Passau to Obernberg: Ducks, Puppies and Cows

September 26, 2015

What a lazy day we had! Honestly, we got up with good intentions, but we were behind schedule by breakfast. We once more succumbed to the lure of the coffee carafe and lingered. Then we decided to stop at a bike shop in Passau to get a tube for Keith's bike. He has patched the one that had the flat, and has another spare, but buying a third pretty much guarantees no more flats this tour I think. The most astonishing thing happened at the bike shop. KEITH FOUND A VEST!!! I thought it would never happen. It is bright green, reflective and we are happy. We also checked our tire pressure, chatted to the proprietor who has done the Inn Radweg, and ran into the Surgents and had a good chat with them. You know where all this is leading, don't you. It was over an hour before we left the bike shop.

Then we made a run to the book store, debating about the purchase of the Inn Radweg map, in the end deciding we didn't need it. All this poking around meant we didn't actually leave Passau until close to 1 PM.

We ran into the ducks first. They were quacking in a way that sounded like laughter at our late start to us.

Quack, quack, quack, with a few coos for good measure.

Then it was off down the Radweg. Almost immediately I thought about my musing about why the Passau to Vienna route is so popular. I remembered that in addition to being flat, it is a wonderful paved surface all the way. Today's surface was fine, but you realize immediately that not being on asphalt slows you down. It was also not flat today. Not what I think of as hilly either, but quite rolling. Very, very pretty though, but be careful what you wish for. This is where we met the puppies, at the side of the trail, in their puppy training class. The pictures simply don't convey how cute they were. It was comical watching them. You never know what you will see on a bike tour.

I would have taken any one of them home.

They had a series of obstacles they were trying to negotiate, with hilarious results. The tails never stopped wagging.

This one was particularly tricky. Each of these boards tilt. This little chocolate lab was clever, he decided to go up the middle.

Shortly after puppy heaven we came to a beautiful pedestrian bridge and had to make a decision about which side of the Inn to ride on. Unless you have done it before, it is impossible to know. The bridge was just so lovely we headed over to the other side and will never know what we missed.

The beautiful pedestrian bridge. How could we not cross it?

It was a beautiful ride. We went through several villages that would have been fun to stay in. In one of them Keith took us on some kind of a short cut that got a bit confusing...we finally retraced our steps and followed the signs. Shortly after that there were more laughing (I mean quacking) ducks.

The trail did a big loop here around an inlet. I am waving at the chief navigator from my side. I am clearly quite a ways behind him.

Another view. At this point on the trail we had to negotiate our way through an entire bus tour. It was quite the feat.

Look what I found at the side of the trail. I need one of these at home.

We stopped for lunch behind a little path side chapel where there was a picnic table just for us. Then we carried on until we came to a Gasthaus in Obernberg. We inquired, but decided to keep going, got fifty meters down the road and thought...what the heck! We both liked the Gasthaus, so we are just about to head down for dinner. The view from our room is amazing. How lucky are we to be able to ride our bikes everyday?

Shortly after lunch we came across this. Keith pulled, I pushed our bikes up. It would be easier with an unloaded bike.

Sunflowers trying to find the sun. We saw very little of that today, but no rain either. Again this year we have been fantastically lucky with the weather.

Then there were the cows. Look at this sweetheart. She was as curious about us as we were about her.

Here is another one coming to check us out.

We are just back from a fantastic meal at the restaurant recommended by the owner of the hotel. It was a surprise to me to get such superb food in such a tiny town, and maybe it shouldn't be. The presentation was also fantastic. We polished off dinner with a shared plum strudel, with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream of course.

Keith made me laugh when he read from his Bayernnetz App about today's ride: "short stops, hills etc. reduce your average speed dramatically". Yup, that is pretty much how it went. And we loved it.

Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 1,301 km (808 miles)

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