We certainly made the right decision not to camp last night. It started with storms about 5 pm and then rained heavily all night. We spent the night fighting with mosquitos that had come indoors for shelter – the only drawback of this otherwise brilliant guesthouse. I emerged from bed groggy this morning and put athelete’s foot cream all over the bites on my face and head!

Another day: another section of the Danube. But first a few small hills to wake us up (one was a huge 50 m high!). Then back to the levees.

Morning coffee was at Neuberg, an attractive town right on the bank of the river.

The following section took us to Ingolstad, which Lonely Planet suggests has the reputation for being the richest town in Germany. There is a huge Audi factory to the north, and Audi seems to own the town. But it was an interesting place to spend a couple of hours over lunchtime. We visited a church built in 1735 that had the largest, flat, painted ceiling in the world. This consisted of lurid scenes of ‘taming the natives’ (and the equally savage wild animals) with the gospel. But it was arranged so that, by standing exactly in the centre, all the sight lines came spot on and the thing came into perspective in all directions. Clever! Just like the adverts painted on rugby pitches for the TV cameras.

After Ingolstad we went back to cycling beside the river. We are beginning to count power stations (5 so far), having lost count of the many fragrant sewage works that the cycle path likes to take in!

One feature of Bavaria is the presence, in most villages, of things that look like giant maypoles from England. In fact they are huge, felled fir trees, erected in the village. But the strange thing is that all but the top few branches are removed, so that it looks like a Christmas tree at the top. They vary, but most have circular ’shelves’ at intervals, and flags or other decoration sticking out. If anyone knows anything more about these then I’d love to know.

We have finished the day in a campsite in Neustadt, the weather having been improving somewhat. Now off in search of beer and something to eat.

Helen has been entertaining herself with stories about people we see en route. The current one involves a fat man who cycles but seems to prefer puffing a great cigar. Helen spotted him three days ago and we have seen him several times, so now the story is that the fat man is a part of a posse chasing us. I think it gives Helen the opportunity to hum all the theme tunes from the westerns she watched as a kid. She thinks I did not watch enough TV as I don’t recognise them, so I think the current story is that we are impersonating Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. She sits in bars pretending to hide behind her hat, like Paul Newman, as strangers walk in!

Helen’s track of the day: Burt Bacharach, theme from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. See above.

Two days’ GPS tracks accidentally joined together: