Day 13 Passau, Germany. Our Paths Cross Again

Joan's View

We turned our key into the neighbor lady (who spoke only German) and headed out. The weather continues to be beautiful. Today was extra warm, into the upper 80s even. We found an Aldi's, yet again, at break time and sat to eat some of our goodies in the shade on some steps. This little dude to the right was watching us while we ate, and we were watching him. We got no questions from Mr. Mouse, but another cyclist pulled up, from Idaho actually, and had questions for us. He came to Europe, bought a bicycle and bags, and travels by train with his bike when he gets tired of riding. 

Two small adjustments needed to be made at Aldi's. First, my steal of deal sunglasses found at Aldi's just days into the trip broke, so we dug out some electrical tape to fix those. Also, because of the lasting heat, my sensitive skin developed a rash on my thighs despite my faithful sunscreen applications. I tried to cover my rash from the direct sun without having to put full leggings on. Our supplies are limited as you can see.

A little later on the trail, guess who we saw across a field? Yep, it was Gero & Jan! They saw us before that because of our safety lights, so they slowed a little to let us catch up. The stayed in Deggendorf last night. We had more great conversations with them. Jan told us that he asked his Dad when they first started out, want to speak English or German on this trip? Gero said German, but since they've been riding with us so much, it's turned into an English speaking trip. Jan has two pet mice (how coincidental is that?), but his one mouse was sick and may be gone before he gets home. I also learned that Jan has suspension on his front seat, and Joan does not. Cobblestone streets, gravel trails, and grassy lanes can be very bouncy. 

We stopped quickly at one point to get this great picture of 2 horse riders in a creek. We caught back up, but left Gero and Jan around lunch time. We checked out this little church after I told Tony the shortcut was through this space between the church and another building. He squeezed the bike through like a pro. This church was fairly modern for Germany. It had great handles on the doors. Tony is planning on making the door for our new house so I suggested these handles would be nice.











We shared a gyro outside at a Greek restaurant and waved when Gero & Jan rode by. Back on the trail, we passed through this cool arch made of beer containers decorated with a bike. There just happens to be a nice bridge in the background.

If you remember on our first day out of Zurich, Tony navigated us to the Zurich airport. Well, he did it again. This time to a local airport. You can see we had to turn around. We also watched the plane in the left of the picture taxi down the runway.

It was really getting warm so we found a great bench in the shade overlooking the Donau to eat and recharge. Tony got this picture below.

 A few minutes later, guess who pulled up? Yep, Gero & Jan. They needed a break from the heat too. Since we are both spending the night in Passau, we decided to try to meet up for dinner. Besides that, it's really helpful with them around trying to decipher the German menu. 😏

 We started out traveling together until we had to split because they are camping and we have the airbnb. Our route took us on a bike trail right along a hydroelectric plant.

Also, there are lots of beautiful gardens in Germany, but this is one of my favorites so I had to share this picture.

 Gero and Jan rode their bike to our place. From there, we let Gero lead the way to a restaurant, and he found a delicious bistro. Jan got a burger and fries, regardless of all of the choices. Here, I enjoyed my third plate of apple strudel, and I talked Jan into getting strudel too. We all left to go back to our Airbnb where they stored their tandem. On the way, Jan offered to buy ice cream, using his allowance for whoever wanted it. Talk about impressive! Tony got his ice cream today after all, thanks to Jan. 

Tony's Extras

It sure was nice having Jan around these last few days. Of course, anyone who offers to buy me ice cream is a good friend of mine. Our neighbor, Bud, was complaining we weren't showing any fishermen. We decided to stop and get a picture for him. Yes, Bud there are many people fishing in the Danube river and many from the bank. Before you ask, we have not asked them what they have been catching.

We saw many more neat churches today again. The crucifix in one of the churches today was different, as you can see on the left. It is neat seeing God the Father holding Jesus the Son on the cross.
I took a picture of this statue of St. Sebastian. There seems to be many statues of him in the churches we visit. The statues have several arrows in him. St Sebastain (256 -288) was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Roman Emperor, initially being tied to a tied to a post or tree and shot with arrows, though this did not kill him. 

Earlier in the blog I said how appreciative I was that Joan goes on these types of adventures with me. I still do. She is a real trooper. I stated that there are very few spouses that would go along. Well, I haven't picked on Tisha yet this trip and I am not going to start now. When I said spouse instead of saying wives, I was thinking Tisha would go but probably not Eric. However, if you could fit his golf clubs on the bicycle, Eric might go. During this trip, we went by many nice tennis courts. The tennis courts we are seeing are clay courts and well maintained. Since Eric now likes tennis, that might help get Eric on a bicycle trip, Tisha. Seems like a good time to go to bed. It is 12:54am and I am exhausted.😀