Today started cool, wet and gray. Yucchh! We were headed for the Bohemian (aka Bavarian) Woods. The scenery was beautiful even with the gray day. Weather like this is pretty normal for Bavaria (southeast Germany)-Germans say there are 9 months of winter and 3 months of rain. We began our morning with an introduction to the countryside via horse-drawn carriage. Jeri was really introduced to our horse when he blew his nose on her jacket sleeve! I had encouraged her to get a bit closer for a photo just as the horse decided to sneeze and fire off about a quart of snot on her arm. It reminded me of a close encounter I had with an elephant seal in South Georgia.
We also visited the Theresiensthal Glassworks, sort of like Simon Pearce Glass for the tourists in Vermont. The glassworks has been in business since the Renaissance when the Bavarian king brought an Italian glassmaker to the area to produce fine glass to rival the famed Venetian and Bacarat glass. The glass was beautiful, but a bit ornate for our taste.
From the glassworks our final stop of the morning was a visit to a farm where we were treated to freshly baked flat bread (“zelden”, the leftover dough given to children as a treat) out of an outdoor brick oven. (Andy, eat your heart out.) The bread was baked by the grandmother and served to us by the daughter and grandchildren. We also had elderberry sparkling water and barivurz, a strong celery flavored liquor (at 11 AM- 5 o’clock somewhere).
We caught a little shut-eye in the bus back to the boat (thanks to the barivurz) and by the time we got back, we were ready for some exercise. We took out bikes again and went exploring. We, in the U.S., could learn a lot from the Germans about encouraging bike use. On main streets, they have dedicated bike lanes or very wide sidewalks that a lane of which is dedicated to bicycle riders. Walk signs also have bike lights, and bike paths well marked. Thee are also dedicated bike/walking trails that are well maintained and take you from one town to the next amongst beautiful scenery. Jeri and I rode well out of town along the Danube to a nature preserve. Getting back to the boat before it departed was the main reason for turning around. The trail was so flat that we could have gone all the way to Passau (our next stop) even with the dogs we were riding.
On to Passau tomorrow. We’ve stopped worrying about the weather since it truly changes hour to hour (but sun would be nice!).
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