Vilshofen-Deggendorf-Germany-8-6-14

The next morning, the clouds were hanging low over the tent all the way down to the ground. It had rained during the night again and the humidity level was at 100% again. This has been the pattern for weeks now. It has been a very rainy summer which has kept the cycling cool and comfortable as long as you’re not riding in the downpours.

It was interesting as we went through all the photographs we’ve taken to see how dark and cloudy the days have actually been.

We got a lazy start because of the fog. We chose to cycle to Deggendorf. Once again we were hoping to arrive early and find Internet so we could take care of business and work on the blog.

We had a beautiful ride out of Vilshofen to Hofkirchen on a very nice bicycle trail. After Hofkirchen, the trail turned gravel for a ways and then to a shared street with cars, but there wasn’t much traffic on the street and it went through lovely countryside.

Winzer has a marvelous bakery just as you enter the town and we provided ourselves treats. It had the most variety we’ve ever seen in a bakery. Made our mouths drool.

After Winzer, we road on a very nice narrow road shared with cars but there was hardly any traffic and the whole day was a very nice peaceful ride.

Near Niederalteich,, there is a lovely Abbey that you can see from the bicycle path.

This is German farming country and the air was pungent with recently fertilized fields. We also had a new amenity we had not seen on the bike paths before.

At one point, we crossed a very busy superhighway on a bridge. It was amazing to realize we were so close to this four-lane noisy busy highway so much of the time we were cycling and could never hear it.

The last stretch to Deggendorf was beside this busy highway, yet still, it was not in sight of us; we could just hear it. We can’t say enough about these wonderful bicycle routes that the Europeans have developed.

We found a market close to the bicycle path as we entered Deggendorf. It is a big town. As we have experienced in other big towns, the signs were difficult to follow as many intersections had no signage.

The campsite as shown in Bikeline was very difficult to find coming from the south. The signs that bring you into town do not necessarily get you through town.

The camp ground is on the river; it has a restaurant: it was very crowded because it is the only campground in the area. But we were lucky we found it. Almost the entire space is permanent trailer sites. As one night campers flood in for a night stay, the operators squeeze everyone in between the uninhabited permanent trailers.

That evening, a German band came to play traditional music and a group of young people performed traditional dances. How refreshing to hear. Too many places in the world play loud disco music.

Perhaps we will have time to visit the old city before we leave in the morning. It always seems that when we get to camp and get set up that we don’t have the energy to ride into town.