by Cassie, November 18th, 2009 | No Comments
Monday, October 5, 2009
Distance: 24km
We had a short ride to Ingolstadt, so we spent the morning walking around Neuburg. Neuburg has a huge palace, and the courtyard of the palace had two creepy statues of a man and a woman. The woman’s statue was missing its nose and looked like something from a Tim Burton film.
Creepy statue at Neuburg palace courtyard
We also went inside the palace chapel, which is called Germany’s Sistine Chapel. The ceiling had amazing frescoes.
Neuburg Palace Chapel frescoes
We also walked by a store called the “American Store”. Its display windows contained a Confederate flag, guns, and knives, giving the impression that Americans in charge of spreading hate and violence.
Neuburg "American Store"
There was a playground nearby the campground, and we discovered the best playground toy! It was like a combination of a trampoline and teeter totter. With two people jumping on it, it was so much fun! One person could be launched high into the air when the other person landed. This playground toy definitely would not be allowed in US playgrounds.
The bike path from Neuburg was along a bike path next to a busy road. Instead of following the bike path, we decided to follow the river by riding along gravel roads. We navigated our alternative route very well, and we rejoined the official bike route at the hunting palace in Grunau. The palace in Neuburg was not big enough, so they built an enormous hunting palace outside of Neuburg in Grunau. What happens to these palaces once the nobility is no longer in power? This palace was being used as apartments. However, there were probably hundreds of rooms in the palace, but there were only about 10 names on the buzzer. The palace looked like it needed some repairs, but it must be incredibly expensive to maintain such a large building.
Grunau Hunting Palace
We found the campground in Ingolstadt easily, and we ran into our German friends from the last couple nights. It was always fun to run into the same people again. 🙂 Our luck with the weather finally ran out tonight at the campsite. It started raining when we began to cook dinner. The tree was the only shelter we could find, so we were pretty wet by the time we were done cooking dinner. Fortunately, the weather had warmed up, so at least we were not wet and cold. We also had great luck with our health on the trip, but I was sick to my stomach after dinner. I spent a miserable night with a really upset stomach, but fortunately, I felt much better in the morning.
by Cassie, November 18th, 2009 | No Comments
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Distance: 38km
We spent the morning walking around Donauworth. It was a beautiful old city. There was an old city wall with neat gates. The main street, Reichstrasse, was lined with beautiful, old houses. Donauworth was located on an important trading route, and they controlled the only bridge over the river. Amazingly, we found a bakery that was open on Sunday! We bought a loaf of bread, but we did not think about how to get it back to the campsite. The campground was far enough outside the town that we had ridden our bikes. Jonathan was holding the bag on his handlebars, but as he went over a big curb, the bread tore through the bag and went flying. Incredibly, the bread survived the incident undamaged! It was a tough loaf of bread.
Donauworth old city wall
Donauworth city gate
Donauworth Reichstrasse
It was another beautiful day for riding. We had a hilly ride through the farms, and then, we returned to ride along the river. We stopped at a sunny spot along the river for a picnic lunch, and it was one of our nicest lunch spots.
Lunch spot on the Danube
We rode into Neuburg, and it was the biggest city we’d been in since we left Ulm. We stayed at another campground at a rowing club. The campground was located on the river only 300 meters from the city center.
View of Neuburg from the campground
We walked around the city before registration opened. We stopped at an Eis Cafe, and we ordered enormous dishes of ice cream. Jonathan’s ice cream dish came in a half of a pineapple. The ice cream was really good, but it was a lot of ice cream. We both finished all the ice cream with a great sense of accomplishment. 🙂
Cassie's chocolate cup
Jonathan's pineapple cup
Our empty ice cream dishes!
We returned to the campground to register, but no one was at the registration office. We tried to pay in the morning, but there still wasn’t anyone there. So, we got a free night of camping! We saw the same people that were camped next to us the night before, and we did not get a chance to talk until tonight. They were a really nice couple from Ulm, and they were biking along the Danube to Deggendorf to visit their relatives. We thought we might see them at other campgrounds along the bike route. 🙂
by Cassie, November 18th, 2009 | No Comments
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Distance: 38km
We arrived in Dillingen too late last night to walk around, so we spent the morning in Dillingen. It was a really neat city with a pretty market square and old city gate. The architecture was different in Bavaria. We did not see the half-timbered houses that were typical of Baden-Wurttemberg. We saw several pretty houses that had a variation on the bell gable.
