15 June 2007

Neustadt, Germany to Beilngries, Germany
Some thunderstorms came rockin' through camp in the wee hours of the morning -- not too much rain but a lot of wind, thunder and lightening. But the sky was partly sunny as we dined on scrambled eggs that John cooked up for breakfast. They come in cartons of 10 and our camping neighbor, a teenaged cyclist from Germany, didn't want any, so we each had 5!
John requested that we start getting up a little earlier, so it was rise and shine at 7:00. We were on the road by 8:30 and backtracked on our route from yesterday to the monastery where we were planning on taking the 20 minute scenic boat trip down the Danube back to Kelheim which saves a big hill climb. Unfortunately, when we left this place yesterday we didn't study the boat schedule because we weren't planning on returning. It was 9:00 and the first boat didn't sail until 10:15. So much for an early start. So we changed our shoes and took the walk up some stairs and past the stations of the cross to the small chapel on the hill and had a look inside. There was also a nice lookout over the Danube but the mosquitoes were so bad up there we only had a short look.
After a few games of cribbage, the boat eventually came and we enjoyed the short trip narrated in German only. We stopped at an internet cafe in Kelheim to take care of some business and split a kabob before finally cruising along the Altmuhl River at about 1:00. Kabobs are the greatest (we each had one here yesterday, too). They are very similar to gyros but better.
We did a much better job of navigating the trail today. It was sunny and quite warm and the trail was full of people mostly going the opposite way. The riding was quite flat and the scenery was much like that of the Danube and even more beautiful in some places where the river valley widened out. There are also many limestone cliffs that add to the scenery.
Even with the kabob for lunch, we still took several breaks for snacks. In one spot we picked cherries and sat under a shelter on some comfortable benches and just about fell asleep.
We were kind of struggling along with about 15 kms to go. After another snack stop at a grocery store, we picked the pace up a bit. As we approached our destination for the day, Beilngries, we saw a very dark sky ahead and heard some thunder. This has been the weather pattern for quite some time now. Anyway, this really motivated us to turn on the burners. We made a quick stop in Kottingworth to see the inside of the church of St. Vitus and then flew into camp. We set up and went into the biergarten as it began to rain. We waited it out, the rain stopped and we made a dash for the grocery store on our bikes for dinner supplies. We were even able to get our showers in and get our sandwiches made before the rain began again and forced us into the tent with our dinner.

Kms 61.39
Time 3:44:45
Avg 16.3
Max 39.3
Total 1859.2