Bratislava to a place that is 15 letters long - that's too many.

I went to get my bike fixed this morning. The shop opened at 11 and they needed 2 hours to fix it. I showed them the broken spoke and they got the whole gang around to have a look and a ponder over exactly how much to fleece me. It was 6.50 for labour and 50 cents for the spoke, which he accidentally told me costs 10 cents. Then he said it would be 17 altogether. I asked why and he said because I wanted it done immediately (which I did, not in 2 hours or 2 days like he first said). So I asked how many other customers he'd had that morning (knowing I was the first) that were taking up all the time of the 4 blokes standing around looking at the spoke. Then he said they might need to change the wheel, which is 25 euros plus labour. So I told him to either fix it for under 20 euros or tell me it isn't possible. When I went back it cost 7 euros.

So I managed to get away not long after 1. The first task was to cross the river which seems to be an ongoing challenge for me. I found a bridge but it was no good. I took a photo so you can spot the problem for yourself. I eventually got across and couldn't find my way past a construction site. An old beardy man in a tracksuit helped me through a series of whistles when I was going the wrong way. He didn't speak at all, just whistled. He was a bit like a dolphin. I didn't get attacked by any sharks so maybe it is true what they say about dolphins.

I didn't get any groceries and left my water behind in Bratislava so I was a bit concerned as I was cycling. Having days off made me lax in my preparation. I found a little food stall out in the middle of nowhere and got some goulash. I carried on riding and at some point realised I had no idea where I was or where I was going. It was a strange sensation because I almost always know at least one of those things. The next town had camping and shops so I decided to stop.

I'm camped out the back of a spa hotel. There were lots of flabby old Germans wandering about in nothing but bathrobes when I checked in. It was repulsive. I asked the lady at reception what country I was in and was a little shocked to find I'm in Hungary. I thought there would be a checkpoint. The currency here is different. I think it is called the hippo.  You get a lot of hippos for a pound. I had an enormous meal tonight for less than 10 euros. Entering a new country has enthused me and I'm looking forward to cycling tomorrow.

Bratislava

Yesterday I went for some traditional Slovak goulash with a couple of blokes from the hostel. It was very good and very cheap. Afterwards we went to a couple of pubs for beers. They are also very cheap. Somewhere between 1 and 2 euros for half a litre. At the hostel it's 2.20 for a litre and a half of beer.

One of the blokes, Shay, is an aussie from a small town in Tasmania. He's travelling around after coming to Europe for a wedding. The other guy, Max, is a German who is doing a trip similar to mine. He's going on the route I originally planned and has the same concerns I had. Specifically: Pakistan. He isn't cycling though, he's hitching.

He was at the hostel last night because he couldn't get a lift yesterday. There were 3 other guys I met who were also here for the same reason. Sunday must be a bad day to hitch. Max had sussed out a reliable place to get a lift to Vienna that involved catching a local bus to the end of the line, walking another 15 minutes and dashing across a motorway. My ticket here from Vienna was actually a return because that's all you can get so I gave him that and saved him some rigmarole. All those hitchikers said yesterday was the first day they've failed to get a lift.

Today I bummed around through the morning. I intended on getting my bike fixed but I couldn't be arsed taking all the luggage off and dragging it up and down the stairs. I'll just get it fixed tomorrow. I went out to get some breakfast (pizza...) and wandered for a bit. When I came back to the room there was a new guy who'd arrived. He is a youngster from Sydney called Michael. We went and got more food then joined the free walking tour.

