Riding rain free to Regensburg

After having the nightmare of a ride the day before I knew my ride from Kelheim to Regensburg would be fine. I knew this not because I had seen the weather forecast. I knew this because I had just spent $150 on a top quality rain jacket that was sure to keep me dry. After drying out in Kelheim during the afternoon as soon as my bag arrived I had hightailed it to a sports store, and then when not satisfied with the selection there I discovered there was an actually shopping centre just out of the city centre away from the tourist focused old town. Anyway I knew the rules. Don't buy a jacket and it'll piss down again. Or buy a jacket and have a dry ride for the rest of the cycling week. It wasn't really a choice in the end.

So with my unexpected purchase on, and extra clothes in the side pannier of to Regensburg it was for me. The extra clothes were just in case I again beat my suitcase to Regensburg. The ride on this third day of cycling was also much shorter than I had experienced previously. For the first 2 days I had entered the farmlands. Here I was heading back to the big smoke. Regensburg would be the biggest city I would stop in until Passau. The cycle ride wasn't as eventful as the previous. I didn't stop in the smaller town of Bad Abbach. There was a small threat of a shower so I was more hesitant to rest in the town the guide books had said was a spa town for cyclists passing through. Then no sooner than I had left the town it took it's revenge.

You see just outside of Bad Abbach there was some not so smart cookie that must of hated cyclists and so decided to move the cyclists out off the town road onto the top of river levy banks to pass by the town. Only instead of leaving the top of the levy bank as the hard screed, or surfacing with concrete they had placed a more finer dirt like substance on it to make it smooth and inviting. They had made sure also that the signage directed cyclist onto this path. Only when I had gotten about 200m along this path did I realise why the local cyclist ahead of me seemed to not divert on this path. After the day of rain it had become clay. A soft quicksand of clay that was quickly making my bike go from 15kgs to about 30kgs and impossible to pedal. After another 200m I was stopped. I hadn't fully appreciated at this time why I felt so unfit. I had noticed my tyres sliding down into the surface. I even looked back noticing the track mark I had left in my wake. I was cursing the path designer at this stage. Who the ... puts mud on a bike path. I gave up. With a road only 20 metres away I went cross country down off the embankment to bitumen I knew I could cycle freely. Only when I got even there I was still disabled. My bicycle mudguard had collected so much I was chocked up on both rims. It took 5 minutes of creative bouncing of the bike to dislodge enough mud to continue.

It wasn't long from here before I was greeted by the signs suggesting I was nearly in Regensburg. However I was slightly tricked. The park outside the edge of Regensburg directly me along the river rim and not the straight line to Regensburg so it did seem forever I was entering the city.

Originally when booking the tour I had considered staying an extra night here because it was somewhat popular on the tour websites. It would have also allowed a rest day. If I was doing more than a week riding I would definitely required a bicycle free day. After all professionals on the Tour de France get rest days too.

Regensburg was the first truly large city I had stayed in Germany this time around. And with larger cities comes the bus tours. The American bus tours were here in droves. The tour guide with their umbrellas and "follow me" sticks were out and about being followed by their less able bodied guests with the look of why can't we be sitting on a bus right now. Heck some of the most annoying were fully kitted out in full headsets without a distraction in the world that could remind them they were also in the middle of the walking footpath. Yelling at each other to make a comment. They'd even blindly look at me as if to not comprehend why a person pushing a bike was staring at them. Patience Chad patience I thought to myself. Let the cars sort them out.


Of note the partners of Radweg Reisen to my cycle tour Austria Radreisen finally sorted themselves out here (my booking seemed to straddle 2 partner ride tour companies). My welcome kit found me 3 days in after my sending some very concerned emails days before about not having maps, bag tags, or tickets for the Weltenberg ferry, and a museum in Ingolstadt. It had maps! Very detailed maps of where to ride, and where to turn off. And tickets tickets for the ferry. Very impressed. Would have been useful. Realisation was how the heck would a guest of less travel experience of survived without.


Regensburg was nice. Perhaps could have stayed an extra night and still filled up my time. But with a limited stay I kept my express city tour focus in place. It meant I didn't go into the extra museums etc and kept to the walking around and experiencing the old city feel I enjoy. I did though make up for missing out on the Weltenberger Abbey Dunkel in Kelheim by visiting a Weltenberg Brewery Restaurant.