Radlos - Regensburg - Rainless

Car-free Tuesday

A little cultural program, namely a visit to Regensburg, is on the agenda today. Bicycles and bathing suits have the day off and we set off by car after a leisurely breakfast. The weatherman said it could storm today, so a day in the city seems more suitable than in nature.

Not for the first time on this vacation, the weather doesn't follow the forecast. It's unbearably hot, we can hardly find shade and coolness in the city. We drag ourselves through pretty streets and admire the cathedral from the outside. We consider taking a city tour, but we're afraid of dying of heat in the small train that snakes through the streets like a mobile oven. We find a beautiful beer garden and just sit in the shade and eat and drink. When the first pigeon sits on a tree branch above us and poops on Petra's thigh, Petra thinks, "I don't give a shit and still won't move!"

We only move on when the next stupid bird empties its intestines directly onto our table.

All seats in the shade are taken, so we treat ourselves to an ice cream while walking and head towards the car.

On the way back, we take a route "through the countryside", more precisely through Bodenwöhr, where we still sit at our friend JACOB's lake and enjoy the rural summer heat, which is definitely more pleasant than in the city. On the way home, we don't take the federal highway again, but the country road and Wackersdorf. The older ones among us still remember the anti-nuclear protests in the mid to late 1980s against the reprocessing plant, which ultimately led to its cancellation. The industrial road, on which lignite coal was originally mined on conveyor belts, was the main scene of the protests at that time. Originally, this was the second largest lignite coalfield in the former Federal Republic of Germany after the Rhineland lignite mining area. The deactivated open-cast mine was the basis for the Upper Palatinate Lake District with a total water area of 650 hectares. A place steeped in history.

We are happy that despite or perhaps because of its history, a great area has been created here, which, after renaturation, provides a refuge for humans and animals. Countless species of animals are native here. Yesterday we saw a kingfisher, this morning we were woken up by the chattering of wild geese. Now we are excited to see what awaits us tomorrow.