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Thursday, July 5, 2007

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

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

13 June 2007

Nittenau to Regensburg, Germany
Low clouds greeted us this morning as we headed out for more bike route finding. We made it less than a km before stopping at a roadside stand to enjoy some bakery. Then, with a little uncertainty, we rode out of town and soon found the bike route signs. We followed along well and were putting the kms behind us for a good chunk of the morning. Most of the low clouds had burned off and things were going well until we got to Regenstauf. It was here that we realized that a ways back the bike route crossed the river according to the map, but we didn't. But the bikeway sign in town pointed us to the same side of the river we were on. This confused us, but we followed the sign and ended up on a very busy road that eventually would turn into a major highway that didn't allow bike traffic.
Instead of turning around and backtracking, we continued on and came to a road that looked like it would take us into a town where we could cross to the other side of the river. When we got into the town there were no bike route signs. We followed our noses and a gravel path and found a bridge. On the other side of the river we picked up the bike route and rode it all the way into Regensburg where we said goodbye to the Regen River and hello again to our old friend the Danube.
After asking a few people, we found the campground and set up. It was 2.5 kms past the city center of Regensburg which is O.K. because that's a little less that we have to travel tomorrow. We rode back into town with no gear on the bikes. We spent a good chunk of time trying to resolve a problem we were having with our long distance calling card. After some time on the internet and the telephone, the problem is still not completely resolved. This and the whole route finding thing this morning put a bit of a damper on the day.
We walked through town and saw all of the "must see" sites listed on the tourist map, picked up some groceries and rode back to the expensive, crowded campground.

Kms 48.18
Time 3:07:06
Avg 15.4
Max 33.0
Total 1730.7

12 June 2007

Babylon, Czech Republic to Nittenau, Germany
The light rain came again in the wee hours of the morning but the sun was out and drying our riding clothes that we left out while having dinner last night and were wet from the dew. By the time we had everything packed up our clothes were dry enough to wear again. We wished Ted and Bianca safe travels and headed for the German border. Dinner last night ate up almost all of our Krones but the few we had left we tried to spend at a rip off border store. The border guards seemed a little puzzled by us but then figured out that since we had our passports stamped coming into the country, they should probably stamp them for exiting it. With that taken care of, we made our way to Furth im Wald where we visited the info center to try to get more info on a cycle route that we wanted to follow. They didn't have any better maps than the one we already had but they were helpful in pointing us in the right direction to find the route. These cycle routes follow the back roads and even gr!
avel double track roads. It was hard for us to spot the tiny signs directing the way. Sometimes the signs would be past the road you were supposed to turn on. It was quite the challenge and we were lost several times. Once again as the day progessed the thunderheads built. We had lunch in Cham under the cover of a shelter as claps of thunder surrounded us. In the fairly large town of Roding we missed one of the camoflaged bikeway signs and climbed a long hill before deciding at the top that things just didn't look right. We cruised back down the hill to the tourist info center and were directed to the trail. And wouldn't you know it, there was the sign that we didn't see right where they said it was. We were told that we would climb up to a church, and man, they weren't kidding. The first part of the really steep climb was paved but after reaching the church the steep climb continued on dirt. This was more than we had bargained for since the man at the info center in Fu!
rth im Wald told us the trail was paved most of the way except for a f
ew short stretches near town and was flat! The view from the top was very nice and the cruise down with one 13% section and one 15% section was thrilling (you had to watch out for the pine cones covering the dirt road). Following all of that the stretch to Nittenau was very nice following the Regen river. We had some trouble finding the campground in Nittenau. Again we asked a couple of people and they didn't know where it was. Finally we got the help we needed from a woman working in a gas station. She didn't speak English well enough to give us directions, but she showed us a map and called her English-speaking son on her cell phone and he directed us. Now that's going above and beyond! At the campground a couple from Stuttgart, Germany pulled in on a tandem. We talked with them while cooking our dinners together at the picnic tables. Yes, this is a first. This campground actually had 2 tables for tenters to use and they are covered in case of rain. They ge!
t a gold star!

Kms 77.39
Time 5:12:42
Avg 14.8
Max 37.4
Total 1682.5

11 June 2007

Kozel to Babylon

Trying to find our route out of Kozel proved just as hard as finding the campground. We thought we took the correct road but it turned out that we went about 8 km's out of our way before we recognized a road on the map. The scenery remained the same, rolling hills with forest and agriculture mixed together. Merklin was our lunch stop today and 2 km's down what we thought was the right way we discovered our error and backtracked to town to find our way. As the day progressed the thunderheads were building and we could again hear the thunder and see the lighting all around us but we remained dry. In Domazlice we stopped in the town square as a few light showers came through. We passed the time by sampling some bakery and discussing if we should go on or get a room here. The sky remained ominous all around except for the direction we were heading, so we decided to risk another 6 km's to camp in Babylon. The rain stayed away and we found a couple (Ted and Bianca) from Holland a!
lready set up and relaxing. They are making a circle tour of the Czeck Republic. After showers we all walked into "town" and had a very nice dinner and evening with them. John finally got to have an original Budweiser beer. Not the watered down American version.

