Sunday, June 15, 2008

What a Day!




Day 14 Eggolshiem to Kipfenburg.

What a Day!

We were up to another chilly morning but as soon as we got warmed up we were fine. The group of five of us are having fun following the path way signs which at times are hard to spot but with five sets of eyes watching we seldom make mistakes.

I should mention that to day we left the Danube cycleway and have been riding up this other cycle way to avoid some major industrial area around the metropolitan area of Ingolstad. It is a very beautiful valley with steep limestone walls which have castles on top of the big limestone promontories. Very cool. But just to make it even cooler we turn down this back lane and are on top of the levee on the river went we come to this flock of sheep. In a wild guess there are a couple of hundred sheep on the pathway. There are a bunch of really little lambs (maybe 10-12 inches high) which are so cute. The sheep are make all this noise and calling to each other. As we came to a stop the sheep just kind of flowed around us. After the sheep had passed we saw the Shepard who was minding the flock. There he was dressed as classic story book Shepard with a staff and the dog at his side.

We left the pathway and were riding up the highway in a pace line and the five of use are making good time, when the tandem and pace line which follows it caught us. So we fell in to the line which is now probably 15 plus riders. Being in such a long line is really asking for trouble. One tiny miss-cue and you have a major wreck on your hands. As we hit a tiny grade the tandem slowed and I pulled out and passed the entire line. With about 12 km to lunch it was a long pull and I couldn’t out run the pace line but I was determined no to fall back into the line so I stayed in front until the lunch stop. It was a blast just pounding it out.

At lunch our nurse, Amandene was handling lunch break and telling people that you could only have two buns and two slices of each kind of meat. So I jumped in, and wound up getting her confused as to what she was telling us by continually saying it backwards and repeating her instructions in an upside down fashion. It was just hilarious. So after the sandwich you can have bread with peanut butter, or Nutella. However today there was some whipped cream in a can left over from yesterday’s strawberries. I put some peanut butter and Nutella, then a huge gob of whipped cream on the bread, Jos grabs his camera and I started hamming it up. Pretty so everyone is trying it. What a time. It actually tastes pretty good!

After lunch I was really on a roll and lead huge line in to Eichstatt which was about 15 kms. Eichstatt is this medieval city and there is a huge festival going on. The city is celebrating their 1100 birthday! The downtown is all cordoned off and so we walked our bike though the town. Everyone is dressed in medieval costumes. There are all kinds of customs from wizards to Saxons to peasants, to jokers, kings, princesses, bards. The main square in the downtown has all these huge tables and they are serving HUGE beers. So Joco, Jim and I had to have a beer. I mean we rode all this way, how could you not have a beer. There are only two words to describe it. “Just Perfect!”

Joco and I flew out of town with several riders in tow at a blistering pace and didn’t let up until we hit camp, in Kipfenburg. In Kipfenburg there is huge castle on top of the cliff so we walked up to see it. You couldn’t go in as it was a private castle. It had a museum attached so we went into the museum. It was about the roman ruins in the area but being all in German I didn’t understand much of it.

In camp I meet this really nice Bouvier de Flanders called Max. Max had natural ears and tail. He was 14 which made him a very old Bouvier, so he kept his beard shaved down so that the grey didn’t show so bad. However there was still a lot of grey in his eye brows, I thought he still looked pretty handsome. We had a great visit. Max’s English was great but did have and interesting German accent and although he didn’t know either of my two Bouviers, Phantom and Xena. He did say that he did have some second cousins, once removed in Canada. He sends a big woof along to Phantom and Xena.

Supper was Bar-be-que Pork and rice which was excellent.

The new bike computer is working great and clocked 98.8 kms.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for the comments

Ride it like you stole it!
Terry

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Unless the three of you shared that beer, I would think that blistering pace out of town would have been a bit wobbley!!! Great photos. Keep up the good work.

Ken C.