Jockgrim, Germany to Mannheim, Germany
It was yet another dismal, cloudy morning with off and on rain. After looking at the weather forecast last night on the internet, we weren't hoping for anything better until Saturday. We had a nice breakfast with Barbara and took off expecting another rainy day. The morning went smoothly as the trail signs were great and we only had a couple of short rain delays. By lunchtime we were in Speyer, a very cute German town with a nice cathedral that we visited after having a nice lunch. It was cloudy and cool when we arrived, but by the time we left the sun was breaking through the clouds and it actually looked promising for the afternoon.
As far as the afternoon goes, the weather was the best we've seen for some time. There was very little rain and some wonderful sunshine. We did great following the route on the west side of the Rhein and took the ferry at Altrip to get to the east side where Mannheim sits. The signs on the east side look a little different from the signs on the west, but they started out pretty easy to follow. Then, about 7 kms outside of Mannheim, the bike trail took us into some woods and the trail branched off everywhere with a definite lack of signs. At one point we got turned around and did a complete loop, but from there we figured it out and rode right into the city center. We called our warm showers host, Benny, and he said he would meet us after work at the water tower at 6:40. We went right over there (it was hard to miss this city landmark) and had about an hour to do some chores before he showed up right on time. His flat was only about a block from there, so he walked us o!
ver. We unloaded our gear and locked the bikes up in the underground garage. Benny lived on the fifth floor but earns the award as our only host with an elevator! He made us some delicious spaghetti and a little later his friend, Ira, came over and we talked the rest of the night. We also did some juggling since they were both anxious to see some new tricks.
Kms 75.16
Time 5:14:40
Avg 14.3
Max?
Total 2886.6
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
3 July 2007
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
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
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
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
1 July 2007
Kirchzarten, Germany to Steinach, Germany
A partly sunny sky greeted us this morning. We experimented with some "just add milk" pancake mix. The first 2 we made were pretty thick but tasted fine stuffed with Nutella and bananas. The next 2 were a little better, but we decided that the mix was really a crepe mix and probably would never satisfy our longing for the pancakes that we know.
We picked a route last night that looked like it might give us some panaramic views, but you know what that means -- a lot of work! And a lot of work it proved to be. The first 8 kms were flat and then the climbing began when we made the turn north toward Stegen and then Sankt Peter. We thought that parts of this climb were very steep until we continued on past Sankt Peter and hit the steepest climbs of the trip so far. It was about 20 kms of climbing before we arrived in Kandel at 1242 meters. There was a panaramic overlook there where we settled in for our lunch break watching the parasailers taking off from just in front of the parking area. In the distance we could see that the weather looked a bit hazy and probably rainy. There were many motorcycles parked up there, too. We had noticed many of them on the road with us today.
Before leaving we bundled up for the huge descent into Waldkirch. This was also very steep and we passed many crazy cyclists making the climb just as we had been passed on our way up on the other side. This was one of those steep, windy descents where you need to stop once in a while to give your hands a rest from braking so hard and so often.
At the bottom we had about 10 kms of flat riding in a valley following the Elz River (is that name a coincidence?) before making a turn just before the town of Elzach. Of course, the sky was now cloudy and as we were enjoying an ice cream in the valley it began to rain lightly.
The light rain continued off and on as we climbed very gradually at first and then more steeply. We weren't exactly sure that we had turned at the correct road near Elzach, but as we continued and saw the signs for towns pointing to the left and right, we were convinced we were going the right way. We enjoyed another panaramic view of some of the Black Forest hills shortly before another nice descent into the outskirts of Steinach where we camped. We set up and showered then had to wait out a rain shower in the tent before walking into town for a nice dinner in the Italian restaurant.
Kms 65.96
Time 4:41:18
Avg 14.0
Max 53.9
Total 2650.3
A partly sunny sky greeted us this morning. We experimented with some "just add milk" pancake mix. The first 2 we made were pretty thick but tasted fine stuffed with Nutella and bananas. The next 2 were a little better, but we decided that the mix was really a crepe mix and probably would never satisfy our longing for the pancakes that we know.
