From Dinkelsburg to Straining

We've been crossing the Bavarian countryside for the past several days and I swear I've never seen so much wood.  We've slowly gone off the idea of being on the cycle tracks in the forest because they are incredibly slow and often treacherous.  It was lovely while it lasted but now we are back on the roads with the odd cycleway at the side of the road.  Everywhere we look people are stockpiling wood, winters must be very harsh in Bavaria.

As well as burning wood Germany has a lot of solar panels.  Some of the houses are enormous, with countless windows, and a huge roof full of solar panels.  We were wondering whether you need some kind of planning permission to put that many on your roof as being blinded by said panels is highly likely at certain times of the day.  We've cycled some rather hilly sections and often come across wind farms too, usually a sign we've hit the top.

We've made it back to the river, The Danube this time, although the traffic is nowhere near that of the Rhine.  We're heading for Austria, and if the winds are with us we should be there in a couple of days.  We're making the most of the sunshine here in Straubing as the weather looks very unsettled for the next week, with the promise of a thunderstorm and 'severe weather warning' for tomorrow.

This morning we were treated to an incredibly loud bang which we took to be a sonic boom as a very fast moving craft shifted in an arc across the sky this morning.  That shook us up!

Nature update:  there are black squirrels in Bavaria, and if they're not black they are very, very dark grey!

Laters