Egglestetten to Kipfenberg. 14th June.

It was a cold night, the coldest we have had yet. Egglestetten is south of Donauworth and 15kms off the Danube trail. It was a well located sheltered camp ground beside a lake. Breakfast was a delicious porridge and fresh strawberries to add to it. John and I were first out of camp. We were joined after 5ks by Jos, Rita and Carl on their tandem "Bluebell", and Charles and Leslie. The route was through open fields skirting the river. The sky was clear but it was cool. After 25kms we stopped at Marxheim for coffee and at least a dozen others joined us there. There were two young Dutch children there aged 7 & 9 who had ridden there from Holland on their way to Hungary. The cycle path was predominantly down a long valley. On places it was gravel but very easy riding.

All day we passed through the usual small villages with a church on the centre. The church bells ring on the hour and often on the quarter hour also. There were several forts along the way including a reconstructed Roman fort at Pfunz. To view this we had to go up a 20% gradient for 400 metres! From morning tea we travelled the rest of the day with Maureen and Glen from Canada. We stopped briefly in Wellheim to take photos of the local church, the fort on the hill, and a German war memorial. After Wellheim we passed some rock formations where a couple of young chaps were climbling up a vertical limestone cliff. At Eichstatt we came across the celebrations of the 1100 year anniversary of the founding of the city. There were a large number of folk dressed in period costume with all manner of activities taking place.

We arrived at camp about 4pm having travelled 103kms in 5hours 20. We set up camp - a well serviced camp on the outskirts of town - and at about 5pm our friends Rene and Birgit from Munich came to collect us. Jos also came with us for the evening. The highlight for John was us going to Gollersreuth, about 20kms north, to where his ancestors originated from. That was where the family first came from in the early 1600s. We took photos of the few houses and the magnificent views out over the valley. Afterwards Rene drove us south to Ingolstadt on the Autobahn - Johns first fast land travel experience! We had dinner of bratwurst and beer at a handcraft museum. There were crafted goods for sale and a display of olden days logging techniques.

We then went into the centre of town where people were watching European Cup soccer on a large screen in the town centre. Ingolstadt is the centre for Audi car manufacturing in Germany. After coffee and cake we were returned to camp at 10pm. We look forward to staying in Munich with Rene and Birgit at the end of our cycling tour.