Day 21 - The River Naab July 21
Etzenricht to Pielenhofen - 55 miles
Hot day today with temps in the low nineties. No rain or thunderstorms though which is good. We started today off packing up the bikes and looking for the owners of our hotel to pay our bill. We couldn't find anyone anywhere so we left money in our room at the pension with a note and the room key. We really hope they found it. We went back to the same pension we had dinner at last night for breakfast. They had a good spread including incredibly sturdy bread and blue cheese. The owner was very nice and told us about nice things to see along our route and where to find the next grocery store about 6km down the road. But one thing we have noticed is there are some restaurants or hotel with a fly problem. It isn't everywhere, but a number of places we have been to have a lot of flies... Just a notice and a bit of an annoyance. It was already nearly 80F by the time we set off at 915am and the sun was scorching. We found an Edeka supermarket. Nice flat terrain today with only a couple of hiccup hills that we had to deal with but since we haven't been dealing with hills today we whined at the smallest uphill. It is really funny how quickly you get used to one thing or another. The landscapes varied throughout the day. We had woods and open fields beside abandoned canals. The architecture changed as well including some Mediterranean style villas which looked very strange in Bavaria. We had an Eiscafe in Kallmunz this afternoon which is a gorgeous fortified village since we are back into the land of a shloss (castle) on every hilltop. We followed the river Naab all day, which was very small at some points with a huge flood plain at others. You only really notice when you have to cross the valley over a bridge and most of the bridge is over dry land and grass with a tiny little creek running through it. You wonder if it is global warming, irrigation or just a dry day in the summer. Remember, we were here two years ago after the huge flooding of the Danube. So we are always curious now if this area or that was flooded... If the bridge had been put to good use. :) anyway, we crisscrossed the flood plain all day. We saw Three different black swans and white swans and ducks and storks and black birds and what Bruce calls "Andrea Birds"- they chitter and chatter like Cat Birds at home. Their call is an unplanned twitter without repeat. They keep up their own conversation the whole time we pass them. We kind of love those birds. We had a bit of a head wind in the afternoon but we powered through to the campsite just south of Pielenhofen at about 5pm. We were met by a strict, old school, receptionist who is keeping Andrea's passport overnight... We were more scared of her than Bulgarian border guards. I think we are getting soft. We went swimming in River Naab in our cycling shorts. Excellent! Set up camp and made dinner. Tonight we made bratwurst and Heinz beans, celery salad, and käsebrot. Yum. Andrea really wants to go fossil hunting in the limestone cliffs tomorrow but doesn't want to carry the weight... Since fossils are made of rocks and rocks are heavy. We have cycled over 800 miles for the trip so far!
The World is Ours!
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