Friday, September 11--Burglengenfeld, Germany

Friday, September 11

Today was one of the days cycle tourists live for. It began in the town of Kemnath and ended 65 miles later in the town of Burglengenfeld, near Regensburg. From Kemnath we followed a route set by the gps, and it got us to where we wanted to go—to the Naab River—but via a number of very small forest roads. One of the problems with the gps is that while I have told it not to include any unpaved roads (one of the options on TomTom) it does not seem to know when some are in this category. Probably 10 km of the day’s ride went on roads that were unpaved, sometimes little more than woodland paths. They were not bad, actually, and as I said they did get us to our destination, but if the gps would have quit, or the battery run down, we would have been in total confusion.

At any rate we made it from our beginning to the town of Luhe-Wildenau in fine shape. The wind was with us, the terrain was gentle, and the day was cool but not cold. The cycling conditions were perfect. And when we arrived at Luhe-Wildenau we quickly found the Naab Cycle Path and began to follow it. And it was wonderful. The Elbe and Saale paths had their good and bad, and in both cases we were following them upstream. Now we have crossed the continental divide and the Naab flows south, our direction of travel. And the cycle trail is very well marked and very well built. Most of the time we were riding on a smooth and traffic-free path just feet from the river itself, and when on road the road was scarcely traveled and the trail easily identifiable. It is somewhat ironic to me that in preparing for this trip I could find much less information about the Naab cycle trail than the Elbe or Saale, but the Naab is much more pleasant in every way.

While Brian and I had planned on a short day for a change, the weather and the trail was so favorable that we kept going past our planned destination and ended up in Burglengenfeld, a delightful historic town on the Naab. We have settled into a hotel right on the river and have enjoyed a good meal, ready for rest…