Day 1 - Landshut to Rottenburg
Friday April 27, 2018
Before we start cycling - the who, the where, and the why
Just in case you haven't read any of my previous journals, a short introduction. I am Suzanne, Janos is my cohort (and husband). We live in Munich, Germany and have been touring together for approximately 20 years. A while back we decided to make the transition to e-bikes. We figured we were old enough and this decision has prolonged our enjoyment of touring. For us touring isn't about speed and kilometers, it never was, although earlier on we certainly were putting in more kilometers than now. Mainly it's about travel and absorbing our surroundings and the simple joy of cycling.
On Tuesday we made a plan, on Friday we were on our way.
Our decision to take this tour in Lower Bavaria is motivated by a predicted good weather spell, and that at the end of April. We are itching to see how we will do on our bikes again - I had some health issues during the winter, Janos has a new bike (!) that he is eager to put to the test, and we are a year older. Will we be up to touring? Well, the new bike will certainly help.
The plan is basically to ride a circle in Lower Bavaria, starting out in Landshut. The German bicycle magazine Radwelt described a tour from Passau to Regensburg via Landshut. Parts of it we have done before, but it sounds interesting and seems to be very do-able. Our plan is to start in Landshut, close the gap between Passau and Regensburg and cycle back to Landshut where we will have left the car.
We started in Landshut and traveled in a clockwise direction. The leg between Regensburg and Passau follows the Danube Bike Path.
On the road
The weather is fine, as promised. After loading the bikes onto the car's bike rack we are soon in Landshut, about 70 km northeast of Munich. We park the car in a quiet neighborhood at the edge of town and hope it will be there when we come back in nine days time. Actually, I would have preferred taking the train to Landshut, but Janos asked what do we have a car and bike rack for if we don't use them? He had a point.
Since we are at the edge of town, and also eager to start out on our tour, we don't take the time to visit the historic center of Landshut. We promise ourselves we will do that when we return at the end of the trip.
The weather is fine, as promised. After loading the bikes onto the car's bike rack we are soon in Landshut, about 70 km northeast of Munich. We park the car in a quiet neighborhood at the edge of town and hope it will be there when we come back in nine days time. Actually, I would have preferred taking the train to Landshut, but Janos asked what do we have a car and bike rack for if we don't use them? He had a point.
Since we are at the edge of town, and also eager to start out on our tour, we don't take the time to visit the historic center of Landshut. We promise ourselves we will do that when we return at the end of the trip.
Ready for the short drive to Landshut
I have the route on my Garmin and it isn't complicated or far to the beginning of the tour. But first a little stop before we leave town for a cuppa something and a bite to go with it.
Door to the bakery with a big pretzel doorknob and a selfie
Finally, we are on our way! From the beginning the roads are quiet, sometimes we have bike lanes, sometimes roads between the fields for farming machines. That's the way the world should be - no cars. My wish is a little utopian perhaps, but I can dream, can't I?
Some fields are green with young wheat, some haven't been cultivated yet. The highlight are the brilliant yellow fields of canola in full bloom. Our ride is hillier than our short outings around Munich have been so far this year, but our bikes make it all very feasible for us. Janos is delighted with his new bike with a Bosch motor, quite an improvement over his previous BionX.
We are soon out of town.
Out in the open countryside. Once in a while we see a car.
Brilliant fields of canola
Energy: in the foreground solar panels - in the background a nuclear reactor
A church in every village - although these are no longer what I would call villages. But they aren't big enough to be called towns, either. Some old houses remain, surrounded by new housing, a kind of village sprawl.
Bliss
We are getting into hops country, hops being a necessary ingredient for making beer. The plants are still very small. Eventually they will climb to the full length of the poles.
One of the many roadside crucifixes and a simple chapel
We ride through some small towns.
Time for lunch. I have packed a few leftover sandwich makings from the fridge and some bread, all we need now is a bench with a view. A short detour takes us to a small church perched on a hill. Churches are bound to have a bench, and if there is a cemetary there will also be water for watering its flowers, or for drinking and washing hands in our case. As we get off our bikes, a friendly chap from the village approaches us and asks if we want to see the church. He would fetch the key. Oh, well we had no idea the church was anything special, but yes of course we would like to see it. We are amazed, it is a genuinely beautiful little baroque church in this place called Oberotterbach, literally translated as Upper Otter Creek, not where we expected to find this elaborate baroque interior. We were just looking for a bench.
St. Leonhard's church in Oberotterbach
For our first day on the road, I had planned a short ride, only 28 km. Just wanted to ease into our first real tour, travel in the slow lane. We arrive at our hotel, Hotel Wolfsteiner Gasthof, in Rottenburg around three. Not much going on here and we can't check in until four.
The room is simple but comfortable, the bathroom is huge and new, the nicest part of the whole setup. That seems to be the trend. If hotels - big or small, cheap or expensive, in small towns or cities - want to remain competitive, they must have a modernized bathroom.
We have our evening meal in the hotel's restaurant. It is simple fare, a schnitzel and fries. Our beer is from Hohenthann, we cycled through the township of Hohenthann on our way here.
Prosit!