It was with great frustration that we awoke one morning in Regensburg with a new version of our Maps.Me app freshly installed overnight. Maps.Me had been our fateful offline GPS app on our phones since our first long distance cycling trip to NZ/Australia in 2017. Over the years, it served us well on past hikes, walks and local bicycle rides, but with this latest upgrade, the app had simply become unusable. Comments on Google Play store from many users echoed our frustration. We had to ditch Maps.Me in lieu of Organic Maps, an open source spin off of Maps.Me. On a different note, we bid farewell to Germany after a total of 20 days and cycled 800+ kms (over 15 days), we are now 20kms into Austria.

2022.06.26 – Regensburg ==> Regensburg (0 kms | Total: 2877 kms)

We had a lazy morning wake-up. After that we headed to the train station for an 11:10am departure for Nuremburg – an 1 hour train ride. Jenny’s skillful means of boarding a train managed to secure us two seats on the top level train compartment. Our 2nd class train was full at capacity. Upon our arrival in Nuremburg, we stopped at a bakery for a later breakfast/early lunch. As we made our way to visit the grounds of the Imperial Castle of Nuremberg, we tried in vain to remember our visit of the same town in the summer of 2013. After a few hours of wandering the town under a warm sun, we decided to catch the 3:36pm train back to Regensburg. Strangely enough, the platform for our return train changed three times while we waited. There were even more passengers that boarded our return train – many of them stood in the aisle. In the evening, we visited the old town area in search of some opened restaurants on Sunday. We opted for some healthy salad/chicken bowls from a chain outlet for our dinner. (Walked 10,000+ steps)

2022.06.27 – Regensburg ==> Regensburg (0 kms | Total: 2877 kms)

After yesterday’s exhausting day trip to Nuremburg, we opted to stay in town today to relax. We started our day with a nice breakfast at a local bakery in the shopping mall beside our hotel. Later, I went back to the hotel to perform some maintenance and cleanup on the tandem while Jenny enjoyed clothes shopping. With a 32+C temperature, we spent most of the afternoon in our air conditioned room updating our itinerary and reading. After picking a few snacks at the local grocery, we savored our complimentary hotel Welcome drink in their lounge. In the evening, we walked back to the old town area for our dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. (Walked 10,000+ steps)

2022.06.28 – Regensburg ==> Regensburg (0 kms | Total: 2877 kms)

We had our breakfast in room with staples from the grocery store and some coffee from a nearby bakery. We took a train at 10:10am which was leaving some 35 mins earlier than our scheduled train for Munich. Later on we realized that we had to transfer from the airport to the town center. The train had plenty of free seats and provided a much more relaxing environment than the one we took on Sunday to Nuremburg. We did some sightseeing over several hours. We used a combination public transport to get around the various sites. As we had visited Munich in the summer of 2013, we skipped some of the sites we had previously covered. Although it was a weekday, the town center was bustling with people – we could hardly imagine the place on weekends. We took the more direct train back to Regensburg at 3:46pm. We had another healthy salad/chicken bowls from a chain outlet for our dinner. (Walked 15,000+ steps)

2022.06.29 – Regensburg ==> Straubing (53 kms | Total: 2930 kms)

I picked up some pastries and coffee at a nearby bakery for our breakfast. We left our hotel under a cloudy sky, but surprisingly dry condition as the rain forecast had changed over night. We rejoined our cycling route and enjoyed seeing the Danube more regularly along the way. We arrived at our hotel by 12:30pm and thankfully our host allowed us to check-in without any hassle. Later, we visited a grocery store for some lunch snacks and stopped at bakery in front of our hotel for a sandwich and coffee. In the evening, we had our dinner at a Greek restaurant and experienced an old tourist scam – the English menu pricing switcheroo!

2022.06.30 – Straubing ==> Deggendorf (43 kms | Total: 2972 kms)

We had a slow breakfast as we did not want to leave our hotel too early given our planned short cycling day. We cycled most of our journey through farm land bordering the Danube. Unfortunately, the river was hidden from us for most of the time. We checked into our hotel shortly after 1:00pm after which we went to purchase snacks and refreshments. Cycling under the warm weather caused our clothes to be soaked with our transpiration. Since the beginning of our trip, Jenny had been expertly hand washing our clothes on a daily basis. Over time, she had developed a star rating for the various hotel sinks we had come across. In the evening, we walked over to the town center for our dinner at a pleasant Vietnamese restaurant. As we usually took a walk after our dinner, this evening we stumbled on an orchestra giving a presentation along a pedestrian street.

2022.07.01 – Deggendorf ==> Passau (60 kms | Total: 3032 kms)

Happy Canada Day! Our hotel had an extensive breakfast offering, unfortunately Jenny’s stomach was not felling well, hence she skipped eating anything. We left our hotel under dry condition again avoiding the rain forecast. The cycling conditions were perfect with a good tail wind, cloudy sky and temperature around 20C. Even the cycling route was very enjoyable as it followed closely the Danube allowing us to take-in views of the river for most of our journey. Oddly enough, it was on our last full day of cycling in Germany that we finally got to experience what we imaged it would feel like to be cycling along the Danube. Jenny’s health condition worsen along our route as she stopped humming/singing during our last 30 kms. Upon checking into our hotel at 1:30pm, Jenny quickly went to sleep in hope of recovering from her upset stomach. A few weeks ago when we attempted to book a hotel in Passau, we discovered that they were expensive and/or full. We speculated that it was possibly due to our arrival on a Friday or simply because Passau was a popular tourist destination dubbed as the Venice of Bavaria. Jenny recovered for the most part in the late afternoon, but we opted to skip dinner as a precautionary measure. We were pleased to see the rain falling while we were snug in our hotel room.

2022.07.02 – Passau ==> Haibach ob der Donau (45 kms | Total: 3077 kms)

Upon waking up from a good night sleep, Jenny was feeling much better from her bout of apparent food poisoning. We left a bit reluctantly our comfy 4-star hotel as the town of Passau appeared to have a lot to offer its visitors. Many river ship cruises from Budapest will end their voyage in Passau – before restocking and turning back to its port of call. Our cycling was among the most enjoyable one in Germany as we rode just beside the Danube through our journey. Just a few kms before our accommodation, we had the pleasure of taking a passenger ferry across the Danube. We checked into our first Austrian guest house at 1:00pm. Although the guest house was quite remote, it appeared to cater mostly to cyclists. Jenny was finally eager to have dinner at our guest house after skipping solid food for the past 36h.