Day 9 Ingolstadt, Germany. More Big Climbs

Joan's View

The plan for today was 36 miles, but it turned into 45 miles. Our first added mileage was backtracking into Donauworth to the bike shop that our airbnb host recommended for getting our disc brakes repaired. We had been there yesterday on our search already. Yesterday, however, I failed to read the sign that they are on vacation this week. Drat, I definitely could use more German language skills. You can see the sign on the picture to the right. The other bike shop in town thankfully was open. 







There, we were greeted by these friendly German customers who wanted to share their knowledge of the area and practice their English. They even got their map out on the hood of their car. It's funny how I like to practice my German, but they like to practice their English just as much. The young owner that helped Tony with the brakes kindly worked on the bike even though he was super busy with other customers. 







Somewhere after leaving Donauworth for the second time, we found this couple studying a field of Silphie. Not knowing what it was and with them speaking English, they explained that this crop is used for electric energy. Now we know because we have seen it many days and it just looks like a field of flowers.

Further down the road, we gained extra mileage several times when we followed the Donau bike path instead of Tony's mapped out plans. Somehow, some way, we ended up in this remote forest. There we no other people around, just the sound of some screeching birds. We not only packed on extra mileage going that way but also extra climb, and I mean seriously climb. The sweat was rolling off of Tony and the chain fell off several times probably because of shifting so much in gravel. Obviously, we took several breaks in the woods. We could see the Donau river way below, but Tony wasn't exactly sure how we were going to get back there. He even walked over to the cliff to get a picture of the Donau. You can see the bicycle path along the Danube way down there if you look close. It was one of those times in an adventure that tests you.

I think Tony can smell the sauerkraut.

Safely out of the forest and back on farm roads, we discovered this field of plump cabbage. Looks like somebody is getting ready for Octoberfest?! 












We took another snack break near one of the many shrines at a crossroad. It also conveniently had a corn field nearby which is great when you need to go in to inspect the corn or for other reasons. 😉














Our bike trail also took us by Schloss Grunau, a huge old castle in the middle of fields. The roads near there were lined with massive trees that provided lots of cool shade as we pedaled on them.

 We made a stop for food again at my favorite grocery store, Aldi's. Tony got a fresh pretzel this time from their vending like machine for bread. So cool!
















This next picture is a goat playground. We showed you a chicken playground a few days earlier so now it's a goat playground. The goat is barely visible to the left of the picture. 

We also stopped to watch a young guy training his horse for jumping. It looked like he was just practicing teaching the horse to respond to him before he started jumping with him. 

Tony's Extras

 What a day!
It started out being an easy ride to our next place. Then the hills showed up. My thought is Joan down played it a little. We climbed over 1500 feet again today on a flat day. I was super frustrated, tired and full of complaining. When I walked to the cliff and realized there was a trail down there, I sounded like my Mom when she was without her filter the last year or so. Sh*$ 😉. Love you Mom and sure do miss you.

The picture above is a cool bridge. There was a bicycle path on both sides and it went up and down like a roller coaster. It is very unique how it was constructed. Maybe just geeking out about bridges again. For dinner we went to a Spanish restaurant thinking it would be like Mexican. Wrong again, the menu was in Spanish and translated to German. Well, that didn't help me. Joan asked about tortillas and they said it wasn't Mexican. I asked, looking at the menu, what is this and is it good? The server said yes, so I said I will take it. It came out in a pig with flames of burning grease. I had to cook it myself by turning the tiny spit. In the picture, they were showing me how. It did come with lots of bread though. After cooked, the spicy sausage was excellent. Must have been the cook. 😀 We went in to the old city to get gelato and visit an ATM machine. No problems, just send the bill to Choice One. While in town we visited another beautiful church that was a Basilica. Also while walking downtown, we saw this cool bicycle to haul your kids around in. I can see Nick taking Luke and Todd on GOBA next year on a bicycle like that. They would have  a great view. See below for both pictures..