That was maybe the nicest 100km of riding we have ever done.
Lots of this
The wide open plain of the Baar plateau
And quite a lot of this
The gravel paths through the Schwartzwald
And even time for some of this.
Endless opportunities for Apfelkuchen.
But before all that fun, we had an incredibly hot and sweaty night — but not in a good way. On previous trips hotel stays have been conditioned on whether or not there was a heated towel rail to dry one’s washing on, it appears that for the next 12 days it’s mostly going to be about whether or not the hotel has air conditioning. The Hotel Linde does not. However, Donaueshingen does have a sizeable population of people who own cars without silencers and who like to drive around at 2am shouting a lot. It was a challenging evening.
Breakfast was the usual 3 star fare but seated amid some…eclectic…decoration which seemed to be a fusion of Far Eastern influences and a 1950s East German apartment. We didn’t dare venture onto the Africa Lodge balcony which took fusion furnishing to new heights with a small waterfall and some banana leaves. It was all very strange.
Suitably fortified with a few cups of coffee and some bread and cheese we were off to the Donauquelle. As everybody in Donaueshingen will tell you, this is the source of the Danube in the same way that the Rhinenquelle we departed from in Andermatt last year is the source of the Rhine.
They have a map of the Danube and everything
And here it is, the source of the Danube.
The actual source of the Danube…maybe.
However, it turns out that the good people of Donaueshingen aren’t actually telling the truth. The source of the Danube is about 30km further up the valley but this is where the Romans thought the Danube started and if it’s good enough for the Romans, it’s good enough for us.
Almost immediately we were on the Donauradweg. Basically this cycle path goes from here to Vienna. It’s a beautiful, buttery-smooth and custom made cycle path which meanders through the valley following the river as it goes.
The Donauradweg and its useful blue line
It even has a blue line on it which shows which side the river is on which is very useful because for almost all of this stage, the Danube was either a series of loosely interconnected stagnant ponds or entirely invisible.
Interesting fact: As the Danube gorge enters the Donauversickerung an area of seasonal sinkholes where the Danube disappears during dry weather. This is a legacy of past geological events where the Rhine captured the upper waters of the Danube. The number of days when the Danube water flows into the Rhine has been steadily increasing over the centuries and the total has now reached more than 270 per year. It is expected that at some time in the future, seasonal flows will become permanent and all the water in this part of the Danube will flow in to the Rhine. Come for the cycling stay for the interesting geological facts…
Quite soon we were at Tuttlingen which I have to say, I rather unfairly maligned in yesterday’s blog. Probably important not to judge a town by the environs of its railway station…
The centre of Tuttlingen was charming and quaint. We stopped for a coffee and then rode out through a very high tech light industrial park. It turns out that Tuttlingen produces more than 50% of all the surgical equipment used in the world. And it’s all produced in that one light industrial park.
More beautiful paths followed.
The route is beautifully signed and I could easily have done this stage without a Garmin. And, for those of you who have followed this blog for a while, it is EuroVelo 6! The one that I “followed” riding from Budapest to the Black Sea. In the Balkan parts of EV6, I’d be lucky to see one sign a day. Here, they’re on every single junction.
There it is. EV6…
The hills started to crowd and we cycled into the Donautal which is a typical forested limestone gorge through the Swäbische Alb. Since this is an EV route, there was some of the obligatory gravel (indeed more than 20% of the route today was on gravel) but it was pretty benign and the routes through the forest were lovely.
Gravelly and hilly. A challenging combo.
The cliffs and bluffs were frequently topped by an extravagant schloss or two. The scenery really was outstanding.
A good day.
There are little restaurants every 5km or so and we stopped at one for a cake and a drink.
This area is clearly a huge area for cycling and camping holidays. We passed scores of German couples or families with their bikes groaning under the weight of tents and stoves pootling up the valley or down the valley. There were even kids on balance bikes.
The ghostly Irish drone of Sean Kelly intruded at this point: “Well Carlton, de yung German powerhouse widout de pedals is givin’ it wun hundert percent on dis climb but I tink it’s going to be a difficult wun in the next number of kilometers if she’s going to keep up wid de pack”. Tanks Sean.
On the valley floor we must have passed 20 of these official looking campsites.
There were loads of these but not clear what they actually are.
Sooner maybe than we had expected, we were cycling into Sigmaringen with its wildly overwrought castle which dominates the skyline.
A fairy tale castle
The Schloss Sigmaringen is the ancestral home to the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen — the junior branch of the family whose senior branch (the Hohenzollerns) provided the kings of Prussia and the kaisers of Imperial Germany. In 1866, Prince Charles of Sigmaringen was invited to be the first king of Romania and his brother Leopold was offered the Spanish throne in 1870 but he backed out after the French started the Franco-Prussian war. So not only a nice place to live but a great place for job opportunities.
We weren’t staying in Sigmaringen because according to booking.com it was full already when I checked in February so we had to stay in Sigmaringendorf. Which is considerably less charming and oldey-worldly but it did have a hotel with a room. The Beim Rindwert was solidly 3 star maybe aiming for 4 star and was nicely appointed although had neither a working towel rail nor air conditioning.
For those of you who love jeopardy, there was a moment of tension when the restaurant attached to the hotel was closed because of a private booking so we were cast into the maelstrom which is the restaurant scene in Sigmaringendorf. There was a doner kebab shop or the Restaurant Penisola (ho ho ho). We chose the Penisola over suspicious “generic meat” kebabs and were pleasantly surprised by the extensive Italian menu including 40 types of pizza and 30 types of pasta. There were 154 items on the menu which is a reach for a small crappy Italian restaurant in the back end of nowhere in Germany.
The food, when it arrived, was actually really good.
What hungry cyclists want to eat.
And the wine came in paralyse-a-rhino sized glasses.
“Would you like another?” “Oh yes”.
The Penisola (ho ho ho) let itself down badly by insisting on cash only payment. While Dr T trekked back to the hotel to pick up some cash, I remonstrated with the waitress. I mean, we all
know that it’s just a tax-avoidance strategy but don’t try and blow smoke up my bum about Sigmarignendorf being a “small German willage”. We were paying for Apfelkuchen in the middle of nowhere with Apple Pay. Very annoying and I really don’t like enabling people who are dodging taxes…
Anyway…a superb day. 100km of incredibly scenery on Dutch standard cycling infrastructure. About as good as it gets. If the next 12 days are like this, it’s going to be fantastic.
For those of you hoping for mechanical problems, extreme dehydration, near death brushes with articulated lorries, I’m afraid that once again, this day was a disappointment. Who knows, maybe tomorrow.
The stats:
- Distance: 96km 🙂. The sweet spot for Dr T.
- Climbing: 562m 😐. There were some surprising 12% kickers getting over some spurs.
- Average speed: 19.5 km/h 😐. Actually ok. Gravel slows you down and we weren’t in a rush.
- Bikes 😀. Everything worked perfectly including the beans.
- Soft tissues: 🙂. All good although tomorrow may be a better test.
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