Day 11: Uphill again but we reached the source of the Danube!
Sunday July 7 - Day 11 - 30 miles - Total 432 miles
Up... up... and... away? We started today off with a hill... no not just a hill... a mountain... Yesterday we had been joking back and forth that the tops of the hills nearby seemed to keep getting closer (since we were increasing in elevation slowly but surely yesterday)... but today... there was no slowly but surely. Today we reached the top of those hills... it took about 2 hours and we rose about 1100 feet in elevation over the course of a 3 mile hill straight out of Schramberg to Hardt. (Note: For those of you not familiar with the geometry of slope, this hill was the kind of steep that you would normally walk your bike up that hill or just "not go there". Our bikes are made to do this... but damn it makes you want to walk it or go home!) We had to take a lot of breaks since the incline was so steep that we both were in our lowest gear for most of the ride. The first break: we met Stefan (Stevie), a very nice man who lives at the top of the first steep incline. He encouraged us with stories of his bicycle adventures and offers of water. Second break: we hurt, we took a break on the sidewalk and stretched out our legs (and cried a little inside). 3rd break: we stopped in the shade and ate gummie bears from the hotel last night. 4th break: we now could no longer see the tops of the hill because we were in the tops of the hills... and we found Alpine strawberries just reaching their perfect ripeness in the steep incline by the side of the road. Alpine strawberries are those tiny little red jewels of strawberry perfection that crunch when you bite into them due to their high seed to fruit ratio. Andrea collected enough for a snack (which took a few minutes... but it was worth it!) We stopped a few for times for tiny breaks and then the final push to Hardt, where we stopped next to a bus chalet to savor the yogurts we had absconded with from this morning's breakfast. Mmmmmm... gooood....
Another 100' or so in elevation and we made it to the intersection in the middle of Hardt, where we were going to take a right to go to Konigsfeld. However there were signs everywhere saying that the road was closed and to follow a diversion. This made us pretty despondent, after climbing up this huge incline just to find a diversion at the top!!
The problem is that the diversion seemed to go via Mongolia and we had already been there on a prior trip. In France, we knew to ignore these diversion signs, as there was a pretty small chance that they would amount to much, however we were now in Germany, where the efficiency is legendary and the signage has been pretty reliable thus far. We found a couple of locals on bikes and made ourselves understood whether it was possible to take bikes via the "closed" road. They said it was - to a point - then they babbled some German at us about veering to the right for a couple of kilometers. We decided to risk it - and were very glad we did. We took the mini-diversion, which was essentially paved cow paths up and down for a couple of kilometers, but we did get back to the main road without having to detour a ton.
We passed by the Konigsfeld Golf & Country Club (yes, the sign was in English) and the parking lot was full of Audi, Mercs, Porsches & Maseratis. Clearly we were in an affluent area. We considered asking if we could camp out behind the clubhouse - but we already knew that the Germans don't get sarcasm.
Then back into agricultural land (Monchweiler was the next village). We had a lunch on a bench under a tree in the middle of farm land on a beautiful day of blue skies and white puffy clouds (not that we noticed this during the first part of today... I wonder why...). Lunch consisted of bread, cheese, and pesto sauce bought yesterday since EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays. We gave up our bench to another couple of cyclists out for the day and headed off to rise and fall with the undulations of the rolling countryside... except that our thighs were already spent and didn't take well to the undulations of the rolling countryside. A long big downhill into Zollhaus (just outside of Villingen Schennegan) ended with a very grumpy Andrea and a very relieved Bruce that there was a cafe OPEN RIGHT THERE with Eiskaffee right on the menu. Andrea got her afternoon caffeine shot and perked right up....especially after some M&Ms as well....
We were now close to Donaueschingen and pedaled through the last 6 miles into town. These were farm tracks that were paved, but we had to dodge the tractors. It was haymaking time, so there were tractors everywhere: flipping, turning, baling and piling the hay. The tracks trended downwards which was nice, however just to make sure you didn't get too complacent they gave you a little upward jolt every field or two...not a pleasant way to go lose altitude!
