Day 24 of the EuroVelo6 bicycle ride across Europe. Today's ride was a 70 mile trek from Regensburg to Iggensback Germany. The weather conditions were perfect.....if you were a German in this part of the country who are suffering a drought situation. It rained almost all day!! For we bikers, like the Bobby Fuller Four sang in the 1966 hit.... I fought the law, and the law won......we fought the rain and the rain won!! The first 15 miles were perfect with smooth roads, overcast skies, but no rain. I was thinking as we were riding "this is too good, we certainly aren't going to get 70 miles of these conditions. " Yin/Yang must prevail. Sure enough, after about 15 miles we hit the gravel roads with some very rocky parts. Then the rain started. Mild at first, it increased in intensity, backed off a bit but continued raining even as we met the ladies for lunch. By this time I was soaked to my core and a bit on the chilly side. The forecast was continued rain on and off until we arrived in Iggensback. The rain won. We fought hard but, the rain won. Highlighting the mornings ride was the view we had of Walhalla from our bike trail. The Walhalla is named after Norse Paganism and is a majestic hall in Asgard ruled over by the god Odin. The one in the in Germany was built to honor distinguished Germans and is a "hall of fame" for those people. Built under the direction of Ludwig I it was constructed between 1830 and 1842. It currently represents over 2,000 years of German history. The ladies visited it and were mightly impressed.
After lunch we packed our wet, sand covered bodies and bikes into the van and rode the rest of the way into the city. Again, as I like to remind folks I'm getting smarter in my old age. Common sense prevails over stubbornness. Any yet, another great day riding a bicycle across Europe

                                                           Celebrating 48th anniversary

                                                       Wahalla from bike trail

                                                               Great Hall

                                                        View of Danube from Wahalla

                                                              Odin ruling her throne

Day 23 of the EuroVelo6 bicycle ride across Europe. Today was a rest day in Regensburg and since it was only about an hour away, Ronni and I decided to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial. Having taught about those camps for over 35 years it was impressive to have actually been able to visit one of the most notorious. In 1933 because the prisons were overfilling, Hitler's regime, under the notorious Himmler, built the first concentration camp which became the model for all the other camps across Europe during WWII. The SS training facility was headquartered here. Dachau was first to be used as a facility for political prisoners but was later used to intern, gypsies, homosexuals, foreigners, Catholic priests, foreign nationals in addition to the Jews. There were 32,000 documented deaths as well as thousands that were undocumented. (Google for more specific information). I still amazes me at how human beings could treat other humans in such a horrible manner. I still have difficulty wrapping my head around it. The pics help tell the story. And no, I will not put pics of mounds of dead bodies on my posts.

                                                         Entrance to Dachau

                                                Bronze statue commemorating struggles

                                                Area for torture and killing new arrivals

                                                      Firing squad wall

                                                  original wall around camp

                                                    Where prison quarters were built

                                                        Guard Tower

Entrance gate

Day 22 of the EuroVelo6 ride across Europe. Today was the shortest ride of the trip. From Neustadt an der Donau to Regensburg Germany... a mere 37 miles. While it was a short trip it was probably the most fun and interesting of the journey. Once again, weather conditions were perfect. Early morning temperatures were in the 60's and by late afternoon it was a warm 90 degrees. I say that from our (bikers) point of view. This part of Germany in particular and most of Europe in general have had little rain over the last month and a half. From my point of view the weather was great but a good rain would be helpful to the folks in this part of Germany. The roads were a combination of gravel/rock combined with the typical asphalt. I will restate earlier announcement...those gravel/rock shivers me timbers! Our route paralleled the Danube so the scenery was spectacular all day. After about 10 miles we loaded our bikes onto a boat and cruised the Danube for about a mile and a half. As we waited in line for the ferry we made friends with a group of Germans and French. A few were able to speak English and we had a good time engaging in conversation with them. Helga explained we were about to see the most beautiful scenery in Bavaria. After the boat ride I couldn't disagree. Actually, one of those who did not speak English mentioned the name Trump and everyone had a good laugh. It's a sad state of affairs when the President of the United States is a joke to those Europeans but it is what it is. Another high point of today's journey was that we had a chance to take a dip in the Danube. How special was that? Because of the lack of rain the Danube is at the lowest point it has been in years and large ferries cannot use it to take cruises that have been a tradition in this area for years. My hope is that it is temporary and soon things will get back to normal. Tomorrow is a rest day so we will have to find something exciting to do to keep up the mojo. Another great day riding my bicycle across Europe.

                                                Hops field-makes good beer

                                                  Part of our route along Danube today

                                          Benedictine monastery along the Danube

                                                      Bikers waiting for ferry

                                                My new German and French friends

                                              Important memorial in the city

                                                     Flowere for the flower lovers

                                                 Pretty woman waving to me

                                                Cruise ship-no passagers

                                                Liberty building built to honor famous Germans

                                               Taking a dip in the Danube

Day 21 of the EuroVelo bicycle ride across Europe. Today we rode from Donauworth to Neustadt an-der- Donau a stretch of about 60 miles. Weather conditions were perfect as the day. It started in the mid 60's and made it into the upper 80's. As for road conditions it was a day of contrast. Climbing hills with gravel/rock greeted us for the first 25 miles. In fact, we actually deviated from our mapped route after beginning a ride over rock. See pic. After that, the rest of the trek was on a smooth flat surface along the Danube river valley.. For the most part there was not much scenic diversity to ogle along the route. Except for the occasional glimpse of the river, the towns still were an interesting combination of the new and old historic Germany with a grand church at the center of each. Lunch was served in a park by our wonderful wives at about the 37 mile mark. This provided us the fuel to complete the rest of the ride. Can't say enough about how much their help is appreciated by we bikers.   Another great day for biking across Europe

                                            Morning stop-apple strudel and expresso

                                           Lunch with the ladies

                                                 Thorn from Tom's seat?

                                                  Short corn in August

                                                           Church near picnic park

Part of our trail-we opted for the highway

Day 20 of the EuroVelo6 bike ride across Europe. Today we biked from Olm to Danauworth Germany a total of 58 miles. Once again, weather conditions were perfect with temps in the low 60's to start and finished in the mid 80's. The day began with a smooth ride on a perfect surface along the Danube River. It was great. But, alas, at about the 10 mile mark, we engaged the dreaded gravel road with the occasional rock cluster. See attached video. It was the longest stretch of that type of surface we have ridden.... over ten miles. Hand numbing and other place numbing notwithstanding. The good news is most of the rest of the day's ride was smooth and level. We had the highest average speed of the trip at nearly 15 mph for the entire distance. While we slowed down for the towns and, of course, the bad roads, we were moving at between 17-19 mph for long stretches occasionally hitting 20+ . That being said, there were few photo opportunities as the scenery reminded me of central Illinois with corn on one side of the road, plowed field on the other and high power transmission lines running through it all. So another great day riding a bicycle

                                                       How did that bicycle get up there?

                                             Stalin statutes in monument factory...Really?

                                                       Breakfast of Champions

                                                     Danube from our nights stop

                                                        Beer from Hell