(Nittenau, Germany to Straubing)
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Highlights: overnight thunder & lightning storm, gloomy morning with occasional light rain, riding solo again, city of Regensburg on the Danube, all-you-can-eat sushi lunch, exhilarating evening ride, very flat
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Journal: Today began with a scary overnight storm and ended with an exhilarating evening ride along the Danube River. Sometime in the early morning hours, rain began to fall & wind started picking up as a rather nasty line of thunderclouds rolled through. Since my tent was beginning to leak, I had to run outside at the beginning of the storm to grab my rain covers from my saddle bags. When the lightning was about six seconds away (only one mile by my calcs) I briefly considered abandoning ship and heading to the campground's restrooms for better protection. But then the storm was over and the rain slowed down. In the morning it was quite cool (only 51 degrees) & gloomy looking, but the rain held off for the most part. Joe & I rode 15 miles along the left bank of the Regan River downstream to the town of Reganstauf before saying our goodbyes at the train station. After riding together for four weeks, Joe needs to head back home to Pennsylvania so I will be on my own again (as I was for the first week of this trip).
The first few minutes of riding solo were uneasy. After all, who would double-check directions and translate German for me? By the time I rode the final 10 km stretch along the Regan River to the city of Regensburg I was more relaxed and looking forward again to the freedom of riding alone. Located on the River Danube, Regensburg's old town is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is well worth checking out. I ended up spending about four hours exploring the city, including one hour at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant in the old town. I love sushi & eat quite a bit at home, but haven't had it for over a month now. Being a hungry bicycle tourist, I definitely got my money's worth (for under 10 Euros) as I consumed countless plates of sushi as they rolled by the conveyor belt next to me.
By the time I finished up in Regensburg it was 4 pm and the next campground was 50+ km away, so I had a dilemma. I figured since I needed to work off some of the extra calories from lunch, I would go for it. So I headed off eastward downriver along the Danube (which I rode a month ago with Joe from Linz, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia). The decision was a good one as the rain held off, the winds were from the west & the terrain was almost completely level. After taking a small detour through the town of Worth to stock up on water, I reached the campground across the river from Straubing about 7:45 pm, just in time to catch the last 10 minutes of the Italy-Romania Eurocup match & order a plate of spaghetti.
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