Ulm to Neuburg an der Donau

Ulm, GermanyRoad

Retraced from the map Ridden by Marcus on 12th September 2015; the recording was lost, so the line is the road between the day's towns, drawn from OpenStreetMap (the rider logged 132 km that day).

117 km
Distance: 172 m
Elevation gain: Hard
Difficulty: Paved
Surface

Download GPX Map

On the road: Ulm to Neuburg an der Donau

Elevation profile

Total ascent: 172 m
Distance: 117 km

Rider notes

So, we covered 132km today with around 11 hours on the road. That distance should have been enough to get us to our intended target of Ingolstadt but we were to fall short by about 21km. That was likely due to a route anomaly. That is not the same as getting lost, as technically, we didn’t really get lost… at least not much. The planned route was something like this;

It went pretty well to plan for the first part of the day. Neither of us really wanted to get on the bike this morning so it was a later than planned 11.30 departure from Ulm. The pace was good early on and we ate up the kms until we reached about 60km. It was a hot one today so at around 2.30pm we parked at the side of the path to take on some nutrients. This is otherwise known as having lunch. This is where things took a turn for the worse. As Donny lay snoozing in the hot sun I decided to rinse my dusty water bottle by leaning over the river bank. A slight lapse in concentration caused the bottle to slip from my hand. I watched despondently as it started it’s slow journey to Budapest without me.

I wedged a bottle of coke into the bottle cage as a replacement and we pedaled on. One of the joys of travelling slowly by bicycle across one country after another is the amazing variety of sights, sounds and smells to be experienced. We’ve seen all manner of crops growing along the way. Strawberries, pears, apples [borrowed a few of those], cabbages, onions, and so it goes on. Today we descended along a path by the roadside and found a tractor blocking the way. The path was covered in what looked like freshly cut grass. The aroma told another story. It turned out to be freshly cut parsley. I do like parsley so a small taste was in order before continuing onwards into the unknown.

In the late afternoon we rode past a deer farm. Most moved away from the fence but one was keen to talk.

We had agreed that it would be a good idea to take on board some more food before the evening so we stopped about 24km short of Neuburg for what should have been a quick dinner. By the time we left, we realised we were rapidly losing the light of day, so it was back into the panniers to find the “emergency” lights. An older American couple were dining in the same place and had cycled the other direction, so had already been to the place we were headed. “Do be careful” they said. “It’s dark and there are some steep hills with gravel trails”. By the time we left if was proper dark and a strange feeling of deja-vu descended, as did the temperature. We set off assuming we would find the friendly green cycle route signs. Nope. We were soon on the main road, and quickly decided we had missed a turn and should go back. Go back we did but we could not find a sign. Google Maps was reset and it seemed to be advising us to venture down someone’s driveway. We ignored it and rode up a hill, which turned into another main road. We turned around once again, seeking the right turn that Maps said was there. With lights shining ahead we noticed a narrow pedestrian walkway leading to a steep uphill slope. Up we went. Fast forward about 10 minutes of hill climbing and we found ourselves deep in a forest on a track that was really only fit for squirrels and rabbits. With Maps telling us we had 22km to go to our hotel [booked 30 minutes earlier] we decided that it was foolhardy to be trying to navigate thick forest in the black of the night. We decided to plot a new course using roads rather than Maps cycle “routes”. That led to 20km of careful nightime riding winding through a few villages and dealing with some nasty climbs. At 10.40pm we arrived at the now “closed for the night” hotel. Fortunately an envelope had been left with a code for the door and some instructions. It’s 197km from here to Passau. We won’t be covering that tomorrow but that’s the new heading.

Route overview

Suitable for riders ready to cover 117 km mostly on mixed surfaces with gentle climbing.

Day 13 of Rotterdam to Budapest: 117.2 km from Ulm to Neuburg an der Donau with 172 m of climbing, retraced from the map.

This 117 km point-to-point route starts in Ulm, passing through Neu-Ulm, Leipheim, Günzburg, and Dillingen an der Donau before finishing at Neuburg an der Donau. The profile is mostly flat, with a maximum elevation of 492 m reached at 17.2 km and a low point of 383 m near the end. The first half contains 40% of the climbing, but overall gradients exceed 5% for only 0.1 km. The surface is 92% paved, with 7% gravel or unpaved and 1% unmapped sections. It includes a mix of paths (39% or 44.6 km), quiet streets (21%), minor roads (12%), tracks (8%), main roads (8%), cycle paths (5%), and roads with cycle lanes (4%). Main roads without cycle lanes total 10.1 km, and 8.3 km are on roads with speed limits of 80 km/h or more. The longest named road section is on the B 16, ridden for 5.6 km. Food and drink stops are available at various points including bakeries, cafés and supermarkets especially near towns such as Günzburg (km 43.8), Dillingen (km 48.9), and near the finish in Neuburg an der Donau (km 112.5). The longest stretch without café, shop or water is 10.3 km from km 26.8 to 37.1. Several bail-out points with stations occur at Nersingen (11.4 km), Gundelfingen an der Donau (39 km), Dillingen an der Donau (48.1 km), and others.