Not the most auspicious start this morning. It rained consistently all night stopping for a short reprieve at around 5.30am. I had most things inside the tent packed so I quietly moved my gear to a nearby shelter to both finish packing undercover in case the the rain returned, and to lessen any noise I might make while others slept. Great plan ... or so I thought. When I returned for the final load, a ground tarp that can make a 'crinkly' noise when lifted, did so, and I saw a head pop out from the last night's late arrivals tent. If looks could kill - his, not mine. A steady stream of words came from his mouth and it was certainly louder than my wayward tarp. As I didn't speak his mother tongue I did my best to interpret. I'm fairly certain he said, "Please forgive my ignorance and lack of consideration for others for leaving my car headlights shining on everyone's tents while I set up mine; and for hammering in tent pegs far longer than necessary; and using an electric motor to pump up my hiker's mattress when 3 puffs of breath would have done the job; and finally for sitting in my tent talking and laughing with my girlfriend until midnight". Being the forgiving gentleman that I am I said, "I forgive you, grazie" ... and walked away quickly. As I left I heard my friend Tobias, whose tent was next to my Italian neighbour, start to snore so loudly he'd wake the dead. There is a God!
I eventually headed off around 7.30am. The first stop just near Schaffhausen was the Rhine Falls, said to be the most powerful falls in Europe, with a frontage of over 150 metres. I somehow missed the turn on the route and ended up overlooking the Falls which I think was a better aspect to both see the Falls and photograph them.
There were a lot of ups and downs again this morning, and with little sleep due to incessant rain all night, and late-night arrivals, hill climbing was the last thing needed. I must have crisscrossed the German and Swiss borders at least 6 times in the first 3 hours. I can't imagine the challenges of being a local before the EU was formed, and where passport/visa checkpoints were the norm.
While I love cycling this time of day, through villages and regional towns, there is very little activity with few, if any, shops open, and fewer humans out and about. For the next couple of hours, the route remained away from the Rhine and gave a chance to ride through the villages of the Rhine. Unfortunately, the weather was very changeable today ... cloudy, then sunny, drizzling. To go with my grey bike and black panniers, I have a dark blue raincoat (the only one I could get) so I was reluctant to wear it on roads with traffic, and relied on my wafer-thin yellow cotton top and blinking rear light to keep me alive.
In the town of Wil, I passed a bike shop so I asked if I could check my tyre pressure. They kindly did it for me at no charge ... as most do ... but I always offer to pay! It was interesting to see that their most popular and plentiful bikes for sale were electric. I'm going the way of a dinosaur!
It was back onto a really smooth bike path, through forests and more agricultural land with much lying fallow at the moment. I was now in my stride and feeling good but needed a coffee badly.
I finally found a Volt supermarket open in a small town where I could get some pastries for breakfast, and a teenager was offering free coffee samples. Filis's father imports and blends coffee in Basel, and hopes to make it a top seller in Switzerland and Germany. It actually tastes very good, however, I don't know if Filis is a natural salesperson or marketer. We chatted for about 20 minutes, and although many others walked by, he offered no one else a free coffee! Filis would rather be on a bike.
I got to ... wait for it ... Hohentagen am Hochrhein, and I saw flying passengers aircraft doing final approaches to land. A quick look on Google Maps confirmed I was just 25 km from where I started one week previously. Zurich airport! So 3.5 hours on 4 trains, and then cycling over 250 km, I was now just a 90-minute cycle away from where I landed in Europe. Talk about riding in circles!
On 3 occasions I missed my turns and while stopped, appearing lost, and consulting my GPS, I had people coming to assist without me needing to ask. Once again, the kindness of strangers! Although they did let me down on one occasion. Somehow I ended up on the Eurovelo 6 at one stage which, in some parts, follows the Eurovelo 15 and the Rhine closely. By the time I realised my indiscretion, it was too difficult to turn back. However, I was still following the Rhine, just on the opposite bank! I did meet a lad from Manchester, England, who was cycling on the EV6 to Istanbul. I also found a quaint German pub and tried it out for lunch. The food was certainly good however the waiter sold me on the special of the day ... beef stroganoff ... turned out to be sweet and sour pork.
The ride into Bad Zurzach was mainly downhill and uneventful but I did manage to get back across the river to meet back up with the EV15. Bad Zurzack is another beautiful historic town ... they are everywhere! I stopped for dessert here! A banana split ... I could now power on for days. However, I didn't need to ... just to Waldshut down the road. It looked very similar to Bad Zurzach, at least in the town square stakes.
With more rain predicted I was now looking for accommodation for tonight (Europe's been in drought for months but it breaks while I'm here! Really!). I decided to look for a solid roof, rather than canvas, over my head. I found it challenging. Most places only staff reception for a few hours a day. Often at 4pm or 5pm. Rather than wait for a couple of hours, especially without confirmed vacancies, I rode on ... less kilometres tomorrow on the Basel leg.
The on / off rain beat me. When I arrived at the beautiful town of Laufenbrucke, perched high above the Rhine, I knew I had to finally stop for the day so I could explore this town. Mission accomplished!
Thanks for reading.
I'm
doing this ride to raise funds for Blue Dragon Children's Foundation.
I'm self-supported so all donations go directly to Blue Dragon. If you
can give please do at ...
https://au-bluedragon.givecloud.co/fundraisers/pedalling-for-a-purpose.
Alternatively, go to Blue Dragon's website at bluedragon.org
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