Stollhofen, Germany to Jockgrim, Germany
Well, we were very, very surprised to wake up to a dry tent this morning since it had rained a little bit last night. Packing up went pretty quick and we were on the road by 8:15. A few km's down the road we stopped in Sollingen at a small bakery for breakfast. Darn, couldn't find a store. Again the signs for the Rhein route were very spotty. We only got lost twice today. The first time was before lunch where we thought we were on the route right on the river only to find it fade away to nothing but grass. This detour took us over a flooded road. The second time was after lunch in the rain. Again the signs were spotty and at one sign post the sign indicated that you could go two ways. One showed that there were stairs ahead so we chose the other. Well, the signs on this choice soon faded away into an industrial complex so we turned around and found our way back to the stairs route. We decided to investigate and with the assurance of a local that there was a ramp for bikes, w!
e proceeded. Two hundred meters up the trail we saw what was a raised bridge over a canal. Yes, there was a small track (ramp) on tne side of 2 flights of stairs. The only way to negotiate this was to unload the bags from the bikes, carry the gear up the stairs, drop it off and then go down and get the bikes, then reverse the process on the other side. With all the gear loaded back on the bikes we successfully followed the route to the west side of the river where another local gave us a bum steer on which way to go.
We realized early on today that we wouldn't make it to Mannheim. It was raining a fairly steady, light rain at lunch time and we sat in a bus shelter to eat. We were ready to call it a day there, but we had no food left and we were in a very small town with no store or rooms in site. So we put on all of our rain gear and decided to get a room when we got tired of getting lost. So when we entered Jockgrim we called it a day. We had to ask several people how to find the supermarket with the last one leading us there by bike. The plan was to get some food and then find a room. Again after asking several people, Barbara, the lady that led us to the store, led us to the hotel because she lived just around the corner from it. This was not your standard American hotel and before she rang the bell to see if anyone was around, she invited us to stay with her. It had started raining when we left the store and was coming down pretty good as we rode our bikes into the barn behind the !
house. She made us feel very welcome, made up some mattresses on the floor and cooked us a nice dinner. Her son, Johannes, ate with us and then left for his dancing lesson. We enjoyed a nice evening chatting and looking at the weather on the internet. Barbara wanted us to take a train to any southern European destination where the weather has been beautiful. She doesn't want us to remember Germany as a cold, rainy place. But we assured her that we would remember it as a country with many warm people.
Kms 74.95
Time 5:00:16
Avg 14.9
Max 26.6
Total 2811.4
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