Ulm has been a wonderful place to stay. We highly recommend the Hotel Garni Munster. It is situated in the best possible location with a view across the lane to the world’s tallest cathedral (Munster) and it also faces the large city square which is a much used gathering place and the site of special events and the twice weekly market. Our room had an extra room, a small enclosed deck, which gave us an enviable vantage point for the goings on. As we sat enjoying a drink on the deck our final evening, the organist was practicing for an upcoming concert - glorious. We have been concerned about the rear tire of the bike. It is showing a lot of wear and does not seem to hold enough pressure. So off we rode to the local bikeshop, Bikeline, to ask them to take a look at it. They felt that the tire was fine for a while. But they did suggest inflating it more. Well, we tried our little pump, their floor pump, and it consistently went flat. The mechanic got involved and discovered that the tube was defective. He was very helpful and persevered with some stubbornness presented by the Rohloff hub. By the time it was sorted, we didn’t get away until after noon. The ride along the Danube out of Ulm was very pleasant. We are now moving into Bavaria (the land of beer, “Weisswurst” and “Bretzl”) until we get to Passau, the last German town of the Danube route. While visiting with the man who had treated us to a beer in Ulm, he warned us that there had been a terrible wind storm earlier in the summer and that there might be sections of the route closed to us. He mentionned that 100’s of trees had been knocked down. At Weissingen, we saw what he meant. At this point, the trail is away from the river and goes through the Donauwald nature forest area - it was quite eerie as there was much evidence of devastation and large piles of cleared brush and downed trees. This stretch is unpaved and covers about 20 km. At one point, we were in the middle of nowhere and there was a barricade across the trail - I found the crew working ahead and they said it was fine to proceed. We did and the result was flat tire number 2 of the day. This time it was on the trailer. An impromptu picnic lunch and a tire change - that’s not a problem but the problem was the Chinese made Bitwin tube we had purchased in France. It was very hard to inflate and poor quality, but it seemed to be ok - so off we went. We continued to follow the gravel route out of Leipheim through what our Bikline guide describes as a spooky old flood plain forest - well, this is an understatement after the devastation of the storm. It is hard to believe that we are on the Eurovelo route as the area feels so remote and inhospitable, accented by the piles of debris and trees along the way. We soon noticed that we had a flat again - the same tire on the trailer. The tube’s valve was defective. No more Bitwin, this time we used a reliable tube that I had brought from Canada and with little fuss we were on our way. The stretch from Gunzburg to Offingen follows the widening Danube and we saw a lot of bird life: swans, geese, ducks, and many we can’t identify. At one point, a large number of Canadian geese had claimed the trail and needed encouragement to give us room. We had hoped to reach Dillingen today, an additional 15 km. But the rough trail and 3 flats had taken their toll - so we faced reality and stopped in Gundelfingen at Landhof Gasthaus Sonne - run by a local family who are well known for their prize winning Angus cattle. Dinner in their restaurant was great. Mary Ellen continues to feel unwell so we’ll have an early night.
We enjoyed having an enclosed sundeck to view the street activity
