donauworth was located on an important trading route, and they controlled the only bridge over the river.  Amazingly, we found a bakery that was open on Sunday!  We bought a loaf of bread, but we did not think about how to get it back to the campsite.  The campground was far enough outside the town that we had ridden our bikes.  Jonathan was holding the bag on his handlebars, but as he went over a big curb, the bread tore through the bag and went flying.  Incredibly, the bread survived the incident undamaged!  It was a tough loaf of bread.

Donauworth old city wall

Donauworth old city wall

Donauworth city gate

Donauworth city gate

Donauworth Reichstrasse

Donauworth Reichstrasse

It was another beautiful day for riding.  We had a hilly ride through the farms, and then, we returned to ride along the river.  We stopped at a sunny spot along the river for a picnic lunch, and it was one of our nicest lunch spots.

Lunch spot on the Danube

Lunch spot on the Danube

We rode into Neuburg, and it was the biggest city we’d been in since we left Ulm.  We stayed at another campground at a rowing club.  The campground was located on the river only 300 meters from the city center.

View of Neuburg from the campground

View of Neuburg from the campground

We walked around the city before registration opened.  We stopped at an Eis Cafe, and we ordered enormous dishes of ice cream.  Jonathan’s ice cream dish came in a half of a pineapple.  The ice cream was really good, but it was a lot of ice cream.  We both finished all the ice cream with a great sense of accomplishment. 🙂

Cassies chocolate cup

Cassie's chocolate cup

Jonathans pineapple cup

Jonathan's pineapple cup

Our empty ice cream dishes!

Our empty ice cream dishes!

We returned to the campground to register, but no one was at the registration office.  We tried to pay in the morning, but there still wasn’t anyone there.  So, we got a free night of camping!  We saw the same people that were camped next to us the night before, and we did not get a chance to talk until tonight.  They were a really nice couple from Ulm, and they were biking along the Danube to Deggendorf to visit their relatives.  We thought we might see them at other campgrounds along the bike route. 🙂

Danube Bike Tour Day 8: Dillingen to Donauworth

by Cassie, November 18th, 2009 | No Comments

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Distance: 38km

We arrived in Dillingen too late last night to walk around, so we spent the morning in Dillingen.  It was a really neat city with a pretty market square and old city gate. The architecture was different in Bavaria.  We did not see the half-timbered houses that were typical of Baden-Wurttemberg.  We saw several pretty houses that had a variation on the bell gable.

Dillingen curly gable house

Dillingen curly gable house

Dillingen City Gate

Dillingen City Gate

We also went inside the Basilica St. Peter, which was decorated in rococco style.  They had gone completely overboard with the decoration inside.  The entire ceiling was painted with frescoes, and there was gold everywhere.  It was the fanciest church I had ever seen.  We had definitely left Protestant territory, and we were in Catholic country that was not affected by the Reformation.

Dillingen Basilica St. Peter

Dillingen Basilica St. Peter

Our campsite was right next to the Danube River, so we only had to ride our bikes a few feet to get back on the bike route.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we had a lovely ride along the river to Hochstadt.  The Battle of Blenheim during the War for Spanish Succession was fought near Hochstadt in 1704.  We went to the Hochstadt palace to see their excellent exhibit on the battle.  The Battle of Blenheim was a decisive battle in the war.  The Franco-Bavarian army was defeated by the Allied troops, and it marked a turning point in the war.  It was the first time the French army had been defeated in battle in a long time, and it ruined the myth of French invincibility in battle.  13,000 soldiers died in the battle, making it one of the costliest battles in European history before the world wars.  Another 2,000 soldiers died from wounds from battle, and a large number of civilians were killed in the chaos of the battle.  The best part about the exhibition was the portraits of the princes and kings with their ridiculous wigs and ornate doublets and hose.

Hochstatt

Hochstadt

We rode through the cornfields until we reached Donauworth.  The campground was at a rowing club on the river. Unlike the other campgrounds, their reception hours were 6-8pm, and we arrived just as reception was opening.  The campground was a nice place right on the river.  When we left in the morning, there were a bunch of people heading out from the rowing club for a day of kayaking on the river.

Riding through cornfields

Riding through cornfields

Danube Bike Tour Day 7: Ulm to Dillingen

by Cassie, November 18th, 2009 | No Comments

Friday, October 2, 2009

Distance: 56km

Today marked the halfway point in our trip!  We spent most of the day riding through the forest along the river.  We stopped for lunch in Gunzburg, which was a pretty city with a neat gate and old half-timbered houses.  Even though we had a big breakfast at the hostel in Ulm, we were already really hungry by the time we got to Gunzburg.  Biking all day burns a lot of calories, so we were always hungry. 🙂

Gunzberg City Gate

Gunzburg City Gate

As we were riding along the river past Gunzburg, we had a nice view of the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant by Offingen.  It had twin cooling towers that reminded us of the Simpsons. 🙂  We also visited our first Roman ruins of the trip in Faimingen. Faimingen used to be a Roman fortress, and they preserved the ruins of a Roman temple.  It was interesting that the ruins were in the middle of the town and surrounded by houses.  It was exciting to see something new on the trip.  After seeing so many churches, castles, town halls, and half-timbered houses, everything starts to look the same.  The Roman ruins spiced up the day.

Faimingen Roman Ruins

Faimingen Roman Ruins

We stopped in Lauingen because it was supposed to have a pretty market square.  Usually, it is no problem to find the main square in a town.  However, we rode all over town, and we could not find the main square.

Lauingen Rathaus

Lauingen Rathaus

We reached Dillingen, and we had no trouble finding the campground since there were lots of signs directing us to it.  The campground was behind a restaurant, and the bathrooms were inside the restaurant building.  It was a little strange to go to the same bathroom as the restaurant patrons wearing my long johns. 🙂