14 June 2007

Regensburg, Germany to Neustadt, Germany

We tried an experiment with the sleeping arangements last night. It seems the Gortext shell doesn't breath all that well even when we have all the doors open except for the screens. This causes moisture to form on the inside walls and ceiling of the tent. We have been putting our panniers at the head of our tent but we switched them to the foot. It seemed to work so we will try it again tonite.
Today could be summed up as frustrating. Trying to follow the tiny bikeway signs and reading our book backwards sure threw a wrench in the day. We made it to Kelheim and decided to take lunch because we thought there were a few steep climbs ahead. It turned out that we went the wrong way twice making some long climbs before finding the correct way. The right way was up a hill to Befreiungs Hall and then up and down an undulating dirt track to a small ferry that took us across the river on a guy wire/pulley system (no motor needed - just one big oar). Most people take a boat for this section because of the hill climbing. The reason we took the wrong turns was figured out when we finally made it to Weltenburg and were having a beer at the oldest Monastic brewery in the world, founded in 1058. The book we are sort of using for a guide gets off the Danube and goes up to the Altmuhl River. We didn't read that far back before having the beer. Marie's was mixed with lemonade and wa!
s quite tasty. The problem now was that we didn't have any info on the Danube for the next 140 km's. Throwing caution to the wind we headed down the cycle way to parts unknown. The path turned into a double track, rough gravel road which we soon got tired of and hopped on a road leading to Neustadt. In the town of Bad Godding we stopped at a gas station/car dealership to see if we could find a map that would help us out. The cashier told us that the next stretch of the river was really boring and suggested we follow the Altmuhl instead (as our book does) and that there was camping just down the road. After searching through the assortment of maps we found one that would be of use no matter which way we took. Once in camp and satiated with food we looked over the situation and decided to follow the Altmuhl for a while. This means backtracking to Weltenburg tomorrow (another beer?), then taking the boat to Kelheim and getting back on the bikeway at one of the wrong turns we t!
ook today. It is a good thing we have lots of time for this trip. We a
re traveling in a north and south pattern to go west. From Budapest to Kelheim it is about 850 km's and we have gone over almost 1800 km's. Tonight was the first night that mosquitoes forced us into the tent at 9:00.

Kms 67.12
Time 4:30:10
Avg 14.8
Max 52.0
Total 1797.8