I was humming Neil Diamond’s song today “Some days are diamonds, some days are stones”. Today could possibly have been ‘one of those days’. Firstly, it rained all night! When we went to dinner at the lovely restaurant attached to the ‘Auwaldsee camping ground’ just east of Ingolstadt, the sky looked threatening. The locals were telling us ‘bad day tomorrow…rain much’. We tucked ourselves into our little tent, which is actually quite cozy. The wind was blowing fiercely outside, but the tent was battened down and virtually below wind level in any case. We giggled ourselves off to sleep, thinking ‘if only the kids could see us now!’
Not long after we went to bed, the rain started, and did not stop all night. We slept snugly and well, but were very reluctant to face the day. We cooked breakfast inside the tent, enjoyed our coffee made on ‘milch’, and then made the decision to brave the elements, after packing as much as we could while still inside the tent. It was cold as well, a huge contrast to the clear blue sky and 22 degrees of yesterday. I do not think it got above 10 degrees all day!
We got wet while folding up the waterlogged tent, but all was then packed nicely on the bikes. We posed for the mandatory photo at the front of the ‘campingplatz’, then rolled away. We could hear the beautiful church bells chiming in the distance, calling the faithful to church.
We had no idea how to get back to the ‘Donau’ (Danube) bike path to Regensburg. Once we cleared the camping ground, we hesitated to going backwards into Ingolstadt, and decided to head east in parallel with where we believed the Danube would be, and hopefully meet up with it.
Bad call! We covered 10k in the rain, doing one huge circle and eventually almost ending up where we started! Meanwhile, we had lost an hour. It was so frustrating. So we decided to head back to the city centre, where we knew we could pick up the scent of the Donau ‘radweg’ (the bike path). We still got lost! However, we met two separate cyclists virtually at the same time. One of them said in German ‘follow me’ and he led us to the Danube and the bike path signs. When we told him we were cycling to Regensburg, he said in poor English ‘oh, Regensburg....bad’ while screwing his face. He clearly knew something about the bike path. We then met the second cyclist, a Swiss and a serious tourer, who had just cycled from Regensburg. He gave us the tale of woe that for some reason, the bike path was blocked before Regensburg – the choice was to go by boat or a detour. He chose the latter. We headed east, though with some trepidation about the dramas ahead.
Crossing the Danube into Ingolstadt, we saw these lovely ‘wedding locks’ along the hand rails of the bridge over the river. We have seen this in other places also. A nice touch
So we headed out of town having already cycled for nearly an hour and a half. The sights were beautiful as usual. Open fields, glimpses of the mighty Danube getting larger, deep thick forests and a long white track of sloppy dirt/gravel leading away from us. We loved the sights, but today’s conditions were rather deplorable. It didn’t take long for us to be quite wet, and the bikes caked with the white mud and sludge spraying off the tyres of the bike.
The rain on its own would not be so bad, but the bike paths are mostly a packed white dirt, which when wet was extremely slippery, spraying fine mud everywhere up our legs, over our shoes, over our panniers and backpacks. We kept thinking about the blocked path somewhere ahead, the hours of lost time and also the seriously cold and wet conditions.
After some 20k after Ingolstadt we were feeling quite hypothermic, and decided to call in for a coffee at the lovely little coffee house at the first major village of Vohburg. It was an old, historic village with cobbled centre of town. Being Sunday, nothing was open except this beautiful little shop. We met a very lovely young German girl whose name was Christiane. She was 22 years of age, spoke extremely beautiful English, and was a wonderful model of charming grace to us. The coffee was lovely to boot.
Christiane said we were too far up the Danube for ferry rides, but the train would take us to Regensburg from the next town some 20k away. In the conditions, and the uncertainty of the path ahead, we too thought it was a great idea! So we reluctantly said our goodbyes to Christiane after inviting her to visit us in Australia, and put our heads down in the freezing rain and pushed on to Neustadt down the Danube another 20k or so. We made plans in the rain to possibly stay at Regensburg for a rest day, and catch up a day by either train or boat ride on the Danube from Regensburg so we could still meet Sarah-Jane in Linz by Thursday.
The thought of the warm train kept us moving. Otherwise, we were wet, muddy and frozen. We covered the distance in amazing time, despite some of the stretches of bike path being long, wet and soggy with that white dirt spraying all over us.
Neustadt was another beautiful historic town. Even soaking wet, the town was a picture.
We headed for the Bahnhof (train station). I was keen to show Julie how I could master the ticket machine in German. We arrived at the tiny, country station. We had 30mins to the train. We went to the machine. I was nervously confident I could display my competence in German, when Julie said ‘why not use the English option?’ I had not noticed this before! It spoiled my moment. Anyway, we ordered the tickets, in English, paid the money, and waited on the station with our extremely muddy bikes.
The train ride through Danube countryside was glorious, but only 40minutes worth. The conductor checked our tickets, and was very displeased, in his German, that we had no tickets for the bikes! We tried explaining in English, hand gestures and odd German words, that the jolly ticket machine did not give an option for bikes! We had to pay him, but he also said “Not stop Regensburg”! We quizzed him again and again, but he kept saying “Not stop Regensburg”. So where do we get off, we asked, but no comprehend. There were two young men sitting near us. They suddenly became very interested when they too heard “No stop Regensburg”. In perfect English, one of them asked us “Did he say this train is not stopping Regensburg? Impossible!” So he interrogated the conductor in German, and surprise, surprise, yes the train stops at Regensburg. It remains a mystery, but we were able to have great conversation with the young guys who were both moving to Vienna to begin University study. The train stopped at Regensburg. Our bikes were legitimate with a ticket each. All was well in the end!
Regensburg is a major centre with almost 2000 years of history in the city centre since early Roman settlement. We struggled with loaded bikes out of the train, up and down lifts and found the street into the city centre where we managed to secure a nicely priced hotel first up. There is something about the look of a hotel that gives away the price! They catered for our bikes, were not perturbed by our disgraceful state of mud over everything, and welcomed us with grace.
After long hot showers and washing (including the panniers) we walked town just before dusk. The Danube is striking. It is very large now, still fast flowing, but with glorious views both ways, castles in the distance and a bridge that is almost a thousand years old, spanning the famous river. This is a city of churches, the central ‘Dom’ of St Peter as big as any Dom we have seen in our travels so far.
As dusk swept over Regensburg, we enjoyed the sight of tamed ducks on the waterfront, the silhouette of ancient beautiful buildings and bridges on the surface of the Danube, and the many beautiful sights of courtyards, cobbled narrow streets and graciously coloured and architectured ancient buildings.
As the sun went down on the Danube at Regensburg, we reflected on a day where conditions were not ideal, circumstances were often challenging, but a day where we never lost hope in the invisible yet powerful divine hand that is always near to guide and protect us.
Over dinner tonight we reflected on our day. We had to make choices today to persevere. We couldn’t stop or surrender to the elements. We had to stay with the task, pushing ahead because we still had a peace and hope in our hearts that the day would end well. We chatted about the great verse in the scripture “we can rejoice in our problems and trials, knowing that problems and trials bring about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts”. (Romans 5:3-4).
May our problems and trials lead to stronger character, and deeper experiences of the love of God.
From the security of our little hotel room on the banks of the Danube in the ancient city of Regensburg, we send our love. Kelvin & Julie
What an adventure!
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