August 27, 2013
Day 40: Markranstadt to Ulm
Birgit and Jurgen could write the book on hospitality. Not only did they go out in the night on a bike to find us, but they followed with great meals and wonderful tours through their part of the country. They fixed our bike and computer, and helped wash our clothes. What more could they do? Answer, get up at 5 a.m., feed us, and drag us to the train station in the city. Then they saw us onto the train and waited for it to pull out so they could wave goodbye. Thank you so much, Birgit and Jurgen!
That train took us to Frankfurt, a place we have so far failed to cycle to. No problem, we did a lightening visit - like 3 seconds. Here is what we saw:
Surprisingly for such a big centre, our arrival platform at Frankfurt did not have an elevator, only these death stairs.
There did turn out to be an elevator at our departure platform, but we missed seeing it. Good news, I only injured myself a little on this escalator with the loaded bikes!
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From Frankfurt we hopped the S Bahn, which is an unreserved local train, to Darmstadt, and from there on to Ulm. What used to be an amazing to us system of being able to take your bike on a trains now commonplace. This still didn't stop me from snapping a photo of some of the bikes, in the bike car. Are you watching, Canadian National and Amtrak??
Exiting the station at Ulm, our third time here, we were no longer put off by the slightly scuzzy urban scene. We got oriented, headed for the river, and got immediately lost. No problem, a road angel - Dieter - appeared out of the pavement and lead us to the river. He took a bit of a back way, past some half timbered houses and over cobbles. Yikes, we are back in half timber land!
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Once at the river, our two previous visit here came back to us. Hello Donau! The only difference is that this time we researched and found a camping place! Last time it was wild camping for us by the river. This time its the canoe club. We really like canoe clubs, in part because the people are sports oriented, something that helps limit the number of giant wohnmobiles. In this case, we have a whole lawn, with tables, to ourselves.
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Spoiled by our time in Markranstadt, we have rned up our noses at our boiled noodles with tuna fish (cat food) and are dining on turkey steaks, fries, and salad with the paddlers in the onsite restaurant. Our plates came with disks of garlic herb butter, on top of the salad. It's very flavourful and we remember it from Austria, but what is it for?
Another sign that we are now in the deep south is the appearance of Alm Doodler on the menu.Alm Doodler is ginger ale, but much better! Hooray!
Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 2,578 km (1,601 miles)
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