Day 17

Day 17 Sunday June 19,

I write this listening to traditional German music from, our bedroom window. “da da ..de da” you probably know how it goes. We are staying at a farm just before the town of Donauworth in Barvaria. There are about 100 people mostly local farmers and children enjoying a meal of wurst. I can now hear them singing along with the band – a merry atmosphere! That we arrived here must be considered fortunate as this morning as we sat having breakfast the rain bucketed down, so much so that it delayed our departure until after 10am. Even then we set of in threatening weather but with good fortune we managed to cycle 83km with much more than a few light showers. Much of the cycle path today was right along the river which was close to bursting its banks in places – full of brown muddy water and limbs of trees. Unfortunately many of the roads were unpaved which meant a lot of mud on the bikes.

One of the many castles by the river

Our habit of hot chocolate for morning tea continued with the most delicious cuppa served in Gunzburg in the market square just as the rain threatened at around 11.30. Luckily the rain soon stopped and a generous wind helped us sail along to our lunch stop at a place called Faimingen, site of a reconstructed Roman Temple to Applo. Apparently this had been a site of importance in Roman times lying on the north frontier of the Roman empire.

Roman Ruins (reconstructed)

After lunch the wind seemed to have picked up again and next 30 odd km we were able to travel at speeds of around 25km / hr on the flat with the wind directly behind us. We pityed the poor souls slogging it out in the other direction where you would struggle to cycle at 15km/hr. It was magnificent and energising. When we arrived here we were nearly done in having cycled for about 4 ½ hrs. We are looking forward to a good nights sleep if only this band would stop.