We made it into Donaueschingen at about 5pm on a Sunday. Of course the tourist office was closed, but there were brochures outside so we grabbed one to use as guide. We then went down to the "official" source of the Danube river. Unfortunately this is closed for A YEAR while it is being renovated...so you can't actually go and see the bubbling spring which is regarded as the source. We felt bad for the tacky souvenir shops opposite.
We crossed the small bridge in town over the Brigach river and then another one over the Beg river, which come together with the spring to form the Danube. We were now officially on the Danube Bikepath which goes all the way to the Black Sea some 2800km away.
We pedaled out of town and then found a campground very close to the route and decided to call it a night as it had been a long, hot, hilly day. This place has all the amenities though, with a swimming lake, wi-fi, pizzeria, shop that sells cold beer and bread....everything you need in life!
After pitching the tent and getting all the gear sorted out, we went back to the camp store and tried to buy some beer. We went to the beer fridge and pulled a couple out that looked particularly appetizing. We took them to the register and the same guy who checked us in, looked at the beers, looked at us and asked, "Do you have glasses?". We admitted that we did not, in fact, carry beer steins with us on our touring bicycles, to which he replied, "Then I can't sell you these beers". We thought he might be joking at first, but then we remembered we were still in Germany and they don't do sarcasm here. He was serious! Apparently the reasoning is fairly logical - the beers we had picked were weissen (wheat) beers, which have a sediment at the bottom of the bottle. After you pour the beer into your stein, you wait for that sediment to slide out too and then it disperses into your beer. This sediment imparts the critical flavouring of the weissen beer. Thus to the Teutonic mind, clearly if you don't have glasses, he can't sell the beer. After getting over our shock we asked advice on which beers he would sell us. Any of the pilsners or lagers apparently, so our transaction was pretty speedy after that!
We are writing this after just enjoying pizza and beer (Weissen beer in a glass!!!) at their terrace restaurant....
The World is Ours!
Note: Pictures to follow if the wifi hold out!
Sunday July 7 - Day 11 - 30 miles - Total 432 miles
Up... up... and... away? We started today off with a hill... no not just a hill... a mountain... Yesterday we had been joking back and forth that the tops of the hills nearby seemed to keep getting closer (since we were increasing in elevation slowly but surely yesterday)... but today... there was no slowly but surely. Today we reached the top of those hills... it took about 2 hours and we rose about 1100 feet in elevation over the course of a 3 mile hill straight out of Schramberg to Hardt. (Note: For those of you not familiar with the geometry of slope, this hill was the kind of steep that you would normally walk your bike up that hill or just "not go there". Our bikes are made to do this... but damn it makes you want to walk it or go home!) We had to take a lot of breaks since the incline was so steep that we both were in our lowest gear for most of the ride. The first break: we met Stefan (Stevie), a very nice man who lives at the top of the first steep incline. He encouraged us with stories of his bicycle adventures and offers of water. Second break: we hurt, we took a break on the sidewalk and stretched out our legs (and cried a little inside). 3rd break: we stopped in the shade and ate gummie bears from the hotel last night. 4th break: we now could no longer see the tops of the hill because we were in the tops of the hills... and we found Alpine strawberries just reaching their perfect ripeness in the steep incline by the side of the road. Alpine strawberries are those tiny little red jewels of strawberry perfection that crunch when you bite into them due to their high seed to fruit ratio. Andrea collected enough for a snack (which took a few minutes... but it was worth it!) We stopped a few for times for tiny breaks and then the final push to Hardt, where we stopped next to a bus chalet to savor the yogurts we had absconded with from this morning's breakfast. Mmmmmm... gooood....
Another 100' or so in elevation and we made it to the intersection in the middle of Hardt, where we were going to take a right to go to Konigsfeld. However there were signs everywhere saying that the road was closed and to follow a diversion. This made us pretty despondent, after climbing up this huge incline just to find a diversion at the top!!
