Day 229 - Ingolstadt - South-Central Germany

My recent posts have been perhaps a bit long and, on re-reading them, I seem to do a lot of moaning. Ok, so I always do a lot of moaning - it gets me through the day and I can't help it if people are so annoying - but still, I thought I'd try a 'normal', positive post. Here goes...

Germany is nice. They have cycle lanes and big clock tower things in the town centres so even when there's no signs telling you where the centre is, you just aim for the clock tower. They also have nice beer in Germany. Something called Helles, which is different to Pils and Weissbier. I've had them all, of course. I quite like Weissbier but I think too much of it would send me loopy. They also have an Irish pub in pretty much every town so when I feel the need I can get myself a Guinness. They do it surprisingly well here. Nearly as well as the best Guinness of the trip - Scanlans Bar in Gernika Lumo, Northern Spain (Hello Patrick!).

The weather is chilly now but actually quite pleasant to ride in. Kind of fresh feeling. Birthday weather, for those in the know.

I am aiming for Luxembourg and will soon leave my friend since Bulgaria, the Danube, to head towards Stuttgart. We've had some good times together, the Danube and I, and it's been nice to have such a solid reference point when my bearings have gone a bit awry. She's been with me through three capital cities, countless miles of countryside and seven countries now. Rivers really are quite amazing, aren't they? All that water, flowing constantly. If we had to build a big river from scratch it would be quite a hard job. I like big rivers.