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Day 8: Passau to Linz

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A truly stunning day with amazing scenery, great weather and boats. Lots of boats. Stunning scenery along the Danube. Unfortunately the Passauer Wolf hotel not only lacked air conditioning, it was also on a fairly noisy street. The receptionist did provide us with a somewhat ineffectual fan but it wasn’t the most comfortable of nights. That being said, we were up at 6am because this was a 95km day. However, it looked like I had screwed up the routing somehow and we were regularly on the wrong bank of the Danube — the hilly bank. We decided to follow the signs rather than my somewhat suspect Garmin route. Which, as you will see, turned out very well. All packed and ready to go. After leaving the hotel, we navigated the cobbles of Passau pretty well, crossed the Inn and almost immediately we were in country number three. The Donauradweg becomes the…Donauweg. At this point, the Danube enters a narrow wooded gorge between th...
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Day 7: Deggendorf to Passau

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A short and easy day with little or no drama. We were checking in at the hotel in Passau at 11:45… Another classic picture of the Danube cycle paths heading east. The breakfast at the truly excellent Gastof Höttl was great and we were ready to go at 7:30. There was a minor problem with some leaking chain lube but it was easily cleared up and we were on our way pretty quickly. The by now familiar farm paths and dedicated cycle paths led out of Deggendorf through some light industrial parks and onto the Gäuboden Plain. The Danube is wide here and it’s done a lot of meandering and flooding in the past creating a wide and fertile area of farmland. Most of which, like everywhere else in Germany, is given over to growing vast quantities of maize. The villages came and went and apart from all having a giant fire station, they also all have a Donaustraße. If we could do the stats, I suspect that over 10% of the time on this trip we have been on one...
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Day 6: Regensburg to Deggendorf

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Today was surprisingly ok. Much cooler than the last few days and an easy 90km. Exiting Regensburg through the medieval gate The Chin Chin hotel was absolutely superb. Staying in the centre of the city did involve some crazies going mad outside our window at 2am but that’s the cost of being cool I guess. Breakfast was served sitting outside the hotel on the street watching the world go by. There’s a vaguely Parisian vibe to Regensburg. Don’t tell the French… And what a breakfast it was. I know you come to the blog for the stories of cycling and close shaves with lorries and heat death but this is a breakfast. No room in the picture for the basket of bread products either. As we rolled away from the Chin Chin — gently burping cheese and ham — we were sorry to say goodbye to Regensburg. It was surprisingly fantastic. Although it is tempting to think “we must come back”, it’s also important to be realistic. Part of the fun/joy of thes...
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Day 5: Bad Gögging to Regensburg

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A shorter and somewhat less hot day although the eternal truism is that 20km to go feels like 20km to go whether or not you’ve done 40km so far or 80km so far. The Danube is getting more serious about being a proper river now. Once again we were up at 6am, powering through the morning news on our phones and down at breakfast at 7am. The absolutely gigantic  dining room was already stuffed with older guests getting the highest possible money’s worth out of the extensive buffet. It was still a “stamp it out in a factory producing four star breakfasts” fare but on an industrial scale. While Dr T paid our ludicrously small bill for vats of wine and food last night, I descended into the depths of Mordor to retrieve and wash the bikes. Hot, smelly and dank. I felt sorry for our bikes. Back out in the entrance road to the hotel, we loaded the bikes and girded ourselves to get going. Next door to the entrance road is the pool, surrounded by loungers. A...
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