2 July 2007

Steinach, Germany to Stollhofen, Germany

Guess what? We woke up to the sound of rain again this morning after rain most of the night. If any of you are really bored, figure out how many days we have had rain and send us a note at johnandmarie@pocketmail.com.
The rain didn't stop us from moving on though. We packed up a soggy tent and rode 2 km's to a store for some breakfast food. While we were checking out a real downpour erupted so we ate our pastries and bananas standing in the store. The downpour lasted for a half hour or so and we discussed taking a train up to Mannheim. When the rain finally let up, we headed out and checked at the Bahnhof (train station) but it was just a stop with no one to help us figure it out. So it was back on the bikes to Biberach where the Bahnhof had an attendant but when Marie asked if he spoke English he said "no" and walked away. There was a fellow there that told us we could catch a direct train from Offenburg about 18 km's further on. Back on the bikes we tried (unsuccessfully) to follow the bikeway signs to Gengenbach, but found it anyways, where the young lady in the info center gave us great directions on how to get to Offenburg and beyond. Gengenbach is a cute little classic German town !
where we believe they filmed part of the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". The rain had stopped but it always looked as though it would commence at any time and it did after we got food for lunch in Offenburg. We sat out the rain under cover while eating and then proceeded on to Strasbourg, France following the Euro bikeway along the Kenzig river. We crossed over into Strasbourg to get a quick look at France, found a phone to see if our card works there (it does!) and then crossed back to Kehl in Germany where we got lost trying to follow the Rhein River route after getting a bum steer from the woman at the info center. Finally we happened upon the route and followed it north. The clouds were building again but seemed to be moving parallel to us. We were cruising along when we looked back to check the sky and it was pitch black. We kept riding until the rain and wind hit and it hit quickly. Usually there will be a few steady drops before the hard rain begins, but !
this began in an instant. There was absolutely no cover on the trail,
so we struggled to get our rain jackets on as the rain pounded and the wind tried to tear them out of our hands. Then we had to backtrack about 50 meters and down off the levy directly into the driving rain to take cover in some trees. Then like the legend of Brigadoon an oasis appeared out of the rain and we rode under cover as the 6 or so people sitting at this cafe/bar in the middle of nowhere watched. This storm was one heck of a gully washer and anywhere else on the route we would have been a few km's or more from cover. About an hour later the storm passed and we rode off in sunshine but a stormy looking sky. This time we stayed on the road and made our way to Lichtenau, where we stopped for yet another Kebap for dinner. It was 6:30 by the time we finished eating and we still weren't sure how far the campground was or exactly how to get there. It sprinkled lightly on us and we didn't get too lost finding our way to Stollhofen and the huge, expensive campground. The !
tent was still wet from this morning and the sky was threatening rain rain but we still tried to dry it out on the bikes until it started to drizzle. Then we set it up, threw everything in and hit the showers. As I write the sky has cleared and the temperature has dropped so we are hoping for a dry day tomorrow even though the forecast is for rain through Thursday.

Kms 86.13
Time 5:37:33
Avg 15.3
Max 28.9
Total 2736.4