The Advantages of Loose Planning: Regensburg to Riedenburg
We started our day with another hearty German breakfast. Our arteries may be happier once we get home to Canada and are back to eating our usual fare, but in the meantime, meats, cheeses, fresh buns, butter and jam are great cycling fuel and taste delicious. Our breakfast room was out an exterior door and around a corner. Returning to the room, we were a little turned around until I saw the sign "Hotel Eingang". Keith looked at me and said "Is that the name of our hotel?" I started to laugh. It means hotel entrance. Maybe his German still needs a little work!
We decided at the outset of this trip to more or less let things happen. A loose plan you might call it. We are now on the Altmuhl Radweg. This was not in the plan. Not even the loose plan! While chatting to our server at dinner in Ingolstadt she suggested we should ride the Altmuhl Radweg which conveniently runs in a meandering north west direction from Kelheim to Rothenburg. We went back to the room and did a little research. According to our Lonely Planet guidebook the Altmuhl Radweg is one of the top 5 long distance cycling routes in Germany. We would be in the right place to cycle it because we were meeting Dwayne and Michelle in Regensburg. We went through Kelheim on our way there so this morning we back tracked to Kelheim but on the other side of the river. Remember how much I loved that portion going to Regensburg? It was just as great, and brand new, in the other direction.
We must live right because the sun started to shine as we left Regensburg. We had mixed sun and cloud with the exception of a two or three minute shower in the middle of the day. The chief navigator stopped to put on his Goretex, and that worked. The rain immediately stopped and the sun came out. The first forty km to Kelheim were great, and then we were on the Altmuhl. Cue the Disney movies. We are back in castle land, the communities are postcard beautiful and the ride is flat and smooth. We took a spin through Essing, which has a setting that can hardly be believed. Our goal for the day was Riedenburg, and as we approached it the sky was looking very threatening. We were ten minutes from a pretty much dry ride, but we didn't quite make it.
It didn't matter. We are cozy and warm in the atmospheric Hotel Schwann. Think hot shower, fluffy white duvets and a bike store across the street. The bikes are cozy too in their own quarters and await attention to their chains tomorrow morning. We have finished dinner in the hotel restaurant and are blogging and drinking wine. Life is good.
Keith liked this in the hotel room. He called it our fat screen TV. It didn't matter as we didn't turn it on.
The view out our window at the Hotel Peterhof. We highly recommend it as a place to stay in Regensburg. Clean, comfortable, in the old town and very budget friendly.
We caught up to this group...the Wednesday morning ride, a day late, in Germany. They even do it here and have way more decisions to make about where to go...it is pretty much unlimited choices for car free cruising. I am pretty sure they stop for beer, not coffee though.
This is Bonnie, our Hund of the Day. She loves people, and smiled for her picture. We met her after coffee in Bad Abbach, being cared for by Vanessa who was looking after Bonnie for her Aunt. Bonnie howls when she sees other dogs!
