Day 13: Did you know it rains in clouds? July 13
Philippsthal to Fladungen 38 miles
After a pretty sparse breakfast, we followed an older couple also staying at our hotel towards Fladungen.We followed alongside railway lines past industrial plant (nice and flat). We found our way into horse country at Pferdsdorf (pferd means horse in German). There were lots of little picnic tables along the Ulster river as we followed the Ulstertal Radweg for a while I nto Geisa and a Netto market stop. Somehow we missed the turn for Point Alpha as distance suddenly increased when we got into town. Because we missed the turn off, we hard to walk up a massive hill up to Point Alpha where U.S. Troops faced off against GDR forces at the westernmost point of the Warsaw Pact. We toured the excellent museum on the Thuringian (East) side but they make you pay again on the Hesse (West) to see the US army base and observation tower... So we didn't go to the American side... Although there was more English being spoken over there which was so weird to hear after most two weeks of Herman all the time. We flew downhill back down from where we had just pushed up an hour ago back into Geisa. We had intended going up into the old center of town but we just couldn't handle another UP after Point Alpha... We then set out along the Ulster river through Schleid, Motzlar, Gunthers and into Tann. As the clouds started to drizzle we stopped at a cafe which turned out to be both a coffee shop and a handicapped art gallery. We had a nice conversation with the owner/artist/therapist and then off we went hoping the rain would hold off for another couple of hours. On towards Hillers where we stopped at a grocery store and second cafe for the day due to rain for an hour or so. Bruce got a wonderful treat from Andrea of Himbeer cake and coffee. We waited until the band of rain passed. As the final drizzles dried we headed out to get up the last hill of the day...
Here is where the rest of the day happens...
We hit a Massive great hill out of Hillers to the border on the ridge line. This hill just KEPT GOING UP! So much so that we actually cycled up into the clouds. This should be romantic right? Cycling into the clouds together... Well... We thought it had stopped raining... But did you know it rains in clouds? So, yeah, it started raining again. Even though the hill was very long and arduous it WAS better than the prescribed bike route that went up the same elevation in about half the distance and a muddy gravel path. Cycling in the mist and fog can be dangerous so we put in our tail lights, we put on our head lights and Andrea even put on her head torch to make us visible. We pushed and pedaled up that damn hill about 100 meters at a time until we reached the top and the boarder again. It was hard but we did it! We did it together! So it was kinda romantic ... In a way... We had a slight downhill into Frankenheim and we thought we might stop there if we could find a place to stay. Even though there were signs for a hotel and people gave us directions we failed to find it. We were soaked, it was still raining, and we just said screw it... We can push on to Fladungen where we knew there would be a hotel. Onto Fladungen, which was a massive drop in elevation through the villages of Leubach and Oberfladungen. Holy Moly! If you think pushing up a hill in the rain is hard, whizzing downhill in the rain is terrifying and exhilarating! Wow! It was insane! You just hold on, laugh histerically, and hope you can keep you balance and your breaks the whole way down. We found a guest house right off the bat in the centre of Fladungen and quickly started drying everything. I mean EVERYTHING! All of our panniers were perfectly dry except one of Bruce's which leaked a little due to a small wear hole :(. After HOT showers, we went downstairs into the Gaststatte which is the pub type area of the establishment. We had a hearty dinner of Schnitzel and beer and goulash soup. There is no internet at all in this town which will make posting this tricky. We think we need to take a rest day tomorrow to dry off and it is supposed to rain tomorrow again.
We worked so hard today. We earned every mile. The World is Ours!
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