Today we cycled 101 km from Deggendorf to Schlögen in Austria and it was a lovely and flat.

We set off with the sky again looking very threatening.

In the past, people looked at the sky for signs of what the weather would be like for the day, today we look at our phones. The weather app on the phone showed lots of cloud but no rain, the sky looked very different – today I wanted to believe my phone.

What a fun archway made out of bottle crates to welcome cyclists, well welcome anyone, into Vilshofen!

I took this photograph just because it shows the very distinctive roof tile colour of the region up close, here put to a different use.

Admiring the Danube at Windorf.

I had promised myself no more swan photos but then I saw this family. (The young seem quite grown up to be at home still.)

Note how big the transporters are in this lock coming into Passau. (They look small in the photograph but the one on the right is a car transporter.) We’re so much more used to smaller vessels in locks. Denis mentioned what must the locks be like on the Panama canal!

And then we come upon the Véloroute suddenly closed to us. Of course we just wheeled the bikes around the side. It’s funny though the Veloroute can sometimes be closed/dug up – there are never any warning nor diversion signs. It seems the powers-that-be don’t have to think ahead of the needs of cyclists as they do for car drivers. Or maybe they think cyclists are an ingenious lot and will work it out themselves!

I hadn’t spotted this until now – a clever way for not having to get off the bike at lights. The lights here include a symbol for cyclists as well as pedestrians, (not shown in photo).

With my little show of non-love for German food yesterday, we has a gorgeous lunch today in Passau in a very modern restaurant in the old city. Modern and old side by side. 

The modern restaurant

And then the old stairs leading downstairs to the toilet area. A newly refurbished but very old building.

After lunch I set off to see the Dom (Cathedral).

Some facts I learned – St Stephen’s Cathedral is a baroque Catholic church. Since 730, there have been many churches built on this site. The current church was built from 1668 to 1693 after a fire destroyed the previous one.

The cathedral has eight large bells in the bell rooms in the two towers. The tower on the left has the date 1074 and the one on the right has 1075 – I liked their precision!

The interior detail was amazing! (I’m being restrained with photographs here, I took many more!)

This Cathedral has the largest organ outside of the US, (Los Angeles). It is also the largest cathedral organ in the world. 

I loved the fact that though the ceiling and walls are very ornate, the floor and seats were very plain. Our focus is kept upwards.

Having walked around the old city for a bit it was back to cycling onwards.

One point I learned about Passau is that due to its location on the German-Austrian border, and in the south-east of the country, it has become a major migrant entry point into Germany.

Passau is also known as the City of Three Rivers because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Leaving Passau in the direction of Vienna, we saw where the three rivers joined.

Having checked that the three rivers were behaving themselves perfectly, we set off for our destination for the night in Schlögen. Vodafone were quick to remind us that we were crossing the border!

We had to get the ferry across to continue the Veloroute on the other side – about a 2 minute ferry journey.

We had a lovely evening in Schlögen.