EuroTour day 20 – to Linz

Very short ride today as I planned a rest day in Linz. I needed to recharge everything and plan the rest of my trip.

My plan is to ride 2 days to Vienna, stay there overnight, then ride 30 miles to Bratislava, stay there for a night and then take a train from Bratislava to Prague where my tour will end. That way I will visit 6 countries (France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic).

I also found a bike shop in Prague, which can package my bike in a cardboard box so that I can either take it with me on a plane or ship it back home.

EuroTour day 19 – to Austria

I have reached Austria today! This means I have crossed an entire country – Germany – by bike. Somehow I have missed a sign at the Germany/Austria border crossing and when I realized that it was too far away to go back.

Before crossing the border I passed the city of Passau. It looks like it is the destination for the river cruise ships. There were so many of them there! As a result the river front was flooded with tourists.

The route from Passau to Vienna is very popular. The scenery is beautiful and the ride is easy. The infrastructure is great too – there are even ferries just for bicycles. Because of that there are many more cyclists on this part of the EuroVelo 6 than anywhere else on the route.

I was planning to reach the city of Linz today but there was a very nice campground on the way so I decided to stay there instead.

Campsite

EuroTour day 18 – to Deggendorf

Rainy ride today. Rain started when I was packing my stuff at the campsite. I got wet and also my tent got wet. Then as I was riding East the rain was moving East too so I was riding in the rain for several hours.

I passed through the city of Regensburg where I had a second breakfast and did some sightseeing. Overall this was a very nice city and I wish I had more time to explore it.

Regensburg
Regensburg old bridge

At the campground in Deggendorf I’ve met Dirk, who is a logistics manager at Daimler. He is backpacking (i.e. walking) the EuroVelo 6 route. He did not start in France as I did but he intends to walk all the way through Austria to Budapest, Hungary.

Tomorrow I plan to reach the border between Germany and Austria.

EuroTour day 17 – to Kelheim

I was able to start around 6:30 in the morning today and most of the ride I had a tailwind so I made this a longer than usual ride.

On the way I passed the city of Donauworth where Airbus planes (or parts of them) are made. Also I passed the city of Ingolstadt where Audi cars are made. Not surprisingly many cars on the roads in that city were Audi.

I am staying in some campground which looks like a farm that provides a place for bike tourers. But it has showers and clean toilets.

Many bike tourers here

There was a group of guys with boxes of beer and one of them gave me a bottle. He said it is from München. It tasted good.

Local beer

EuroTour day 16 – To Steinheim

Short and easy ride today. Passing through some nice towns on the way. I am now in the Bavaria region of Germany. This is where BMW and Audi are made.

Germany is overall much cheaper than Switzerland. For example a campground in Shaffhausen was $25. In Germany I get a very nice AirBnB room for $35.