25 June 2007

Ruederbomm, Switzerland, to Allensbach, Germany

Rain was the theme for today. Last night we left the rinsed clothes hanging out to dry until we were startled awake by a clap of thunder around 11 P.M. We scrambled out of the tent, collected the clothes off the line between the trees, rolled the bikes under cover, hung the clothes on the bikes and dashed back into the tent just as the rain began. The storm blew through pretty quickly and things were dry in the morning. Today was a short riding day as we plannned to stay in Allensbach with a warm showers contact. As we approached the island of Reichenau, a UNESCO world heritage site, the sky turned dark and a few minutes later, while eating some expensive "bio" fruits and veggies, the light rain began. Well, there wasn't much else to do but deal with it, so we rode across the street and visited St. Georg church which has what are believed to be the oldest church paintings north of the Alps dated around the 10th century. From there it was a short ride in the rain to the visit!
or center where we stashed the bikes under cover and spent some time reading about the history of the island. There was quite alot of info in English. There are 3 new museums on the island but, since it was Monday, they were all closed. Who knew. We still had a few hours to burn, so we decided to change out of our riding shoes and walk around in the rain to visit the other sites. There was another church (Munster) 100 meters or so from the visitor's center, so we had a look and then decided to walk to the supermarket for lunch. It was 1:15 when we got there and it was closed from 1:00 to 3:00. Go figure. So we walked back down to St. Georg and had a long lunch in the bakery across the street. We revisited St. Georg for some pictures and then walked back to the bikes. We had just enough time to ride our bikes out to St. Peter and Paul's church before catching the 5:15 ferry to Allensbach. There were no other passengers for this short ride. Birgit was waiting for us at the fe!
rry dock and we walked the short distance to her place. After unloadin
g our gear and locking the bikes at the train station, we settled in and enjoyed the company of a fellow traveler and wonderful host. Since Birgit was leaving in the morning for a trip to Salzburg, she suggested that we dine out. So we walked, in the rain and strong wind, to a nice little place to eat. A friend of hers joined us for a very nice evening.

Kms 26.82
Time 2:10:44
Avg 12.3
Max 29.5
Total 2326.20