Day 19 - Furth im Wald to Regensburg - 9 1/2 Weeks - Copenhagen to Lecce 2019

October 7, 2019

Day 19 - Furth im Wald to Regensburg

Dinner ... Out There

We started today's ride with a carefree cruise along perfect bike paths discussing the world's current issues. Well, we ended up with the world's current issues but the root of that conversation was the evolution we've seen in German toilets over the years. Any further description of this line of conversation will quickly result in TMI. Safe to say though that our toilet discussion evolved into the impact of EU regulations which then led to trying to assess the whole Brexit farce and what the outcomes of that may be. Once you start a conversation you never know where you may end up! Toilets to Brexit .... maybe that's not so odd after all.

We finished the day in a very packed, very lively, very diverse and very good French bistro in Regensburg, the Orphee. The eclectic cast of dining companions got us into doing our own version of "What's Up Tiger Lilly", the classic Woody Allen film where he took a Japanese spy film and dubbed in his own dialogue and narrative. We did essentially the same thing by pulling together a story line for all of the folks sitting around us ( in a good natured way of course!).

In between all of this we did some cycling. In addition to the analyses of German toilets at the beginning of the day, we both remarked how good it was to be cycling in Bavaria again. The countryside is beautiful, the infrastructure first rate, and get this .... the weather was good bordering on great. Mid teens temps, sun and a slight tailwind.

This trifecta of perfection lasted a little over an hour and then the sun went AWOL again, and with it the pleasant temperatures. The rest of Bavaria stayed the same though. We got our dose of hills, steep ups and downs into valleys dotted with small farming villages for the next 30 km's. The last third of our ride was an old rail trail that led us into Regensburg. Being a rail trail, it gently contoured up and down the hills with no more than 3% grades, making for easy and pleasurable cycling.

Other than the first hour or so when the sun was out, it wasn't an overly photogenic day, a bit of a shame because the country is quite beautiful.

We came into Old Regensburg from the north and made an x on our 2017 route when we came into here from the east along the Danube. It was a little bit comforting to actually see something familiar, even if we were only here for a day 2 years ago! This will be the only part of this year's trip where we intersect with our 2017 trip.

We found our hotel, the very welcoming and somewhat chic (if anyone will allow me judgement on what is chic!) Hotel Rosi in Alt Regensburg.

We got ourselves cleaned up, had our 'welcome drink' (thank you Rosi)and then headed out for dinner.

That was probably the most interesting part of the day ... in a good way. We went to the Orphee, a restaurant in the eponymous hotel a few blocks away.

It's a pretty accurate French Bistro with a lot of traffic. Closely spaced tables, lively bordering on noisy, but in a good way. Posters, art and 'knick knacks' everywhere - many of the posters look like they could have been done by Mucha, our guy from Prague a few days ago.

The food was good but what really made this place was the overall ambiance influenced by the most diverse clientele we've seen anywhere. Diverse in appearance, and we are presuming (always dangerous!) in background and current lifestyle, but aligned on appreciation for the Orphee (it looked to us that most of the people were local).

It was this diversity that gave rise to our "Tiger Lilly" game and it made for an entertaining evening.

While most of the crowd fit comfortably into a single standard deviation from 'normal', which is of course Kirsten and I (come on, everyone defines 'normal as a relative measure to self don't they?), there was one couple, part of a group of 4, who were right on the edge of 2 standard deviations. It was this pair that started the Tiger Lilly ball rolling.

You'll see some pics later (not great ones, I only had my phone and I was trying to be discreet), but they had the deepest fake bake tans possible, fingers and arms dressed with the chunkiest rings and bracelets possible, Grace Jones type haircut (her) and Kojak (him, folks under 50, just google it), and clothing straight out of a Samuel L Jackson film. After several iterations K and I landed on them running an all night alternative German 'adult dance club'. Who knows? Maybe they were librarians.

Back to the room to get the next 24 - 48 hours of logistics worked out and that's when things went a little off the rails. As I was loading up pics and organizing my pithy thoughts and comments, K was working on where we were going to stay tomorrow night. Given the weather, and the medium term forecast, camping was not in the equation. We also want to be in Fussen (German Austrian border with famous crazy Duke castle) in three days so K was looking for a place 80-100 km's away going in that general direction and coming up with either blanks or $300 + per night charges for pretty basic places. WTF!

After a few (actually many) iterations, we managed to find places for the next three nights all the way to Fussen. We had to change our planned routing, but this wasn't that big of a deal. It was pretty disappointing though as we have not had this issue before, including in this area 2 years ago.

That chewed up the rest of the night and left us a little frazzled ( K in particular as the place we originally wanted to go to had the European Asparagus Museum .... no kidding!). We also came to the determination that lugging around all of our camping gear was no longer in the equation either.

Our original plan / hope was that we would be able to camp most nights until mid October and then we would ship our camping stuff home. Given the current weather, and the forecast we decided to pull that date forward and hit the post office tomorrow morning.

One bright side of all of this is that I did not get the journal published last night, giving me more time to reflect on Song of the Day,

I had originally picked a song that we'd heard a couple of days ago that had a 'sun' theme to it. With the few hours of sun and the field of sun flowers we had in the morning, I figured it was a good choice. However, given that the rest of the day was cool (cold) and overcast and that our dining crowd really stood out as the defining moment of the day ....

The true Song of the Day is: Libertango (aka I've Seen That Face Before) by Grace Jones. It just doesn't get more avant garde French than this beauty and both K and I agree this sums up the Orphee tonight! Classic dinner party music when you want to come off as sophisticated ... and this was part of the playlist they had going in Pilsen a few nights ago too. Sit back and enjoy.

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The start of the day in Furth ... the bike garage at the very good and friendly Gasthof Fellner

the first 20 km's or so was beautiful riding through fields and small farms. We even had a bit of blue sky and a slight tailwind

A little hazy, but you can see Kirsten as a small red speck against the fields and hills

... these guys are building a new cycle bridge across a small stream to presumably replace the pretty good bridge we just rode across

The sun came out in the sky and in the fields. We saw sunflowers in full bloom in October in Bavaria on our 2017 trip too. Has to be a second crop as some of these plants were still in bud stage

... the middle section of the ride. Lots of up and down into and out of the many valleys. Quite steep ascents and descents made for net slow going

... and the last part of the day ... an old rail trail into Regensburg ... very easy and carefree cycling

We were at this same place in September 2017 ... except it was about 25 c! Crossing the Danube into Regensburg Old Town

... The EV6 / Danube bike trial is behind Kirsten on the right. That's where we rode in 2017

.. a few night shots of the Cathedral dominating the skyline

The Old Rathaus (city hall). Deserted now but when we were here in 2017 it was during the day and there were at least 3 weddings taking place right here!

Street life in front of our hotel in Regensburg

It was a liquorice all-sorts crowd at dinner tonight... from Karl Lagerfeld’s cousins..,,

... to the guy who came in from the cold...

.... to the theology prof catching up on his readings

Home for the night ... pretty cool little hotel in the Old Town

Today's ride: 89 km (55 miles)
Total: 1,218 km (756 miles)

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