Day 44 - Vohburg to Sonderheim.

Day 44. Vohburg to Sonderheim. 106km, 6h30.

We were pleased to get a good breakfast at Gasthaus Stoettnerbrau as we knew we had a long cycle ahead of us. As we were packing our bikes we met a Danish woman who was packing the trailer behind a tractor. She and her husband had traveled from Denmark on two old Kramer tractors (1954 and 1955) to the Kramer factory in Bavaria. They were having a blast - maybe a vintage tractor trip should be our next project! 

Initially we cycled through industrial areas with oil refineries and power stations to Ingelstadt, where Audis are manufactured. Shortly after Ingelstadt we came to a railway crossing. The booms were down, so we stood and waited for the train. No train appeared. After a while Jenny saw a small sign and her Std 8 German allowed her to translate that to open the boom one should pull a small lever. Lucky, as otherwise I would still be standing there.

Then we made our way along macadam cycle paths through Bavarian Forest and alongside the Danube to Neuburg an der Donau, home of the Neuburg Palace, the most impressive of the Bavarian palaces. After Neuburg we crossed to the northern side of the river and were faced with quite a few hills just to keep us honest and humble. We saw quite a few raptors hunting in the fields along the way - common buzzards, Eurasian kestrels and red kites.

Out next town was Donauworth, where there is a huge Airbus helicopter factory. It took us a while to find our way through the very attractive old town. We would have liked to have stayed the night, but that would make tomorrow too far, so we cranked our way on through flat wheatlands against a steady headwind.

We tried to find an overnight stop in various villages. One gasthaus had a party for under-30s planned - no thanks. Another was closed, another spooky, another a rip-off. We eventually found a nice place in Sonderheim - Gasthaus Heigl - spacious room, good bike storage, a washing-line, cold beer, and good price, but a pedantic hostess who had posted notices of instruction on the walls. We returned to the beer garden at the ripoff gasthaus for a good schnitzel with asparagus (a speciality of the region).

Kramer vs Kramer, the two tractors from Denmark which the owners drove down to Bavaria for a tractor rage.

Bavarian Forest path.

The Neuburg Schloss.

Lunch spot.

The Danube has markers indicating kilometers to the mouth at the Black Sea.

Now that's a real Porsche.

Our biggest day yet!

The sign in our bathroom. What is the world coming to? Somewhere one has to draw the line. 

Perhaps this sign should be used for a "caption competition".