We were steeling ourselves for a difficult ride today, as Kris’s research showed that the landscape was very hilly. However it turned out to be an easy 63 km to Furth im Wald due to the good cycle paths.
The first one, the Donau Regen Radweg, was along an old rail track, with a long gentle uphill and then some equally long downhill runs. This was about half of our route. We were very impressed with a new bridge they had built just for cyclists, sitting on top of the old railway bridge piles.

Then we did about 13km on the Regental Radweg – along the river, before moving onto the Chambtal radweg. I heard the cuckoo calling for the first time this trip.

Our destination was the town of Furth im Wald near the Czech border. The town is also known as Drachenstadt (Dragon City) and there are many references to Dragons in murals and statues all over the old town. The reference is to the annual Drachenstich (Dragon slaying) play that has been performed in the town over the past 500 years, the oldest folk play in Germany. It re-enacts the legend of Saint Georg slaying the dragon. The dragon here is a symbol of all the wickedness of the human heart.

The tourist info office here was incredibly helpful, photocopying detailed maps for Kris of the route to Pilsen. They also told us about an exhibition of dragons used in the play in the evening, both old and new.

Our hotel here was great, we had a very friendly greeting and beautiful large room. We went and sat at the Stammtich (informal table where locals sit for a chat) in their restaurant downstairs and had a good chat before heading out to the dragon show.

At the dragon show we all sat in an outdoor amphitheatre. Three dragons were on display. The first one was a mock up of the original 500 year old dragon – which just had two people inside it. The dragon from the war years was destroyed by the Americans when they came through at the end of the war (??), so we only saw photos of it. The next dragon was a bit more high tech, on wheels and could move its wings a little and shoot fire out of its mouth. It still had a person inside managing the controls.

The star of the show was the latest dragon, which is the largest four legged robot in the world. It is 4.5 m high and 15.5 m long. It walks, roars, rolls its eyes, bleeds, shoots fire and flaps its (huge) wings.