Week 9 of our cross-Europe cycle touring holiday had us cycling between Basel (Switzerland) and Regensburg (Germany).
[Music] We have just walked into Switzerland through the border. We’re not sure if we’re supposed to stop or someone’s going to come chasing us. There are people doing border control and stamps in their passports and vehicle searches and we just wander through like what are we supposed to do here? We are at three Landerek which is the meeting point for France, Switzerland and Germany in the middle of the Ryan River. Very special to be here. So this is an edgy nightife area which uh is closed at the moment and it’s quite otherworldly. Not what you’d expect from Switzerland. And we’re looking across to Basil over the Ryan River. It’s a pretty busy river. So, it turns out that Euro Vision has just been held in Basil. We didn’t even know about it. Basel. Tiny but shiny. Woohoo. Lots of people love their bicycles in this place. But we are having a break from ours today, which we’re pretty happy [Music] about. Hi, we’re at the Basil Cathedral, which is from about I think 900. We’ve been down in the crypt and that’s when the oldest people are buried from. You can see George and the dragon over there as well as some very friendly for line. And we’re in the beautiful Müster Plats, which is a stunning square. Lots of interest and lots of beautiful houses here. [Music] Thank you. gallery. And now we’re going to catch the tram back to Violin Rhyme where we’ve been staying. Um, pretty. Here it comes. The number eight. Hey, it’s our 32nd day of cycling across Europe and it’s our first day on officially on the Ryan route um going through Germany. So, very exciting. Very glad that the rain’s cleared up this morning. [Music] This is one of the challenges for today. Jacket on, jacket off, and then looking for it in the bags again without the bicycle falling over. That’s been the tricky bit about cycling, not having a a stand on the bicycle. We’ve arrived at Augustaorica, which is the old Roman site. This is the temple part of the site and the cows are keeping watch over it. Now we’re heading back to our bicycles to go looking for the amphitheater. I’m standing in the middle of what once was a circus, a very large, not a cl circus with clowns, but with gladiators. And it was only rediscovered in 1959. And cycling through the old town of Reinfeldon along the rind. Such an idic little Swiss village along the Rome. And to make it even more perfect, on top of the tower is a st nest with a st city road. And under the town gate through the wall. We’re just past Reinfelden and we’re on the Swiss side of the Ryan route. Very quaint. How do you like this? They’re public um barbecue areas and they provide wood for you to burn. That’s impressive. Riding through these forests is really special, but the road is a little bit slippery, so you have to be careful. We’re having a picnic lunch here in the middle of the Swiss forest next to the Rine. And uh it’s in celebration. Cheers. We have done 3,000 kilometers since the start of our holiday, which is We keep on bumping into nuclear power stations all over along these rivers, but it’s great because they build dams which we can cycle across. We’re cycling in the middle of the Rine. We’re about to go over to the German side, but we’re just checking out the fields of what we think are potatoes and the workers in the fields. And then the other side something else. And there’s Germany on the other side. Crossing the Ryan back into Germany. There’s the islands. And there’s even a bit of sunshine. And although there’s a bit of sunshine, there’s also a bit of rain. So we get everything. Day 33 and this is where we spent the night. The only campers here. Um Athel when he put his hand on his bicycle uh got a slug under his hand. And now that I’ve just closed up my bag, there’s a snail on it. So it’s a very fertile area of Germany. We’re right on the border with Switzerland at [Music] Herdun. Day two of riding along the Rine. Heading out from our campsite. The weather is looking a little bit threatening, but I think we might be in luck. We’ve just crossed back into Switzerland and come across some goats with bells on. Rather sweet. So, we’re in Switzerland. We are going through these back roads, through the forest, the pastures, and then up on the steep hill even some grape farms. We’re are walking up a hill cuz we can’t cycle it. But great to be among the vines. It’s 11:00. Time to ring the bell. There’s the monastery. And there’s some rain coming dotting down on us. So, we need to quickly get down the hill. We’re enjoying our lunch here at Iraq now Church, which is unfortunately closed, but it doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate the view. We are going through a traditional Swiss covered bridge to get over the