A Ride Dedicated to Julie: Hohentegen to Stein am Rhein
A very sad day. Our ride today was dedicated to Julie, who lost her battle with cancer yesterday. She fought with such grace and good humour it is hard for us to believe she is gone. Our hearts ache for her husband Bill, her son Christopher and her daughter Kiersten. The world lost a very special person.
The day had a slow beginning for us as we absorbed the news. Before we left the hotel we hiked up to the castle ruins just above it. They were extremely interesting and it was so neat to have them to ourselves.
Julie was with us every pedal stroke today. Shortly after we started we came across a tiny and exquisite chapel by the bike path. We lit a candle for Julie there. I am not a religious person but it felt right.
The ride today was up the Rhine towards the Bodensee. It was pretty hard to get lost but I had to use my best GTW skills, and a couple of times waited at a corner as the CN carried on by, having missed another sign, so he probably biked a kilometre further than I did today.
We stopped at tourist information in Schaffhausen to book a room in Stein am Rhien, our goal for the night. Stein am Rhein is lovely, and a perfect place to spend my birthday. We had a lovely evening, and I want to say once more, in a very heartfelt way, we are so lucky to be able to do this.
Julie as I will remember her. Smiling, putting family first and cooking a Christmas dinner for the ages. To know her was to love her. And she loved and laughed generously right back.
This was the most amazing machine. It was hooked up to a pipe and then put fertilizer (we are guessing) on the crop. It came out as a dark liquid slurry.
After the mega climb we went back down to the river. There was a staircase with a rail for bikes to get down to the continuation of the bike path. Keith was manfully struggling down with his fully loaded bike and I was looking on doubtfully when the nice bus driver said "Why don't you use the lift?" Idiot tourists! The lift was great :).