We picked a route last night that looked like it might give us some panaramic views, but you know what that means -- a lot of work! And a lot of work it proved to be. The first 8 kms were flat and then the climbing began when we made the turn north toward Stegen and then Sankt Peter. We thought that parts of this climb were very steep until we continued on past Sankt Peter and hit the steepest climbs of the trip so far. It was about 20 kms of climbing before we arrived in Kandel at 1242 meters. There was a panaramic overlook there where we settled in for our lunch break watching the parasailers taking off from just in front of the parking area. In the distance we could see that the weather looked a bit hazy and probably rainy. There were many motorcycles parked up there, too. We had noticed many of them on the road with us today.
Before leaving we bundled up for the huge descent into Waldkirch. This was also very steep and we passed many crazy cyclists making the climb just as we had been passed on our way up on the other side. This was one of those steep, windy descents where you need to stop once in a while to give your hands a rest from braking so hard and so often.
At the bottom we had about 10 kms of flat riding in a valley following the Elz River (is that name a coincidence?) before making a turn just before the town of Elzach. Of course, the sky was now cloudy and as we were enjoying an ice cream in the valley it began to rain lightly.
The light rain continued off and on as we climbed very gradually at first and then more steeply. We weren't exactly sure that we had turned at the correct road near Elzach, but as we continued and saw the signs for towns pointing to the left and right, we were convinced we were going the right way. We enjoyed another panaramic view of some of the Black Forest hills shortly before another nice descent into the outskirts of Steinach where we camped. We set up and showered then had to wait out a rain shower in the tent before walking into town for a nice dinner in the Italian restaurant.
Kms 65.96
Time 4:41:18
Avg 14.0
Max 53.9
Total 2650.3
30 June 2007
Steinen, Germany to Kirchzarten, Germany (Black Forest)
Last night Dorothee had talked us into riding up into the Black Forest and volunteered to accompany us. By the time we made it down stairs for breakfast she had been to the store and had an assortment of fresh baked bread and rolls set out on the table. We had a leisurely breakfast and didn't hit the road until 10:30. With Dorothee's guidance we breezed through numerous small villages and picked up a rails to trails route in Adelsberg. This proved to be a nice gentle grade and took us past the village of Schonau which is world famous for it's solar power production. Along the way we passed through a tunnel and took a break on the far side. We pulled out bananas and Dorothee pulled out a bag peanut M&M's, our first M&M's of the trip. Another 8 km's or so and we were in the village of Todtnau where the people were busy setting up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the invention of the hair perm by one of their own. I guess there is always a reason to party. From Todtnau the!
real clmbing started and within a few km's we were at Hangloch falls, the Black Forest's tallest waterfall at 97 meters. The climbing continued to Notschrei, where Dorothee treated us to cake and coffee. According to Dorothee's new GPS system we had climbed 850 meters over 40 km's with most of the elevation gain coming in the last 8 km's. It was here that we parted ways, Dorothee heading back home the way we came and us heading 13 km's down hill to Kirchzarten to camp.
We wished her good luck in her planning of an around the world bike trip beginning in February of 2008. She kept smiling and saying "only 7 more months." Hopefully she will stop and visit when she makes her way across the states on her epic journey.
Today was the kind of day that makes all the hard, miserable days worth the effort. The sun came out, we had a tail wind and beautiful scenery, along with a wonderful riding companion. Perfect.
Kms 53.39
Time 3:51:29
Avg 13.8
Max 53.9
Total 2584.3
Last night Dorothee had talked us into riding up into the Black Forest and volunteered to accompany us. By the time we made it down stairs for breakfast she had been to the store and had an assortment of fresh baked bread and rolls set out on the table. We had a leisurely breakfast and didn't hit the road until 10:30. With Dorothee's guidance we breezed through numerous small villages and picked up a rails to trails route in Adelsberg. This proved to be a nice gentle grade and took us past the village of Schonau which is world famous for it's solar power production. Along the way we passed through a tunnel and took a break on the far side. We pulled out bananas and Dorothee pulled out a bag peanut M&M's, our first M&M's of the trip. Another 8 km's or so and we were in the village of Todtnau where the people were busy setting up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the invention of the hair perm by one of their own. I guess there is always a reason to party. From Todtnau the!
real clmbing started and within a few km's we were at Hangloch falls, the Black Forest's tallest waterfall at 97 meters. The climbing continued to Notschrei, where Dorothee treated us to cake and coffee. According to Dorothee's new GPS system we had climbed 850 meters over 40 km's with most of the elevation gain coming in the last 8 km's. It was here that we parted ways, Dorothee heading back home the way we came and us heading 13 km's down hill to Kirchzarten to camp.
