Day 8 Donauworth, Germany. Bicycle Shops, Churches and a Variety of Paths

Tony's View

We started out and my bicycle maintenance could have went better yesterday. The bike was squealing and the brakes were rubbing. Crap! I spent about 30 minutes completely redoing the rear disc brakes. They seemed to work okay for a while, but the squeaking was back. Dang it. Time to find a bicycle shop. We went to 5 different shops that added about 6 miles to our ride today and all were closed on Mondays. That was frustrating because we had our hopes up that one would be open, so we had to rely on my abilities. I could be better. Braking isn't that important anyways. When we went farther a few miles from Ulm, we entered Bavaria, which Joan will explain what that means later. Farther down the road we ran into some German surveyors. They looked like Francis and Dan. Francis was doing all the work as usual and Dan was just following him around. 😀 They should have been wearing green instead of orange. Speaking of green, thanks Choice One for the 25th work anniverisary trip! All of Dan's hard work following Francis doing all the work, is actually paying for this adventure in Europe 😇. They were actually surveying the ramp to the Autobahn.  We crossed over it and didn't realize it until we saw the on-ramp. Pretty cool to see.

 We were on a variety of paths today from nice paved paths to gravel to grass paths. I have pictures of many of them, but WiFi is super slow today so the pictures will be minimal. Some paths we were on is because of my planning and others were just the best path. I may show you some of the grass paths if we can get you the pictures. Actually, the farmer was out mowing .the path. We did see one of Germany's nuclear plants as you can see in th picture. We had 2 more hyro electical plants on the Danube today again.

 Below is a picture of me playing in a tributary to the Danube. 
 The water was a little cold, but it would have felt good. It is starting to become a significant river which we will get you some pictures tomorrow to see how wide it is becoming. Also, below right, is an entrance to a small town. This is very typical. It seems that it is an entrance to a former castle. When we were in all these towns and asking for directions to bike shops, they would say it is in the castle walls.

 We went into 5 churches and they were all beautiful. It reminded me of the beautiful churches in Rome. I got several pictures of all of them, but it is just too difficult to download them due to WIFI. It was amazing all the gold they have in these churches. One was a Cathedral and had a seat for the bishop. Actually, it wasn't anymore impressive than the others. We had to take the bike up several stairs to get to it. We have a picture of them and may share it tomorrow. Luckily there was a flat part to roll the bike. We just had to push it up the long stairs. 

The picture to the right is of the only known Roman Temple that was built north of the Alps. We were lucky to find it. Joan said there was a sign telling us that it was down this alley. By the time the day was over with the bicycle shop hunting and all the church excursions. our 56 mile ride ended up being 67 miles. I will get you more pictures tomorrow.

 The pictures on the right and left are of the path I took us on. When we were on the botttom of the long stairs. Joan looked up and said their has to be a way around. This nice guy came up and asked if he could help. Must of saw the fear in our face. He said there really wasn't another good way up to the Cathedral.

So we sucked it up again and pushed our way up. When we finally got to the top. the trail on the left was there to greet us. We made it, and was treated with the beautiful picture to the right. The pictures don't do it justice. They have frescoed ceilings and many beautiful side altars. The picture on the left is Joan enjoying an apple stroudel, which is a real treat for her. She is just working off the gluten on the bicycle. The other bonuses of the sweets here in Germany is that they don't use as much sugar.

Joan's Extras

This wifi is slower than our ride up the 20% grade (and almost as agonizing) 😕. Thus, I'll keep it short. The one picture is for my cousins, the Rosengarten family, that we found along our route today. 

Also, today is Grandma Monday, and since Monday is the day I usually get to hang with Luke & Todd, I am posting a picture instead. Miss you guys!