After a seriously packed train ride from Munich to Passau, so packed we put our bikes and luggage into the bathroom which was hilarious when anyone went to go use the bathroom <<ach nein!>>, we arrived and quickly found that the information was closed. Putting my fantastisch German to use, I asked several people where the Rathaus was because the other tourist information was there and we needed a map. Shortening things up, we finally found it, got the map, and went for a two pint lunch after which I promptly lost the map. Shouldn’t be a problem right? We’re just following a river.
After an hour of biking we stopped at a seemingly abandoned tourist spot where the only useful thing was a ice cream vending machine. This was officially Austria as my mobile had switched carriers.
Biking for a bit longer we came across an average looking guest house but I was eager to continue on and cover some distance. An hour later, James and I were looking longingly at the south side of the Donau hoping for a bridge to take us to the myriad of hotels and accommodation. At this point it’s seriously dark so we’re biking with lights and there isn’t a g damn thing on the north side. Then the lovely paved path ceases to exist and abruptly gives way to jagged rocks. Like a foolish optimist I suggest we give it a try. Instant regret and retracing of steps. Now we have to backtrack an hour to the first place we found. We get there and tie up our bikes. Walking up the steps the sign says geschlossen. Closed! Did I mention today is a holiday. Seriously fuck holidays. I could see a woman through the window and knocked. With a mix of lost tourist sad face and enough German words to seem nice, she said we could sleep there but the kitchen was closed. Are the beer taps closed? Nope. Thank The Lord. Let’s see if the almighty can finagle us a couple bowls of cereal.

Minor change in plans: instead of cycling to Istanbul we’re going to loop back through Croatia and ferry across the Adriatic to Italy and bike from Ancona to Venice. We will fly back to Berlin to change gear and stow our bikes before flying to Istanbul.

We’ve been in Munich since Wednesday evening and spent the full day Thursday exploring on bike. We also explored on stool while eating many sausages and alternating between Pilsner and wheat beer. This morning we are training to Passau near the Austria German border and we will finally start biking along the Danube.

This will take us across Austria, into Slovakia, across Hungary and Serbia.

In two weeks I’ll be leaving Berlin heading south. My friend James (we go back to high school) is coming from Vancouver to Berlin in exactly one week. We will hang in Berlin for a week before starting a bike tour towards Istanbul. Consequently this means I have about a week to find a bike.

Our plan is to take about 6 weeks to get from Berlin to Istanbul. It’s about 2200 km to Istanbul so that ends up being about 50 km per day which isn’t that much. We can also put our bikes on the train to speed things up if we decide to stay in one place for longer.

There are a few different routes we could take. One would be to cross from Germany into the Czech republic, the other is to cross into Austria. After that it’s Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, before entering Turkey. It also might be nice to go through Croatia instead towards Greece and then Turkey. I imagine this would be quite a bit warmer!

Any suggestions would be helpful.