A Day on the Bike

last view of the Alps as we headed north

We headed north, with mountain scenery for the first few hours of our day.  These became hills eventually but retained scenic interest.  Farms interspersed with wooded areas and some lakes as we passed from Austria to Germany and back again.  This was a sunny Sunday and the locals were out  bicycling, walking, and sunbathing.  But our back roads were generally free of heavy traffic.  

We passed by the interesting looking Burghausen with its castle on the hill, and stopped for our picnic in Braunau, overlooking the Inns.  Green-line roads abound and Rob took as many as he could justify while trying to make some progress.  As you can tell from our direction, our plans have changed.  Instead of making a counter-clockwise loop through Hungary, Slovakia, and then the Czech Republic, we are going to move clockwise, visiting Prague and vicinity first and whatever we can squeeze in of Slovakia and Hungary in addition. We are also considering heading for Berlin--yes, not on the original agenda--for a math conference later this week. The decision will be made tomorrow.

We decided to stop at 7 in the town of Cham and hunted for a hotel.  Only one appeared (two other possibilities were closed) and that was the **** Randsbergerhof.  No choice but to accept a four star hotel, so for 99E ($125) we are enjoying the amenities that we usually don't aspire to.  We took a brief walk along the Regen River before settling in.  Fine riding weather all day, though it did cloud up in the afternoon.