I woke up several times in the night and it was bucketing with rain. I felt lovely and cosy under my fluffy white duvet, but wondered what the morning would bring. The forecast was a 100 percent chance of rain. You have to love that. We loved the Hotel Schwann and the proprietor. A great place to stay.
It was raining fairly hard when we got up and we lingered over an excellent breakfast and coffee. By the time we had geared up for a wet day, the rain had stopped. Seriously. In fact for the first hour we even had sunny breaks. Then it clouded over and things were looking very sturm und drang but by some major meteorological miracle (how's that for alliteration?) we were only sprinkled on a couple of times. So our luck has held out for one more day, and we are still cycling in shorts. I had my pants on for the first twenty minutes this morning but got so hot I had to strip on the bike path. Don't worry, I had my bike shorts on underneath.
The cycling was fabulous. Not as flat as advertised but that was OK for us. We met a young German couple touring who had all the gear we have plus a two year old and a four year old and their gear. We didn't bring anything like that. Maybe next time. I thought of them every time we went up a hill. They figured the trailer plus kids and gear was about 50 kilo. Yikes! The kids were tucked into their trailer with a music system singing away to the German version of Raffi. Very cute.
The villages are postcard perfect and most have castles looming over them, looking quite imposing in the dark clouds. The radweg takes you through many of the villages. We would have enjoyed staying in any one of them.
We are tucked in tonight in the Hotel Fuchs, which means fox, for anyone who was wondering. We are about to go out and explore the old town and find some beer and schnitzel.
Lock shortly after we started out on the Main-Donau Canal. We watched one of those long, lovely barges going through the lock for a few minutes. I would have stayed longer but the Chief Navigator dragged me away.
We stopped here for hot chocolate. This very nice lady was interested in where we were from and where we were going. She treated us to the local fall tradition...she is holding one in the picture. Pretty to look at and delicious to eat.