Ryan. We’ve arrived at Rinefall, which is also known as Shook Thousand. It seems that everyone in this little town has got a little boat to cross the Rine to the other side to go visit their friends. A little bit of sunshine in the village as we come through. And there’s one of those covered bridges again. Hello girls. We’ve avoided the rain so far. Can we keep with the luckiness on our way to Stin? Our last town in Switzerland. I think we’ve arrived at the town of Dine Amrin, which is a beautiful medieval town on the Ryan River and the last town that we’ll be on on the Ryan River cuz we’re about to head up towards north of Germany, the east. Quite incredible. I can just imagine Erin and Ally sitting in one of those little bay windows reading a book. This is a very popular town and one of the first times that we feel that we’re not the only tourists in Europe. This is an important diversion of the Euro Valley 6. We are off to the beginning of the Danube. Big hill to climb to get there though. This is hard work. The last little bit, last 5 km, it’s steep. So, hills always look flat when you look at them on a video, but believe me, this is a very steep hill. Oh, and we’ve been coming up it. We’re on our way to our campsite and we’ve stopped about 3 kilometers before the campsite. We had to eat food and rest. Hopefully, we’ll make it before sunset. It was very comfortable but very expensive. Um, and we got a big climb to start the day and then we are on the Danube. After an initial steep climb up the mountain, now we’re going downhill all the way down to the source of the Danube through massive pine plantations. That bell’s tolling to tell us it’s morning tea time. So, we have reached the donau, which is the German word for the danu. And we’re going to go to the source of the Danube now in the next 20 km or so. I’m just loving this route up to Don Shingen. Absolutely beautiful. We didn’t know that beavers were in Europe. But there are beavers in this little stream over here apparently. And you can see their evidence from the tooth marks on that stump. Beaver update. We have found a beaver dam. They are in the river and they do make dams. Gail’s h high viz is very in place in front of this h high viz church. We are at the source of the danube. This little spring over here becomes the mighty mighty Danube. Okay. from the source reanelica which is Switzerland and then we go all the way through Dejand and we cross over we don’t go to church here but we cross over to Austria most of our section is through Austria a long way through Austria here’s Vienna and then we go a little bit further to Bratlava which is in Slovakia that’s the SK and then we deviate that way and we’re going to go through Slovenia and down through Cro Croatia. So, we’re not going to end up on this eastern section because there’s too many bears. We are at the start point of the don. Yes, many kilometers to go, but only 70 today. So, we’re cycling on along the young bit of the Danube coming up to a little village and it’s great cycling. Lots of downhill. Spring is the time for festivals and circuses to visit the open space next to the river. And once again, we have another bakery treat. That’s what this trip is all about. You thought we were cycling across Europe. We are just exploring bakery treats at this point. Apple strudel something. The Div now heads into a gorge and uh it’s really picturesque. They’ve all been shown. Loving this gorge as we get closer to Beron in the upper regions of the Danube. This is the gorge along the Danube which is just so incredibly stunning. Gorgeous you might say with limestone cliffs. Absolute country perfection. So this is definitely our favorite area in Germany thus far. Getting towards 700 p.m. Hopefully, we’ll find our campsite soon or really nice hotel. And what is this? Let’s check in here. Athel, unfortunately, it’s a monastery, so only I’m allowed. Eth’s going to be sleeping in the meadow. There’s a Benedicting monastery way up at the top of that cliff. I can just see it. Don’t know how you get there. These swans are having their dinner and we should be having our dinner, too. And then I think they’ll fly up to their village on top of the mountain. So, it’s about 9:00 at night. We arrived here at 28 and got pretty much the last spot. So, we’re on a downhill right next to the water, but it’s absolutely spectacular as well. There’s ducks around and we are very happy because we are making It’s a wet morning this morning. Welcome to day 35. It’s a Sunday and we were woken by all the church bells and we’re hoping that we’ll get some good luck and the rain will stop. Athe stretching. There he is. He’s doing his next stretch. This is not a Pilates class and if it was, we wouldn’t be doing it in the rain. This is an emergency stretching session cuz it’s our knees