We wished her good luck in her planning of an around the world bike trip beginning in February of 2008. She kept smiling and saying "only 7 more months." Hopefully she will stop and visit when she makes her way across the states on her epic journey.
Today was the kind of day that makes all the hard, miserable days worth the effort. The sun came out, we had a tail wind and beautiful scenery, along with a wonderful riding companion. Perfect.
Kms 53.39
Time 3:51:29
Avg 13.8
Max 53.9
Total 2584.3
29 June 2007
A day off in Steinen, Germany
There's not much to report today. We stayed at Dorothee's and took care of business during the day while she was at work (email, haircut, groceries) then made a chicken burrito dinner shortly after she arrived home. Again we spent the evening chatting away. The weather was quite sunny this morning but became cloudy in the mid afternoon. The forecast we saw on the internet does not look too good for the next 3-4 days.
There's not much to report today. We stayed at Dorothee's and took care of business during the day while she was at work (email, haircut, groceries) then made a chicken burrito dinner shortly after she arrived home. Again we spent the evening chatting away. The weather was quite sunny this morning but became cloudy in the mid afternoon. The forecast we saw on the internet does not look too good for the next 3-4 days.
28 June 2007
Flaach, Switzerland to Steinen, Germany
It was cloudy but not raining. We hoped to make it all the way to Lorrach today to our warm showers host which meant a long day, so we enjoyed a nice, early breakfast with Ruth at the B&B and were on the road by 8:20 cruising down a long hill through town. Then came the climb that we had started yesterday before turning around. We cruised quite well, following the well marked trail signs. We decided that either the signs are getting better or we are getting better at spotting them or maybe a little bit of both.
The sky was threatening rain all day but we only had a few short sprinkles off and on. We crossed the river to the Germany side at Kaiserstuhl. We had a nice lunch on a bench right next to the Rhein and had a bit of a second lunch shortly afterwards when we turned the wrong way on the trail and found ourselves not too far from a grocery store and bakery.
Our steady pace continued. We made a brief stop in Bad Sackingen for a look at the St. Firdolin Munster (chruch) and we made it to Rheinfelden a little after 4:00. We crossed over the river into Switzerland to get to the old town section of Rheinfelden where we thought it would be easy to find a phone and call Dorothee (our host) at her office in Switzerland. The only phone we could find was a card-only phone which didn't help us at all. So we crossed back over into Germany and found a phone after asking a few people. Our original plan was for us to ride into Basel, Switzerland where Dorothee works and meet her somewhere. Well, we were a little overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of Rheinfelden and weren't very confident that we could find our way to Basel which was close to 18 more kms, so we told Dorothee that we would follow the bike route to Lorrach, which we saw a sign for on our way in, and meet her there.
So off we went and soon we were lost. The signs no longer showed Lorrach and we were riding next to a very busy road and didn't know when the bike path on the side of this road would end and we would be on the road with the cars, a situation that seems to be unheard of here in Europe. This main road would have taken us directly to Lorrach, but instead we followed a hiking path sign (these are everywhere in Germany, too) toward Lorrach that a gentleman on the street confirmed was probably the best way to go by bike. At Eichsel we turned left following a sign that pointed to Lorrach, but then the road split into 3 and there was not another sign anywhere. We asked a farmer which of the 3 roads would take us to Lorrach and he directed us. We climbed a bit on this road until it turned into gravel. Then we came upon fork after fork in the road and all there was to guide us were wooden signs with hiking trail names on them. At this point John was fuming and it took Marie's c!
ool head to strongly suggest turning around before we got really lost in this forest area. We went back to Eichsel and were looking at the map again when a man tried helping us. He told us that the way we had gone is the best way to get to Lorrach on a bike. He showed us a map of these logging roads, but there was no way we were going to go back that way. Marie calmly asked if there was another way, perhaps on the road we had come in on. He said we could go that way but there would be cars on this route (heaven forbid!).
