I flew from Dubrovnik to Copenhagen, Denmark where I had an overnight ready to board the ms Eurodam the next day.

I really didn’t get a whole lot of time to explore the Baltic as I was doing a lot of training and getting ready to take over the ms Noordam 20 days later.

What I did see of the Baltic was amazing, the weather was really good and the views were amazing. Work was good and I have a strong feeling that I will be back in the Baltic in the future.

One thing that was really annoying was the fact that I didn’t have a Russian visa or seaman’s book so i couldn’t get off the ship in Russia. next time.

The train from Munich to Passau was no problem, there were other cyclists on board who were doing the same thing so it was a good sign.

When we got there we rode into the tourist information center and asked for a cycling map of the Danube, here is another tip, they give detailed books on how to ride down the Danube for free, they have everything in them from maps, to bike repair to food to camp grounds, all good stuff.

So we set off, it was a hotter day but that is fine, I liked it better when it was hot than raining anyway.

The plan was to make as much ground on the first day so that we can take our time for the other days. There was some really amazing terrain and castles around which was great to see.

So we rode 80km through towns and villages along the Danube, there were many other riders however they were a fair bit older than we were.

The first night or camping there was thunderstorms, the weather could change really quickly, I had read about June / July thunderstorms but I figured it would not be a problem. It was not a problem because we were sleeping when it all happened. It was a big day so we went to bed early so we could get a good start in the morning.

On our one day we had in Munich we had what at the time seemed like a lot to do. When in fact it was only three things.

1) buy a tent
2) find a map of the Danube
3) organise trains to Passau (where we were starting the ride down the Danube through Austria and into Bratislava).

We rode from the tent into the city and looked around for a bit, the train was easy, the other two took some time. Lucky for us we went to the city information centre in the middle of town and they showed us where a bike shop was (for a map) and where we should be able to get a tent. Things were looking good.

Well we found the tent place, it was sort of a mountain design outdoors type store and had prices to match. Ryan wanted a thomas the tank engine tent but unfortunately no one in Germany knew of Kmart or thomas the tank engine so that was out. We did end up buying a proper tent because we needed it for the ride down the Danube and EXIT festival in Serbia, so we figured it would be a good investment, also we bought cooking stuff because we wanted to cook the whole way to save some cash.

We then rode onto the bike shop which was not as much help, they did have a thick book on cycling the Danube but it was in German, not so good. So after another look around we could not find anything and decided that we would just wing it when we get to Passau, as that is where a bulk of people ride from.

That night we went back to the tent, interneted it up and had some of their hippy food.

Once we pulled into Munich train station we needed to get to our accommodation which was called The Tent, it was a little bit out of the Munich city center but was easily accessible by bike. This was promoted as ultra (ok I don’t think they used ultra) cheep accommodation and was a 100 bed tent (marque) in the middle of what looked like a nature reserve. It was 11 euro each per night, which was a nice amount.

After locking up our bikes we had food and found out that the internet was free. Booyah. Much facebooking to be done.

We went to bed quite early because we had been travelling all day and the pain of having to reorganise trains mid trip was hard work.

Day out in Munich…..organising for the Danube ride

This was a day that knowing the language could have helped us. We boarded the train with out bikes and noticed there were a lot of bikes on board. The conductor came by and asked us for our tickets which we booked online. The train consisted of three different trains and the conductor said we did not have tickets for our bikes, only us.

She was good about it though and let us stay on until the next stop, but informed us that the next train we were booked on was High Speed and would not take bikes. So once off the train I ran into the ticket place and the guy had a work around, it would take a few more hours but that is ok. It was the 80 euro each for the other tickets that we lost that sucked.

The rest of the train ride was fine, it was long but fine. Lesson learned about high speed trains. Lessons are happening a lot on this trip.

We got up at about 12 noon and it was scorching hot in Freiburg, this was a good thing because after the moral crippling weather of Belgium it was great to have sun.

We went for a swim at a lake near Matt and had a look through some vineyards. Freiberg and the surrounding area is really nice, as was the day before riding through the black forest.

After a swim and seeing a lot of naked Germany people everywhere we drove into France for a look, it is crazy how quickly you can be in another country, by car anyway, by bike it takes a bit longer. At this point we started to try out the local beer and have some lunch that we threw together on Matts car (I hope that olive oil has come off).

That night we rode our bikes around town, Freiberg is really bike friendly as it is a student town. There was a lot of activity because it was a Saturday night.

The next day we got up at noon and rode to the public swimming pools as it was another scorcher. The pools were packed but it was a nice day to lay on grass next to the pool. We also got Black Forrest Cake which was really nice, there were only a few places that had it in town so that was lucky.

That night we watched the Euro 08 Spain V Italy. Spain won and Matt let the Italian restaurant down the rode know about it.

Other than that it was a bit of a quieter night as the next day we had to get a train to Munich.

It was good to “recover” at Matts from the Amsterdam and is defiantly somewhere I would like to go back to.