Chad Is Everywhere

Nuremberg End to the Trail The end of the trip to Europe this year saw me finish in Nuremberg, Germany. Admittedly I didn't really know much of Nuremberg before arriving. I knew they were the host city to perhaps the most famous legal trials of the 20th Century, the Nuremberg Trials. But I didn't know much of their medieval history. The history I'm sure more Germans would prefer we know Nuremberg by. Turns out that Nuremberg was shalt we say the centre of Europe for quite some time. I mean the place had its King etc. But it was the fact this place was where the Reichstag met. Basically where your royal courts would meet. And then you also had the burghers that were appointed to look after the municipal city make sure the trade was good. We're talking medieval times. When the power of the salt trade diminished so did the power of Nuremberg. Importantly I picked up a lot of this information doing a tour of the Nuremberg Castle. Very interesting. More interes...

Passau was a bit hilly. I guess I didn't really look at the map in detail when confirming my trip. I had assumed it was all flat and easy access. Well in most of Passau it was mostly flat. But my hotel had a little kicker at the end to get up to. Meant that any time I departed the hotel into town there was the walk back up hill. Wasn't too bad as I was only there one night before I moved to another hotel right down in the old town for the final night in Passau. However context was I had been cycling for days. Once off the bike each day the legs would refuse to do hills. Understandably tour company hadn't led on which hotel I'd be placed into when placing the deposit. So when I booked the extra night I was flying blind. I took as place, in my budget, in an area I though was important. I wasn't wrong with it. Just the tour company took the other option up outside of the city centre, and not on the river. Passau as a city was great. The city is a ...

So the end of my cycling trip in Passau Germany meant I completed over 350 kilometres in 6 days of cycling. To some that wouldn't seem much. But think about it and you understand to the average person that's quite a journey. Nearly 60kms a day on a bike seat. Even for me as a casual cyclist it was quite a lot. Especially as I had learnt it wasn't a road bike on smooth flat roads and bike paths as I had become accustomed to back home. This was gravel paths and rolling hills included. Yes hills on a follow the river ride. Anyway the final day saw me on a larger ride to finish me off. Being the last day I really was looking for places to stop along the way. Not only because I was tired. But primarily because it was the last day and well the whole idea of doing this ride was to explore the smaller towns along the way. Get the experience of the small little places the big tour buses don't go. Stop in the places the locals know of but the tourist don't see.  These we...

Pedaling Deggendorf  By day 5 of cycling this tour along the Donau the body was starting to say "that'll do". Not to say that this cycling trip was a grind, or a wrong decision. No it's just that I was shattered, and no matter what I did, ate, or drank after the daily ride would matter. I was tired. The rides now were fairly relaxed compared to earlier in the week. There was a definite increase in the amount of bitumen as I approached Passau nearing Austria. And reality was the distances between towns was mostly getting shorter. Metten side step I was also getting much more relaxed about the weather by this stage. It's a much easier decision to just allow the time to take a diversion, or a iced chocolate break when you're not concerned it's going to rain.   On this day I remember the constant though of just taking the side trip to a side town just beyond the main path. However that little side trip was a few kilometres each time. A...