We reached the Danube!

 

Yesterday's ride on the last day of August will be memorable because of the village we reached halfway through the day, called Harburg. Here an impressive castle sits atop the hill, this one dating from the 11-12^th century, and said to be one of Germany's oldest castle fortifications.

Hamburg and its hilltop castle

We didn't climb up to the castle (these hilltop establishments are oft best viewed from afar in our opinion, especially when you're on a heavily loaded bike). Instead we stumbled on a delightful little café on the old stone bridge over the slow-moving Wornitz River where we had coffee and the most delicious pieces of homemade cake. We had quite the chat with the owners who seemed quite surprised to have Canadians on bikes in their place.

Our large pieces of apple cake and plum cake

Chilling in the heat of the day

 Anyway the eating was followed by a good hour just relaxing in the shade under the trees along the river, resting up before hitting the path again an route to Donauworth.

Reaching Donauworth was a major milestone on this tour for us. It's the point where we reach the Danube River (the Wornitz flows into the Danube here), and also where we intersect with the route we cycled in 2022. That time we were following the Danube west to east, now we're just crossing over it to keep heading south.

Almost in Donauworth, a familiar town to us from the 2022 trip

The other major significance is that this point marks the northern terminus of the ancient Roman route that connected  the northern part of the Empire (using the Danube river) with the Adriatic Sea allowing trade and travel through the Alps. The road is known as the Via Claudia Augusta – the reason we're here. We're going to be following this route for the next few weeks.

We got back to camping tonight. It was a great place southeast of Donnauworth with it’s own little lake for swimming, just the thing after another scorcher on the bikes.

Frank cooking up dinner (well actually heating up some pre-prepared spaghetti carbonara from a grocery shop)

A great swimming spot at the campground 

Campfire party put on by the campground. Good music and friendly folks

And to add even further to our evening, there happened to be a little campfire party put on by the campground with free beer and music – music of the old country kind that many of you know I love! I was in my element. Some of the campers there are regulars who knew each other, but they were very welcoming and went out of their way to talk to us in English, those of them who could. It was A great end to the day.