Day 65: Donauworth to Ingolstadt, Germany: Hills and Headwinds but Grampies Get to Third Base (out of Eight). - Grampies on the Go - Again! Summer 2012 - CycleBlaze
To leave Donauworth we figured we would just swarm around a bit, until we would spot the Eurovelo 6 or equivalent signage. At first we went completely the wrong way to see any relevant signage, and then we found a surplus! These lead us in a few circles, costing about 5 km and an hour. Oh well, we got to see more of the town!
Unfortunately the big thing this day was a straight on headwind, and a few long and nasty hills. As all cyclists know, headwind makes you mean. It also makes us beat, and late. Still, we did make it to Ingolstadt. On our Danube ride there are eight bases to make it to: Ulm, Donauworth, Ingolstadt, Regensburg, Passau,Linz, Melk, and Vienna. So we made it to third base, but we are not yet in position to slide home. "What kind of stupid game are we playing?", says Dodie.
Anyway, in this inning we got more of beautiful villages on the valley rim, historic and picturesque old town centres, rides in forest - by the river or otherwise, and rides in corn and wheat fields.
This time, because of the wind, we did more slogging and less looking. That way we did make it (to third base - Ingolstadt). Once in town, to find the camping we followed the river. We could see that we had to pass five bridges. Normally, with a big city, a bridge means fast moving traffic and problems for the cyclist. Not so here! The cycle path (there is always a cycle path!) simply went under each bridge. We arrived at the campingplatz with barely a feather ruffled. Any feather ruffling came when we got the price, 22.50 Euros for a patch of grass!
The day ended with a real plus when we went over to the restaurant nearest the camping. It turned out to have very high quality. We got steaks and salad - flavourful meat, lots of fresh salad. Best was our waitress - Nadja. Few people have such wonderful and magnetic personalities that they shine through in any situation. Nadja is such a one. We learned that she is a world traveler (which accounts for her excellent English). She took a genuine interest in us and our travel project, and told us something of her own travels. She allowed us to sit in the restaurant working on the blog long after everyone else was gone. We learned that she lives in Neuburg, and had an hour's commute after we left. Still we were graced with the most beautiful of smiles, whenever she talked to us. We are so pleased that we happened to walk in to this restaurant and that we got to meet her!
We stopped another cyclist and asked for the translation. Freiwillig means basically "please", so it's "please, speed limit 30, because of us". We are learning, slowly.
Neuburg is a major centre and clearly has a great old centre. We lost the route and headed north rather than south of town. Straightened it out, but never actually got to go into the town. Hmpph.
Our 22.50 Euro camp site: no table (shared or otherwise) and a bike ride to reach the sanitary block. Oh well, at least we found Sascha and Irina there!
