Day 5 - Constance (Germany) to Stadel (Switzerland) - Ride the Rhine

September 13, 2024

Day 5 - Constance (Germany) to Stadel (Switzerland)

Beautiful Ride, Stein am Rhein and... Unhealthy Food

About to eat the largest croissant in the world (in Berlingen)

Me trying to tell this nice old guy outside of a breakfast place in Berlingen Switzerland that I didn't speak German. But he kept smiling and talking to me (in German) about my bike

Lots of apple orchards along the route again today

After 5 days on the Rhine route, I finally found a two wheeled recumbent buddy in Stein am Rhein!This guy and his wife were from France and both riding nice low racer recumbents. They've been criss crossing Europe for the past three months

... So we had to check out the "Greatest Currywurst un the World". We both ended up liking it... but our stomachs? Not so much

Both of us on the same street in Stein am Rhein

Looking across the Rhine from Germany at Diessenhofen Switzerland

Shot of the beautiful covered bridge to Diessenhofen

Diessenhofen w Ellen (yeah... I know... too many shots of Diessenhofen, but it was really beautiful)

You'll be riding in the forest on gravel roads for a couple miles then suddenly you hit a nice paved path with wide open views and you have to get off and take a picture

View looking back East at the Rhine just outside of Schaffhausen Switzerland right before a storm

At some point I had to get in the Rhine. But with these temps, this is as close as I'll get

Ellen looking West towards Schaffhausen with views of the big castle in town

Ellen at Rheinfall Switzerland. The most powerful waterfall in Europe

Another shot of the Rhine Falls. Notice the people on the rock to the right with the Swiss flag. They had to take a boat through some pretty choppy water to get to that rock

View from across the water at the bottom of the falls

What do you do when you're short on time, but still need to grab something to eat and try to get to your Airbnb before dark? You pick up some Chicken Tika Masala at the only open food stand at Rheinfall and scarf it down. It was tasty, but after a long day of multiple bad food choices like this, our stomachs were paying the price tonight

So coming out of Rheinfall I made the poor decision to follow Google Maps (for bikes) route to our Airbnb in Stadel (Switzerland) instead of staying on the EV15 path along the river and then waiting until just before Stadel to hop off and ride 2-3 miles to our destination. The Google Maps "might" have been more direct, but there were massive hills and it literally took us through some muddy corn field paths. There were a couple of really scenic parts of the ride, but we ended up pulling into our Airbnb well past dark. (It's always a little unnerving to be biking in a foreign country that you're completely unfamiliar with in the dark.)

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Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 229 miles (369 km)

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