The Danube Prequel

Like many sagas, sometime the beginning happens after the fact. That is exactly how we are treating the nearly 700 km bike ride we did along the Danube last April. We started our spring ride in Ulm, about 170 km downstream from the source of the river in Donaueschingen (the Danube is called "Donau" in German). So over the summer, we convinced our friends Barb and Adam (Americans; Barb is also a postdoc in our institute) to ride the first 80 km with us one weekend.

We headed off by train one Saturday morning in July. The Deutsche Bahn (German rail company) makes it pretty easy to purchase a one-day pass for a group, with bikes even, to ride the local trains. We arrived in Donaueschingen around 11 am and our first order of business was the find the mythical source ("Quelle") of the river. Unfortunately it was under construction! So we only saw it from a distance. We were however somewhat appeased by finding the distribution center for Fürstenberg beer on our winding route out of town.

Unfortunately our ride coincided with one of the summer's hottest weekends. We compensated for the kilometers of sunny, hot riding by making several stops to cool off. At one stop we found some small holes in the ground connected to what was probably underground limestone caves. They were releasing cool air - a sort of natural air conditioning. The four of us huddled around one of these caves for probably far too long. We also went swimming in the river, and once at a Freibad (public outdoor swimming pool) in one of the towns along the river. And of course, we drank plenty of Radler (shandy, or lemonade mixed with beer) that is the drink of bikers.

There were a few interesting sights to see along our ride. One was the Donauversickerung (the Danube percolation). In a few spots along this stretch of river, the water percolates down through slanted layers of rocks and ends up in tributaries of the Rhine. During some times of the year, almost all of the water disappears over short stretches of river. How is that for a clever way to steal water? We stopped at one of these points to see the river disappearing, and even saw/heard a few spots where water was being sucked down. I especially like the descriptions of radioisotope experiments (51Cr) done nearly a hundred years ago to figure out how long water took to travel to the Rhine (about 1 hour/km). It would be hard to get a permit for such an experiment these days.

We overnighted in the town of Mühlheim an der Donau. It had a terribly cute old town. We were there on Saturday night, in time for the free city tour from the town's only remaining Nachtwächter (night guard). He took us around the old town as the sun set and explained the history, punctuated by singing verses of the Nachtwächter song. The guard watched for fires during the night in medieval times.

So now all that remains of the Danube for us to ride are the 90 km from Sigmaringen to Ulm... and from the Austrian border with Slovakia to the Black Sea. The lower part goes through Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria (actually I am not totally sure which countries it goes through!), and are not as frequently traveled by bicycle. We will see if we take on that challenge!