The walking tour was decent enough but I didn't particularly feel a connection with the places we went. The guide was drop dead gorgeous though. If she played her cards right, she could have me. There was a lot about the history of Slovakia, the culture and the food. But these things were only occasionally linked to the places we were visiting. A lot of it was more like essential information for people who haven't read the Slovakia Wikipedia. But there were a couple of places where stuff had happened. One of Napoleon's cannonballs was embedded in the wall of a building. There was a square where a bunch of people got together to meaningfully jiggle their keys in the name of democracy. There was a smurf church next to an abandoned hospital. It was regular church size, but smurf blue. There was another square where some famous photos were taken when some Russian tanks occupied the city during the cold war. The photos were smuggled out and plastered across the front pages of newspapers around the world, but everyone thought it was Prague. She also mentioned that the year after Euro trip and Hostel were released tourism in Bratislava decreased by 75%. The highlight of the tour though was when one of the girls walked into a pole.

After the tour we got wind of an ice hockey game between the local team and a Russian team. We got a bus to the stadium and we're queuing for tickets when a man offered us tickets 5 euros cheaper. We were dubious but other people started queuing behind us to get his tickets so we bought them. They were season tickets in probably the best spot in the arena. 3rd row, just next to the team boxes.

I'd not seen ice hockey in real life before. It was mental. Such a fast sport. There are 5 outfield players on at a time but the teams had 21 players in the squad. The first interchange was 40 seconds into the game. It is just so fast. Some of the shots were too fast to see, yet the goalkeeper could snatch the puck out of the air. And they would hammer each other into the glass. Just like in the movies but probably more violent. I was impressed. I don't know if there is a sport that requires more talent to achieve the basic level of skill to participate.

It was a real show. I was expecting it to be a semi professional league in a converted ice skating rink but it was a full on arena with music pumping, people banging away on drums, chants, cheerleaders, a mascot that would harass the refs and opposing players and most importantly, as far as I call tell, very good hockey players. The Bratislava team got thumped 3-0 in the end, mostly thanks to the opposition goalkeeper who was a freak.

Tomorrow I'm going to get the bike fixed and make my way towards Budapest. I'm not sure what to expect on the trail. Campsites will be rare I think, this late in the season a lot will be closed. My internet doesn't work and the guide says this section is "less developed". It may be that I go back to doing what I originally intended - sleeping wherever I drop.

Photos:
Generic ice hockey picture

The watchman. Statue is named so as he is coming out of the sewer to look up girls dresses. He has no cultural or historic significance, the city just thought it would be a cool statue.

The smurf church with the abandoned hospital in the background.

One of Napoleon's balls. He took on all of Europe - you need big balls for that. It's the black thing next to the window. It was placed there.

The mascot at the hockey getting stuck into the ref after a goal was disallowed.

Vienna to Bratislava (there ain't no monorail here and there never was)

I had a terrible sleep last night and woke up late this morning. My bike has another broken spoke. I've been riding it anyway as it isn't that bad but it probably wasn't up for the 100km to Bratislava so I activated cheat mode and got a train.

At the train station in Vienna I saw the first evidence of the refugee crisis since I've been in Europe. There were people camped outside the station and rubbish and discarded clothes and blankets around. I rode past a family who were setting themselves up on the bike path. There were 4 or 5 adults and maybe 10 kids. One of the kids, who was 4 or 5 reached up to grab me as I rode past. It seemed kind of like a moment was happening but I didn't really know what to do with that moment so I just swerved around him so he didn't get his fingers caught. He'll have to give his moment to someone else.

It's really sad that all those people have made it to Vienna but haven't got past the train station. There are some really really nice streets in Vienna to be stranded on. I don't really know what they are supposed to do. They've escaped to limbo. If it was me I don't know how I'd get a job. Or accomodation. All they have is their lives but the future is bleak. Still, it was nice to not be the only smelly person for once.

I'm in Bratislava now and the first impression is not good. I've been told it is better than it looks. For those who watch the Simpson's, remember the episode with the monorail where Marge goes to see the other towns that had a monorail and they are run down and abandoned? I think Bratislava once had a monorail. The roads and footpaths are in poor condition, the park I went through to get to the hostel looks like it's from I Am Legend. It was only a brief glimpse as I haven't gone back out from the hostel yet. 

