Awake to the dawn chorus at 4.30am. Always a lot of birds when camped near bush! Dead calm and slightly cloudy and cool. There was a hot air balloon drifting by above the camp. Packed up before breakfast at 7.30. Headed off at 8am. Rode through more grain fields and little villages following the Altmuhl canal, which eventually rejoins the Danube. Being a Sunday the streets were very quiet as almost everything is closed in Germany for the day of rest. We stopped for coffee and cake after about 30kms at Deitfurt. The locals were just leaving Mass in the nearby church. We were riding on gravel paths down a narrow valley. Came across our first canal boat, a freight barge. During the day we crossed the canal several times, usually at small towns. Some of the houses were coloured light pinks, yellows, and blues and were right beside the canal.
There was a huge memorial - a circular Pantheon-like design - on the top of a cliff at Kelheim. It was built around 1840 to celebrate an earlier victory over Napoleon, and is called the Hall of Liberation. Lunch was at 65kms beside the road. Buns, German sausage and sauerkraut. We stopped again at Bad Abbach for coffee and an icecream. The sun had come out and it was around 20 degrees. We rode most of the day with Charles and Leslie and Jurg. As Jurg had ridden the Danube trail previously with his family he detoured with us into some of the villages to show us the sights. The last 30kms were along gravel paths alongside the Danube, the paths filled with families on Sunday walks and rides. There were quite a number of beer gardens along the way and these filled up as the afternoon went on - most people travelling there by cycle.
We arrived in Regensburg around 3.00pm and weaved our way round through the narrow streets of the old medieval city to find our hotel. Our room is like one you would expect to find in a castle, with wooden doors and floors and a twelve foot stud, gothic archways and stone walls!
At night the European soccer cup game was between Russia and Czechoslovakia. Afterwards there were cars with horns blaring driving around celebrating the Russian victory. We had to put earplugs in in order to sleep as despite the walls being solid stone the man in the next room snored very loud and constantly all night. In the evening we went to a German restaurant for a traditional type dinner with Jos, Jurg, Jaco and Fred. The large waitress was not impressed with her non-German speaking customers who were not deliberately trying to be difficult! The food was very nice though.
Distance travelled was 105 kms.
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