Day 68: Straubing to Passau, Germany

July 26, 2012

In the morning we introduced ourselves to one of the cyclists camped nearby. His name was Mathias. He was cycling from somewhere up north to Berchdesgaden, near Salzburg. While cycling here is normal, so that “crazyguy on a bike” would not really apply, Mathias was a bit crazy. On a dare, he was carrying a case of 24 local beers from his home to a friend in Berchdesgaden. In turn, he would cycle back with a case from there. He was using a standard kid’s trailer to do this. Crazyguy.

Last night, just as we settled down in the tent,the rain, which had been threatening on and off all day, decided to become a very noisy thunderstorm. Fortunately our tent is waterproof (so far) but the noise kept us awake for awhile before we drifted off to sleep at last. It did result in our packing our gear wet (and therefore heavy) for the long ride to Passau today.

We had picked up a brochure describing what there was to see in Straubing from the camping reception. There were at least 20 structures from around 1300-1500, plus a daily vegetable market. So we detoured into town. Actually another main thing we wanted to visit was the synagogue. The Jews had been driven out of town in 1442 by Duke Albrecht III and did not return until the 19th century. The synagogue was built in 1907 and is the only one in lower Bavaria.

Our visit to Straubing naturally included at least one bakery. Aside from the truly excellent pastries, we have found that we can get ready made sandwiches that are excellent at lunch. We think it is no more expensive to buy these sandwiches than to prepare them from grocery store ingredients, and usually the bakery sandwiches are inventive and high quality.

So far German towns have more and better bakeries than French ones. Great!

The outskirts of Straubing look very normal, ugly, and modern.

Our friends told us about Flammkuchen, but we will have to try it in a real restaurant, not this way.

The pamphlet showing things to see in Straubing

Peaches and apples from the central market

A lady in traditional but conservative dress

We wanted to make it to Passau to be sure to be there in good time to meet with our friends Jurgen and Birgit from Leipzig. So we pedalled away, eventually doing 108 km. It’s not that much, but more than we have been doing on this trip.

The outskirts of Passau were pretty ugly, and extended for about 10 km. However when we got to the end of the peninsula which houses the main town and crossed the bridge to the side where the camping is, the view backwards was very spectacular. Tomorrow we will begin to explore the old town, which should be very exciting.

The zeltplatz (tent site) as the name implies, supports tents only. Hooray. No slum trailers or sleek “camping cars”, only cyclists!

We found Sacha and Irina already arrived, though barely, and ordered a pair of schnitzel at the onsite restaurant. These turned out to be actually edible. We have also ordered breakfast for tomorrow – so we are talking major luxury. We will even sleep in until 7!

What’s next: We will play with our friends here for a day or two. Since they have a car, perhaps there will be a side trip, or perhaps just exploring this town. Then we will leave the Donau for a bit and loop down along the Inn River and the Salzach to Salzburg, then back to the Donau along the Enns. From the Enns we will follow the Donau again, to Vienna.

If you think Inn and Enns is a bit confusing, we are camped right now on the Ilz!

It looks like a normal, ugly, modern city from here

But it looks like this from across the bridge near the Illz River

Our zeltplatz by the Ilz. Notice the wet ground - obviously the rain which threatened us all day landed up here. The earth is truly saturated.

Today's ride: 108 km (67 miles)
Total: 3,266 km (2,028 miles)

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