The one positive is that an elderly man flopped his old fella out half way up the stairs to an overpass and did a wee. I like not having to be bound by the constraints of toilets. One thing I struggled with in London is that there wasn't much green space to wee on. Here you don't need bushes, just wee anywhere, anytime. I'm weeing right now. I like that.

Only 1 photo. It is the centrepiece of that Park. I think it is supposed to be a fountain but there was no water. I'll gather some old men and we'll get it flowing again.

Vienna

I didn't get to Vienna until almost 3 this afternoon. I was trying to get stuff dry this morning. The campsite had a dryer and I managed to score a free couple of jetons. All these jetons look exactly the same so I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to forge them and sell them on ebay. I'm not sure of that is legal but I'm also doubtful it is illegal.

I got the train in to Vienna. There were loads of signs for an aboriginal art exhibition on the way in. I thought they might be pretending they're Australia. From the train I also saw what at first I thought was a torture scene behind a tower block. There was a guy apparently tied to a chair and two blokes in leather jackets and slicked back hair standing over him; one with what looked like a knife. It turns out he was getting a hair cut under a tree. I think that's the closest they have to crime in Vienna.

Seeing Vienna today is totally different to how I saw it yesterday. The weather is still ordinary but no rain. I went to the centre and I am totally bamboozled by the buildings. They are all phenomenal. Even the buildings in between the main ones are amazing. It must be a nightmare to get planning permission. You turn a corner and there is another incredible building. You look past the incredible buildings and you can get a peek of more incredible buildings. I spent this afternoon wandering. Admittedly, finding a place with the spurs game on was the true objective. In the process though I managed to drag myself around one of the most amazing places I've been.

I'm not going to go through a description of all the buildings. Mainly because I'd have to google all the names. I'll just say there were palaces and government buildings and cathedrals and churches and all of them were about as impressive as they get.

St Stephens cathedral would be the centrepiece of any city in the world. I'm only really mentioning it because I've slagged off so many God buildings in this blog so far I felt I should give credit where it's due. It is impressive. It's like a giant Faberge egg. For once I looked carefully at a building and was astounded by the detail. There are two main spires but around the outside of the cathedral these spires are repeated in miniature. Then around the outside of the miniature spires they are repeated again. Then those spires are repeated again even smaller. So the smallest ones are a few inches tall. But they still have the gargoyles and things carved into them. It reminded me of those images of fractals you see (google is your friend mum) but in 3d. In Vienna St Stephen's Cathedral is just another building.

Wandering down another residential street I noticed carved gargoylish (I know there is a very specific definition of what a gargoyle is, and I don't think these met the definition) faces above the door ways and all of them were different. All the buildings were like this. Even Starbucks.

I spent the whole afternoon and evening walking around, turning corners to find spectacular buildings. I should stay another day and visit the insides of them but to be honest the insides of most of them don't interest me that much. Not even Starbucks. Vienna has overtaken Venice as the most impressive city starting with v. I can't think of a more visually appealing city of any letter. Mum laid down the gauntlet with Prague, so I'll have to find out.

Vienna then not Vienna anymore.

It was raining this morning and rained all day. That made it hard to get up. But I did and cycled all day in the rain. It was about 50km to Vienna. Then another 5 or so to the campsite which was on the eastern side of the city. The weather made it an arduous day but I finally made it to the campsite... And it was closed. I didn't book a hostel last night because they weren't that cheap. I googled hotels in Vienna this afternoon and they were 300 pounds on short notice.

I cycled back the way I came but on the other side of the river to a camp ground. It is 17km from the other one. So I spent the day riding around like an idiot in the rain. Tomorrow I will get the train in to Vienna to have a look around.

The only positive is that this tent is totally waterproof, unlike the old one. Also I went to the restaurant at this campground and it was ridiculously cheap and very good. Oh and cheeseburgers at McDonald's in Austria are only 1 euro. I'm considering buying 100. Apart from those 3 things the rest of the day was pretty ordinary.

