Getting to the starting line

I drove today to the starting line of my bike ride from Regensburg to Vienna. (700 km in 8 hours)

Well almost. In fact I stopped 30km short of Regensburg, because its a holiday weekend and everything that was affordable was full, so I have instead come to stay in the monastery of Kloster Weltenburg, one of the prettiest spots on the entire river.

This is the 3rd stay in a monastery in recent years. The previous 2 occasions were in Japan. Of course they have very little in common other than that they are all still active and they welcome guests. Weltenburg is both stunning in it location and its magnificent baroque chapel, not forgetting that it is the worlds oldest surviving brewery.

Today after my long drive, I took a very short walk along the Danube and then had a beer and a typical Bavarian dish of bread dumplings in mushroom sauce.

Not much later around 8pm I was back in my modest monks room, I lay down on the bed and instantly fell asleep. Strangely tiring, sitting driving all day.Read more