Danube Bike Tour Day 12: Neustadt to Regensburg
Posted by Cassie, November 19th, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Distance: 49km
Instead of riding through cornfields, we rode through hops yards for a change of pace. The hops had already been harvested, so we only saw fields of the tall poles on which the vines grow. We took a detour to Eining to visit the ruins of a Roman fortress. The Roman fortress called Abusina was a huge structure when it was built, but not much was left. The foundations for the buildings were all that was left.
Abusina Roman fortress ruins by Eining
Instead of backtracking and returning to the bike route, we found another gravel road along the river. This part of the Danube has big cliffs on either side, and the trees on the cliffs were changing color. It was a beautiful ride along the river, nicer than the official bike route.
We arrived in Weltenburg and tried to find the ferry to take us up the river through the gorge to Kelheim. There was no one at the ticket booth, and there was a sign in German that we could barely understand. We asked someone, and they explained that the water level of the river was too low for the big, ferry boat to navigate. We saw smaller boats that were going up and down the river, and we saw a woman get on one of the boats with her bike. We put our bikes on the boat, and we thought it would take us to Kelheim. However, we went a short distance upstream, and the boat pulled over to the shore. The woman got off the boat, and the captain of the boat said this is where we needed to get off for the Danube bike route. We realized that there was a bike path on the opposite shore of the river. It costed 5 euros per person to take the boat only 1km upstream. This was the most expensive 1km we traveled on the bike tour. The smaller boats did not go any further upstream than where we got dropped off. It was only a scenic tour of the cliffs in the gorge. The ride to Kelheim was very scenic with cliffs on either side of the river.
In Kelheim, we visited the Hall of Liberation, a monument built by King Ludwig I for the soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. In King Ludwig I style, the monument was enormous and completely overdone. The monument had a huge ornately decorated dome, and there were series of oversized marble angels stand in a circle holding hands. We climbed to the top of the monument for a great view of the Danube valley. The monument was on the top of a cliff, so it had a great vantage point.
Hall of Liberation
Hall of Liberation dome
Hall of Liberation marble angels
View from Hall of Liberation
It was already 4pm by the time we were ready to leave Kelheim, and we still had 38km to ride to get to Regensburg. We rode straight from Kelheim to Regensburg. It was a beautiful day, and most of the ride was along the river. We were worn out by the time we made it Regensburg, and fortunately, we found the campground easily.
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