The room may have been a bit dark and oppressive, but it overlooked a lovely stone tower which appeared to have some history attached to it. Whilst it wasn’t exactly sunny, it was at least dry, so I enjoyed another powerful hot shower, packed up my stuff which was all over the pokey room and headed down for a hearty breakfast of cold meats, boiled eggs, cheese and bread.
Before leaving, I decided to take a walk around the village, or is it a town? Turns out is rather a nice-looking place, very Swiss with the usual smattering of half-timbered houses in a hilly medieval setting. The upper tower dates back to the mid-13th Century and I realise that if I had turned right out of the hotel last night rather than left, I would have found a few more inviting places to eat than the crappy pizza takeaway place.
I got chatting to a few cyclists who were up for the weekend, including a nice couple with a very happy looking dog which they pulled along behind their bikes in a wee trailer.
As I was preparing my own bike which I had left in the garage, I spied a very full looking money belt that had obviously been left in error by some other residents. I thought about handing it in, but decided to just carry on some basic maintenance cleaning and a few moments later, a very frazzled looking hotel worker burst into the place and I pointed directly at it. She looked very relieved as I think there were passports in there too.
My plan was to cycle back over the Rhine into Germany and to the popular tourist attraction of Lake Constance via Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Schaffhausen. The landscape was pleasant, clean, wholesome and kind of monotonous, which in itself was interesting in that my benchmark of what passed for monotonous had most definitely changed if I now regarded this open swathe of countryside bordered by the scenic Kaiserstuhl mountain range in such a manner. However I did pass through a hamlet displaying a marquee sign 'Leave to the Nightingale Her Shady Woods'
and nearby a bicycle halfway up the exterior of a building that had become overgrown with green vegetation, which, in combination, made me think of The Shining for some reason.
Neuhausen am Rheinfall was home to Europe's largest waterfall and promised to be pretty spectacular given the huge quantities of rainfall over the past few days and I was quite hyped to see it. It didn’t take long to get there and it didn’t disappoint either.
Utterly magnificent and much as I expected. Crowds of visitors including loads of US students eating bratwurst and sauerkraut with boats of various sizes traversing the huge plumes of spray from the thunderous roar of the falls.
There were several viewing platforms which looked as though you would need to get a boat to reach them, or perhaps you could climb up inside some of the rocks; I wasn’t quite sure. But I made a note that if ever I were in the area again, I would definitely return and spend more time.
As I stopped for a coffee and checked out the map, I had a change of plan and decided to bypass Lake Constance and head straight for Donaueschingen which was only a couple of hours away and was the source of the Danube, or at least the source as far as I was concerned. So great to have no timetable, commitments or schedule to stick to and instead, make things up on the fly and just go with the ebb and flow. I would simply add on Lake Constance to the return trip I would make one day, taking the EV 15 along the Rhine. Good plan!
I had bags of energy which was lucky as I would need it. You don’t get to the source of a massive river without going up some super steep hills and the further I went towards Donaueschingen, the more intense they became. I also came across a few signposts with Camino de Santiago shell signs, and it brought back some lovely memories of a couple of summers before.
I also came across The sun came out and it started getting quite hot on the climb and I stopped off at a petrol station for some coke and to stock up on items for dinner that night.
It was a Sunday and supermarkets and shops tend to be shut in Germany so small stations were the best option. I was pretty impressed that I made it quite far without getting off the bike, but there were a couple of hairpin bends that I didn’t have a hope in Hell of making. Outside of the hilly bits, the flatter areas were really peaceful and contemplative, and I allowed my mind to wander aimlessly. Hawks and swallows soared and dived into the nearby fields.
I found a campsite called Riedsee-Camping which was very family friendly and had a large lake and recreational pool area. As usual, the space put aside for tents was small and near the bins. I had it up within minutes and headed straight off to the lake for a swim. The water was amazing, really fresh and the orange light of the fading sunset cast a warm glow all over.
However the rest of the site was pretty grim, with never ending rows and rows of static mobile homes cheek by jowl with each other. It was clearly a place where people had second homes, but why on earth would they all choose to come here. It was the remotest thing to remote that you could imagine and everybody knew each other’s business, it was impossible not too when you were rammed into such close proximity your neighbour. Perhaps this was a German thing, and as usual they all seemed very nice.
I noticed more and more electric bikes and felt rather chuffed that I was using my own pedal power to get along. I was also rather pleased to see how small my panniers were in comparison with others. I was becoming a pro.
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