I bought a new sleeping bag this morning in Erding. The sports store there had a surprisingly good collection of small sleeping bags: a much better selection that I have seen in the US. I bought a Polarguard 3-D 40 F bag that is about half the size of the 20 F bag I lost. It will probably be enough for this trip and it makes it possible for me to pack all of my camping gear except the pad and the poles in one pannier. I also got the folder up duffel bag I used to hold three of my panniers and my handlebar bag in that same pannier. This neatens up my load considerably.

My lunch stop in Friesing showing my loaded bike.

The rear panniers have my clothes, on the left side, and my camping gear, on the right side. The rack has my tent foot print - which is also usable as a bike or person cover for bad weather - my backup mini-pump, and the poles and sleeping pad which are too long to fit in my panniers. The bag on top is my new Ortlieb messenger bag which worked very well as one of my carryon bags - the other was my clothes pannier - and is now my off bike carry all and my on bike waterproof place to store things, like food or my camera. It is held on by velcro strips on the top of the rear panniers.

The extremely peaceful "bike road" near the airport

I left Erding about 10 AM, heading back past the Airport on my way to Freising. The ride from Erding to the airport is really pleasant, as the image above shows. It isn't nearly as nice once you get to the airport nor while riding from the airport to Friesing.

Munich is a pretty busy, and rapidly growing, international Airport

Although riding past the Munich Airport wasn't as nice as riding to the Airport, it certainly wasn't really bad. Simply urban riding with drivers who, almost without exception, are used to having bicyclist on the road with them. Even here, it seems that riding on a fully loaded bicycle gets one more respect than riding on an ordinary bicycle. However, while in the cities, I saw lots of folks of all ages riding in heavy traffic with no problems.

The country just north of Freising, with bike path

After a good lunch - lunch has become my main meal here - I struggled to find my way out of Freising in B301, the road to Regensburg. German signs tell what town a road goes to, but their names and my mapping software don't always agree. Oh well, it only took me two tries and two stops to look at the maps on my computer to get on the right road! Once I got there, I was faced with first real hills on this trip. There was initially no bike path, but, at the top of the first long hill, a path appeared. As you can see from the image above, the country was beautiful rolling hills.

Onion doomed church towers seem the rule north of Munich

The bike path didn't last, or rather it wasn't continuous, so I found myself riding on a shoulderless road with moderate traffic. This really wasn't a problem because the traffic was fairly slow, by US standards, and mostly very well behaved. I was never uncomfortable with the traffic, although some riders might have been.

After the bike path went away

I followed B301 to B16, which intersects it just south of Abensberg about 36 km from Regensburg. Then I rode B16 to Regensburg. B16 actually has a small, but rideable, shoulder. Even when there was a bike path along side the road, which was true some of the time on both B301 and B16, I was not tempted to change over to it. Riding got pretty noisy climbing the hills before Regensburg, but I was alway comfortable riding with the traffic, even when its density was high. It tended to be strongly bunched on both roads because, although the average speed was pretty low (80 or 90 kph), there was a lot of speed variation with everything from high speed motorcycles and hot cars to very slow agricultural vehicles using the same road. That meant long periods with little or no traffic and shorter period when groups of vehicles were passing me. B301 was hilly at first then flattened out. B16 was flat at first then got pretty hilly after it reached the Danube near Saal. The overall ride was about 70 miles with a thousand or two feet of climbing. The wind was light to moderate head/cross wind.

B301 runs through forest after it gets 20 miles or so north of Freising

I stopped for lunch at a Greek restaurant in Friesing, and for a snack at a bakery in Au, one of the many little towns between there and Mainburg. That is where I took the onion dome picture. Then I stopped at the McDonald's (!) in Mainburg. I stopped there because I knew where the bathrooms were . I had coffee there, but I got confused with the way they handled the cream. It was very wasteful packaging! I listened to US pop music while I ate. also stopped at a service station near Bad Abbach for a snack. While there, I listened to the traffic roaring by on B16 aand marvelled that it was still comfortable to ride!

Coming into Regensburg - you can see the old town down by the river

Regensburg is neat, but too big and the old city is too confusing. I had a hard time finding a place to stay. After riding into and around the old city, I rode out looking for a place. When I couldn't find anything and could even find myself on my maps, I stopped at a service station and asked for help. They were very nice, but the nearby hotel they recommended was full - it was 6:30 on a Friday evening. I rode on, looking for other options, but finally just headed down the Danube. The road ended at a railroad bridge which had a bike lane. I saw someone coming down the bike lane, so I waited for them. It was a German woman who had lived in the US for a dozen years and whose daughter lives in Salem OR - she even knew Dallas OR! She rode with me to this hotel. So it goes when you need help.