Day 33: Harburg to Augsburg: It's a Trap!

June 1, 2014

The little town of Harburg was a pleasing place, and our guesthouse by the river was swell. So we set out in good order, ready for our return to the Donau, which had been so much fun for us two years ago. That time we had found the camping in Donauworth, set up the tent, and headed out on the town. There we ran in to our new friend Renee, who we had met on the trail, and had a great meal together at an Italian restaurant.

The Wornitz river in front of our guesthouse in Harburg

Christiana was just completing a 9 day cycle and would take the train back to home near Mannheim

This time we would be entering Donauworth from the north rather than from the east, so we had hopes of getting a little different view of the place. It was not to be. The Romantische Strasse seems to swing you right away from the old town, with scarcely a whisper that you are about to miss everything.The route is kind of intent on its real objective - which is to divert you about 25 km out to the town of Rain. (Rain, by the way is pronounced more or less the same as the river Rhine, or Rhein),

We have a conspiracy theory about this. The Romantische Strasse is an association of towns who are marketing themselves as a route. So presumably you can opt in or out, or to put it another way, within limits you should be able to buy your way in. Rain is a town that does have a few old buildings, but it is quite far east of the main line of other towns, on the Donau. To get there by bike you basically are hopping on the famous Donau Radweg until you cross, near where the river Lech enters, and then trundle south a bit to Rain. After that , one has to backtrack west to rejoin the main line of the Romantische Strasse towns, the main next one being Augsburg.

To avoid this dubious detour, one would have to abandon the Romantische Strasse Radweg and use the Via Claudia Augusta, straight south, out of Donauworth. We could see that, but lacking the right maps to change routes, we just carried on with the Romantische. So the next stunt of that radweg, after bypassing Donauworth altstadt, was to try taking us up some hills on the north side of the Donau. We ducked that, finding instead some paths by the river. Finally, though, we ran out of options and ended up on a series of steep hills. This really added to the pain of being dragged out along the Donau route in the first place.

After about three hours we finally did get our chance to cross the famous Donau, and declare that we had arrived again. The scenery to this point had been basically boring so this was the one thrill to be had for those hours of effort. We now proceeded into Rain. Pausing for a moment to look at the map, we picked up the usual man on a bike, offering to lead us to our destination. when we told him we were eager to visit the remarkable, Romantische, old town of Rain, he guffawed. But, we insisted. He led us to the start of the main street, which features an eis cafe. He put forward the opinion that this was about the best thing we would run in to. However the line up was too long, so we gave it a miss. The street otherwise had some moderately pretty buildings and rathaus, but we were soon on our way out of town and trying to regain our line south toward Augsburg.

This is when we found out that the Rain thing was not only an irritation, but a trap! To leave the area on the radweg you need to cross the river Lech. The radweg takes you some distance through a forest, and then to an electric plant that spans the river. Through some quite small signs you are given to understand that you need to go through a door in the plant and then up some steps to get onto the platform that leads to the other side. Steps? Yes, actually a long, dark, steep staircase!

I was resigned to unpacking the bikes and carrying the whole parade through in repeated trips. we have done it before, but it kills about an hour. Dodie was having none of it. So we bushwacked through the forest to another bridge, that turned out to be a railway bridge only, and bushwacked back. Consulting with some local young people on bikes we confirmed that yes, the stairs were the only way. Dodie was still having none of it. So we headed back in to town and out to the car highway and bridge. This was the highway, number 16, that we had earlier crossed on an overpass and declared too busy and dangerous to use! It turned out we only had to ride the white line for a short while before crossing the river and bailing out to safe bikeways again.

No longer really fond of the Romantische Strasse, we followed the Via Claudia Augusta, which often paralleled the Lech. The path was gravel, but reasonably usable. Along the way we met a local man, Gerhard, out on his mountain bike. He was interested in our trip and pedalled along with us chatting. We enjoyed about an hour together, Gerhard, unlike others, content to doodle along at our speed. Not only did this help top make the one hour pass quickly, but again with Gerhard's warm welcome we felt good about being foreigners in this country.

When finally we drew lose to Augsburg we pulled out a book with some guesthouse listings and noted some pretty high prices. We had already been looking at possible wild camps, but had not spotted just the perfect location. So we decided to try tracking down the camping. With the help of the GPS it turned out to be easier than we thought. As we swung by the campground we noticed Merv's tent. Merv is the Aussie that we met and mentioned yesterday. What as omitted from that mention was that Merv had also been at the camping in Dinkelsbuhl, with the noisy firemen. We noticed him and his tent then, but had not made contact until we met later on the road.

So here was Merv and his tent. We had a fun reunion, chewing over the frustrations of the radweg - the gratuitous hills, the bypass of Donauworth, the detour to Rain, the staircase, and the coarse gravel path by the river Lech.

There is a restaurant at this camping, but it was closed. So we have eaten the food we had on hand - two yogurts, four pretzels, one cheese bun, and four little packets of Nutella, and called it supper. Tomorrow is another day, and the groceries will be open. I have just taken some water to wash down my bread ration. Ahh, European dining at its finest!

Photos coming - but may be delayed until tomorrow - bedtime!

Epilog: Remember the photo dustup in Dinkelsbuhl yesterday. Here is the letter I wrote to their tourism promotion people. Any comments on what the response will be?

Hello. We are tourists from Canada, visiting Germany, France, and Austria over a three month period. Yesterday we came to Dinkelsbuhl. We entered the bakery-cafe Fischer and proceeded to buy sandwiches and pastries. During this time I snapped a photo of the bread on the shelf. I was immediately reprimanded by the sales girl, who said there was a "no photos" rule.

I must tell you that I felt upset, bullied, and put upon by this reprimand.

Perhaps you know that German bread has an appearance that is much different from most in Canada. It is things like this that draws us to your country, and to your town, and it is interesting to our families at home to see what it is we are seeing here.

I asked the girl if she thought we were trying to steal the design of the bread, and she said "Perhaps, but anyway the boss says it is the rule that there are no photos".

I would like you to find this "boss" and have them write to me to explain exactly why they feel I need to be reprimanded in Dinkelsbuhl for acting like any tourist. I would like this to happen as soon as possible!

Thank you for your consideration. I wish you good luck in your efforts to promote your town.

Stephen Miller Cobble Hill, British Columbia Canada