The Danube, just south of Regensburg
The Danube, just south of Regensburg
My first 100 mile day of this tour and at least 25 miles of it was on dirt! It took about 7 hours of riding averaging 13.5 mph - I don't have my bicycle computer in my room so all of the above is from memory. My computer is locked up, along with a BUNCH of other bikes in the Rotel Inn bike room. That is actually next door to my tiny room. This place is more like a hostel with all private rooms than an Inn but, for 25 Euros a night, right on the river, I'm not complaining about a room that has just room for bed, a desk and me! The shower room and bathrooms are down the hall. Like a Hostel, this place has a lot of action going on. It is a good , if noisy, place!
My day would have been a little shorter if I hadn't taken a few extra excursions from the radweg. I probably added five miles due my mistakes; the trail is pretty well marked, but there are ambiguities, so bring a map or a good sense of direction! Even without my mistakes, riding the radweg, rather than the road, adds quite a bit of distance. The direct, a Autobahn, route is about 100 km. The direct, B road, route is about 125 km. The radweg is about 140 km. You can't ride the Autobahn, but the radweg parallels it briefly and it sounded just like a US Interstate. Ugh. B8, the B road I would use, is the last 20 miles of the radweg (as far as I was able to figure it out) and, like the B roads I rode yesterday, wasn't bad riding. The radweg was both much more fun and a bit more boring. The radweg is much better for seeing the river and the neat stuff along it. Although some of it is on pretty busy B roads, much of it is suitable for family riding or for folks that simply aren't comfortable the road. It also offers lots of services that are easy to find - they advertise on the radweg - and cater to bicyclists.
There is quite a difference between these two riding experiences
and the scenery is more interesting on the radweg!
To be fair, the worst traffic of the day was not on B8, but on a long (> 5
miles) stretch of ST2165 that starts west of Bogen. It was such a long
stretch of busy road, that I though I had missed a turn and lost the radweg!
The radweg reappeared eventually and the remaining stretch into Deggendorf
was quite nice. I rode almost 60 miles getting to Deggendorf, stopping twice
to snack, and I was really hungry when I got there close to 4 PM. I didn't
leave Regensburg until 10:30, so that wasn't too bad, but I had, based on my
mapping software, expected to be there by 2 PM. It was a much longer ride than
I expected. I stopped at the Blue Danube Gasthaus, ordered from a menu I
couldn't read
The radweg after Deggendorf included the best, and worst, riding surfaces of
the day. Not long after my meal, I encountered a stretch of path covered
with deep, soft gravel/sand. It was marginal with my 700x37 (really 700x32)
TTs. Fortunately, it didn't last. Most of the rest of the radweg was well
paved path, although there were a couple of sections that were more like a
small dirt foot path. I got lost on one intersection, where there was no
sign and the path that went off to the left looked like a footpath. Since it
was relatively late in the day, it soon became obvious that I was riding in
the wrong direction - the sun sets in the west and all that - and after
asking some local bicyclists, I got back on course to Passau. Staying on the
radweg is complicated by the great number of local paths connecting to it.
Usually there are signs, but sometimes I simply had to guess. Mostly I
guessed right.
Sometimes it is easy to know which way to go!
The radweg is a true multi-use path!
Some more images from the radweg:
Typical view while riding this section of the Danau Radweg
