ALONG THE DANUBE TO PASSAU

As we ride along the trails by the Danube we continue to come across the unusual.
This was another of those beneficial bug houses...

And we don't stay on the same side of the river all the time, there are usually paths on both sides and Dave  checks out the route each night to see which side will be the most interesting to tackle next day.
Sometimes the crossing of the river is pretty interesting, especially with a bridge like this!!
Wouldn't want to tackle this after a bottle of red!

We never seem to get bored with the scenery, this particular town had a massive big green parkland and on the edge of it was this 'military' building I think - pretty impressive:

Some things don't change though and as usual I was dragging the chain -

We seem to find some really nice places to take a break but this one really suited Dave and he settled in - quite at home in the 'Daddy Chair'

 We decided to take the recommendation of our Danube guide and catch the ferry for a short distance of the river so as not to miss out on the views from the water ( not to mention the hilly alternatives)

So after parking the bikes amongst all the others we went up and joined the tourists

It was a good choice as the scenery was pretty good and it was nice to sit back and take it easy for 20 mins or so.  One place was intriguing and made us wonder if anyone had ever lived in there?

 I have already spoken of the prolific religious statues in the areas we have passed by.  On Farms, in villages and town and mountains and road sides, but on the side of a rock cliff?

Maybe they had help from above!!!

The traffic on the Danube is reasonable busy but on this little stretch of the river we were always in view of another Ferry covering just the same short distance as us.

We glimpsed this unusual building from the water but like a lot of these old buildings it was hard to get a picture because of the ever present scaffolding .....

Back on the bikes again and Dave continues to check out all the barges cruising up and down the river,

We are a long way from the last one of these we saw but here is another 'love lock' bridge - with padlocks dedicated to couples.... There were hundreds of them......

This place was built by Crown Prince Ludwig in the 1830's and was built to honour fallen heros......pretty impressive.....it's called Walhalla

Not quite so imposing but still pretty impressive are some of the farm yards.....in the middle of the towns and they are built around a central courtyard.  Almost always very pretty..

And the funny signs continue.......this one loosely translated says "I can get to the gate in 3 seconds - U?"

We had a German man stop and chat for ages one day in the Netherlands, and he  was telling us all about how they are utilizing Solar energy over there.  When we were riding through this area we could really see what he meant:

We have noticed a strange phenomen in some German villages in the form of poles!  Some have been in city centres and others just in private yards.  They are very tall with decorations, we saw several but this one was decorated with everything to do with babies....must Google it!!

After a long day riding it is always good when meal time comes around....Lots of pasta has been enjoyed and most of the time we cook our own on our trusty little Trangia stove, but occasionally we lash out and even though it may not be cordon Bleu it sure tasted good..

We have met some really interesting people on this trip. The next guy was an inspiration.  He broke his back in a diving accident and has issues with walking but he rides this bike, camps, sets up his tent etc etc all alone, and is happy to be alive!!!  The bike by the way is a URAL and he was heading to a weekend get together for URALS and had ridden from France.

Another sign that needs explaining!!!

As we neared Passau the good weather we had been blessed with decided to change but luckily it didn't last for long

The Danube has quite a few power stations built on it. 

They harness the power of the water, and have built locks to let the boats pass through, but I guess like everything sometimes maintenance is required.  It was pretty interesting to see how its done....

Honestly we seem to find interesting things around every corner - 

And around the next corner......? ..........stay tuned!!!