The problem is that the diversion seemed to go via Mongolia and we had already been there on a prior trip. In France, we knew to ignore these diversion signs, as there was a pretty small chance that they would amount to much, however we were now in Germany, where the efficiency is legendary and the signage has been pretty reliable thus far. We found a couple of locals on bikes and made ourselves understood whether it was possible to take bikes via the "closed" road. They said it was - to a point - then they babbled some German at us about veering to the right for a couple of kilometers. We decided to risk it - and were very glad we did. We took the mini-diversion, which was essentially paved cow paths up and down for a couple of kilometers, but we did get back to the main road without having to detour a ton.
We passed by the Konigsfeld Golf & Country Club (yes, the sign was in English) and the parking lot was full of Audi, Mercs, Porsches & Maseratis. Clearly we were in an affluent area. We considered asking if we could camp out behind the clubhouse - but we already knew that the Germans don't get sarcasm.
Then back into agricultural land (Monchweiler was the next village). We had a lunch on a bench under a tree in the middle of farm land on a beautiful day of blue skies and white puffy clouds (not that we noticed this during the first part of today... I wonder why...). Lunch consisted of bread, cheese, and pesto sauce bought yesterday since EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays. We gave up our bench to another couple of cyclists out for the day and headed off to rise and fall with the undulations of the rolling countryside... except that our thighs were already spent and didn't take well to the undulations of the rolling countryside. A long big downhill into Zollhaus (just outside of Villingen Schennegan) ended with a very grumpy Andrea and a very relieved Bruce that there was a cafe OPEN RIGHT THERE with Eiskaffee right on the menu. Andrea got her afternoon caffeine shot and perked right up....especially after some M&Ms as well....
We were now close to Donaueschingen and pedaled through the last 6 miles into town. These were farm tracks that were paved, but we had to dodge the tractors. It was haymaking time, so there were tractors everywhere: flipping, turning, baling and piling the hay. The tracks trended downwards which was nice, however just to make sure you didn't get too complacent they gave you a little upward jolt every field or two...not a pleasant way to go lose altitude!
We made it into Donaueschingen at about 5pm on a Sunday. Of course the tourist office was closed, but there were brochures outside so we grabbed one to use as guide. We then went down to the "official" source of the Danube river. Unfortunately this is closed for A YEAR while it is being renovated...so you can't actually go and see the bubbling spring which is regarded as the source. We felt bad for the tacky souvenir shops opposite.
We crossed the small bridge in town over the Brigach river and then another one over the Beg river, which come together with the spring to form the Danube. We were now officially on the Danube Bikepath which goes all the way to the Black Sea some 2800km away.
We pedaled out of town and then found a campground very close to the route and decided to call it a night as it had been a long, hot, hilly day. This place has all the amenities though, with a swimming lake, wi-fi, pizzeria, shop that sells cold beer and bread....everything you need in life!
After pitching the tent and getting all the gear sorted out, we went back to the camp store and tried to buy some beer. We went to the beer fridge and pulled a couple out that looked particularly appetizing. We took them to the register and the same guy who checked us in, looked at the beers, looked at us and asked, "Do you have glasses?". We admitted that we did not, in fact, carry beer steins with us on our touring bicycles, to which he replied, "Then I can't sell you these beers". We thought he might be joking at first, but then we remembered we were still in Germany and they don't do sarcasm here. He was serious! Apparently the reasoning is fairly logical - the beers we had picked were weissen (wheat) beers, which have a sediment at the bottom of the bottle. After you pour the beer into your stein, you wait for that sediment to slide out too and then it disperses into your beer. This sediment imparts the critical flavouring of the weissen beer. Thus to the Teutonic mind, clearly if you don't have glasses, he can't sell the beer. After getting over our shock we asked advice on which beers he would sell us. Any of the pilsners or lagers apparently, so our transaction was pretty speedy after that!
We are writing this after just enjoying pizza and beer (Weissen beer in a glass!!!) at their terrace restaurant....
The World is Ours!
Note: Pictures to follow if the wifi hold out!
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