Tuetonic Precision: Day 24 - Stein am Rhine to Tuttlingen - Get It While It Lasts... A Big Loop Through Europe 2017

August 31, 2017

Tuetonic Precision: Day 24 - Stein am Rhine to Tuttlingen

Schaffhausen is the home of IWC, a maker of very fine watches. The precision involved in this task must also carry over into the local weather forecasting.

The forecast called for thundershowers at around 10 pm with continuing rain throughout the next day. At almost exactly 10 pm, the sky cracked above us, lightning flashed, and the rain dumped down.

It was a welcome relief from the hot and humid days we've been experiencing.

When we got up in the morning the rain had stopped and we managed to break camp in reasonably good weather. We debated last night whether to stop at the local grocery that opened at 7:30 for breakfast, or go to the Konditorei beside it that opened at 7 am (note the difference from France!). That debate was settled once we finished packing up as the sky opened again. We'll sit inside a dry café eating quiche and drinking hot coffee and tea rather than cold yogurt and bananas on the street.

The rest of the day was on and off again rain, with more on than off. After about 20 km we arrived at Radofzell, on the shores of lake Constance, and turned north towards the Danube. Big River number three coming up and it will be our companion for the rest of the trip.

Even though it was raining on us pretty hard, and we had about 20 km of constant climbing as we bumped over from the Rhine to the Danube drainage basin, it was a pretty good day of biking. The temps were in the mid teens, and we had a decent tailwind for most of the day. With good gortex (shout out to Arc 'teryx) the rain was quite bearable. Both K and I commented that we really wouldn't have liked to do all the climbing today in the heat we'd had in the last weeks.

We were also biking more or less on our own once we left Radofzell. The route was a combination of bike paths (mostly paved) and rural roads (all paved) through fairly heavily forested hills, some of them pretty steep. We saw only 4 other cyclist and about as many cars. Amazingly, two of the bikers we saw were Glenn and Steve, the two Kiwi gents we met three weeks ago outside Samaur. We ended up riding into Tuttlingen with them and having a cake and coffee at a really friendly, and warm, Konitorei / Café as we both set about finding a hotel for the night. Camping was not in the equation tonight!

Tuttlingen is an interesting place. What the Basel /Schaffhausen area is to watches, this place is to medical surgical instruments. Apparently this place produces over 50% of the worlds output. Odds are that if you've had an operation of any sort, the fine folks from this friendly little city in southern Germany have had a hand in it.

We also had our first glimpse of the Danube. The headwaters are another 35 km to the west of us, but we don't think we're going to head that way to see it. We'll see a lot of the Danube over the next two months so that incremental bit will have to wait.

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Not much of a 'photo op' day given the weather. That was a real shame because the countryside and forests were really beautiful. The narrow roads twisting through stands of trees and deep green pastures made me (almost) want to trade my bike for something petrol propelled from Stuttgart (just a little bit to the north of us)... maybe next time ... but those thoughts did inspire Song of the Day ..

Radar Love by Golden Earing ... a classic driving song ... this popped into my head when I saw twisting road weaving through a forest of elm, oak and chestnut ... and it wouldn't leave. I always thought that Golden Earing was a German band but it turns out they're Dutch, close enough! Gotta love the '70's too. The hair and pastel onesies are poised for a comeback!

A Swiss classic ... cows grazing beside the Rhine. Note the grey sky, the first in quite a while

Lake Constance / Bodensee at Radofzell. This will be the last we see of the Rhine on this trip

The pictures don't really do the country side justice. Very beautiful rolling terrain, very green and very much all to ourselves

This was the road leaving the forest that gave me the 'song of the day' inspiration. The road makes a 180 turn and continues up the hill on the left of the picture ... the bike path continued on to the right

... the bike path ... however this wasn't the end of our climbing ... we still had about 8 km of fairly steep (up to 8%) to come

Dripping wet in a very warm and friendly café in Tuttlingen, We met up with Steve and Glenn as we were coming into town (on a really fast 5 km downhill!)

Hotel room carnage .. drying the tent and two days of cycle clothing!

K on her first Danube crossing ... there will be a lot more of these

Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 1,733 km (1,076 miles)

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