Day 67:Kapfelberg to Straubing, Germany

July 25, 2012

We camped last night about 25 km out of Regensberg. We got up early in order to be able to cruise into town and look around, and also to make it to the quite distant next camping spot.

At 6 a.m. the Donau waits for us to get moving.

This plan worked out and we were into town before most credit card tourists had hit the road. However the town was nevertheless swarming with school children touring the cathedral and other medieval buildings. Regensburg has a 2000 year history and is said to have the greatest number of preserved structures.

We, however, made our way directly to the bakery, which was conveniently placed opposite the cathedral. We bought a pile of stuff and slunk off to the riverside to see what it was. One of the items was a pair of pretzels. Pretzels are not necessarily my favourite, but these were really great. We decided that we would have to return to the bakery (pretty much right away). First we had two other chores:

We knew that Regensburg was the home of Johannes Keppler, the astronomer who died in 1630. While Galileo was being forced to recant on his theories, Keppler was left to carry on. His house had been turned into a museum, so we wanted to check it out. Also, on the way into town I had smelled the wood smoke from a place that called itself the historical wurst kitchen. It was in a medieval building, but they did not make any claims about the age of their recipes or techniques. Still, wood smoke is good enough for me.

The Keppler museum was just closing (for some reason) as we got there, but at least we saw the outside. As for the sausages, they were ok, but actually the buns were great. Bakery is so good in Germany! I think they have the French beat.

We were at this point, plotting our return to the bakery, when Sascha and Irina rolled up. And in short order, Aude and Roman as well! All these agreed that the first order of business in town was coffee and pastry, so there was unanimity on the point. As the pastry experts, we lead the way back.

Our appreciation of this extensive town having been completed by one bakery, one wurst stand, and one closed museum, we hustled over the 2000 year old stone bridge and headed East.

The nearest camping was at Straubing, about 60 km distant. Although a bit tedious to reach, this was no problem because the headwinds of previous days had disappeared.

On our route was Walhalla, a huge Roman style building on a hill, built by King Ludwig I in the 1830’s. Sascha and Irina had a crack at pushing the bikes up to see it, but gave up. We never even tried. Some of the other sights along the way included one of those strange “totem poles”. We still need someone to explain about them. Something a bit similar was a bridge on which people had affixed many locks. These are like love locks, and are usually engraved with a couple’s names. Finally, in this quirky category was a lot containing thousands of cars, of mixed brands, all tightly parked in a random pattern, with no laneways. How do they get one out?

It turned out we beat Sascha and Irina to the camping, but they did turn up. That allowed us to share another meal. It adds a lot to have friends to share these experiences with.

One the way to Regensburg, we saw the first example of large shipping on the river. We understand we will see lots more of this downstream.

First thing we saw in Regensburg. Marius, should this be our "palace"?

These river boats go all the way to Vienna. We will compare their cost to the train, for when we come back up river.

What the interior would have looked like had we attempted the hill

The odometer on my bike clicks over 3000 km. for this trip. This marks at least the end of the beginning.

Today's ride: 81 km (50 miles)
Total: 3,158 km (1,961 miles)

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