So we climbed on the road over the small mountain and had more challenges as the road split again in 2 places. Finally just before 7:00 we arrived in Lorrach and rode around a bit looking for a phone. Dorothee graciously volunteered to ride back into town to escort us to here home which was 7 kms away. She had waited for us in Lorrach earlier for a bit but then went home figuring that we might have found our way there. She came rather quickly and we were finally in Steinen just before 8:00. This was our longest day of the trip so far and we were beat, so Dorothee's shower, nice dinner and great conversation was truly appreciated.
Kms 123.84
Time 8:00:33
Avg 15.4
Max 44.3
Total 2530.9
It was cloudy but not raining. We hoped to make it all the way to Lorrach today to our warm showers host which meant a long day, so we enjoyed a nice, early breakfast with Ruth at the B&B and were on the road by 8:20 cruising down a long hill through town. Then came the climb that we had started yesterday before turning around. We cruised quite well, following the well marked trail signs. We decided that either the signs are getting better or we are getting better at spotting them or maybe a little bit of both.
The sky was threatening rain all day but we only had a few short sprinkles off and on. We crossed the river to the Germany side at Kaiserstuhl. We had a nice lunch on a bench right next to the Rhein and had a bit of a second lunch shortly afterwards when we turned the wrong way on the trail and found ourselves not too far from a grocery store and bakery.
Our steady pace continued. We made a brief stop in Bad Sackingen for a look at the St. Firdolin Munster (chruch) and we made it to Rheinfelden a little after 4:00. We crossed over the river into Switzerland to get to the old town section of Rheinfelden where we thought it would be easy to find a phone and call Dorothee (our host) at her office in Switzerland. The only phone we could find was a card-only phone which didn't help us at all. So we crossed back over into Germany and found a phone after asking a few people. Our original plan was for us to ride into Basel, Switzerland where Dorothee works and meet her somewhere. Well, we were a little overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of Rheinfelden and weren't very confident that we could find our way to Basel which was close to 18 more kms, so we told Dorothee that we would follow the bike route to Lorrach, which we saw a sign for on our way in, and meet her there.
So off we went and soon we were lost. The signs no longer showed Lorrach and we were riding next to a very busy road and didn't know when the bike path on the side of this road would end and we would be on the road with the cars, a situation that seems to be unheard of here in Europe. This main road would have taken us directly to Lorrach, but instead we followed a hiking path sign (these are everywhere in Germany, too) toward Lorrach that a gentleman on the street confirmed was probably the best way to go by bike. At Eichsel we turned left following a sign that pointed to Lorrach, but then the road split into 3 and there was not another sign anywhere. We asked a farmer which of the 3 roads would take us to Lorrach and he directed us. We climbed a bit on this road until it turned into gravel. Then we came upon fork after fork in the road and all there was to guide us were wooden signs with hiking trail names on them. At this point John was fuming and it took Marie's c!
ool head to strongly suggest turning around before we got really lost in this forest area. We went back to Eichsel and were looking at the map again when a man tried helping us. He told us that the way we had gone is the best way to get to Lorrach on a bike. He showed us a map of these logging roads, but there was no way we were going to go back that way. Marie calmly asked if there was another way, perhaps on the road we had come in on. He said we could go that way but there would be cars on this route (heaven forbid!).
So we climbed on the road over the small mountain and had more challenges as the road split again in 2 places. Finally just before 7:00 we arrived in Lorrach and rode around a bit looking for a phone. Dorothee graciously volunteered to ride back into town to escort us to here home which was 7 kms away. She had waited for us in Lorrach earlier for a bit but then went home figuring that we might have found our way there. She came rather quickly and we were finally in Steinen just before 8:00. This was our longest day of the trip so far and we were beat, so Dorothee's shower, nice dinner and great conversation was truly appreciated.
Kms 123.84
Time 8:00:33
Avg 15.4
Max 44.3
Total 2530.9
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