Dillingen curly gable house
Dillingen City Gate
We also went inside the Basilica St. Peter, which was decorated in rococco style. They had gone completely overboard with the decoration inside. The entire ceiling was painted with frescoes, and there was gold everywhere. It was the fanciest church I had ever seen. We had definitely left Protestant territory, and we were in Catholic country that was not affected by the Reformation.
Dillingen Basilica St. Peter
Our campsite was right next to the Danube River, so we only had to ride our bikes a few feet to get back on the bike route. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we had a lovely ride along the river to Hochstadt. The Battle of Blenheim during the War for Spanish Succession was fought near Hochstadt in 1704. We went to the Hochstadt palace to see their excellent exhibit on the battle. The Battle of Blenheim was a decisive battle in the war. The Franco-Bavarian army was defeated by the Allied troops, and it marked a turning point in the war. It was the first time the French army had been defeated in battle in a long time, and it ruined the myth of French invincibility in battle. 13,000 soldiers died in the battle, making it one of the costliest battles in European history before the world wars. Another 2,000 soldiers died from wounds from battle, and a large number of civilians were killed in the chaos of the battle. The best part about the exhibition was the portraits of the princes and kings with their ridiculous wigs and ornate doublets and hose.
Hochstadt
We rode through the cornfields until we reached Donauworth. The campground was at a rowing club on the river. Unlike the other campgrounds, their reception hours were 6-8pm, and we arrived just as reception was opening. The campground was a nice place right on the river. When we left in the morning, there were a bunch of people heading out from the rowing club for a day of kayaking on the river.
Riding through cornfields
by Cassie, November 18th, 2009 | No Comments
Friday, October 2, 2009
Distance: 56km
Today marked the halfway point in our trip! We spent most of the day riding through the forest along the river. We stopped for lunch in Gunzburg, which was a pretty city with a neat gate and old half-timbered houses. Even though we had a big breakfast at the hostel in Ulm, we were already really hungry by the time we got to Gunzburg. Biking all day burns a lot of calories, so we were always hungry. 🙂
Gunzburg City Gate
As we were riding along the river past Gunzburg, we had a nice view of the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant by Offingen. It had twin cooling towers that reminded us of the Simpsons. 🙂 We also visited our first Roman ruins of the trip in Faimingen. Faimingen used to be a Roman fortress, and they preserved the ruins of a Roman temple. It was interesting that the ruins were in the middle of the town and surrounded by houses. It was exciting to see something new on the trip. After seeing so many churches, castles, town halls, and half-timbered houses, everything starts to look the same. The Roman ruins spiced up the day.
Faimingen Roman Ruins
We stopped in Lauingen because it was supposed to have a pretty market square. Usually, it is no problem to find the main square in a town. However, we rode all over town, and we could not find the main square.
Lauingen Rathaus
We reached Dillingen, and we had no trouble finding the campground since there were lots of signs directing us to it. The campground was behind a restaurant, and the bathrooms were inside the restaurant building. It was a little strange to go to the same bathroom as the restaurant patrons wearing my long johns. 🙂
by Cassie, November 15th, 2009 | No Comments
Thursday, October 1, 2009
We spent the day exploring Ulm. We wandered around the old Fishermen and Tanners Quarter, which had lots of neat, old half-timbered houses. One of the houses was called the Schiefes Haus (Inclined House), and it was really leaning. It was renovated and turned into a guest house, but they preserved the lean of the house. They have special furniture to accommodate the lean of the house.
Schiefes Haus (Inclined House)
Schiefes Haus (Inclined House) leaning over Blau River
The best part of the day was climbing the tower of the Munster! It was 768 steps to the top of the tower, and they even had separate staircases for going up and for going down the tower. The view from the top was amazing! We could climb to a viewing gallery that was just below the top of the tower. It was a beautiful clear day, but we still were not able to see the Alps. We hoped we would be able see the Alps when we get closer to them in Austria.
