by Cassie, November 15th, 2009 | No Comments
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Distance: 10km
We got up early for our 8am breakfast at the hostel, and we were on time to keep the cook happy. 🙂 At breakfast, they had a large selection of tea, and I found some tea called “Sweet Devil” with a picture of a devil on the tea bag. It was raspberry tea with chili powder. I tried it, but it was not as exciting as the picture on the tea bag implied. It mostly tasted like raspberry. I could barely taste the chili powder, and it was not spicy at all.
After breakfast, we said goodbye to Johanna and her father. We were planning to spend the morning exploring Blaubeuren, and they were riding on to Ulm. We went to the Blautopf, the spring that is the source of the Blau River. It is a beautiful deep blue color, and the water is crystal clear. The spring is really deep, and it has been explored down to 1200 meters. The spring generates a lot of water: 2000 liters per minute.
Blaubeuren Blautopf
Blaubeuren was in a mountainous area, and they had a huge, stone cross at the top of the overlook, reminding us that we were in Catholic country now. We hiked up to the overlook for great views of the city.
Blaubeuren
We had a short ride from Blaubeuren to Ulm. Along the way, we stopped at a bridge over the Blau River. While we were there, a couple came with bread to feed the ducks. All the ducks came rushing over, but a pair of swans leisurely swam over. The swans positioned themselves directly under the couple on the bridge and craned their necks up to beg for bread. The ducks were afraid of the swans, and they kept their distance from the swans and did not chase after any bread that fell near the swans.
As we approached Ulm, we saw the Munster, which dominates the city skyline. The Munster has the world’s tallest church steeple at 161.53 meters. We stopped at the tourist office to get a map of the city to find our way to the hostel because it was a long ways outside the city. We took the bike path along the Danube to get to the hostel, but then, we had to haul our bikes up a series of steps to get to the hostel. We realized later that there was bike path that goes from the hostel into town, but it was not marked on the map. The hostel was in a converted office building outside the city. The only double room they had available was in the basement. The room looked like it was an old conference room, and it had an opaque window over the door. We were glad that we could stay in the same room, but the door did not offer much privacy. Fortunately, we were in the basement, and there were not many people that went down there. The hostel was run by Hostelling International, and they make you pay extra if you are not a member. You have to pay for “welcome” stamps, and they put the stamps on a new membership card. Once you have 10 stamps, you have a yearly membership. However, it was bit insulting to refer the stamps as “welcome” stamps. It was not much of a welcome to be forced to pay extra for the room.
by Cassie, November 15th, 2009 | No Comments
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Distance: 57 km
This morning, we said goodbye to our camping companions as we were all heading off in different directions. We thought we had left the limestone cliffs, but Rechenstein was built into the side of a limestone cliff. We hiked up to the castle ruins, and there was great view from the top.
View from Rechenstein castle ruins
We stopped in Ehingen to walk around the city center, and we were surprised to run into the father and daughter from Germany that we had camped with the previous night! We had ice cream with them at an Eis Cafe. Johanna got “spaghetti”, which is a dish with ice cream that looked like noodles with strawberry sauce on top. It looked very strange, but she said it was really good. We rode with Johanna and her father to Blaubeuren. Upon leaving Ehingen, we left the Danube to follow the Blau Valley variant instead. Blaubeuren was where the Blau River begins, and we would follow the Blau River back to the Danube in Ulm. There was no campground at Blaubeuren, so we planned to stay at the hostel instead. Johanna and her father decided to stay at the hostel, too, so we spent another night hanging out with them. They enjoyed the campfire so much the night before, so they asked the woman at the hostel if there was a place where we could have a fire. The woman gave them directions to a place. We packed up stuff for making dinner, and we hiked over to the place where we could have a fire. We looked all over, but we could not find the place to make a fire. The woman’s directions were very vague, so we thought it would be easy to find. We gave up and made dinner at a table in the park instead. We enjoyed talking with Johanna and her father about Germany. Johanna spoke English very well, but she translated for her father since he only spoke a little English. Johanna was in medical school, and she and her father were on a bike ride during her break from school. Amazingly, medical students only have to pay 500 euros per year for school! It is a six-year program that they begin after graduating from high school. We also asked Johanna if they had solar panels at their house. While we had been riding through Germany, we had seen solar panels on roofs everywhere! They didn’t have solar panels, but they did have a solar water heater. Johanna said the solar water heater was great, but you would have a cold shower in the morning or on cloudy days. 🙂 After dinner, we said goodnight because we had to be at breakfast at 8am. Apparently, the cook got very angry when people were late for breakfast, so we had to be there promptly at 8am.
by Cassie, November 15th, 2009 | No Comments
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!
by Cassie, November 15th, 2009 | No Comments
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Distance: 32 km
We rode through a beautiful gorge with limestone cliffs on either side and castles perched on top of the cliffs.
We took a side trip to the picturesque old town of Mulheim. Mulheim’s old city center is full of neat half-timbered houses. Mulheim is also located on the top of one the hills in the gorge, so there were great views of the Danube River valley.