I saw some double bikes too.

Almost to Vienna

It was overcast, cold and windy today. The first half of the day was nice despite the weather. The route wound through orchards and vineyards. Literally through them, not just next to them. There were a few castles and a lot of old ruins up on the hills on either side of the river. My phone was flat so I only got photos on my olden day camera.

The second half of the day was boring. It felt like the zombie apocalypse. The path was dead straight and the only sights were industrial complexes. There was nobody around. I got so bored I decided to stop for the day. I was feeling a bit lethargic all day. I made my way into this town to the campsite and didn't see a single person. No zombies either. I couldn't find the reception so I've just set up. The showers were virtually cold so I'm not paying. There is a guy in a van and a couple on a tandem bike staying here too. I feel like we should band together against the zombies but i think the woman had already been bitten.

I should be in Vienna tomorrow. I'll probably stay in a hostel if they aren't to expensive. I might try and find somewhere that serves proper full English breakfast tomorrow. I've been hanging for a full English.

Near Mauthausen to Melk

It was one of those days today. Rain, all day. The cloud cover last night at least prohibited long wave radiation loss to space, making it warmer. Science innit. I remember that, because in teaching us climatology at uni Associate Professor Howard Bridgeman embedded all his teachings within stories about him trying to bang his missus. The cloud cover causing warmer nights was part of a story about how he used to take the ladies to the golf course on starry nights as a youth, not because of the romantic stars but because the absence of clouds meant it would be colder and the ladies would want to snuggle close. Knowledge is power! His story about the Minnesota cold snap that "ended in afternoon delight" was also a good one.

It rained today all day. I packed up, left and once I got going it was fine. My rain coat generally doesn't work but it wasn't too bad today. It blocks the rain, but when I'm cycling and warm up I sweat and it blocks it from evaporating. So there have been days when I take the raincoat off, which has a few drops on it, and underneath I'm soaked through with sweat. It rained enough today that it was worth wearing.

Not long after leaving I was in the middle of nowhere on a cycle path with the river on my right and a forest on my left when a helicopter came tearing over the trees in front of me. It made a hard bank to the right (back towards me) and started to drop. There is a YouTube clip from something like Top Gear Israel where the helicopter made a similar sharp bank and lost altitude and crashed. This helicopter levelled out 10 or 15 metres above the river, hovered along and banked again over me and took off. I was really happy that they didn't crash and in no way was disappointed that they were safe. I also watch f1 for the track layouts.

I kept on riding and got to a section that in other weather would have been spectacular. The road had cliffs and steep hills on one side and the road winded out over the river. I'm sure it has been used in car ads. For me today though it was a nightmare. In that section there was no cycle path. Part of the way had a cycle lane but it would disappear for a few km at a time. The road was packed with trucks in both directions going 100. The road wasn't wide enough for them and when the bike lane disappeared there wasn't even a shoulder.

It was feeling really unsafe so I bailed. I just turned off and took shelter under a railway line. I know truck drivers are professionals and have to undergo training and stricter licensing and it is their livelihood but bugger me it has almost exclusively been some of their shit driving that has put me at risk this trip. Trucks and bikes don't mix and it was ridiculous that the EuroVelo route would follow a road so heavily trafficked by trucks. There weren't even cars on the opposite bank.

I stayed in my shelter for probably 45 minutes and found a path off the road and pushed the bike along that until I got somewhere I could ride safely. Thankfully the route became segregated from the road after that.

The only other thing of note was that I saw 2 more little deer. I tried again to get a photo but was too slow. I'm determined to get a photo of a wild deer and of an eagle. I've tried dozens of times for the eagles.

Tomorrow I'll go visit Melk Abbey. It's a big deal. The tomb of Saint Coloman of Stockerau is there. I'm going to investigate whether he was indeed a saint or just a pissed up Irishman who got hung because nobody could understand him then made a saint because they felt bad. Statistically I think I already know the answer.

