Day 4 - 11/04/2013 - Total so far 283.6km

Domazlice - Straubing
94.9km, 8hr 26min, 1482m total climb

Almost broke the metric ton today, but not quite.

We left our cosy Penzion after a buffet breakfast and set off in the rain and 20km headwind of yesterday.  Felt a bit warmer though. We knew that we had 40km of flattish riding until we hit the hills so tried to take it a bit easier to save the legs. We wouldn't be stopping for lunch as we had far to go and wanted to arrive before darkness.

Luckily, after the first 10 km, we found that the Czech '3' cycle route continued alongside the 20 road that was getting a bit hairy with trucks as it got closer to the Czech/German border which was only 14km away.  The 3 went right up through the forest though with a few more breakfast climbs to get us started. We also passed a Pizza restaurant that Johanna used to frequent a few years ago in a place called Babylon. The route was really nice though and we were out of the wind.  We left the cycle route as it went uphill left when we could see the border downhill right.  It probably crosses a bit more Northerly as it goes to Regensburg and we needed to get to Straubing.

Crossing the actual border was a non-event as it was heavily raining and we solemnly passed through truck stops and fuel stations off to the left of the big road. No jubilant border pics were taken!  We then follwed alongside the trucks and spray in the rain for a few km's before we got to Furth im Wald.  There were a few climbs up and through the hills here but we didn't really notice as we still had some energy to burn.

The good cycling roads appeared once we hit the Bavarian lands.  The route through here was a bit of a guess when planning it as Google maps has no coverage (why doesn't Germany cover Google maps?) so some of the smaller routes turned out to be unpaved farm tracks or unpaved woodland which when wet are a bit tricky on 40kg touring bikes. Anyway they always turned out to be a good excuse to slow down and look at the scenery..

The roads were rolling. What must go down nicely, always comes back up in a tough way. I think the panniers are like a parachute that only opens as soon as you hit a positive gradient.

We loved the scenery but kept one eye on the eleveation plot on the GPS to see what came next.  If it was a big one, we paused, fuelled with dates and Corny's and went for it. These are not big hills, just training ones for the Alps when we get there ;)

We made it to Straubing and had a deserved Pizza with Andi, Steffi and Sarah. Looking forward to Christa and Rainer arriving tomorrow evening and a relaxing day off the bikes with the family.

Next stop Munich on Sunday!

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1232764