Danube - Passau Rest Day

386 miles so far so oddly ready for a rest day today!  Passau is our last stop in Germany before we cross the border into Austria tomorrow.

Great flat for a rest day!

Have really enjoyed Germany and have had a deeper dive into it than we ever had before.  We realised that although we’ve been to Germany many times, each trip has been on the way to somewhere else - usually the Alps in Austria and we’d usually stayed in the same two places, Karlsmuhle near the Moselle and Mien Hoff which isn’t near anything, but is a nice stop on the way to the Alps. When you’re just skimming through, Germany seems modern, a bit industrial, with plenty of square corners and boxy architecture.  That’s not the case when you have a better look around.

Passau is a city where two rivers come together and the Old Town is situated on a peninsula between them.  The waters are very different coloured.  The left comes from the Alps and the right (which we’ve been following comes from the Black Forest.

Like so many European villages, towns and cities we’ve stayed in, here in Germany there are the Old Towns located around a church or cathedral surrounded by beautiful buildings and outdoor restaurants.  Filled w/ nooks and crannies to explore on a sunny day, which is exactly what we did today.  Liz came up with a walking tour which we used as a rough guide and then we just rambled down by the river and throughout the Old Town.

Did some ‘admin’ - made sure both bikes were ready to go for our early morning start tomorrow, did the laundry and hit the grocery store for supplies for breakfast and road snacks. Then a leisurely lunch, nap, sit in the sun on the terrace, dinner and early bed.  

Big day tomorrow!  Let’s go!

Comments:

1. Stephen HodgsonJune 14, 2025 at 6:13 PM

   Not much to add really. Great rest day in a nice place. Suitably fed, watered (beered) and rested, ready for the next bit. 
   The hills are alive, with the sound of music …… . 
   Shut up and go to sleep ….
   Ok, night night. 😴😴
2. 
   BrianJune 15, 2025 at 1:24 PM

   Steve's beer pic looks like he dropped his sunglasses into the beer! :-) What do you take with you for snacks on the road?

   1. 
      Stephen HodgsonJune 15, 2025 at 6:46 PM

      Optical illusion but could be I had so much of it I did (drop the glasses in the beer), it’s not that strong but there is a lot of it 😁.
      In terms of what we eat on the road, we buy lunch/second breakfast assuming we can find somewhere that sells it. Most villages have a bakery that can do sandwiches, cake, coffee. As we get into the more touristy bits then there are plenty of cafes and restaurants to choose from. Staple lunch is a “big salad” though we have been known to eat Donner Kebabs at a push. We always carry some “in case of emergency open packet” rations and fruit. So if we are short of food then we can have a bit of a “pick me up”. This consists of meat that is smoked (salami, prosciutto, smoked sausage) and processed cheese (so it will last a day or two). German breakfasts are pretty good with high fibre bread, ham, cheese etc.

Danube - Deggendorf to Passau

Short day, 36 miles, in Passau in time for lunch!

Had a very nice German breakfast, incredibly strong coffee and a leisurely start.  Made our way out of Deggendorf.  These bigger towns / small cities take more time to get into and out of.   In the main, we are always on bike lanes or cycle paths, but do have to stop now and then and jump on the sidewalk when it all gets too hectic.  Navigating is tricky enough without multiple lanes of traffic and unclear maps.

Once out of town, we were on paved trails, riding through farmlands and valleys. Sometimes by the river watching the barges and boats go by, sometimes further inland passing through fields of corn, potatoes, beans and Swiss chard.  Saw cows, horses and sheep along with more tidy barnyards. 

Stopped twice for coffee (and a little bun for Steve).  Liz had flown into Munich and was making her way to Passau by train. When we stopped for coffee, we checked to see where she was - almost directly across the river from us! Just a mile away!

The majority of the route was paved except for the last 4 miles of gravel (which seemed like another 30!).  Getting into Passau was a bit fiddly, fairly industrial, across a massive dam, but all on bike paths so the only dodging we had to do was of a kamikaze woman in a pink shirt who was either shoving her way past us or blocking the path taking photos.

Made it to the Zentrum or the Alstadt - German for centre or Old Town.  And as we got off the bike down by the river cruise boats to check the map for the hotel, we heard a ‘Wohoo!’ and Liz pedalled up!  We had seen that she was on the train across the river at our last coffee stop.  She had time to get to Passau and pick up her bike as we battled the last of the gravel and made our way into town.