Photos are:
The view from my shelter
Melk abbey from a distance
A baby deer, just in case I can't get one.

Offensheim to somewhere past Mauthausen

Today I managed to only go a measly (bloody anti-vaxers) 40km. It was so cold last night. I woke up at 4am and was considering putting on all my clothes. My feet went numb. It was tempting to pack up and leave. Instead I went back to sleep and didn't leave until after 10. It wasn't that tempting.

I was heading to Mauthausen today and it felt like it took forever to get there. I didn't arrive in the town until around 1 then had to ride up an enormous hill to get to the concentration camp. Those Nazis could really maximise the evil in any situation. The prisoners had to march up that hill.

The camp itself looks like a prison (der). Big walls with ominous looking watch towers. It has changed quite a bit since it was used to murder people. A lot of the buildings have been pulled down, however that didn't really take away from the experience. Some buildings weren't there but you could see where they had been.

The prison housed a lot of Soviet prisoners of war, political prisoners as well as racial and social minorities. Jewish people only made up a small fraction of the people housed there, but they were treated the worst. They had there own block and were given less food and nothing to keep them warm. They were also isolated from all the other prisoners.

In the beginning the murders were all covered up and it wasn't yet industrialised. The guards would do things like send prisoners to fetch rocks from near the fence then kill them for trying to escape or simply push prisoners into the electric fence. The prisoners were forced to work in a quarry on the site and the guards would push prisoners over the edge. This was called parachuting the prisoners and the fact they had a cynical name for it attests to how often it happened.

They would also be killed if they lost their cap. At roll call the guards would often take a prisoners cap and throw it across the yard. If the prisoner didn't retrieve it they'd be shot for not having a cap. If they did go to retrieve it they'd be shot for trying to escape. There was an horrific story about a prisoner (at a sub-camp of Auschwitz) who was raped by a Capo (a prisoner who had extra privileges because he was a snitching bastard, and fulfilled a similar role to a guard) who then stole his cap. Stealing the cap was a death sentence. Knowing that he'd be murdered at roll call in the morning the prisoner woke through the night and stole the cap from the sleeping man in the bunk above and therefore lived to tell the story (something which I would have taken to the grave). The bloke in the bunk above him was shot in the head at roll call for not having his cap.

It was only later that methods for systematic murder were implemented. It started with firing squads, then later there was a room where prisoners were ordered to stand in a corner and were shot in the base of the neck. To save bullets they developed a reusable gun, I imagine similar to the bolt guns that are used to slaughter cattle. A guard was hidden on the other side of the wall and fired this through a slit in the wall, again into the neck.

Then came the gas chambers. At first this was a truck which was modified to gas the prisoners (the stasi used these as well). Later it was a dedicated room, which is still there. Unlike in Auschwitz, where the zyclon b canister was dropped in through a hole at the top, at Mauthausen the gas was piped in through the plumbing. It really did look like the shower room, although there was no mention of the guards pretending the prisoners were just going for a shower. The ovens were right next to it so I'd say the prisoners would have known what was happening.

Currently there are a few of the barracks, the old infirmary, the walls and gatehouse, some of the ovens, the 'bunker' (which was like a prison within a prison) and one gas chamber still there. The infirmary is now an exceptional museum. One of the rooms with the ovens (just so we're clear, these were for cremating people, not baking bread) now has pictures of victims plastered over the walls. Outside the barbed wire fence on the northern perimeter was the ash dump.

The infirmary was a little confusing because there were at least 3 other places referred to as infirmary camps within the prison which were in fact places to kill people. The quarantine area and one of these infirmary camps are now a mass grave. Another of these infirmary camps is now a stand of trees, but it was where the Soviet POWs were killed by firing squad.