Half-timbered house in Mulheim
Mulheim street
We hiked up to the Bronnen Castle perched on the top of one of the limestone cliffs. Unfortunately, the castle was not open to the public. The enormous castle was owned by a rich guy, so the entire place was plastered with signs saying to stay away and respect private property.
Bronnen Castle
We rode only 2km past Bronnen Castle, and we passed the Wildenstein Castle. The Wildenstein Castle was open to the public, so we were able to walk around inside it. The castle was enormous, and it had great views into the Danube River valley.
Wildenstein Castle
View from Wildenstein Castle
We had barely passed Wildenstein Castle when we rode by the impressive Werenwag Castle.
Werenwag Castle
Even when we were riding through a beautiful gorge, we encountered cornfields!
The campground tonight was huge improvement from the previous night. We were not camped in the middle of a public park. Instead, we had a beautiful campsite next to the river and the limestone cliffs. We also met another bike tourer from Australia. He was riding south to Rome going through the Alps, but he was riding a short section along the Danube before heading south. He said he had to get used to the people driving on the other side of the road in continental Europe. 🙂
View from our campsite
by Cassie, November 12th, 2009 | No Comments
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Distance: 37km
We began our bike tour along the Danube River at its source in Donaueschingen. There is a spring that is considered the Danube Source. The water in the spring was really clear, and you could see bubbles coming up from the bottom. We arrived at the spring just as a big busload of tourists mobbed the place. On the bright side, we had plenty of people we could ask to take a photo of the two of us at the Danube Source. 🙂
Danube Source
Starting our bike tour along the Danube at the source of the river
The bike route along the Danube River is awesome! Most of the bike route is along dedicated bike paths, and the bike route is well marked. We began by riding through the river valley alongside the river. The Danube River starts out as a very small river that you could walk across and barely get your ankles wet. As we rode downstream, the river kept getting bigger and bigger. Just when it started looking more like a real river, it suddenly disappears at the Danube Sink and flows underground instead.
Danube River
We rode through several small towns, and we had some fun when we stopped at the Rathaus (townhall) in Morlingen. They had a small jail cage outside the Rathaus. We both went inside the jail cage to see what it was like to be inside. As Jonathan was taking a photo of me in the jail cage, another couple that was biking stopped, and they were amused at the sight of me in the jail cage. We started a trend because the couple locked each other up in the jail cage, and after they left, a couple girls played around in the jail cage, too. 🙂
Morlingen Rathaus
Cassie locked up in jail cage in front of Morlingen Rathaus
When we arrived in Tuttlingen, we had a lot of trouble finding the campground marked on the map. We rode by where it should have been, but instead, there was a big city park. We tried asking at the tourist office, but it was already closed for the day. The hours for places in Germany were horrible. They took a two hour lunch break in the middle of the day, and many places closed early, too. We tried to go to the library in Donaueschingen to access the Internet, but it closed at 1pm on Fridays. We went back to the big city park, and we stopped at a stand to ask the woman if she knew where the campground was. She didn’t speak any English, but we managed to communicate in broken German. She said the campground was behind her stand, and she was the person that we needed to pay to camp there. Of all the people in the park, we actually asked the person that was in charge of the campground. We found the campground, and it was just a small grassy field enclosed by a low wall of bushes. We have camped in some strange places on the trip, but this was crazy. The campground was in the middle of a public park right next to the main path through the park, and the park was full of people on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The campground was not what we were expecting, but the next campground was a long way. Despite our reservations about camping in a public park in the middle of a city, we decided to go ahead and camp there. In addition, this campground was the most expensive of the trip! We paid 20 euros to camp there. We didn’t feel comfortable setting up our tent with all the people walking and riding by the campground. We locked up our bikes and hid our stuff in the bushes and headed into town. We hiked up a hill above the city where some castle ruins were, and there were neat views of the city. When we returned to the campground, the park was pretty quiet. There were some policemen talking with some young teenagers in the park, and we weren’t sure that was good or bad. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any crazy people wandering into our campsite in the middle of the night.
Tuttlingen Castle Ruins
Tuttlingen castle ruins
by Cassie, November 12th, 2009 | No Comments
Friday, September 25, 2009
We had a little more climbing to get over the mountains of the Black Forest, but we were refreshed from our rest day in Titisee. Then, the rest of the ride was downhill or flat going through a river valley. It was beautiful riding through the small towns and farms in the Black Forest. Some of the herds of cows have cow bells around their necks, and we would hear the clanging of all the bells as we rode by the pasture. Most of the ride was on good gravel roads or quiet paved roads through the countryside. One section of the bike route was marked on the map as a gravel road running parallel to the main road, but instead it was an overgrown old logging road. Someone had cleared the branches from the sides of the road, but they left them on the road. We had to ride through tall grass and over piles of dead branches. Fortunately, when the bikes are loaded down with weight, it is similar to driving a big truck, and we were able to plow through the overgrown road.
