Day 24 - Regensburg to Vilshofen an der Donau (75 miles)

As I was cycling this morning alongside roads and through nondescript suburbia I thought the only thing that would be memorable about today would be the wind. But then the afternoon happened.

Late morning I passed through Straubing, from a distance a city that revealed itself by a number of spires pushing skywards. As I cycled up the wide, cobbled high street I sensed it was a city worthy of more investigation; there seemed to be a lot of beautiful old medieval buildings about. But I needed to press on and had decided to stop at Deggendorf, the next big town, so I continued pedalling and headed out of the city.

Straubing 

For an hour I cycled by or on the Danube levee, enjoying the sun if not the headwind. And then it started. Roadworks digging the bejesus out of the cycle path area stop me in my tracks. I carefully climb down off the steep-sided levee with my bike and, in the absence of any obvious alternate routes or detour signs, I push my bike through the roadworks and around the diggers. No one stops me. The works are extensive so I have to pick up a different road on the other side, end up on an uncomfortably fast and busy highway, but manage to leave it eventually for a quieter road to Deggendorf where, tired from the heat and the frustration, I stop at a picnic area to rest and eat.

I leave Deggendorf into more roadwork issues, less problematic but the cycleway is still inaccessible and more time is wasted navigating my way around them to reach my next objective, a tiny foot passenger ferry to take me across to the opposite side of the Danube to continue the route. When I eventually get there I find the ferry is broken and not running.

Kapput 

I work out an alternative route along my side of the river only to hit more roadworks. Cross country then, to a road bridge to join the route on the other side. An hour later and I get to the bridge. It too is closed. By now the constant headwind that I have been facing all day, the afternoon heat and all the time wasting frustration are really getting to me. Unlike yesterday when the miles slipped by, today I seem to be working hard for every one of them and still seem to be making little progress.

I pick a small road that will take me directly to my destination through a number of small villages: I have wasted enough time. But this narrow road is also busy with lorries and coaches as well as cars, a consequence I guess from the miles of roadworks so I need to get off. And then things finally improve as I pick up cycle paths that are signed to those villages on my route. After a few miles I am back alongside the Danube - albeit not the side I expected - and cycling towards the bridge at Vilshofen an der Donau that I can see in the distance. 

Back on the Danube

I still have to get through packed commuter traffic, across a fast road with, unusually, no cycle lanes or lights and then up a long hill. But some ten hours after setting out I arrive at my accommodation. It turns out to be another converted monastery - spacious, charming and comfortable - attached to an imposing church. It is good to have arrived.