Not salted nuts – assaulted nuts!

If there happened to be a perfect cycling day, today would be it. Not too hot, the sun is out, the route is flat, trending down, and the way is paved and smooth.

Leaving Passau is like joining a cycling superhighway. There are bikes everywhere. Passau, as well as being a centre for riverboat cruising, is also the starting point for many a cycling tour. We share the way to today with many cyclists doing supported tours. They’re easy to spot with their branded panniers (though why you would carry much on your bike when somebody is very conveniently shuffling your luggage from one place to another is beyond me), their branded bikes (mostly e-bikes) and, sometimes, their inexperience on a bike. We find ourselves dodging weaving cyclists or crawling along behind dawdling e-bikes. Now there’s plenty to see on the way so I can understand some wavering or dawdling but it does get a little tiresome.

Passau is also our last stopping point in Germany, at least for the cycling part of the trip. Borders are very blurry around these parts. One minute we are cycling along enjoying Germany and then just like that we are in Austria. No fanfare, no Julie Andrews, not even a sign or a flag. We just don’t know when Germany became Austria.

There are subtle differences though. We stop later at a busy cyclist cafe for lunch and we’re served by about the most Austrian-looking young woman you could find. I didn’t realise there were such physical differences between Germans and Austrians, but she with her perfect blond hair, round tanned face and looking like this is the summer job she does when she’s not schussing around the slopes, she is it.

We had planned to stay on the north side of the river all day, but all the best plans find impediments. It turns out the radweg on the north side comes to a dead end and you must cross the river. Conveniently, there are three ferries to help out. We’re a bit clueless on what is going on so jump on ferry 2 (because the ferry man yelled out to us that we couldn’t continue the way we were going) and for the princely fee of €2.50 and a few minutes of our time we find ourselves deposited on the south side of the river. There’s a bit of fumbling around looking at apps and maps until we figure that all is fine and we will be able to get back across the river at the point we need, so we continue on.

Most of this part of the ride is along narrow roads barely used by cars but well-used by cyclists and we make great time. Until …

We’ve seen before how various wildlife like to use these paved roads/paths to sun themselves. Already on this trip we’ve run foul of snakes, snails, slugs and recently a very lucky duck. Today it’s lizards – small green lizards that scurry, unpredictably, after being disturbed while sunbaking.

I’m in front with Neil close behind me and I call out that I’m going to slow down so I can avoid the lizards. “Slowing, slowing … oh shit!” I come to a complete stop to avoid a little green fellow who has just doubled back in front of me. I hear Neil curse behind me. It’s one of the dangers of cycling: if you are close behind somebody and they stop suddenly you can be in all sorts of trouble trying to avoid a crash.

In my defence, I was calling my intentions.

I get back on my bike, cycling carefully along and then I realise Neil is not behind me. I slow down, crawling along looking back over my shoulder. He’s taking a long time to catch up. I figure maybe his panniers got dislodged in the sudden stop.

He finally catches up and in a very polite voice says, “I don’t want to run over lizards either, but please don’t do that again.”

Uh-oh. In the sudden stop he stopped, but his bike kept travelling, slamming into that part of a man’s anatomy that should not be slammed into. He’s not really in a good state, having to stop frequently, taking Nurofen, just in case it will help. We have about half an hour of this slow progress until we cross back over the river and climb the unimaginably steep driveway of Faustschlössl, our somewhat indulgent stop for the night. It’s a hotel and restaurant with great views of the Donau. We don’t have to go anywhere, but just sit here and look.

Neil’s injury turns out to be nothing that removal of ill-fitting bike knicks and a good post-ride nap can’t fix which leaves us free to enjoy our beautiful surrounds.

Later at night the river boats we’d seen in Passau start coming through. There’s a lock just a little upstream from here and they come through in twos – two riverboats every hour or so. It’s quite the procession, starting around 9:30 and continuing on through the night.

Stats for today:

• Distance: 68.86km
• Climb: 70m
• Average speed: 17.7km/h
• Average temperature: 28C
• Moving time: 3:53:40
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken on a terrace at our hotel, with wondeful views of the beautiful Donau river.

Along the way today: