August 18, 2014
Through Donauworth and n to Ausburg: Rather too far for me
The day started off well with an amusing time at breakfast. There was a big group of Italian cyclists all on Harley Davidsons. Like many Italians they were extremely loud and decided that we should be their friends because we were from New Zealand and we wouldn't be as quiet as Germans. After that I skyped Jane- it certainly seems a lot longer than 2weeks that we were in Brisbane. It was good to catch up with their news and it set me of in good form.
The day was really a day of two halves. In the morning we at first rode around the rim of the meteor crater. It was a lovely ride through lush farm land, much to Ken's delight the farmers were in full action today tedding their cut hay and collecting up cut hay into enormous feed wagons. All this was through gorgeous little villages with just a few houses and their barns gathered around in the centre. We stopped at Harburg admired the castle and drank coffee and I had an extremely confused conversation with the lady in the Bakarie. She became convinced that I was from Poland and very sorry that she didn't speak Polish! She did however point out to us the best way to Donauworth. Again a fantastic ride ending up going along the line of an old railway line which was lined with plum trees dropping their purple fruit along the way. Just before Donauworth we went through a old tunnel and into the town. We remembered this town with much affection from our stay there on one of our earlier trips. We had actually planned to stop there but it was early and we were both still full of cycling so decided to push on.
Things weren't quite as simple after that. At Donauworth we had intended to switch to the Via Claudia Augusta ( the ancient trade route over the Alps and on to Venice). We studied the book and its route last night and then left the book in last night's guest house - a problem. We thought we would just follow the relatively well signed route and stop at a guest house between Donauworth and Ausburg. The wind came up - it wasn't always a head wind sometimes just a side wind. On and on we went through many small towns. Much to our delight a man told us of a great hotel in one. We found it! It was shut for holidays until the 23rd August. About 10km from Ausburg we came on a big hotel, 80E for a good room and a restaurant about a 5 minutes walk away. I declined it as Ken I could tell had his heart set on reaching Ausburg. Of course all signs vanished, we got to the centre but couldn't find the Information. We did however spot a hotel. I said to Ken 'How much'. he said 'Don't worry about the price, you are tired' I got a lovely big rom for 98E. Ken says he will moderate what he says about hotel prices from now on. It does have BBC World so Ken will have to watch this all night and we will eat a massive breakfast.
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Today's ride: 100 km (62 miles)
Total: 907 km (563 miles)
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