21th May 2018
Day 11- Engelartszell to Hofkirchen, Crossing the border
What a bright and sunny day it was. Just perfect for riding. We started early at around 8 a.m. We thought we must speed up as we are way behind our schedule. We decided to ride at-least 80 – 90 km.. After around 25 km of riding we reached Passau. Ohh, that means we are in Germany?? Great. But we did not see any particular structure or board which defines the border. Or no one checked our passport too. You may feel funny but I felt exactly the way I felt while leaving India, coming for this trip. Yes. I will miss Austria till I come back. It was around 11 when we reached Passau. We had a short break with ice-cream. Passau is a city and as always we lost our way in city’s traffic. It took us nearly an hour to find right direction. I don’t know why but suddenly I was feeling little low. All my energy level went down. I was too tired to paddle. Even for small gradual ascend I was breathless and felt weak. My legs were aching. I tried pushing my limits. I was not happy with the fact that because of me we all were suffering. We were not covering the distance which we were supposed to be. I was dragging myself somehow but then Avinash and Lalita decided not to continue any further. So we stopped at this small village called “Hofkirchen”. We got a guesthouse near the church. The old lady gave us good deal for 100 euros with breakfast included. We were happy. Old lady and her husband were too warm, very lovable. In these small villages of Europe people don’t know English. They speak their local languages and we try hard to understand them. Its super funny. Ordering food, finding way, finding hotels, everything gets really funny sometimes. Now I can strongly say that you don’t need a language to show love and respect. When we went out for dinner, we were finding a restaurant and we landed up in a village party. Its was a typical party with lots of drinks and music. A man approached us and introduced us to every important person in the village. There was sheriff, then there was the best foot ball player from that village, village chief etc. We were not understanding a word but only thing we understood was they were very happy to have Indians in their village for the first time.☺ We had shrimps, a very nice tomato flavor rice and a salad for dinner. It was a wonderful day Indeed. These are the moments when I feel great that I am not a tourist, I am a traveler ..🙂
Love, Maithili

22th May 2018
Day 12- Hofkirchen to Sraubing (camping ground)
    I woke up today feeling much better..we started early..road was gorgeous as always..it was mostly straight or small gradual ascends..so we completed 30 km before lunch. Then after Deggendorf city we lost our way..we were totally confused.. That time we met Mr.and Mrs Samuel, whom we asked for help.. The couple was so kind that they not only helped us to find the way but also rode with us for quite a few kilometers..and kept waving their hands to say goodbye till we were out of sight..
I am amazed by the warmth and love we are getting from the people at this end of the world..
Now I understood the true meaning of  “वसुधैव कुटुंबकम्” .
    There are so many people we meet on our way who care for us..sometimes urge us to have a cup of coffee with them in their house..its really wonderful…
I feel blessed ..
    After lunch we paddled up to this camping ground at Straubing.. We got stuff from supermarket on the way and prepared food on our own at the camping ground..
We met Dr.Joseph at the camping ground..He is 57, medic by profession and hard core cyclist too. He was surprised to see Indians on camping ground. His stories about cycling, trekking, traveling inspired us. We immediately got connected to him as we share same passion..
I love people who follow their passion..
I am doing this cycle trip for my own happiness. Its entirely my decision as I wanted to test my limits, wanted to live a nomad life on two wheels..
It feels great..
Love ,
Maithili

Avinash’s Notes : The gentleman who walked us through the village party in Hofkirchen came down to our guest house today morning to visit us. He brought his son along and introduced us. We then clicked pictures with them and with Hotel owner lady.
It was fresh sunny morning and we started riding along the river as we exited the town. Riding on beautiful green farm roads is a complete bliss. We then came across a patch where the crops were full of red flowers all over the farm. It was quiet a beautiful site to lay eyes on. Today the road was full of gravel and searching for proper directions was quiet a task. Before we knew, we were riding on a beautiful patch of road. It was a little elevated section where we could see river on one side and farms and villages on the other side. This is where I remembered the old days when we used to paint a typical drawing of mountains, houses, river, clouds and sky. I had never imagined back then that sometime in future I would see my childhood painting coming to life. It took me some time to get out of thinking zone and get going with cycling. By the day end we have settled in at a campsite in Straubing. A very beautiful site. As we were registering ourselves at the reception, we met a American family who is on their own road trip in caravan. They were very friendly and awestruck when they learnt about our cycling trip. The lady later came in to our tent area to ask for cloth washing detergent as they had run out of it. It was interesting to know that travelers across the world don’t hesitate to keep going on low resources and even to ask for help. We shared our cloth washing soap with them and the lady was very thankful. Today we cooked our own food on a stove and shared a nice conversation while gazing at starry sky.