Stein Am Rhein to Tutlingen - 89km/53mi
Blog posted 3 dsys late owing to arduosity of Day20
Brutal .... tonnes of climbing today...but we've seen the birthplace of two of Europe's greatest rivers.... Lake Constance for the Rhein, and The Black Forest for the Danube, and undoubtedly the graveyards of many unprepared cyclists. The unrelenting ups&downs made for one of the toughest days of cycling I have every experienced, the like of which should it repeat itself again tomorrow, may well indeed find me wanting! Both the Rhein and the Danube (Donau) are forged from the deepest darkest corners of Bavaria/Bad Wurstemberg. Paul and I deliberately took different routes to the campsite.... calculated climbing remaining c.150m it seemed OK for me to follow the longer EV6 route while Paul followed 'my' Garmin EV6 route albeit with one continuous sharp climb....actual remaining minimum climbing..... 460m to the summit of the Bavarian Black Forest!!.... it was an incredible end of day... Pa
ul probably made 500m climbing out of his finish route, and my 14km longer route with with it's dozen or so false summits (more than a Harley Street Cosmetic Surgery!!) through Aach(Donau Spring!)&Engen must have totted up at least 1,500m to get to the summit where our paths crossed, but Paul passed at 5pm and me after sunset at around 8pm... I was greeted in Engen by a very enthusiastic Brit named Todd. He asked what he could do to help, but all I needed was lots of water so we went to his home, met his dog and filled water bottles. A orchestra musician bow married to a German lady his life is now in Germany, thanks Todd!! So hours passed and with head and tail lights burning I descended the 200m through pitch dark Schwarres Wald to Tutlingen to meet Paul for Pizza&Beers!!😎🤙Turkey Za'artar must wait til tomorrow! Then exhaustedly straight to bed.... no shower, no toothbrush, no pyjamas (which gave the bonus benefit of not having to get dressed the next day) I went to bed.... after 3 days and 4 espresso coffees I hereby complete this blog!
Onwards&Downwards ((Hopefully!!)
More interesting people... Another ederly lady who was going for a Rhein swim told us she's been in every day for the last 2yrs!! c. 82yrs young...... she also ininquired of me if I had jumped from bridge!!🤷♂️..... Kult, an 82yr old guy chatted with us, turns iut his Marathon running career started when he was 75 yrs old after he made a wager withba friend of €100 that he wouldn't complete the marathon.... in fact his friend saud he wouodn't even make it to the 3,000m mark.... Kult has run Berlin, New York, Stockholm, Boston, Paris, London, plus another.... he was denied of Tokyo due to Covid.... his running days are done, but he can dine out on that story for years as far as I'm concerned!!
En route, before the killer climb, I bottled it and threw €115 on a new Ortlieb bike rack with the pukka fixings described earlier ... despite Maria and Dennis sending new fixing brackets in the post, and things being calm with my rack, we still have 6 weeks remaining and once we are in eastern Europe access to such luxuries may become less guaranteed... so 🤞&🙏 we did manage to upset the locals in Radolfzell by parking our bikes illegally...NeinNeinNein!! But I did get a nice bicycle seat rain cover out of it though!
As we began climbing we came upon a golf course with a nice bench onntge 17th Tee... we sat down and watched a number of very pleasant golfers tee off.... one invited me to have a golf as he asked if either of were golfers.... not my best efforts, but I did at least hit the ball and got 150m out of it.... a but of a 'worm burner' it was!! We all.laughed and off they went! More Entente Cordial, German Style!
Doug&Paul
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