02 October 2014
After too many beers in Munich, we decided to embark on a healthier cycling adventure on the Romantic Road (North of Munich). But first, we stopped off in Augsburg to sort out Bud’s still broken bike and to visit some friends (Marc and Anke).
Our first 2 days in Augsburg were spent searching for a new part for Bud’s bike. After visiting the 7th bike shop and still no success, we decided to visit a second hand bike shop, which supposedly had very cheap working bikes. We entered the store, asked for the cheapest bike and left with a pink touring bike with back pedal breaks and a basket on the back. I immediately claimed the bike as my own and our preparations for our cycle trip began.
Before leaving on our adventure, we stopped off to visit Marc and Anke who had very kindly invited us over for the night. The previous night, Bud had joined Marc at his rugby practice which he really enjoyed. Anke prepared a delicious meal for us and we enjoyed a fabulous evening at their home.
The next morning, we made our way back to our campsite, loaded up our bikes and zig zagged along the Romantic Cycle Route towards ‘Rain’. The Romantic Route is a cycle route which passes through lots of medieval towns, Baroque churches of pilgrimage, Romanesque monastery walls ; Fairy-Tale’ Villages, farmlands, forests and countryside. The 460 km route runs between Wurzburg and Fussun, but we decided to start in Augsburg and head North towards Wurzburg until we got tired. Our bikes were so heavy that it was difficult to steer and the bikes fell over whenever we stopped or hit an uneven surface. After the first few kilometers, we got used to the weight and pedaled off with good spirit and enthusiasm.
Bike Inventory:
Buds Bike: 1 x tent; 2 x sleeping bags; First Aid Kit; 3.5 L Water; Backpack with clothes and games.
Lauren’s Bike: Basket full of food; Kitchen stuff (cups, bowls, cutlery); coffee maker; 2 x lilo; 1 x pot; gas and stove; small blanket; backpack with clothes.
On our first day, we cycled about 60 km to just past a town called ‘Rain’ and set-up camp in the woods near the highway. We had so much fun, cycling through typical German countryside, over a massive dam, through the woods, through small pretty villages and farms. We cycled past this one farm where the farmers were cutting the corn with big tractors and shooting the thieving birds with big guns. Interested onlookers gathered along the side of the road with much excitement. We also noticed an amazing egg vending machine invention in a nearby village and lots of ‘honesty box’ pumpkin stalls on the side of the road (unfortunately we didn’t need any eggs or pumpkins to add to our weight). We eventually made it to our first town, ‘Rain’, after crossing the Lech River along the dam wall. We then cycled around the town, clueless and lost, as we had missed the signed turn-off. We finally found our bearings and continued along the route until we eventually found a small clearing in the bushes and set-up camp. Bud made an amazing pasta dinner and pear crumble dessert which we enjoyed with some wine. We very quickly retreated to our tent as the mosquito’s, spiders and slugs were very excited by our visit. That night, we did not sleep well at all!!!!
Half of Buds lilo mattress went flat in the night, therefore he was half on the ground. On top of this, when we put the tent up, we had not noticed a small tree stump hiding under the leaves in the clearing and this stump was now in the middle of the tent. The cold and moisture was coming in from the ground sheet and the sleeping bag was not very effective. During the night, we woke to a howling animal next to our tent as well as the Autumn falling branches and leaves. We were unsure whether the howling was a fox, pig or alien, but it was quite scary and kept us awake most of the night. When sunlight eventually came and the wild noises dispersed, and we managed to get a good few hours sleep before packing up and heading for Day 2 of our adventure.
We started our second day in search of water for both drinking and to clean our dirty dishes. A couple of kilometers along the way, my gear cable snapped resulting in my bike becoming a single speed bike and I was stuck in my hardest gear for the rest of the trip. Luckily, Germany is pretty flat so this didn’t affect me too much. By the time we arrived in Donauworth (about 30 km’s), we had already stopped twice to rest, run out of water again and still had a dirty pot. At his point, we realized that we were 90 km from our van, the weather was only getting more miserable, we were feeling very dirty and we only had 3 days left in Germany . So, without trying to convince each other too much, we made up a whole ton of excuses to head back to the van and decided to end our adventure. We caught the train back to Augsburg, got a little bit lost again and cycled the last stretch back to our van which was parked at the campsite.
Back at the campsite, we really appreciated the luxury of a warm shower and a big drink of water more than ever before. Our 1 night, 2 day cycle trip was an amazing experience, however, for future trips, we probably should prepare a bit better (but we like to make missions). I take my hat off to all those people who travel like that for long periods of time!!!
We only had 3 more days left in Germany, so the following morning, we packed up the car, loaded the 3 bikes on the back and decided to drive the Romantic Road car route before heading up to the Rhein Valley. …