There was another area that had just one building and was surrounded by walls on all sides. It was for the condemned. They knew they were going to be murdered. 500 of them made an escape attempt by throwing wet blankets over the electric fence to short it out and attacking the watch towers with rocks, planks and fire extinguishers. About 400 escaped and were hunted down by the guards and local populace like rabbits. Which is why it was later referred to as the hare hunt. All but 11 were killed on site. They said 11 survived but I'm not sure if they meant they survived the war or just the hunt. None succeeded in escaping. The prisoners from that building that chose not to attempt to escape were killed that night.

One of the barracks housed a brothel. Women were brought in from the women's concentration camp and were told that if they worked in the brothel they'd be set free, which they weren't. The Capos were allowed to go there as a reward.

Where the SS barracks used to be is now a memorial park. This on its own is worth the entrance fee (it was free). Some of the countries with memorials no longer exist (Yugoslavia) and some didn't exist at the time (Ukraine). There were a couple of dozen different memorials. I took photos of most of them but won't post them all. The quarry is still there and you can walk to it down the stairway of death where so many prisoners died. I didn't though.

In the museum there was a video that showed the former guards being sentenced to death by hanging. They stood up one by one (there was 57 of them I think) and received their sentences and there was one guard in particular who looked scared and when he got his sentence his eyes flickered and his head dropped and you could tell he was devastated. I felt so much empathy for him in that moment. I found it hard to reconcile him in that court room of mass sentencing with him once being in the place of mass murder where I was standing. It was really hard to connect the dots. There are no videos of the atrocities he committed. You don't get to see the faces of the victims drop as they enter the gas chamber. I found myself hoping he did some really horrible things and I hope he alone made the decision to do those horrible things. That's a pretty messed up thing to hope for. I think when I get a chance I will try to find out what he did.

Another guard who was in charge of gassing people was charged with 51 counts of accessory to murder and was sentenced to 7 years in prison. After he was released he chose to holiday annually at Mauthausen and that really infuriated me. In the end I suppose that the courts made the correct decisions based on the events, rather than how the guards looked at sentencing or where they holiday. It just feels like there were no winners. Everyone loses.

I read yesterday there is a 91 year old lady who is going to face 260000 charges of accessory to murder. She was a radio operator at Auschwitz. Because she was a minor at the time she is going to face juvenile court. At 91. I was wondering today if any Capos were charged or sentenced. They were obviously victims too but also, from what I could tell, were complicit to a degree.

Anyway, I spent 4 hours at Mauthausen, which is why I didn't cycle very far. Tomorrow I will carry on to Melk.

I've just read back what I have written and realise it is a mess, not particularly interesting, not all that different to a Wikipedia article and towards the end makes me sound like a Nazi sympathiser. Saying that I felt empathy for a Nazi probably doesn't help. I just want to point out that I'm not trying to make an ideological point, I'm just trying to express how I felt at that moment. It felt like humanity was absent.

Photos are:

An oven

A memorial

The roll call area

The gas chamber

Passau to Offensheim

It was really cold last night. I kept having to arrange myself for maximum warmth in my sleeping bag. I'll have to get some baked beans with gravy and onions to provide additional warmth through the night. This morning I really thought it was going to snow.  But I might have been overreacting.

I left fairly early, around 9am I think. It was foggy, cold and damp. After an hour the fog burnt away and it turned into a nice day. At some point I crossed into Austria. They didn't even have sign which was annoying. The landscape was very pretty. Similar to the upper Danube, although the river is much wider here and the hills weren't as sheer. It looked a lot like the Hawkesbury River.

The cycle path goes right along the water's edge for almost the entire way. The highlight was supposed to be the Schlogen bend but it was a bit of a let down. It is a section where the river hairpins back on itself and is supposed to be an amazing geographical feature. It isn't. It's just a hilly bend in the river. It was still an awesome place for a bike ride.

I had to take a detour through farms due to road works and it was the buggiest place so far. I was completely covered in little black bugs. I stopped to take a photo and could feel them all taking off from my face and arms and they wriggled out of my sweat. There were more than in the photo but I was hardly going to ride back through them to prove it.

