Any Old Excuse

Sunday 10.06.2012  Straubing  -  Gaishofen  (just short of Passau)  85kms

For the more astute of you, you will have noted from the date that we actually took the day off yesterday. The hotel that we finally decided upon on Friday was such a friendly and accommodating place, the town was big enough to sort shopping and no one seemed to mind a bit if we cleaned the bikes and trailers, did the washing and hung it on a conveniently hot towel rail, so we stayed an extra day. (We cannot recommend highly enough ‘Hotel Gaubodenhof’  in Straubing).  We are doing very well with guest houses but very badly with campsites! This is bad news for the budget, but the weather has been truly appalling. We spent the whole of this morning getting soaked and then very damp this afternoon.  And things are not looking very encouraging this evening. So, here we are in another very nice Gasthaus. We’ll be keeping the German economy going all on our own at this rate.

Despite the rain, the ride today has been pretty and generally close to the river. I’m sure it would have been spectacular had we been able to see further. For the most part it was fairly easy going and pretty quiet. (After all, why on earth would you go for a ride in the rain when you could stay in and watch the tele?) Why we bothered to clean the bikes is also a bit of a mystery. It was a well- intentioned but fruitless exercise as they are filthy again after another section of muddy track! Heigh ho, at least they are only encrusted in one day’s dirt.

We are a few kilometres short of Passau. Traversing that city is a project for lively minds, legs and 20:20 vision. Not sure who is going to do it – doesn’t sound too much like us! Should we succeed, we shall be in Austria where Alan can still use his vast knowledge of the German language – “Zwei bier bitte.”Excellent beer it is too. Cheers!