Course Change

We are now in Passau, Germany, near the Austrian Border. Following the advice of our friends Jennifer and Brenda, who commented on the last post, we decided to ride toward Budapest to meet them. We reached the Danube (Donau) river two days ago and have been traveling east. We expect to be in or near Vienna in about a week, and we will see whether we can keep riding or if we have to take a short train ride.

The Danube bike path is very nice, and a lot more heavily traveled than the others we have followed. It is also much less hilly (so far), which is nice on the legs. We had a few rainy days recently, but the sun is now shining and the weather has been great for biking and camping. And the campsites are wonderful, with clean bathrooms and sometimes even a beergarden.

We did get to watch the Germany-Sweden match in Hof, which was really fun...when Germany won it was as if they had sealed the championship - people partying in the streets, honking horns, waving flags and so on. A few days ago, we watched Germany beat Argentina in a rather young local bar. We felt a little out of place amid the raving and chanting, but it was fun. Too bad about England, though...we watched that match at our campsite in Straubing with a nice English couple. Guess we are going to see the rest of the matches from Austria.

That´s all for now. Perhaps I will be able to do the next update from Jen´s blackberry!