I've stopped short of Linz. I feel guilty because I stopped cycling at about 3:30pm when I could have easily kept going.

The toilets here are strange. They look like they are designed for reverse kanga. I don't really know if I was doing it right. Externally they are exactly the same, but inside the hole is in the front. There is a flat bit at the back, like a little shelf, where ordinarily there would be water. I think I need to see someone use one but that tends to be frowned upon. I'll have to experiment in the morning.

Passau again

I stayed in Passau again. It was windy this morning and looked like rain but I mostly stayed because it is Sunday and I have no food.

Not much to report. The only thing of interest that happened was when the manager of McDonald's had to be carted off to hospital. Three of the fattest paramedics I've ever seen came to get him. I can only assume they were sent because they know all the shortcuts to McDonald's. The manager didn't look too good but I think he'll be fine. I think he was having a heart attack and those paramedics looked like they've had a few between them and survived.

Straubing to Passau

Well, I did make it to Passau. It was 102km. I left at 11 and got here at 5:20, which is pretty good. I did the 37km to Deggendorf then stopped for lunch. Then the 65km to Passau with a second lunch break about 25km from Passau. The last 15km felt like they took forever and I had to go through Passau to get to the camping place, which was treacherous. So I rode on the footpath. 500 pound fine in London for riding on the footpath. In Europe they don't care.

It wasn't a very interesting ride. It followed the river and occasionally cut down farm lanes. I raced a boat for about 5km. I was winning but stopped for second lunch so it got ahead. There were a few ruins up in the hills and a few nice little towns.

I'm going to stay in Passau for a couple of days. I've had one rest day since I left Mulhouse in France so I'm about due. I'm camping to the north of the city on the Ilz river. On Sunday I'll head into Austria. The fifth country of the trip! I'll have internet there so the blogs will be uploaded more regularly.

Regensburg to Straubing

Last night I rode into Regensburg for a look around. It is a fantastic city. Even the shopping district was nice. The city centre is cobblestoned and largely pedestrianised making it relaxing to walk through. I assume. I was riding. It was not too long after knock off time but people weren't rushing around desperate to get to the supermarket and get home. It felt like everyone was enjoying the city. Off the main pedestrian sections there are a tangle of alleys that remind me of the alleys in Brighton.

There is a cathedral in the middle of it all that I think was the most impressive so far. It took 600 years to finish. I can't even imagine what the world will be like 600 years from now. I didn't go in but the outside was covered with carvings which I believe are called friezes. I would like to know if they meant something or if the sculptor was just doodling. Probably meant something. I do wonder if any new cathedrals have been built recently. Or is that an occupation that has dried up? I might put it on my landing card next time I fly, see what happens.

I also saw an old Roman bridge that was the first of its kind and served as the archetype for others around Europe, such as the old London Bridge. It was unfortunately almost completely covered by scaffolding. So I guess it's not that good if it's broken.

On the way into the city I passed a restaurant in a park that I wanted to go back to, but I'd gotten myself horribly turned around and couldn't find it or the way back to the campground. So I went to the river and followed it back. It was busy with joggers and people playing sport under lights on the fields that line the river front. I stopped and watched a football match for a bit, desperately hoping someone would get injured and they'd have no choice but to bring on the stranger on a bike. Didn't happen, obviously. Underneath the highway overpass some people were playing bicycle polo, which looked awesome.

This morning I left at 11 because I'd stayed up late again watching Straight Outta Compton. Not a bad film. It was fairly hot today and the cycling was nice but a bit dull. I did see a replica of the Parthenon up on a hill in the middle of nowhere. It is called Walhalla, but it is a straight rip off of the Parthenon. It's probably in better condition though. Yesterday I saw a replica of the Pantheon on a hill above Kelheim. It wasn't as big as the real one and looked a bit like an observatory. The Parthenon rip off was halfway up a hill near a tiny village. It was like if someone built the Colosseum out the back of Aunty Julie's house at Kinchela. That's how out of place it looked. Apparently King Ludwig built quite a few odd things in odd places.

