Days 34-38

At the start we stopped little, and not for that long
For fear our bodies would freeze,
Now we must scoff and just pedal off
In the hope of catching a breeze.

Gunzburg to Linz via Munich

So, there you have it, it's too bloody hot now! There's just no pleasing some people... but a little adjustment period might have been nice...

Anyway, less moaning about the weather, and more about Munchen.
What a great city! Unknowingly, we arrived on a public holiday, so the city was deserted making it ideal for a bike tour with our friends, and the banks of the Isar river and the beer gardens were rammed so we got right into the local way...

Now, being so far from the coast you would think that surfing was out of the question. But not in Munich! You can surf on the canal right in the middle of the city - and I'm not talking about the internet...

The Viktualien Market, selling all sorts of Bavarian commodities, had Steve smiling all day with its vast selection of food stalls to choose from, and add to that a scrumptious BBQ and lots of local beers and we were more than well fed and rested. Kristin and Tobias certainly treated us well, pictured below with their daughter Lucia (blondie) and her friend Emily.

We even got invited with them to a Congolese first Communion ceremony - spoken part in Conglose, part German and the odd bit of French, so as you can imagine we had very little idea what was going on, but were made very welcome. The drum replaced the organ in the church and the singing was very gospel. Afterwards at the party we sampled some tasty traditional dishes, (catfish in a spicy sauce and cooked plantains being among the favourites) and music and dancing.
As you can imagine, it was very hard to leave our friends. Thank you guys for a wonderful stay!

We picked up the Danube again at Regensburg - a UNESCO world heritage site since 2006 due to its array of medieval buildings and bridge, built 1135. There was also a marathon going on so lots of atmosphere and street music to enjoy too.

The towns along this part of the Danube, like Straubing, Degendorf and Kunzig, are lovely to visit and have a coffee or ice cream and take in the atmosphere, but they all look spookily similar to one another. Typical Bavarian pastel coloured buildings, decorated clock towers, and cobbled, pedestrianised market centres may have you wondering if you've just cycled around in circles.

Not far from Regensburg, perched dominantly high above the Danube, is the Greek looking temple called Walhalla. Inspired by the ancient Parthenon in Athens, this was in fact built in the 19th century by the Bavarian King Ludwig 1st, to remember great German speaking men and women and to inspire the nation.

We free camped two nights along the river - in what we thought we're idyllic spots: beaches for dipping in the water, trees and shade. Even the Bavarian shepherd agreed..

that was until...dusk. Now, we've both visited our fair share of tropical countries, but neither of us have encountered such a viscous and frenzied attack from so many mosquitoes at once, and dusk only lasts for half an hour there. Within seconds every inch of skin was covered, and clothing didn't stop them either. With one slap of the hand you could eliminate at least ten of them. The only respite was to put up the tent and sweat inside it until about 10pm.
I have to plug a product here -Incognito mosquito repellent. All natural and won all sorts of awards and better than deet products, so they told us, and really, these mozzies didn't like it at all, so I highly recommend it.

Passau, the city on three rivers, is near the Austrian and Czech border. The Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers meet here, as do the many river boat cruises that pass up and down. And somewhere beyond there we entered into Austria, but there was no fanfare, flag or even sign, so we're not really sure where it happened...