Having finally managed to drag ourselves away from the stunning beauty of Lake Bled, we continued to head northwest on our homeward leg.

Whilst we were waiting for our ferry to the island of Pag in Croatia, we talked to a man on touring on his bicycle. He had been on an epic journey from the Andalusian Mountains to the north of Norway and was on route to Greece. While talking to him, he recommended a visit to his home town of Regensburg in Bavaria. He explained that it wasn’t a huge detour from Munich and it was a true slice of Bavaria. So when planning our route, we saw that it was only taking us 20-30 miles from the most direct route towards Brugge, so we took his advice… and we were so glad we did.

As we were getting to the end of our driving day we arrived into the suburbs of Regensburg and found ourselves in typical sprawling homes and businesses, nothing spectacular. However, we had decided to stay overnight as we were getting tired.

Sarah looked up free/cheap places to pitch up for the night. The first place we found was a car park on the edge of the town that had an area dedicated to motorhomes, however, on arrival we found that there were no spaces in the car park and the motorhome area overfull already. We quickly squeezed ourselves out through the narrow lanes between the parked cars. On to the next option.

With the first disappointment behind us, we quickly found another spot about 5 miles from the town, in a car park in Donaustauf. As we arrived, we slotted ourselves in to the dedicated motorhome parking area. There were no facilities, but we had prepared for this.

The flags bearing all the names of the groups in the parade, Donaustauf, Bavaria, Germany

As we were parking we noticed that the park behind us had a marquee, couple of small children’s fairground rides and many benches and tables laid out. We went over to investigate… in case we needed to move on. However, we found that they were celebrating 150 years of their fire and emergency services but having parades and a small festival. We decided that we would treat ourselves and eat out at the event and had a well deserved beer.

Sarah holding a stein of Jacob lager, Donaustauf, Bavaria, Germany

After a bite to eat and a shared stein of local Jacob Lager, we were intending to head back to the van to read/blog etc. but during our first drink a group of locals joined us on our table. Shortly after finishing our first drink, we were preparing to leave the table and one of the guys taking the drinks orders came around and encouraged us to have another cheered on by the group of guys next to us. We then got chatting to them had such a great evening. Flo, Lucas, Andy and Christian were all such nice guys, and so funny. It was so nice of them to spend the time chatting to us (in perfect English) and they were so interesting, telling us all about their Bavarian culture, the pride in being from Bavaria and the local dress (and the distain of those locals that were just wearing t-shirts and jeans!).

They were Bavarians first, Germans second! Well, maybe nice guys first, Bavarians second and Germans third.

Andy, Sarah, Lucas and Flo dressed in lederhosen looking really good.

While we were talking to the group they also told us about what to see while we were there (apart from the bottom of several more steins!). They mentioned the parade the following day (Christian had been invited to take part), the old town of Regensburg, Walhalla Temple and Donaustauf Castle (ruins).

I also talked to Christian about his love of paragliding. I learned so much as he told me all about the sport. I found out that him and his girlfriend both had VW campers (a T4 and T6) and both flew. The pictures and tales of flying sounded great and I could see by the look on his face how much he enjoyed it. By the time it was time to bid farewell to our new found friends, we were sad to not have been able to spend more time with them. They had been so welcoming, fun and interesting! Until we meet again.

So the following morning we were up and out early to see the practice parade march right past our camping spot. Once this was over, we cycled up to Walhalla as all the boys had raved about this local attraction. Wow - they were so right. After the climb up to the top of the hill we were treated to a stunning view of this Parthenon-like structure. It had been built to celebrate local important and famous people and commanded a sensational view across the Donau and beyond for purportedly 40-50km and I could well believe it.

Walhalla Temple, Donaustauf, Bavaria, Germany

Walhalla Temple, Donaustauf, Bavaria, Germany

Walhalla Temple, Donaustauf, Bavaria, Germany

This place was truly amazing, so we decided to had a coffee and Bezel at the top and enjoy the view.

Once we had finished our snack, we headed back down the hill and back through he village and cycled our way towards Regensburg on on of the many dedicated cycle routes. We we arrived in the old town we cycled around the old streets and decided that this was a world away from the suburbs that we had seen the previous day when coming into the city. We stumbled across a group of cyclists on Penny Farthings in full old costumes. They looked amazing.

The local cycle club, Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany

After enjoying our little tour we were quickly back on the bikes to return to see the full parade in Donaustauf including Christian (one of our new friends).

Christian looking good in his uniform, Donaustauf, Bavaria, Germany

Christian and his group in the parade, Donaustauf, Bavaria, Germany

After the parade of loads of local fire and emergency services including brass bands, local clubs, sprots teams and local dignitaries, we decided it was time to head on to our next overnight stop somewhere near Frankfurt AM Main.