yodelling bavarian-style

A beer called "Radler" (cyclist) (actually, it's a shandy) and some mini golf (I lost rather appallingly)

On Friday, it started to rain and more or less continued to rain over the whole weekend. On Sunday, while cycling along in the now easing rain, we paused to look at the map and were approached by a friendly stranger asking if we were lost. We got chatting and he (Zafer was his name) said he was in the nearby boat with a group of friends, on their annual boat trip which they have been doing for thirty years. Currently the boat was stuck waiting for the water in the Danube to lower, as it was too high to allow the boat to get past one of the barrier-crossings. He invited us over to see the boat and we were quickly ushered in by the boozy and enthusiastic group of about ten men, given a big ceramic flip-top decorated traditional-looking mug of beer each and spent the next hour or two in what felt like a mini beer festival with lots of singing, laughing and clashing of beer mugs. One of the group, who was wearing a baseball cap with a solar light heavily duct-taped onto the peak to form a make-shift head torch (in the middle of the day), sang us some traditional Bavarian songs, then taught us how to yodel Bavarian-style. He had a nice voice and it sounded lovely, something like "hola-roo-aye, hola-rad-ee-oohhhh". He explained that yodelling was an old folk tradition here which originated with people calling to each other across neighbouring hills/mountains using echoey yodels. We had a fun afternoon with all the amusing characters on the boat and eventually departed more than a little tipsy, practicing our Bavarian yodelling as we wobbled down the Danube. Below is a picture Matthew took of me with Zafer as we were leaving - unfortunately we didn't get any of the boat and it's rowdy occupants!

Matthew hoeing into a big German currywurst & pomme frites, me eating a spaghetti icecream (!? icecream squeezed to look like spaghetti strands, with berry sauce for bolognese sauce.. a strangely popular style of icecream around here)

Cheating by getting the ferry for 6km down a beautiful stretch of the Danube between Kelheim and Weltenburg

Giant Lederhosen - at least two cows worth.

the (muddy green) danube

There are lots of crosses like this one positioned on the tips of dramatic limestone peaks

Giant wall, giant orange slug (in France I had one nestled sleepily into the fork of my bike one morning)

Marching bird, Matthew doodling

Picnic next to Interesting Man on Raft who was working hard but we were not sure exactly what he was doing.
Below are some shots from a day spent in Ulm (the birthplace of Albert Einstein!). Ulm Minster has the highest church steeple in Europe. The views up the tower were amazing, and we were able to look down onto the church bells and stare gargoyles in the face. It was quite nervewracking climbling up the slender highest part of the tower, where narrow stairs wind tightly on and on until you get to the top, dizzy and feeling like the solid ground below looks quite nice and safe.

The friendly, floppy bunny at our campsite who Matthew keeps wanting to feed ("do you think he would like a banana skin?")

the rhine

The Route along the Rhine from Basel to Konstanz and Bodensee was wonderful. It was lucky that the hot weather coincided with this stretch as the Rhine flows lovely, cool and fresh here so is perfect to cool off in. We were stopping on these mid 30 degree days every few hours to jump in often in our clothes to keep us cool as we rode. On one of these short dips we had an eagle circling just above us as we swam. It swooped down and caught a large fish and flew off with it.