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Published: April 7th 2008
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Sunday 23 March - Donauschingen to Sigmaringen, 100 km
Very good breakfast at the clinic - of course, we are in Germany. Very cold and snowing, path down to the road was treacherous with ice. The roads and, for the most part, the cycle paths were well ploughed and salted. Stopped for lunch at a nice village. After lunch the path on the other side of the river was very muddy and snowy, not nice at all for several km. However, after this we took the road to Sigmaringen along the Danube. Spectacular scenery traveling through the river gorge with cliffs towering on either side, the road often going through tunnels under outcroppings of rock.
Sigmaringen has a magnificent castle. Our team stayed at the Pension Traube, very traditional and very nice indeed.
At the clinic and at Sigmaringen we had traditional German boiled eggs dyed in bright colours for Easter, and we got these in our picnic lunches too.
Monday 24 March - Sigmaringen to Gunzburg, 126 km
Bitterly cold when we set off - minus 7 degrees! The sky was clear blue and the sun shone most of the day. Fortunately the roads were dry and there was not
much danger from ice. We followed the cycle path along the Danube, sometimes close to the river and sometimes some distance away. The scenery was less interesting than yesterday.
Michel Bedard developed a bad knee and we had to call one of the vehicles to pick him up. It was very cold waiting for it. Michel was very upset but hopefully he will be able to continue in a day or two. Later we took the main road as far as Ulm to make up the lost time. In the afternoon it got almost warm, but later a cold wind got up. From Ulm we took the path beside the river - it was quite busy, there were lots of people out enjoying the day off on Easter Monday.
At Gunzburg we are staying in a nice Tulip Hotel. Super showers! Dinner at a restaurant opposite, I had a word with the waitress before the meal and she organized me a vegetarian meal - nut cutlets with vegetables. I was served first too.
Tuesday 25 March - Gunzburg to Ingolstadt, 117 km.
Wonderful buffet breakfast at the Golden Tulip. Snow overnight and the square was covered, but the road was
OK. Cold (-1 degree) and it snowed on and off all day - about 2 hours continuous after lunch. One rough track we started out on was quite thick with snow, and after a puncture we abandoned it and took to the road.
A lot of the time we were cycling through fresh snow and slush; on top of one hill there was black ice for about 100 yards, the guys being macho cycled o ver it, I being cautious took to the grass verge. There was a car off the road here, too. We stopped at a bar in Donauworth to eat our picnics and bought drinks, a couple of the guys had a hot meal - the day’s special was pasta with ham and cheese for 4 euros, bargain.
Accommodation in Ingolstadt not good - the men in dormitories in the youth hostel, the women and couples in cheap lodgings in town some 5 km away. We were taken there and back by van. Caught the tail end of the reception in the Rarhaus (Town Hall) and I had a chat with an official who told me the town was first mentioned in documents in 807 and they
had a 1200 years celebration last year. There was a big battle near there in 1300 and something between the Austrians and the Bavarians, as a result of which the Prince of Bavaria became emperor. A princess from ingolstadt became Queen of France in the 1300s too, they seem to be very proud of this.
Dinner at the Youth Hostel was awful.
Wednesday 26 March - Ingolstadt to Regensburg, 83 km
An altogether better day. Snowed overnight (what’s new?) but theni it was dry all day and a little less cold than the last two days. The first 12 km were on a rough snow-covered cycle track but after that the roads and cycle paths were clear.
In Germany there are cycle tracks everywhere, sometimes paralleling the roads and sometimes taking off across country or following the rivers. We are still following the river Danube (Donau in German, hence the town names starting with Donau- ).
Tonight’s accommodation is in a superb modern training centre, my room is very comfortable, just as good as a hotel.
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