The Road from Roth!!!

Let me start by painting you a picture of where we are at the moment. We are accommodated in a small gasthof adjacent to the donau canal in a small village called Pillhausen approximately 90 km south of Georgensgmund and Roth. There are steep hills on either side of the village covered in conifers and the canal winds it way around these contours making its way south. Just up the road there is a schloss (castle/fort) built on the pinnacle of a rocky outcrop. Sounds nice doesn’t it?

Yesterday (Friday 23rd July) marked the beginning of our next adventure. Our pannier bags arrived in the post on Thursday and after receiving a call from Florian (a friend of Michelle from her exchange year in Austria) we decided to head south towards Passau following the canal. This would be flat and the scenery should be nice. Gunter and Danni have kindly lent us their bicycles for the next 2 ½ weeks, so now we are on our very own, make it up as you go, bicycle tour. The racks and associated bits and pieces you need for a tour we obtained from a huge bike shop in Nurnberg on Wednesday, Stadlers. No it doesn’t have anything to do with Normann Stadler I already asked that question. I have never seen such a huge bike shop. Everything you could ever need and more.

After purchasing all our gear Gunter took us to the museum in Nurnberg. It is a great museum, highly recommended and only $5 euro. If you come to Nurnberg I think you should visit this museum. It is built as part of the huge coliseum that Hitler had visions for the Nazi party main building. The area where the museum is situated is all part of Hitlers grand plans for Nurnberg as he believed it was the “most german” city in Germany. It has a lot of stuff about Hitler and the history surrounding the Nazi party as Nurnberg was the gathering city for the Nazi party rallies in the 30’s and 40’s.

We also walked around Nurnberg on Tuesday (well Michelle, Gunter Danni, Timon and Kimi walked, I kind of waddled) and had a look in the old part of the city where the castle and town were originally built. Narrow cobbled streets and tall buildings. Huge open market squares and the church and Rathaus (city hall, this means council building in modern terms) are all in the Altstadt.

So back to the present. How we got here and why we holed up in this gasthof. We set off on Friday from Georgensgmund about 2pm with a full bicycle escort from Timon and Mika who showed us the way to the canal. It took a bit of getting used to, riding the bikes fully laden with gear but once you are going it isn’t to bad. Danni and Kimi took some photos of us on our way (it is a bit sad leaving the Schmidts as they have been fantastic hosts and we have established a great friendship already, however we will be back in a few weeks to give back their bicycles and pick up our gear for our trip back home). As soon as we reached the next village I was roped into helping this old lady set up her roadside stall for selling her cherries. It was so funny and Danni and I couldn’t stop laughing as we set up the umbrella and tied it off to the tree. With some fresh cherries for dessert this evening and pointed in a southerly direction we said our goodbyes and pedalled off down the road. No sooner had we lost our escort it started to rain and by the time we were in Hipoltstein (near the swim start) we were soaked. A quick call into penny markt and we had some supplies for lunch and dinner. I have found a new love, Muller Milk. It is so yummy I think I have drunk at least one each day since being here in Roth. (After Challenge I think I drank 4). So we followed the canal all the way to here. Past the locks, and a few interesting little villages which would have been nice to have a look in had it not been pouring. I got a flat tyre and it was at this point I realized I didn’t have any tyre levers in the repair kit. Managed to fix this with a minimum of swearing. Finally arrived here last night just after 8.30pm. A nice start to the adventure.

If you want to imagine what yesterday was like. Just think of the worst day you have had riding when the weather has turned nasty, and then add that you are riding with 3 full pannier pannier bags, in normal shoes, on a muddy path, and you have to keep riding for another 85km in that weather to get back home and have a warm shower and lie down. But hey we are still smiling!!!

We are trying to leave here as late as possible so we don’t have to ride in the rain for quite as long today. Next stop a small village just after Regensburg (IM town 01/08/2010) Donaustauf. Wish us luck, our jackets only keep us dry for so long.