Munster
Staircase to the top of tower
View from Munster
View from Munster with shadow of tower
View from Munster: The cool glass pyramid building is the library
View from Munster: Fishermen and Tanners Quarter
It was a fun day to walk around the Munster because they had a big festival for kids organized by the police and fire departments. There were tons of fun activities for the kids to do, and there were kids everywhere! They had cars set up to simulate getting into a crash, and they let kids be raised up in the ladder platform of the fire truck. They were also giving out balloons, so we kept seeing balloons going up in the air while we were on the top of the Munster tower.
View of festival from Munster
We went to the Rathaus to check out a replica of the first hang glider that was developed by Albert Berblinger. He tried to cross the Danube River with his hang glider in 1811, but he landed in the river instead. He did his demonstration in front of the king, so his failure ruined his reputation.
Albert Berblinger's hang glider
We crossed the Danube to go to Neue Ulm. The Danube is the border between the Baden-Wurttemberg province and the Bayern (Bavaria) province, so Neue Ulm is in Bavaria. There are great views of Ulm from the river in Neue Ulm.
by Cassie, November 15th, 2009 | No Comments
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Distance: 10km
We got up early for our 8am breakfast at the hostel, and we were on time to keep the cook happy. 🙂 At breakfast, they had a large selection of tea, and I found some tea called “Sweet Devil” with a picture of a devil on the tea bag. It was raspberry tea with chili powder. I tried it, but it was not as exciting as the picture on the tea bag implied. It mostly tasted like raspberry. I could barely taste the chili powder, and it was not spicy at all.
After breakfast, we said goodbye to Johanna and her father. We were planning to spend the morning exploring Blaubeuren, and they were riding on to Ulm. We went to the Blautopf, the spring that is the source of the Blau River. It is a beautiful deep blue color, and the water is crystal clear. The spring is really deep, and it has been explored down to 1200 meters. The spring generates a lot of water: 2000 liters per minute.
Blaubeuren Blautopf
Blaubeuren was in a mountainous area, and they had a huge, stone cross at the top of the overlook, reminding us that we were in Catholic country now. We hiked up to the overlook for great views of the city.
Blaubeuren
We had a short ride from Blaubeuren to Ulm. Along the way, we stopped at a bridge over the Blau River. While we were there, a couple came with bread to feed the ducks. All the ducks came rushing over, but a pair of swans leisurely swam over. The swans positioned themselves directly under the couple on the bridge and craned their necks up to beg for bread. The ducks were afraid of the swans, and they kept their distance from the swans and did not chase after any bread that fell near the swans.
As we approached Ulm, we saw the Munster, which dominates the city skyline. The Munster has the world’s tallest church steeple at 161.53 meters. We stopped at the tourist office to get a map of the city to find our way to the hostel because it was a long ways outside the city. We took the bike path along the Danube to get to the hostel, but then, we had to haul our bikes up a series of steps to get to the hostel. We realized later that there was bike path that goes from the hostel into town, but it was not marked on the map. The hostel was in a converted office building outside the city. The only double room they had available was in the basement. The room looked like it was an old conference room, and it had an opaque window over the door. We were glad that we could stay in the same room, but the door did not offer much privacy. Fortunately, we were in the basement, and there were not many people that went down there. The hostel was run by Hostelling International, and they make you pay extra if you are not a member. You have to pay for “welcome” stamps, and they put the stamps on a new membership card. Once you have 10 stamps, you have a yearly membership. However, it was bit insulting to refer the stamps as “welcome” stamps. It was not much of a welcome to be forced to pay extra for the room.
by Cassie, November 15th, 2009 | No Comments
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Distance: 57 km
This morning, we said goodbye to our camping companions as we were all heading off in different directions. We thought we had left the limestone cliffs, but Rechenstein was built into the side of a limestone cliff. We hiked up to the castle ruins, and there was great view from the top.
