The last 2 weeks we have been making our way steadily across Germany and arrived in Linz in Austria late yesterday afternoon. Germany is a paradise for cyclists and we have spent nearly the whole time on bike lanes through countryside, forest and along rivers and avoided the busy roads completely. There are probably thousands of cycle routes and just like in Belgium you can pick up all the local routes along the way and incorporate these into our own route.

We quickly came to the conclusion that if we want to make it to Turkey by July then we needed to be a bit cleverer with our route and decided to follow as many of the rivers as possible and so we have cycled along the Rhine, Main, Tauber, Wornitz, Altmuhl and the Danube and then conquered the steep hills in between. We also decided to keep moving on our day off 2 times and took a day trip by boat along the Rhine and yesterday along the Danube from Passau on the border to Linz in Austria.

The river routes have been stunning with hundreds of Castles along the way through the valleys. It’s also great to rediscover nature after living in the city so long. From eagles soaring above our head to ants trying to raid our bags and tent, we even saw beavers paddling along the Altmuhl the other day. The great thing about being on bikes is that they are almost silent meaning the animals don’t notice us until the very last minute.

We are really getting used to life on the road now. We have our new routine in place and have camped every night apart from one in Germany. It’s not all been a holiday, we’ve both had our moments when the cycling has got the better of us and our legs have been aching but we motivate ourselves by regular trips to the many fantastic bakeries along way, which have been one of the highlights of another great cycling country.