18 June 2007

Dillingen, Germany to Leipheim, Germany

The rain began shortly after we went to sleep last night and continued for a while, but by the time we awoke on this leisurely morning, the sun was popping out through the clouds and the clearing was on its way. We rode directly to the internet cafe in town that we scoped out last night. The sign said it opened at 9:30. It was 9:50 and the door was locked, but by the time we got back from a trip to the bankomat (Tyme machine) the internet woman and her cute dog were there to open up shop. We took care of business as much as possible and finally headed out of town at around 11:00. Within 5 minutes we were lost and didn't know where the bikeway was, but eventually it appeared and we were on our way.
We planned a short ride today, going as far as possible toward the town of Ulm. Ulm has no campgrounds and we want to spend some time there, so we decided to camp near the town of Gunzburg tonight, ride the 20+ kms to Ulm tomorrow, check out the sights and then ride the 25+ kms south out of Ulm to our warm showers hosts in Biberach.
After a brief lunch break, we arrived in Gunzberg a little after 2:00. We went through our usual struggle to find the visitor info center. A man in a bakery finally escorted us there after a lengthy discussion with some women to figure out where it was. Unfortunately, the woman working there was not too knowledgable. After a lot of prodding, however, we thought we had the information we needed and struck off. Of course, a rain shower began just then and we took cover under a storefront awning. After a few minutes, the shop owner automatically rolled up the awning from the inside. Apparently they didn't like us standing there, so we hid under a big umbrella by a restaurant. It stopped after 10 minutes so we rode to the Frauenkirche, a beautiful church from the 18th century. We stayed on the south side of the river and rode to Leipheim where we picked up some groceries and then crossed the river heading toward Riedheim. The campground that we picked, which is the cl!
osest one this side of Ulm, was supposed to be between Leipheim and Riedheim. We were thinking the worst since we didn't really know how far it was, but it turned out to be only about one km over the river. This was a good thing since we could see a heavy rain shower off in the distance in the direction we were heading.
It began to rain lightly as we pulled in. John scrambled to get the tent set up before the ground got too wet and Marie grabbed all the bags and ran for shelter. John finished the tent just as the rain came pouring down. The shower lasted about 20 minutes. Afterwards the sun came out and the rest of the evening was pleasant.

Kms 36.88
Time 2:51:10
Avg 12.8
Max 38.6
Total 2060.7