Found the hotel.  Google Maps tried to take us up several flights of stairs, which just wasn’t going to work.  Eventually found our way around and into a rather large arched ceilinged, but wooden floor creaky apartment.  It had a tub, I’ve been waiting 10 days for a tub!!!  Great location, right on the edge of the Old Town, steps from the restaurants.  Checked out St Stephen’s church - amazing, like an art gallery all by itself!  Great dinner out at a Croatian restaurant down by the river.  Had an amazing meat feast!

Great 2nd 1st night of the tour!

Comments:

1. Stephen HodgsonJune 13, 2025 at 7:21 PM

   So half way for us and welcome to the tour for Liz. Today we just peddled 36 miles, she flew from the USA. Rest day tomorrow, few maintenance jobs to be done but should be a relaxing day. Proper touristy now with several river cruise boats tied up here In Passau. This marks the end of the Germany section and start of the Austrian sections of the trip. Still no sign of the Von Trapp Family 😮‍💨
   Today we got tangled up in another “diversion” and came across another Brit on a solo bike. We overtook him with our cheery “Gutten Morgan” and continued with our communications in English (in 1000 ft turn left on a cycle path …), he must have heard this and caught us up for a chat. Turns out he was riding Eurovelo 6, the whole thing, which starts on the Atlantic Coast of France and goes to the Black Sea, must be the best part of 3000 miles 😳😳. We are just playing at it I guess at 800, big respect.
2. 
   BrianJune 14, 2025 at 1:05 PM

   Given the pics, not sure which is prettier...the towns or the countryside. Both are gorgeous! Their streets are so different than here in that everything is so clean and so decorated. Love it!

   1. 
      KatherineJune 14, 2025 at 2:19 PM

      The whole place is immaculate!
   2. 
      Jennie ConwayJune 14, 2025 at 3:38 PM

      Beautiful country. Looks like such an amazing trip. I do remember Germany being incredibly clean / tidy everywhere from a trip many years ago.

Danube - Regensburg to Deggendorf

Today was a day of diversions!  56 miles.  We thought we had figured it out so we were on not stony gravel today - which we did, but somebody closed the Danube Cycleway! 

Somebody also left a Greek temple overlooking the Danube 

We left Regensburg, after being woken up by the 6am cathedral BELLS and having another delicious German breakfast.  Steve did the bike ablutions in what might be the most scenic place ever for lubing a bike. Pavement asphalt tarmac - whatever you call it, as long as it’s not a stony path, we’re happy!

Okay, a little less happy now when we encountered our 'first' diversion'.  It was a little one, but we made our way through it.

Farms are so tidy in Germany! And loving the squares for lunch!  Today's was in Straubing.

We were determined to have a no (or very little) gravel day today and after carefully reviewing the route, thought we’d found one that would minimise the bruising of the backsides  We were zooming along and had a great lunch, but what do they say about best laid plans?  We had a great route, but didn’t realise it had been closed!

We were very lucky because as we were turning back onto the (unknown to us, closed) path, a German ‘Trail Angel’ said, ‘No, you can’t go there!’  With the help of Google Translate, he said we needed to follow him because the path was ‘not possible’.  Having encountered the earlier ‘not possible’ section of the path, we believed him and headed off across country at a sedate pace following along behind him.  He led us for 3ish miles in a totally different direction than we would have gone, pointing out the cryptic German diversion signs as we went. Finally, we reached a point where he felt it was safe to leave us on our own and he handed us a paper, in English, giving very specific towns that we were to go through in order to get to our destination.  We carefully followed his instructions and finally made it to Deggendorf!

Loving Google Translate, just point it at the menu and you get English!

Salats for dinner - German salads are meals!

Long day, lots of diversions, still quite sore, but found the town (eventually) and had a very nice evening!  Steve no longer wants to throw the bike away!  

Comments:

1. Stephen HodgsonJune 12, 2025 at 7:07 PM

   Much better day…. Thing about long distance cycling is “expect the unexpected”, I mean, how hard can it be, it’s simple, just keep turning the pedals right? These cycle routes have been here for ever, what could possibly go wrong!! Very grateful to the German “ trail angel” today who took pity on the hapless English couple on the tandem and saved us from ourselves. I owe the man a Weiss Beer or two. Turns out there is a website with all the closures and diversions on the trail, who knew? You never to old to learn !!! Tomorrow is a shorter day to Passau which is the last stop in Germany and a rest day. The past 10 days or so have changed my perspective of Germany and Germans, very lovely people and beautiful country. They make great cars, great beer, good sausages, great cake and generally speaking are proper “tidy heads”. What’s not to like??
2. 
   Madge H. SmithJune 13, 2025 at 11:07 AM

   Cool to see how google translate is working out for you. Ordering the wrong food can be very traumatic. Town squares and all that outdoor eating is lovely!! Cheers