$10 Ice Cream

66 miles, 10.9 mph, 1090' elevation gain
(Nesslbach, Germany to Kaiser, Austria)


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Highlights: last full day on the Danube, good weather, no wind, no hills, riding the S-curve at Schlogen, eating a $10 ice cream, outracing a cruise ship for 20 km


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Journal: Woke up to a beautiful day (70 degrees & blue skies) for riding. Since I was riding without maps to Passau I asked for directions early on to get a sense of the riding conditions (in particular, which bank of the Danube was best to ride). Then, after reaching the scenic town of Vilshofen, I realized that I did indeed have some maps (although not the greatest) to get me to Passau. So I pulled them out and made it no problem to Passau (a wonderful, must-see city) for a relaxing lunch. I also rode past the second campground I was considering last night (in the small town of Irring, not Eering). It was 17 miles downriver from where I actually camped (a 1 hour, 40-minute ride) so I guess I could have made it here yesterday by nightfall, but it would have been stressful since I didn't know exactly where it was (or if it was even open).

After leaving Passau, I rode the left side of the river on good bike paths & pleasant local roads. Lots of cyclists were out riding, along with quite a few barges & pleasure craft on the river. At one point I clocked the barge speed at 14 mph going downstream, about the same speed I can ride on a flat surface going at 80%-90% effort. When it reaches the small Austrian resort town of Schlogen, the Danube makes an unusual 180 degree U-turn for a short distance as it confronts an impenetrable granite ridge, then loops back after finding a different route downstream. The bike path ends on the left bank in this area, so taking a bike ferry across the river was necessary here. For some strange reason, there are three different bike ferries competing here within a 4-km stretch of the S-curve. I chose the first one, which enabled me to take an expensive ice cream break before continuing. The final 20 km were quite exhilarating as I decided to race against a downriver cruise ship. It was a good challenge since the ship was traveling 14-16 mph (without stopping, of course). In the end, I declared myself the winner when I reached my eventual campground destination slightly ahead of the pleasure craft.