Friday, 20 August 2010 - Good beer and scenery day

Hi to all, that is to all who are still with me. I do not blame you if you give up on this endless road. I feel like at times I am caught up in Bilbo Baggings' song/tale "The road goes on forever". It certainly will go on over here as the Donauradweg goes all the way to the Black Sea, ony 2400+ km to go. Today was sunny and warm. The Germans thought it was hot. I am from south Alabama, it was only warm. Along the road I saw this stack of firewood. It was about 100 yards long. This is for James. Today I had no falls and did not get lost. Yea!

The road changed from pavement to gravel and back many time I like the payment better. That is unless you have share it with automobiles. One of the highlights of the road today was seeing the first hop field of the trip. Hops are a primary components of beer. I took lots of pictures of the hops. I did not steal any of the hops. Later in the day I did drink a bunch of then. The vines are about twenty feet tall. The fields are very big. The weather in south Alabama is too hot to grow hops or I would already have some.

The road went to the Weltenburg Kloster (Monastery). They have been brewing breer at the Kloster since 1050. The beer I had at the Kloster was fresh and very very good. It was a dark beer. This was the largest crowd I saw all day. The German are vacationing in the USA.

From the Kloster I took the river ferry to Kelheim. The boat ride was through a canyon like area with rock cliffs on both sides. This was similiar to the early part of the Donau Valley but the river was smaller. In Kelhein the Atmuhl River joined the Donau. The Donau just keeps getting larger and larger.

I am spending night in Bad Abbach. It is an old town with natural warm springs. It is the location of many "cure" facilities. I see a lot of older people who seem to be taking a  cure vacation. The primary beer in Bad Abbach is Bischofshof fron Regensburg.

However you could still get a Weltenburg Kloster Helles. Which I had with my meal. There was a neat church and castle on top of the high hill on the edge of town. I took some great pictures. Tomorrow I will leave late and spend two nights in Regensburg. I really do need to wash some clothes. I still miss everyone and will be excited to see everybody at the end of the trip. Today I travel about 70km. According to the map I am at the 425 km mark on the Donau. Vienna is at the 900+ km mark. Counting the approximately 200 km to get to Donaueschingen on The Neckartalradweg, the total trip should be about 1100 km.

Thank you for joining me,

Bob