Unlingen to Ersingen: From the best in German hospitality to the worst.........
We had another good breadfast at Sonne Gasthaus. Shortly after leaving the guesthouse I discovered that the round silver plate on one side of my Speedplay Frog pedals was loose and needed tightening. The only way to tighten the plate was to take the pedal apart and tighten the screw from inside. Unfortunately it needed a very small alan key that I didn’t have. I got out the trusty red duct tape that we bought in France and taped the pedal together. We would need to get to a bike shop and have it repaired. Relying on info from our Bikeline Map, we rode into the next couple of towns looking for a bike shop. We couldn’t locate them. As well, to our surprise most shops were closed because it was lunchtime. We thought that this was only in France. However, we have discovered that shops in Germany also close for a couple of hours for lunch. As well, shops close early on Saturdays and all day Sunday. In the third town, Rottenacker, we tried and it did in fact have a bike shop. After riding up and down looking for the bike shop, a local person pulled over and offered to help. With her help we were able to locate the shop. Unfortunately, the shop was closed for holidays. We rode on to the larger city of Ehingen and found a bike shop. For 3 euros they fixed the pedal. Our next bike repair challenge is to locate a bike shop that specializes in Rolhoff hubs. Our hub needs an oil change every 5000 km. However, because the hub is new, we need to replace the oil after the first 1000 km. We have ridden over 2000 km. and we need to buy a Rolhoff oil kit. The Rolhoff is German made so we thought that it wouldn’t be a problem finding a shop that can help us out. In France, we couldn't find a shop who was a Rohloff dealer. As we are approaching larger cities, we have high hopes that we can take care of this. Well we thought that the camping in Sigmaringen was bad, but Ersingen provided a new low. It sounded good as it was situated on a lake - the signage on the Eurvelo was really good but our first clue that this was not a good place was the rude and unpleasant personality of the man who ran it. He was unhelpful and rude - thankfully a woman was there who interpreted for us and smoothed the way. The cost was 14 euros for a piece of grass and a bathroom that was broken, dirty and basically unusable. The trailer toilet block had not been cleaned or maintained. We jumped in the lake to cool off, were in bed by 8:30 and were determined to be on the road as early as possible.
Dinner at our guesthouse. Real German food! Pork with melted cheese and gravy
This is the owner's cousin from Stuttgart. He grew up here in the village. His wife spoke excellent English and visited with us through the evening. We learned much about life in Germany from our visit with her.
Mundkingen - looking for a bike shop and everything is closed for lunch. The town is known for the well preserved half timbered buildings, and the many fountains. Decorative stork statues are throughout this area.
