Budapest by Bicycle Stage III ..... The Blue Danube and the Limes

Sidetracking away from the Donau to Blaubeuron is fascinating. The dive shops should have alerted me to what was going on. This is a particularly pretty abbey town, but its main attraction is a deep blue hole out of which gushes up to 32,000 L/sec of blueish, limestone-purified water. Divers have not yet found the end of the tunnels, struggling with Jules Vernes directions after  a few kilometres, but they are full of huge chambers with islands and stalactites.

Another deviation took me across to the parallel valley of the Alt Muehlertal, formerly known as the Donau valley before it broke through the limestone cliffs at Kelheim a few hundred million years ago. I spent another few rest days enjoying the forests, cliffs, castles and rich fossil exhibits and exploring the fascinating remnants of the Limes (Hadrian's wall) and the early Roman frontier.

Water from Blaubeuron takes about 2 months to travel to the Black Sea. I've taken 2 weeks and 914km to cover the first 430km of the Donau, so it will probably beat me to Budapest.