that get impacted. That’s what Ethel’s safeguarding at the moment. We still in the mountainous area, the cast and that would have been an easy way to avoid the rain. This is very cool. All of the tunnels through the rock uh for the cars to traverse this area. [Music] There’s massive clouds up above, but we’re making good time and we’ve got great views of the little German villages. There’s the maple. This must be from the beginning of spring. We’ve seen a few of them in the villages. You can see now that the Danube is getting wider, wide enough to even have a wear. And there’s Obo Moshtal, which is a village closter. Well, we’re not too sure if this wild campsite is open or not, but it certainly is open for gosslings and geese. Check out all these sweet little locals. We’re just hoping we can stay here, too. Hi, it’s our 36th day and we’re cycling through Germany towards the big town of Well, here is a site from my childhood. This is a sappy mill. Girls bike is looking a little bit dirty and worse for wear, but I’ve just been to that bakery for breakfast, so I am definitely not worse for wear now. [Music] It’s so great riding on flat ground with the wind at your back and the world just stretching out for it. The Dal’s been damned and so it’s this wide big open bit of water with the farmland all around lower than it. So, we’re coming into Elm and there’s been lots of construction activity. The sky is looking all blue, but uh that’s just a bit deceptive. We’re in Elm, old city. Looks like the Lou, but it’s not. And here, maybe this is the old city hall and the spire behind it. This is the leading tower of M. Not something you’ve heard about before. No, there’s no pizza here. And this is not the leading pizza, but it is just as exciting. This is a stairway to heaven. I don’t think we can try. There’s construction work on the Eurovva 6. So, they’ve closed one side of the road. Happy Easter everyone. We have found Easter eggs and that’s super exciting for us. Oh, they even came with salt. These are previously boiled eggs from Aldi. So now we’re having colorful eggs with our lunch. Very cool. And they’re perfectly boiled. Just right. Make easy to peel. Thanks voiceover guy. The Danube is now wide and flat and open. And it looks like it’s probably navigable. And along the route there these markers which um I don’t know what they are but I’m wondering whether that’s the distance in kilometers to the coast. It’s my birthday today. And as we head off down the Danube, my birthday present is a no rain day, which is great. It’s chilly though. And uh but it’s going to be an easy 100 kilometers with practically no hills, which is good. It’s another day of land speed records as we whiz along through the fields with the wind at our back. Slight downhill making good time. You’d never guess he’s just turned 53. He’s a machine. As we come into this pretty little town next to the Danube, it’s hard to lose sight of the fact that there are massive clouds looming ahead and above. More maples and a lovely old village. Well, this little village has got all of its finery for spring festival. Now, it does feel very decadent to have three cheesecakes all to myself. Have one of those. But I’m not having them all. Gail will have half of the drink at least. At least. And I’ll have half the strawberry. Whatever. [Music] Now, this is a very unusual looking bridge that they’ve put next to the road bridge. It’s a suspension bicycle bridge which goes up and down. Quite funky. It’s really hard to video on cobblestones, let me tell you. We got a quick pack up this morning because uh there’s a drizzle happening and we want to get out way before anything gets too wet. Uh but already it’s wet. Cycling along through the fields and the the hops orchards and uh running away from the rain. Atal’s got a German bakery treat and there’s the beautiful Danube. We have arrived at Boltonberg Cluster which is the Abbey of Boltonber which we know nothing about except we assume there were some lovely ladies that lived here through the medieval times or the Middle Ages or the dark ages or maybe even the 19th century. amongst at this close used to brew beer. And I would have liked to have stopped and had a beer here, but we’ve got rain um chasing us and we have to get to our destination before the heavy rain starts. And also the beer is from 10:50, so we don’t know if it’ll still be good, man. And man, that was a crazy steep downhill um through the forest. And Gail’s definitely pushing that one. We’ve come to the bit of the Dau that is properly navigational by massive ships, which is quite amazing cuz it’s over 2,300 km away from the ocean. Some rather wet sheep. Funky. We got rain, not too heavy, lots of mud. Our bikes are dirty and our legs are dirty. Uh, got another 30ks to go. Having to hose down the bike.