May 7, 2013

Passau to Obermühl 46 km (616 total km)
Mostly cloudy with some sun and 20 C
Gasthaus Gierlingen €62 ($80) incl brfst.


Hugging the North (left) Shore

We opted for the north shore of the Donau for no other reason than that Hiro said it hugged the Donau more. The north side left us in Germany just a little bit longer.

The Donau region looked very different from what we saw before. Here, both sides have thickly forested mountainsides stretching above the Donau. Occasionally, we saw meadows, some green and groomed like golf course, others filled with yellow wildflowers. Here and there, darling villages are perched. We saw very little car traffic.

 

Now in Austria

It was overcast when we headed out. We all felt great and excited about crossing into Austria. The first 23 km from Passau, the Donau is the border between Germany and Austria. (Germany on the north) We would have blazed right by the small signpost near a creek indicating the border if another cyclist hadn't been there taking a photo of the spot.


 
We Met Alien

At one point we noticed ahead of us what we thought were two motorcycles riding very slowly up slight incline. When we got closer we saw that one of them was the heaviest touring cycle we had ever encountered.

 
We stopped to chat. And it turns out that Alien started on his round-the-world trip a week ago from Munich. He has bulging front and back panniers and fat horizontal bag on top of back rack plus he's pulling monstrosity of trailer which turns out to be his canoe!! Alien has only one rule, he will not use motorized means of transport. He was getting ready to assemble his canoe because the ferry is not allowed according to his self-imposed rules. His website is: www.aliens-world.de

We’ll check in on his site periodically. It is sure to be interesting! His companion is joining him just for a few weeks.

On the next 300+ km at least, there are special tourist information kiosks that can assist in booking accommodations, list ferry schedules and provide trail info. We will keep an eye out for those



Ferry is Okay by Us

By noon, the sun occasionally appeared, which makes a big difference in temperature. 

We arrived at the ferry landing in Au at 12:30. Here the trail on the north side ends completely and you have to go off route north over the mountains or take the ferry across or downstream. We chose the downstream ferry option that would leave us still on the left side. We used the 30 minute wait to have our lunch.
 
Soon the small ferry showed up. It does hold about 50 people (without bikes) the girl told me. She showed us pictures of fully loaded ferry in high season, with 20 plus bikes at least. The small boat took us 3.8 km past the Schlögen bend down the river to Grafenau.

The best view of that bend is from high on the mountain site. After landing, we rode another 5 km to Obermühl where we checked into great hotel with delicious food: Gasthaus Gierlingen. Hiro and Dave serviced and cleaned the bikes while Junko and I got head start in the shower. Our rooms have Donau view, we're happy.


Getting Stronger

It had been an easy day either because the great and varied scenery kept us distracted or because we are getting a little bit stronger - or a little of both.
 

Junko and Hiro wrote;
 
Obermuhl
感激のオーストリー入り。皆で並んで記念写真。森が迫り森林浴をしOながらのサイクリング。山々が目立つ。
かなりの荷物を後車輪につけてさらに大きな荷物も牽引して走っている若いドイツ人男性と行き会った。けん引しているのはカヌー。彼はこれから3-4年かけて世界一周をするのだと言う。それもモーターなしで。つまり私達が時々乗る渡し舟も乗らない。カヌーで川を横断する。エレクトリックに頼らず自分の足頼りに中近東アジアを通ってアメリカへ、、、。気が遠くなる話だ。自転車にGPSをつけ日々ブログも発信している。旅の形が昨今変わったとつくづく思った。孤独になるのが従来の若者の一人旅ではなかったか？
シュレーゲンの曲がりを舟でくだった。ドナウがs字にくねる所。たったの3キロだ。ドナウ川沿いのペンションに泊まった。窓からドナウ一望。夕食を、大型船が行き交うドナウを眺めながら心地よい風を浴びてゆったりと楽しむ。翌日出会った年をとったカップルは、行き先は私達と同じ黒海。でもブタペストまで自転車で。その先船で黒海に行くという。のちブカレストから飛行機でブタペストに戻り自転車ごと電車に乗ってハンブルグまで帰るという。自転車をそのまま電車に乗せられることがどれほど恵まれているか。そして、自転車用に舗装された道がどこまでも続くということがどれほど豊かか。80代(70?)にしか思えないカップルが荷物を付けてサイクリングツアーを楽しんでいる。好きなように走ればよい。疲れたら川辺でお茶をして夕方になったらペンションに泊まり少しづつ進めばよい。行き先はウィーン。そしてオペラ。なんと優雅なことか。なんて勝手に想像しながらリンツに着いた。
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References: 

....1) The Danube Cycle Way; Donaueschingen to Budapest by John Higginson
... 2) Bikeline Maps & Guides; Donau-Radweg 1, (5 books in the series)

Our plan in a nutshell; 2900 total kilometers at 50 km per day - 2 days riding for 1 day off for a total of 58 riding days & 90 total days - April to July, 2013 :)