Kms 78.38
Time 5:03:51
Avg 15.4
Max 46.0
Total 1605.1

10 June 2007

Zandi Troban to Kozel
Thunder and rain came around 6:30 this morning but that didn't really affect our plans since we haven't been getting an early start most days anyway. The rain didn't last too long, but we slept in until 8:30. It still looked a little iffy as we started to roll and at one point it did rain on us hard enough to warrant seeking shelter in one of the randomly placed bus shelters. We could see that we were on the edge of a clearing line and heading away from the clouds, so on went the sunblock. It is a good thing we didn't get an earlier start because the roads were wet and a cyclist going the other way warned us of heavy rain ahead. At least that is what we were told by the English speaking cyclist that was passing us up.
The scenery remained much the same with farming and forestry mixing together. We stopped in Horovice to pick up some lunch supplies and then rode on to Komarov to eat. By this time we were looking for some shade but some tables in the sun had to do. Our plan was to camp in Mirosov but when we got there and asked where it was, we were told there isn't any but that there was camping at our alternate destination. We stopped for an ice cream with about 3 km's to go and then had to ask 3 different groups of people to find the camping in Kozel. They don't make it easy to find. Again we could hear thunder and see the building clouds but no rain came of it. Marie was feeling a bit cold after a nice dinner in the restaraunt so she put on her fleece jacket and found the ATM card that John thought he left in a machine. Hmmmmm, maybe she gets to haul BOB around tomorrow. Anyways, it should be much quieter than last night seing as there is only one other couple camping in a caravan here.!


Kms 66.01
Time 4:11:59
Avg 15.7
Max 45.8
Total 1526.7

9 June 2007

The day that 80 turned into 35 which became 50
Prague to Zadni Treban
After carrying all of our gear down the 3 flights of stairs in Monika's building, we hit the road by 7:45 with the hope of beating some of the weekend traffic. John had been studying his many maps of the area for days trying to find the best route out of the city which is not an easy task. We did well going through the heart of the tourist district since we were familiar with it. There was a man, however, on the St. Charles bridge that was having a good time yelling at us. There were hardly any people on the bridge compared to yesterday's crowd, but he yelled in Czech that we must walk our bikes across. Then he yelled again when Marie leaned her bike on the bridge to stop for a photo. We guess they are just doing their best to preserve this 600 year old bridge that is seeing a lot of foot traffic.
We were going along well until we were suddenly on the freeway, a place we were sure we shouldn't have been riding but we were passed by a police car and they didn't stop us. We pulled over at a bus stop and developed plan B involving crossing the freeway in order to get off of it. Plan B then took us through the western suburbs of Prague which was not really the direction we wanted to be going. The map John was doing his best to navigate by only showed the main streets in these suburbs and the going was very slow because of a lot of uncertainty.
After many hours and even more route plan changes, we finally got to the road we were originally aiming for. As we ate lunch at a grocery store in Radotin, we decided that there was no way we were going to make it to our original destination which was 80 kms from Prague. Afterall, it had taken us 3 hours to go the first 25 kms! So we chose a town with camping that was only 11 kms down the road.
Shortly after that came the detour. What we thought would just be a short jog around some road construction began instead with a 2.5 mile climb up a hill in the burning sun followed by a route that we couldn't believe was the shortest and most efficient for a detour. We were doing a big circle and felt like we couldn't get out of the gravitational pull of Prague. It's only redeeming factor was a section of the road that was lined by cherry trees. Cars and cyclists alike were pulling over for a quick pick.
After going about 8 kms out of the way, John came up with a better way than following the ridiculous detour to get to our destination for the day. We ended up on a quiet, forested road lined with weekend cottages that was a gradual downhill for about 7 kms. It was the best part of the day! We made it to the town of Revnice which showed a campground but there were no signs anywhere. Some cyclists came by. We asked them and they asked some locals and then led us to the campground in the next town about 2 km's away. We didn't have much food and the stores are closed tomorrow, so John rode back to find a store to stock up. Miraculously he came back without having taken a spill. The campground sits on the Berounka river and is packed with weekenders. A cabin would have been $10 but there were none left, so we settled for the $5 camping. As we were waiting for 5:00 to roll around for the hot water to be turned on, a couple from Holland showed up who are crossing Europe from wes!
t to east by bike ending in the Ukraine. We ate dinner with them at the campground bar which was featuring country music night. A heavy but short rain shower came through as we were waiting for our food.

Kms 47.55
Time 3:31:06
Avg 13.5
Max 38.7
Total 1460.7