Ride to Regensburg 106km

It may have been our 'illegal' camping activities last night or the fact that we slept on a slope, behind some trees and near a road but either way we were both as you might expect up early this morning.

It was certainly not the kind of place I wanted to hang around and cook breakfast so with this in mind we packed up as soon as possible and headed to the nearest café Thankfully this was only a short ride down the road and we were able to fill ourselves with German pastries aplenty and hot tea.

The ride was still very much up and down in terms of terrain and without being to put a precise figure on it we were still quite high up in the mountains. We seem to follow the pattern of a slow drag upwards followed by a pacey descent the other side; sometimes though I just wish for a nice flat piece of road. The other thing we do seem to be facing is a constant headwind and this appears to have been the case ever since we left Prague. Nevertheless we are in good spirits and everything bikes and bodies are holding up well.

We picked up the river about 20 kilometres outside of Regensburg and made our way towards the centre. It was getting late in the afternoon and both of us were really just focused on finding a place to sleep for the night. What with us camping all the way up to here it's been much harder for us to arrange a place to stay before we arrive but we've seen plenty of camp-sites in Germany and thought we'd have no trouble finding another one on entering the city, this however didn't prove to be the case.

We have now began to see specific signs for the Euro velo 6 bike route which made working our way around the city much easier. Germany is full of cyclists and after flagging down a few locals we finally found one extremely helpful guy who rode us ten minutes directly to a camp-site right beside the river.

This was the first 'official' camp-site I've stayed in since starting my trip and while I was really happy to find it the whole concept of paying to put my tent on a piece of grass confuses me somewhat. I suppose you get to use the showers, running water and have the added safety of being around others but twelve Euros does sound a little excessive for that don't you think? Or perhaps I've just become the worlds biggest cheapskate! Mind you I changed my mind a little after my first hot shower since Prague which felt amazing.

Tom celebrated our arrival as I checked us in with a pint each of top notch German beer. It was a great idea after a long day on the bike but as I pointed out to him it's probably better served after we pitch our tents, cook and wash as the whole process after that cool refreshing beer becomes much much harder and not to mention slower.

With the tent up and food cooked it was time to set about writing this very blog; the only problem was that the camp-site now wanted six Euros of my hard earned money to get online for an hour!

The camp-site was mostly full of caravans and some pretty plush looking camper vans. Tom and I both looked rather enviously at some of the set ups people had as they set about eating their deliciously barbecued food off their pristine clean picnic tables while sipping glasses of wine and beer. Lots of people appear to have brought satellite dishes with them so I assume they can watch their favourite TV shows. Imagine that going on holiday to watch TV from a camper van?

Tomorrow it's back on the bike and heading a little further south-west hopefully along the bike path that runs along the banks of the river that we picked up today. That's all for now, enjoy your comfy houses!