September 12, 2014
Donauworth - Regensburg - Worth-an-der-Donau: Another train ride.
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Nor this morning. From getting up to leaving, the rain was relentless. Our Samaritans from yesterday evening planned to ride 40km in the rain. Barbara was not enthusiastic. In full rain gear, we made our way to the station and bought tickets to Regensburg. We had a wait of an hour or so. The rain continued to fall, as it did for most of the two hour and twenty minute journey. Then having stopped, just before Regensburg, it started again as we left the station, then stopped as we made our way out of town. We contemplated staying the night, but left it for enthusiasts of the baroque, of which there were many.
Outside the city we ate cereal bars and fruit then rejoined the river on the trail. Before long we came across an incongruous Greek temple up on the hillside to our left, the Parthenon in Bavaria. This is Walhalla. By way of minor coincidence, shortly after our return home, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a series of programmes, Germany: Memories of a Nation, on German history as expressed through a collection of objects on display at the British Museum, in a special exhibition. The programmes were presented by the museum's director, Neil Macgregor. Wallhalla merited its own episode. They are available as podcasts.
Conceived of by Ludwig I, Crown Prince, later King of Bavaria, it was intended to restore German pride in the face of the Napoleonic conquest of the Holy Roman Empire and therefore the German speaking peoples, by representing, within it, the greatest of Germans, a temple to German-ness as the BBC have it. We didn't stop to take a look. Had we known what we came to learn a few weeks later, we almost certainly would have. [I might also have paid more attention to the trail guide too, Bad, bad tourist] As it was, we just viewed it as a passing eccentricity. At the beginning of December we did go to the exhibition. Here, we rode on to Wörth an-der-Donau.
Near Walhalla we passed a sign announcing Germany's smallest wine growing region; so small, it seems it merits no Wikipedia entry. The hotel in Wörth also runs a wholesale butchery business, so far that's butcher's and baker's for two of our overnights. We treated ourselves to dinner in the hotel restaurant this evening.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 978 km (607 miles)
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