Riding through Black Forest
We had one more short climb after Wolterdingen before arriving in Donaueschingen and leaving the Black Forest. I was sad to leave the mountains behind, but I was excited to start our bike tour along the Danube River tomorrow!
View of Wolterdingen
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Thursday, September 24, 2009
We were originally planning to continue riding through the Black Forest, but we were enjoying being in the mountains so much that we decided to spend an extra day in Titisee and hike in the mountains. We hiked from Titisee to Hinterzarten, and it was beautiful hiking through the lush pine forests with moss and ferns everywhere. We stopped at a bakery in Hinterzarten for lunch, and I got the apple strudel. It was delicious! I made a pledge to eat lots of apple strudel while we were in Germany. 🙂
Hinterzarten
Since it did not take us very long to hike to Hinterzarten, we decided to hike to the Feldberg, the highest mountain in the Black Forest, at 1,493 meters. There was a cable car up to the top of the Feldberg, and on clear days, you are supposed to be able to see the Alps. We hiked by the pretty mountain lake, Feldsee.
Feldsee
When we arrived at the cable car up the mountain, a bunch of sheep was being herded through the fields under the cable car. The herding dogs were running around and gathering up all the stray sheep. It was really fun to watch.
Feldberg cable car and herd of sheep under it
We decided to get some ice cream before going on the cable car. However, as we were eating our ice cream, the cable car stopped! I looked at my watch, and it was 5:05pm. We couldn’t believe that the cable car stopped running at 5pm. Everything in Titisee was open until 6pm, so we figured we had another hour before it closed down. We checked the bus schedule for getting back to Titisee, and the last bus was at 5:30pm. We had hiked all the way to the Feldberg, and we were so close to getting to the top! We had to catch the bus in order to make it back to Titisee before dark, so we left without seeing the view from the top. It wasn’t a very clear day, so we probably wouldn’t have been able to see the Alps from the top anyway.
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
This was our first rest day of the trip. We were exhausted from our climb over the mountains, so we spent the day relaxing in Titisee. Titisee is a cute little town on a pretty lake in the middle of the Black Forest. Titisee was packed with tourists. They had a big parking lot for the big bus tours, so there was a steady stream of tourists coming into town. However, at 5pm, all the busloads of tourists retreated to their fancy hotels in the big city, and the town became a ghost town. They had paddleboats, rowboats, and electric boats you could rent to go out on the lake. We were still worn out from yesterday’s ride, so we opted for an electric boat. 🙂 We had a nice relaxing boat ride around the lake.
Titisee Lake
Driving the electric boat on the lake
At this point, we had a bunch of stuff (mostly maps) we were carrying on our bikes that we no longer needed. We decided to mail it all home, so that we didn’t have to carry it around for the rest of the trip. We mailed almost 2kg of stuff back to the US, and our bags were much lighter afterwards!
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
We rode out of Freiburg and into the mountains of the Black Forest! It was beautiful riding through the forest and into the mountains. The forest reminded of us the Northwest with its lush pine forests. We knew that the ride up the mountains was going to be tough when we looked at topo maps, but it was different to actually experience it. We were riding on good, gravel roads through the mountains with no traffic. However, the climb was really tough with all the weight on our bikes. We kept climbing and climbing, and I was completely exhausted when we finally reached the top of the mountain. We were rewarded for our climb by coasting down the mountain into Titisee. It was a long, hard day of riding. Although we did not cover many miles, it felt like we had biked a lot further. We arrived at the campground, and we had another climb to get up the hill to get to the campground! We made it to the campground, and we got to our campsite and collapsed.
Riding through the Black Forest
We're riding down the mountain at last!
Black Forest Mountains!
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Monday, September 21, 2009
Freiburg is a cool city on the edge of the Black Forest. I felt like I was walking around in a storybook. Grimms fairy tales, like Hansel and Gretel, were set in the Black Forest. Freiburg was completely destroyed by bombing in WWII. First, Germany accidentally bombed the city when they intended to bomb France. Then, the Allies finished it the job when they bombed the city later. Many of the buildings have two dates: the date it was originally built and the date it was rebuilt after the war. The city has been amazingly restored to look like it did before the war. It looked like medieval city, but the buildings lacked the signs of age.
Storybook street with vines hanging between buildings
While walking through the streets in the city center, you will hear the pleasant sound of running water. Freiburg has constantly flowing water in the street gutters called Bächle. The water is diverted from the Dreisam river. The water was used for fighting fires and for watering livestock. During the sumer, these Bächle naturally cool the air.
Running water on all the streets
Freiburg has a huge cathedral that was undergoing major renovation. There was a market set up outside the cathedral, and we knew we had arrived in Germany when we walked by an entire row of stands selling any type of bratwurst you would want.
Munster
Market by Munster
Freiburg was surrounded by the mountains of the Black Forest. It was a dramatic change for us after biking through the flat lowlands. We hiked up one of the hills next to the city, and we had great views of the city. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so we were not be able see very far. They have an observation tower at the top of the hill, and it would have been an amazing view on a clear day.
Walking through Black Forest
Observation Tower