View from Rechenstein castle ruins
We stopped in Ehingen to walk around the city center, and we were surprised to run into the father and daughter from Germany that we had camped with the previous night! We had ice cream with them at an Eis Cafe. Johanna got “spaghetti”, which is a dish with ice cream that looked like noodles with strawberry sauce on top. It looked very strange, but she said it was really good. We rode with Johanna and her father to Blaubeuren. Upon leaving Ehingen, we left the Danube to follow the Blau Valley variant instead. Blaubeuren was where the Blau River begins, and we would follow the Blau River back to the Danube in Ulm. There was no campground at Blaubeuren, so we planned to stay at the hostel instead. Johanna and her father decided to stay at the hostel, too, so we spent another night hanging out with them. They enjoyed the campfire so much the night before, so they asked the woman at the hostel if there was a place where we could have a fire. The woman gave them directions to a place. We packed up stuff for making dinner, and we hiked over to the place where we could have a fire. We looked all over, but we could not find the place to make a fire. The woman’s directions were very vague, so we thought it would be easy to find. We gave up and made dinner at a table in the park instead. We enjoyed talking with Johanna and her father about Germany. Johanna spoke English very well, but she translated for her father since he only spoke a little English. Johanna was in medical school, and she and her father were on a bike ride during her break from school. Amazingly, medical students only have to pay 500 euros per year for school! It is a six-year program that they begin after graduating from high school. We also asked Johanna if they had solar panels at their house. While we had been riding through Germany, we had seen solar panels on roofs everywhere! They didn’t have solar panels, but they did have a solar water heater. Johanna said the solar water heater was great, but you would have a cold shower in the morning or on cloudy days. 🙂 After dinner, we said goodnight because we had to be at breakfast at 8am. Apparently, the cook got very angry when people were late for breakfast, so we had to be there promptly at 8am.
by Cassie, November 15th, 2009 | No Comments
Monday, September 28, 2009
Distance: 55km
We woke up this morning to find our tent was completely wet! The valley traps all the moisture in the air, so everything was covered in dew. When I first got up, it looked like we were in the middle of a cloud. We rode through the rest of the gorge and the terrain widened and flattened out into farmland. We stopped in Inzigkofen to hike across the “Devil’s Bridge”. The following tells the story about the origin of bridge’s name:
In 1843, the Count Karl told his court architect to build a wooden bridge over the gorge. The court architect responded, “The devil can build it, but I won’t.” Upon speaking these words, the devil appeared and promised to build to bridge if he was given the soul of the first to cross to the bridge. The deal was made with the devil. Once the bridge was completed, a dog was chased across the bridge and the devil was cheated of his prize.
A concrete bridge built in 1895 spans the gorge today. The bridge was impressive, but it did not seem to serve much of a purpose. Instead of crossing the bridge, you could just walk around on the side of the cliff.
Devil's Bridge at Inzigkofen Park
We stopped in Sigmaringen for lunch and walked around the city. As we were riding into the city, we rode past a bunch of camels! There was a circus getting set up in Sigmaringen, and the camels were the first to arrive. Sigmaringen has a huge castle that was seat of government for the Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. The kings of Prussia and the emperors of the united Germany came from the Hohenzollern family.
Sigmaringen Castle
When we got to Riedlingen, we had trouble finding the campground. We followed the sign for the campground reception up the driveway to a house, but there was a huge, barking dog straining against his chain right next to the door. We tried ringing the doorbell, but no one came even with all the barking of the crazy dog. Finally, after riding around for a while, we found the campground. I had been expecting a big campground, but it was actually just a field for tents. While we were looking around, we finally ran into the man in charge of the campground. It was only five euros per person to camp there, which was our cheapest night of camping of the trip. While we were setting up camp, we saw our Australian friend from camping the previous night ride past the campground. He said he was stopping in Riedlingen, so we thought we might see him again. He completely missed the campground, too. We yelled at him, and he turned around and saw us. It was fun to talk with him again. He was the first person we had seen more than once on the trip. As we were talking, we heard the crazy dog barking again. Jonathan went over to the campground “reception” to see if someone else was trying to camp. There was a father and daughter pair from Germany who were at the house trying to figure out where the campground was, and Jonathan showed them were it was. Every other night we had been camping, we had usually been the only ones that were tenting, and now we had lots of company! This campground also had a firepit for making a campfire. Most campgrounds in Europe do not allow fires, so this was the first place that we were able to have a campfire. None of our companions had heard of s’mores, so Jonathan and I went to the grocery store to get s’more supplies. We had a wonderful night talking around the campfire and roasting marshmallows. It was our best night of camping of the trip!
Riedlingen Campfire!
by Cassie, November 15th, 2009 | No Comments
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Distance: 32 km
We rode through a beautiful gorge with limestone cliffs on either side and castles perched on top of the cliffs.