The weather started to turn nasty around 4 and I'd reached Straubing so I stopped. I was tempted to keep going as an almighty tailwind had whipped itself up, but it turned into a storm so I'm glad I stopped. Probably won't make Passau by tomorrow now though. Who cares.

Neustadt to Regensburg

I stayed up quite late last night reading my book. I'm half way through my 18th book this trip. Six more and I'll have finished the series. For anyone interested it is the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwall. Each novel is basically the same but with different battles, bad guys and helpless love interests.

A bit past 2am I was awoken by the sound of large splashes in the stream that ran near my tent. It is more of an irrigation ditch, no more than 2 metres wide. The splashes were big. I'd have thought it was a fish jumping but there was no way a fish that big could live in a stream that small. I kept hearing these splashes and figured some idiot was throwing boulders in the water, so I got up and had a look with the torch. At first I couldn't see much but then I saw an otter swimming in the stream! It was bigger than the ones I've seen in the zoo. There was another splash while I was watching so there must have been more than one. I went to get my phone to take a photo but I couldn't find them again. I went back to sleep and heard the splash again. I think they were jumping from a nearby tree. This morning I had a look but there was no sign of them.

Today I left at 11 and rode to Weltenburg. The path was really horrible most of the way. Basically a goat track. From Weltenburg the river flows through a gorge so instead of riding over the hill I got a ferry through the gorge to Kelheim. It was a really nice little cruise of about 5km. My phone was flat so I only have photos on my other camera.

From Kelheim it was easy going to Regensburg. I didn't intend on stopping here but the town I was planning on stopping at isn't as close as I thought. Regensburg is probably worth a look as well. I'm about to head into the old town. I really haven't been a very good tourist in Germany so far.

If I put in a big day tomorrow (90km) I should be able to get to Passau the next day, which is on the border with Austria.

Riedlingen to Leipheim

Last night I stayed in a little place outside Riedlingen that looked like someone's garden except there was no house attached. I was the only person there and there was a fire pit and an old mechanical beer vending machine with incredibly cheap beer. I decided to light the fire and drink the beer. I went through the small amount of wood quickly, so embarked on a ninja mission to acquire more from a nearby yard. I did this maybe 8 times and ended up with a lot of wood. Once you get locked into a serious wood collection the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

This morning I dragged myself out of bed and took my time getting myself going. The start of the ride was fairly hilly. There were a lot of bugs around today so I spent a good portion of the day picking them out of my teeth and eyes.

There were also a lot of football matches. I stopped to watch the first one. I really hope they were reserve grade because they were rubbish. I don't think I saw an accurate pass in the 15 minutes I watched. The green team, who were the worst of the two, somehow scored 2 goals while I watched. I kept riding and came across another match. I only watched it for 5 minutes and saw another goal. They were a little better but not much. In all I rode past 7 football matches.

I got to Ulm, which looks like a very pretty city. The trail goes right along the river and is like an express way through the city. There was an impressive cathedral I could see but didn't get a chance to go to because it was getting late and there is nowhere to stay in Ulm. I'd ridden 70km to get there but had to ride straight through if I wanted to find a place to camp.

So I rode on and was in the middle of a dense forest on a gravel path when I saw a sign for camping. I turned off, followed this other gravel path and got to a T intersection with no more signs. I guessed a direction, came to a town and still no signs for camping. I asked a nice older gentleman for directions. He didn't speak English but he gave me the most comprehensive directions imaginable. In German. He just kept talking for a solid 5 minutes. All I understood was the direction in which he was pointing. I found the camping place, a solid 8km from where the sign was.

There is a food place here so I went to get food but it seems the staff decided to put their best Leiderhosen on and sit in the back room getting drunk as skunks. I managed to convince one of them to make me a pizza, which I'd say was from the supermarket and microwaved, but better than nothing.