Day 41: Ulm to Bad Waldsee

August 28, 2013

It's been a bit of a shock being back south, on the Donau. When you are used to cycling, a train might as well be an airplane in terms of the speed with which it changes things. So here we have, of course, the river, and the wonderful cycle way beside it. We also have the half timbered houses, open valleys with towns visible in the distance - each with its church, and bakeries in great numbers and with absolutely the best products.

We only got to follow the Donau Radweg for a short bit. Then our way, the Donau-Bodensee, parted ways with it, and we were off into new territory for us. It is a land of green, with crop land that is mainly grass or corn. It's unlike Denmark, which was mainly gold, from crops of mainly grain. Not too many cows here, though, though somebody must be eating the hay from the grasslands!

Early morning on the Donau with the Ulm Cathedral

A sign by the river offers support for cyclists

Beautiful greens in a canal parallel to the Donau

A pillar with route indicators. cycling support is superb in this area

Many of the houses here seem new, and many roofs are covered with solar panels. Roofing is made of tile, as has been the case throughout the places we have visited this tiime. However the tiles seemed shinier in the north west. The image of houses with balconies, and from them cascades of flowers is sommething we associate with Austria. Here, it's close, but there are no balconies. Rather the flowers cascade from each second floor window. The flowers are generally red geraniums.

I decided to treat my Planet Bike computer to a new battery, and it responded with a lovely bright display, but a refusal to respond to its setup buttons. So that put us on the lookout for a bike shop for a new computer.

We fetched up in Laupheim, which has three bike shops, and stumbled onto one of them. Bike shops, like anything else, offer variable service quality. But here I was impressed that the man came out of the store to ask how he could help. Klaus, as he turned out to be, spoke English well enough to clearly explain the features of the computers he had in stock. Then he allowed me to pretty much botch installing the one we chose, and came behind to properly affix the mount, the sensor, and the cable routing. He also set up the Sigma computer using a neat handheld device. The price ws great, too.

Because we were doing so well, I showed Klaus the stripped frame dropout for the rear pannier rack, where Jurgen had popped in a pop rivet as a last resort. Klaus had another idea - put a nut behind the stripped dropout and make room for it by putting a spacer on the axle, to move the frame and dropout away from the smallest ring on the cassette. Probably this description is too fuzzy for anyone to understand, but the summary is that it was a plan that could work, but would require some fooling around. I said - let's see if the pop rivet holds up.

20 km out from Klaus' shop, the rivet failed. Klaus knew it would. Anyway, rather than implement his scheme right there on the road, I put a bolt into the stripped socket, slathered on some Locktite, and said we'll do it right soon. This is the kiss and promise school of bike repair.

We headed for Bad Waldsee, where we maybe thought there could be a camping spot. As we followed the radweg signs, a man waved us down and explained in all german that we were headed for big hills. He put us on a flatter path. Dodie did the same later, by choosing alternate routes from the map, or just saying things like "Why are we up here when we could be down there?" With these minor adjustments, our route was pretty darn flat throughout.

Our camping spot in Bad Waldsee turned out to be a Hymer camper dealer. Hymer is big here - with a Hymer museum in town. The town, as its name implies, is a spa town, with some kind of hot springs. We managed to pitch our tent on some grass in a parking lot near the hot springs. NNo sooner was the fly on, but it started to rain. Ha ha, we are dry and warm in here, and have just dined on canned tuna fish. Don't feel sorry for us - this was spicy gourmet Mexican style canned tuna fish!

Churches here have a unique style. I shot a few during the day...

There is a fair bit of house construction. The technique uses mostly hollow brick blocks and stucco, like this

Bakery in Laupheim. The quark tasche was great!

Fo some reason, Laupheim has frogs everywhere

We have seen a few, but only a very few, of these weird guys. Look at the little tail, snuffly nose, and ports on the side. What is it??

Here are those flowers under windows - almost like Austria but different

Today's ride: 81 km (50 miles)
Total: 2,659 km (1,651 miles)

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