Day 8 (8. Tag) 8th September
Bad Goegging - Regensburg 51 kms (431 kms from start)
Bad Goegging - Staubing - Weltenburg - Kloster Weltenburg - Kelheim - Poikam - Bad Abbach - Oberndorf - Matting - Regensburg
Click here for Day 9 - Regensburg - Reibersdorf
The day dawned fine, sunny and dry! We had a lovely breakfast in the dining room with all the other guests. As I went to pay I discovered my purse was missing. After searching through all my things I came to the realisation that I must have dropped it accidentally in the cafe the previous evening. We told our hosts and then resolved to find it. This meant going back to the cafe and writing down the phone number on the door. The cafe wouldn't be open till noon and we didn't want to wait around till then. We managed to contact the owner who would be coming in at around 10.00. So we waited till then and we discovered that I had the wrong cafe! Once again we tried to ring the owner when we found the right cafe and as luck would have it we didn't have to wait long. They had the purse which was a big relief. It was a black cloth purse with a red swiss cross which I had bought in Geneva at the UN to replace the wallet which was stolen in Barcelona. This meant leaving Bad Goegging very late. As we left town we called in to have a look at an old church. Not far out of Bad Goegging we then rode across country through some magnificent hopfields.
The track undulated through farming country towards Staubing. We passed asparagus farms for the first time. From Staubing we followed the right bank of the river through Weltenburg and then hugged the bank towards Kloster Weltenburg, where we had to take the ferry to Kelheim. The Danube goes through a steep gorge here and the Radweg is actually on the boat. It is marked as a dotted line on the map. We saw a youth group making a raft out of barrels. This looked like a bit of fun - one wonders how far they managed to sail.
The boat comes every 20 minutes or so and there are a few boats doing the trip. It seems to be quite popular and there were many people visiting the monastery in the fine weather. We bought tickets for the boat at a kiosk near the monastery entrance. There were other cyclists waiting as well and we wheeled the bikes down the gangway and stacked them in the wide passageway. From there we climbed the stairs to the upper deck where we sat in the front row, ordered a beer and enjoyed the view. You can still see the iron rings on the cliff walls which were used in the past to help pull the boats upstream or to secure them temporarily. There was a very good commentary on board (in German) which explained the facts about this section of the Danube.
Twenty minutes later we were in Kelheim. Here the Main-Donau Kanal enters the Danube and the river widens out. Don wanted to visit an archaeological museum in Kelheim but it was closed on Mondays. We didn't organise our days well enough. Also near Kelheim is a grand circular memorial on the hill built by King Ludwig.
We continued the journey along the left bank of the river to Poikam where we crossed over a couple of bridges to Bad Abbach and the right bank. There is a large island in the river bend with a canal on the left hand side. Here we saw a few barges which looked like they had come from Holland.
The river now goes around a sharp bend and the radweg follows it closely so that you can get good river views for most of the way. We met up with the Kiwis again along the way which was a surprise. We really thought that they would be ahead of us by then. Instead of going through Matting we took the Treppelweg (Leveebank) marked green on the map out of Matting and joined up with the official Donauradweg at Unterirading. From there the Radweg morphs into a riverside roadway which passes camping areas and holiday homes. Then it became a joggers/cyclist/walkers path which seemed to go on forever. There was a campsite marked on the edge of the town's sporting fields so we kept an eye out for any signs. After registering, we found a lovely site near a table and bench setting and set up the tent. The facilities were excellent and it was a huge camping area. We were surprised to see Erwin and Sonia again as they came into camp about an hour or so later. We thought they would have been ahead of us as well. It was nice to catch up with them. They had decided to take a rest day the next day so were not in a hurry to see the town.
We cycled into Regensburg along the shared pathway dodging numerous joggers and casual cyclists as well as people walking dogs and prams. It was a fair way into the city centre and we walked our bikes once we entered the Old town. Regensburg is a beautiful city with many historic buildings and a Gothic cathedral with a very impressive facade. Unfortunately the light was starting to go as we explored the town. We walked through an archway into a traditional restaurant called Zum Augustiner. What a surprise - it was wonderful. They had tables set up in a large courtyard lit by candles and strategic lighting. The traditional setting called for a Bavarian meal of Weisswurst although the Bavarians would probably be horrified at us eating this at night. It was dark when we began our trip back to the campsite. Cycling the track with only our cycle lights was terrifying as we couldn't see very far ahead and had to rely on our bells if we thought there was someone in front of us. We made it in one piece although Don made it a rule to never do that again! The last few photos on this page were taken in the morning as we left Regensburg through an old archway and over the bridge to the left bank.
