The ride from Kelhiem to Regensberg is mainly along the river bank and is lovely, Although the gorge has opened out a fair bit there are still steep cliffs on either side but thankfully no impossible climbs for us. The Main Canal joins the Danube at Kelheim . Two lots of our friends did a cruise earlier in the year from Amsterdam to Budapest so this is where they must have reached the Danube. There is now a lot of boat traffic which added to the interest. We didn't see any passenger ships today but did see lots of huge cargo barges, they all seemed to have a car on board for use when they get to a port but couldn't work out however they got them ashore. One of the things we enjoyed doing was catching up with a down river barge and seeing how fast they were travelling. The current is very strong so at times they were doing 20km/h. The track cunningly took us through the pretty main street of Bad Abbard where we were lured by an attractive Backerei to have a 1.60Euro coffee. The surroundings were beautiful but the coffee bitter.
The approach to the ancient city of Regensberg is through a park. On a Saturday morning there were runners and bike riders everywhere. Then what we had been hoping would never happen, happened. We lost each other! Ken stopped to take a photo and I rode past expecting him to catch me up before long. I rode on and on enjoying the views around me till I got to a place where the direction changed so stopped and waited. I waited and waited, then decided he must have a puncture so rode back. I got back to where the photo had been taken but no Ken. Back I rode trying to see if there was anywhere he could have taken the wrong turning. There wasn't . We both have mobile phones so I rang his number - all I got was a stream of, to me, unintelligible German tell me I think that the number didn't exist. Back I rode again this time stopping the runners and the cyclists asking them if they had seen a cyclist with a black shirt with a silver fern on it. The answer was always nein. If he had collapsed they wouldn't have had time to remove the body, if he had fallen in the Danube surely I would see bike tracks. I don't really think anyone would kidnap a 74year old man on a laden bike, And there when I was just reaching the photo spot again I saw his unmistakeable figure approaching. He had not noticed me passing him and thought I was behind. When I didn't appear he rode back for miles looking for me with a puncture, he took a while to turn on his phone and when he did he couldn't remember what to do to call my NZ mobile number, We were very pleased to see each other, it had been a long hour.
Regensberg is a very ancient and beautiful city with the oldest functioning bridge in Germany. It was full of tourists and at the top of the bridge were a group of tourists, clearly a choir, singing in beautiful harmomy. We stopped to enjoy their music and delight in the ancient skyline. Then on we pushed on the other side of the river, stopped for lunch then oh no a puncture. We had intended to do a very long day as the going was so good but that was enough for us and we stopped after about 75km at the little town of Worth
Worth Castle. This is a mastery of ancient military engineering complete with draw bridge, moat, defensive walls with loops and built at the top of a steep rock. It is in perfect condition and well worth a visit
Our hotel. Much to our suprise a large tour group arrived (explained why we were in an annex). While they ate in their spaecial dinning room we sat with the other Bavarians and drank massive beers (best in the world!) with our huge and delicious meals.