We took a side trip to the picturesque old town of Mulheim. Mulheim’s old city center is full of neat half-timbered houses. Mulheim is also located on the top of one the hills in the gorge, so there were great views of the Danube River valley.
Half-timbered house in Mulheim
Mulheim street
We hiked up to the Bronnen Castle perched on the top of one of the limestone cliffs. Unfortunately, the castle was not open to the public. The enormous castle was owned by a rich guy, so the entire place was plastered with signs saying to stay away and respect private property.
Bronnen Castle
We rode only 2km past Bronnen Castle, and we passed the Wildenstein Castle. The Wildenstein Castle was open to the public, so we were able to walk around inside it. The castle was enormous, and it had great views into the Danube River valley.
Wildenstein Castle
View from Wildenstein Castle
We had barely passed Wildenstein Castle when we rode by the impressive Werenwag Castle.
Werenwag Castle
Even when we were riding through a beautiful gorge, we encountered cornfields!
The campground tonight was huge improvement from the previous night. We were not camped in the middle of a public park. Instead, we had a beautiful campsite next to the river and the limestone cliffs. We also met another bike tourer from Australia. He was riding south to Rome going through the Alps, but he was riding a short section along the Danube before heading south. He said he had to get used to the people driving on the other side of the road in continental Europe. 🙂
View from our campsite
by Cassie, November 12th, 2009 | No Comments
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Distance: 37km
We began our bike tour along the Danube River at its source in Donaueschingen. There is a spring that is considered the Danube Source. The water in the spring was really clear, and you could see bubbles coming up from the bottom. We arrived at the spring just as a big busload of tourists mobbed the place. On the bright side, we had plenty of people we could ask to take a photo of the two of us at the Danube Source. 🙂
Danube Source
Starting our bike tour along the Danube at the source of the river
The bike route along the Danube River is awesome! Most of the bike route is along dedicated bike paths, and the bike route is well marked. We began by riding through the river valley alongside the river. The Danube River starts out as a very small river that you could walk across and barely get your ankles wet. As we rode downstream, the river kept getting bigger and bigger. Just when it started looking more like a real river, it suddenly disappears at the Danube Sink and flows underground instead.
Danube River
We rode through several small towns, and we had some fun when we stopped at the Rathaus (townhall) in Morlingen. They had a small jail cage outside the Rathaus. We both went inside the jail cage to see what it was like to be inside. As Jonathan was taking a photo of me in the jail cage, another couple that was biking stopped, and they were amused at the sight of me in the jail cage. We started a trend because the couple locked each other up in the jail cage, and after they left, a couple girls played around in the jail cage, too. 🙂
Morlingen Rathaus
Cassie locked up in jail cage in front of Morlingen Rathaus
When we arrived in Tuttlingen, we had a lot of trouble finding the campground marked on the map. We rode by where it should have been, but instead, there was a big city park. We tried asking at the tourist office, but it was already closed for the day. The hours for places in Germany were horrible. They took a two hour lunch break in the middle of the day, and many places closed early, too. We tried to go to the library in Donaueschingen to access the Internet, but it closed at 1pm on Fridays. We went back to the big city park, and we stopped at a stand to ask the woman if she knew where the campground was. She didn’t speak any English, but we managed to communicate in broken German. She said the campground was behind her stand, and she was the person that we needed to pay to camp there. Of all the people in the park, we actually asked the person that was in charge of the campground. We found the campground, and it was just a small grassy field enclosed by a low wall of bushes. We have camped in some strange places on the trip, but this was crazy. The campground was in the middle of a public park right next to the main path through the park, and the park was full of people on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The campground was not what we were expecting, but the next campground was a long way. Despite our reservations about camping in a public park in the middle of a city, we decided to go ahead and camp there. In addition, this campground was the most expensive of the trip! We paid 20 euros to camp there. We didn’t feel comfortable setting up our tent with all the people walking and riding by the campground. We locked up our bikes and hid our stuff in the bushes and headed into town. We hiked up a hill above the city where some castle ruins were, and there were neat views of the city. When we returned to the campground, the park was pretty quiet. There were some policemen talking with some young teenagers in the park, and we weren’t sure that was good or bad. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any crazy people wandering into our campsite in the middle of the night.
Tuttlingen Castle Ruins
Tuttlingen castle ruins
