Dawdling by the Danube: With Journeys in Bavaria and Poland

Edward Enfield is the bestselling author of Greece on My Wheels, Freewheeling Through Ireland and Downhill All The Way. He writes regularly for the Oldie magazine.

Edward Enfield sets off on a cycling trip through Bavaria, Poland and on to the pleasant banks of the Danube, taking in castles and baroque churches and sampling splendid wine en route. Carrying few preconceptions but plenty of wit, Edward reveals there is no place from which to see a country that is nearly as good as the saddle of a bicycle.

I had thought for some time that there must be something funny about Germany because, except for hard-drinking types at the Munich beer festival, I had never heard of anybody going there for a holiday. This was, in my view, the first of two advantages. There are travellers who, when abroad, are delighted to see a fellow countryman. They strike up acquaintanceships which ripen into short friendships; they exchange addresses, part with regret, send each other Christmas cards for a couple of years, and then forget each other. Not I. There are quite enough Englishmen at home without my wanting to run into them abroad.'So, having only been to Germany once before to do National Service, Edward Enfield sets off on his latest cycling trip, carrying few preconceptions but plenty of wit. Determining the route he should take from recommendations scrawled on a napkin, he starts by following the'Romantic Street'along the banks of the Danube from Passau to Vienna, taking in castles, churches and good food along the way. And, as Edward amply reveals in this charming book, there is no place from which to see a country that is nearly as good, as the saddle of a bicycle.