Donauwalzer

• Wednesday, April 6, 2011

• Silkroad

My first week is already over and I could already write a book. Every day you experience something new. After a short farewell we went with a crying eye towards the German border.

Towards evening I reached the Danube. About 20 kilometers below the source of Donaueschingen, I pitched my tent for the first time. From there, more than 600 kilometers have been covered so far. Above all, the encounters with the people were fascinating.
On the second day I met Albert Hermann.

With him and his family, I was allowed to bivouac in the garden. Albert is history and religion teacher at high school and was able to explain some exciting episodes about Islam and Buddhism. Shortly after Ulm I met Lorenz Kurth the next day. He is from Basel and travels through Eastern Europe in 6 weeks. Together we experienced our first rain baptism. Luckily the night could be spent in a dry shelter. The campsites are still partially closed. In Regensburg I met Franz Grebler.

He cycled through Thailand for 3 months last autumn and showed me the beautiful old town of Regensburg with the oldest bridge in Germany (Steinerne Brücke, about 800 years old).

Everywhere one is greeted with "hello" and adopted with "Pfüadt Gott". The second rainy day was between Passau and Linz. The next day I met Tom Bruce and Julius Folke.

Tom is leaving the city for the SOS Children's Village in 8 months from Manchester tombrucecycling.com and Julius has 4 months to get to Istanbul. Together we drove to Vienna.
Julius stays here for a week and Tom and I want to be in Istanbul by the end of the month. The route along the Danube is largely flat, so the miles just fly there. Pfüadt God!