Wed. Sept. 24 - Fri. Sept. 26 (Days 4-6): Donaustauf-Straubing-Boggenberg-Deggendorf
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| Battery-operated bailer invented by Thomas |
Wednesday, our fourth day on the water, and we are getting better. Better at efficiently getting the boats ready, and getting into them. Faster at getting out. Better at listening and following commands, although many of them would be unfamiliar to American rowers' ears: "come forward," instead of "at the catch;" "take the run off" instead of "check it down;" and "easy all" instead of "weigh enough," a term singular, apparently, to American rowing. Since church boats are also considerably longer than sweep 8's, we often we can't hear the captain's commands, (and we chat a lot), but we are better, now, at following the stroke. We're better at rowing these beasts, and better at rowing together.
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| Pilgrim Church at Bogendorf |
During this tour we take advantage of the hospitality of several local rowing clubs as places to tie up and leave our boats overnight and/or as places where we eat a sumptuous, cooked, multi-course lunch: Donaustauf, where we start our row today; Regensburg, where we not only have lunch, are addressed by both the club president and the mayor, but are interviewed and have our photos taken for the local paper; Wilshofen, whose size is similar to BIR's; Deggendorf, where we only tie up; and Kanu Club Passau, a kayak and canoe club, our lunch location on our last day of rowing.
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| Grave Markers, Bogendorf |
Since we are a club whose boatyard is a tennis court, we have a particular interest in these clubs' facilities: Even the lowliest have fully equipped kitchens, and seating capacity for 70+ diners. All have locker rooms, but not all have lockers; rowers in some clubs may not leave their clothes or gear. All had ergs, some in the same room where tables and chairs were set up, some in a separate room or floor. Regensburg had tons of boats in a huge boathouse; Vilshofen about the same number as we have. An entire section of my photographs has been dictated by Karen: kitchens, dining rooms, fittings, slides, brackets, oar wells, you name it; lots of good ideas I'm sure she will be building them all.
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| Bavarian Bagpipe |
Today after rowing we visit the Pilgrim church at Bogensburg, perched on a hilltop above the Danube, the second oldest pilgrimage site in Bavaria. For the past 500 years, at Whitsuntide, pilgrims carry 13m candles (wood core, wrapped in wax, 50kg) from Holzkirchen to the church. It is also notable because it houses a sculpture of a visibly pregnant Mary, with a window in the womb through which you can see the baby Jesus (apparently not only the conception but the pregnancy was immaculate...) A lovely end to our rowing day.
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| With - or without- the hat? |
Our hotel is in the town square at Deggendorf, and we are entertained this evening by traditional Bavarian music. One of the instruments is a Bavarian bagpipe, closer to the Irish than to the Scottish; the bellows are filled with the elbow rather than through a mouthpiece. It is also decorated with an elaborately carved goatshead (ramshead?), a horn and skin. The band also features an accordion, a tuba and a fiddle and we sing ridiculous German songs to an oom-pah-pah beat. The most memorable part of the evening, though, is when Martin and Stephi, a Swiss rowing couple who have been dancing for 20 years, grace us with a waltz. Another favorite memory.
Cardiologist Jan from Oslo (to distinguish him from the other Jan from Oslo and the two other Jans on the trip) has a son who wants a pair of lederhosen. So Jan purchases him a pair in Deggendorf. And I have to ham it up, in my BIR rowing hat, with a dirndl.
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