Day 34: Augsburg to Landsberg

June 2, 2014

Some muesli mixed with yogurt got us started out of the campground. Merv's tent was beside ours, and we all packed up and left together.Our plan was to go into Augsburg for a look around together, and then free Merv to carry on at his own speed. However we expected to meet up with him again, either at the camping in Landsberg or at Fussen.

Dodie and Merv as we head in to Augsburg

Between the GPS, maps, and signage we made our way semi-efficiently into Augsburg. Our first objective was the birth house of Mozart's father. Now, going to somebody's birth house is a little strange in the first place. What do we expect to find, learn, or feel there? In the first instance, one can see something of the circumstances and environment that helped to produce the person. And again, these places usually contain a museum for the person. But Mozart's father's birth house? Actually, there was a museum there - though closed on Mondays!

The birth house was inside the old city gate, but not too deeply in. I noticed immediately that the buildings were not in the best of repair. Then, as we proceeded deeper into the city, it was apparent that there was more litter than we are used to. Actually, in most of Germany we are used to pretty much zero litter. "Alles in Ordnung!"

Though we may have been in the "Altstadt", this was not the situation with a pedestrian street lined with pretty buildings, maybe a market going on in the middle, and ice cream shops along the sides. Rather, Augsburg is more like a "real" city, with activities going on that are not tourism dominated, street cars going up and down, and all manner of shops and people in evidence. In this sense, it is more like Montreal - yes, all kinds of churches and things around, but not that these are exactly the main focus of the place.

Since we remain tourists, of course, our focus was first on the Augsburg Dom. With temporarily three in our party, we were able to have Merv out with the bikes while Dodie and I went in together, then we watched Merv's bike while he went in. The Dom had once been decorated in Baroque style, but it was pretty much all converted to Gothic in the 19th century. One element of decoration that we have not seen much before was a fresco, showing St. Christopher, that dates from 1491. Otherwise, though there was naturally lots of amazing art and carving, nothing really caught our attention. Dodie does like this spare style of church, though. I however am a fan of pink cherubs and lots of gold trim. As we pass into more Catholic areas, I will be seeing a lot more of that.

Outside the Dom was a statue showing a rather aggressive looking ecclesiastical horseman. It brought the idea of not all churchmen being contemplative or hermits.

Down through the main street of town, the hustle and bustle produced the main impression. I did notice a few "babuska" style old women, but can not say that these were an overwhelming feature, nor was any eastern or far eastern population really in evidence.

At the other end of the main street was another interesting looking church, St. Ulrich, though we did not go into this one. And then - we were out of the interesting bits of Augsburg!

The door of the cathedral has this interesting cat

A quite aggressive cleric in a statue out front of the Cathedral (Dom)

This Roman seems to want YOU to join the legions

A non representative sample of Augsburg people

The remaining ride for the day was one form or another of following the Lech river south. A lot of this was in forest, which forms the watershed for Augsburg drinking water. The forest is interlaced with paths, and it is easy to get turned around. Merv said his planned temporary farewell, and headed off. We continued slowly, puttering through the forest. An hour later, Merv came up to us, from behind! We assumed that he had gone around the world and was now lapping us, or something. A bit more consultation on the way ahead, and we waved Merv off again. Fortunately (for him) we did not see him again during the day.

The day itself swung back and forth with weather extremes. Not long after we set off, loud bangs of thunder warned us to get the rain gear on. What followed was a one hour violent downpour. Then it stopped and was replaced by strong sunshine. All the waterproof and heavy clothes came off, and rapidly dried on the back of the bikes. Around mid day, it was so hot that I was able to take a short nap, just lying on the cobbles outside a little church.

The area we were passing through aside from being a watershed forest, had the river and a chain of lakes that served as reservoirs for run of river power generation.The river and the lakes were really pleasant to ride through, though more often than not the path surface was gravel.

At one point we came upon a poster advising that the area we were in was a beaver (biber) habitat. This gave us a chuckle, because we have come to the conclusion that Germany is deluded about bibers - thinking it has them, while we have seen neither the beavers nor any sign of them. We cycled along until we came to a stream and wetland and said to each other if they really had beavers they would be here. Then whaa! a giant beaver lodge and beaver chewed trees all around. Ok, ok, so Germany has beavers.

More thunder signalled time to get out our nice dry gear and put it on again. The temperature dropped rapidly from 18 to 10, the wind picked up, and the sky opened. At this time we were not far from the major town of Landsberg, and had been heading for the camping.

Now about camping, after paying 20 euros for it last night we were starting to wonder just how great camping is, financially. During the day we laid out a further 27 euros for food for breakfast and lunch, something we would not have had to do if starting out from a gasthaus. So camping came out equivalent to a 47 euro gasthaus, and for that, of course, you get to sleep in the grass, with no power.

So, when it started to pour, we were not too upset that this would likely mean a gasthaus stay. By the time we reached Landsberg, the drenching rain had us dead sure that gasthaus - the first one we could find! - was on the agenda. We did see what seemed like a youth hostel in the GPS, but it turned out to be some other kind of youth centre, so we did go to the first gasthaus. That one had no space, but directed us to the Landsberger Hof hotel. We were surprised by the high price - 70 euros for a room with no toilet, and 3 euros each for breakfast. The room itself was dingy and small - close to a flop house and smelling of cigarette smoke. In the pouring rain, though, we did not see much option.

Some pamphlets we picked up describe an interesting old town in Landsberg - so first thing tomorrow we will check it out. Then we will begin, we think, the process of climbing more into the mountains, or at least going up and down some kind of hills. Fussen is not that far off now, and with it will begin yet another phase of the tour.

This is not a crash, but only Merv getting on his rain booties

A typical path for today, along the river Lech

We ran in to these two Japanese cyclists, heading from Fussen to Wurzburg. The lady has a Bike Friday Tikit, the man a Tern. The Tikit was ordered in Tokyo. Just as ours, it says custom made for the person. So clearly even from Tokyo one can have a custom one built.

The medium sized ttown of Kaufering, before Landsberg. Very picturesque in the distance.

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,921 km (1,193 miles)

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