By the Beautiful Blue Danube

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We're three days into the cycling trip now. The first day was relatively easy - about 40 km from the edge of Munich (we took the S-Bahn to get out of the centre) to Augsburg. Yesterday was a killer, though: around 85 km from Augsburg to Ulm. The landscape was beautiful: rolling hills and a lovely mix of farmland and forest. Our rental bikes are rather heavy and I find it hard to get used to the flat handlebars.

I was trying to retrace the route Lynn and I took in '87 (though in the opposite direction) for sentimental reasons. Dave and I went through Zusmarshausen, which rings a bell from 'way back then - but I have to admit it didn't look familiar.

When we got to Ulm Dave had a nap while I roamed around the old centre. There was a Euro 2016 game on between Germany and Northern Ireland and there was a huge crowd watching the match on a big screen by the Ratskeller near the cathedral.

We decided to lower our aim today. We rode about 56 km, following the Danube downstream. That was far enough!

The valley of the Danube is very wide at this point, so even though we were following the official Donauradweg (Danube bike route) we were often far away from the river. Much of the ride was through young forest, and we saw a lot of people (usually old folks) riding those sections of the route.

Just when we were feeling desperately in need of refreshment we came upon a riverside restaurant. Nothing fancy - homemade liver pate and cold cuts with rye bread and German pretzels, washed down with local beer - but it was perfect.

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