Danube Bike Tour Day 3: Hausen im Tal to Riedlingen
Posted by Cassie, November 15th, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Distance: 55km
We woke up this morning to find our tent was completely wet! The valley traps all the moisture in the air, so everything was covered in dew. When I first got up, it looked like we were in the middle of a cloud. We rode through the rest of the gorge and the terrain widened and flattened out into farmland. We stopped in Inzigkofen to hike across the “Devil’s Bridge”. The following tells the story about the origin of bridge’s name:
In 1843, the Count Karl told his court architect to build a wooden bridge over the gorge. The court architect responded, “The devil can build it, but I won’t.” Upon speaking these words, the devil appeared and promised to build to bridge if he was given the soul of the first to cross to the bridge. The deal was made with the devil. Once the bridge was completed, a dog was chased across the bridge and the devil was cheated of his prize.
A concrete bridge built in 1895 spans the gorge today. The bridge was impressive, but it did not seem to serve much of a purpose. Instead of crossing the bridge, you could just walk around on the side of the cliff.
Devil's Bridge at Inzigkofen Park
We stopped in Sigmaringen for lunch and walked around the city. As we were riding into the city, we rode past a bunch of camels! There was a circus getting set up in Sigmaringen, and the camels were the first to arrive. Sigmaringen has a huge castle that was seat of government for the Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. The kings of Prussia and the emperors of the united Germany came from the Hohenzollern family.
Sigmaringen Castle
When we got to Riedlingen, we had trouble finding the campground. We followed the sign for the campground reception up the driveway to a house, but there was a huge, barking dog straining against his chain right next to the door. We tried ringing the doorbell, but no one came even with all the barking of the crazy dog. Finally, after riding around for a while, we found the campground. I had been expecting a big campground, but it was actually just a field for tents. While we were looking around, we finally ran into the man in charge of the campground. It was only five euros per person to camp there, which was our cheapest night of camping of the trip. While we were setting up camp, we saw our Australian friend from camping the previous night ride past the campground. He said he was stopping in Riedlingen, so we thought we might see him again. He completely missed the campground, too. We yelled at him, and he turned around and saw us. It was fun to talk with him again. He was the first person we had seen more than once on the trip. As we were talking, we heard the crazy dog barking again. Jonathan went over to the campground “reception” to see if someone else was trying to camp. There was a father and daughter pair from Germany who were at the house trying to figure out where the campground was, and Jonathan showed them were it was. Every other night we had been camping, we had usually been the only ones that were tenting, and now we had lots of company! This campground also had a firepit for making a campfire. Most campgrounds in Europe do not allow fires, so this was the first place that we were able to have a campfire. None of our companions had heard of s’mores, so Jonathan and I went to the grocery store to get s’more supplies. We had a wonderful night talking around the campfire and roasting marshmallows. It was our best night of camping of the trip!
Riedlingen Campfire!
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