Day 7: The Rheinfall

July 20, 2024

Egnach, CH to Waldshut-Tiengen, DE

This was an earlier morning than usual. Since I slept early the previous night I was ready and rolling by 0830. I had an unplanned errand I had to run too- I forgot to give my last hotels keys back. Oops. They weren’t impressed but they were kind enough about it.

At the first town, I stopped at Die Post and sent the keys back. I also grabbed a Kaffee at the attached Starbucks-esque cafe. And got some euros at the ATM since I was leaving Switzerland soon. Wow they have everything in one place. The Die Post lady seemed unimpressed with my lack of German but the keys were on their way back. I tried! Pakete verseten

The rest of the morning saw me riding further west past the Lake which again became the Rhine. That’s a good sign.

I made a wrong turn in Kreuzlinger ending up accidentally in Kostanz, the attached city that is actually Germany. Schengen is fun.

I think the German influence in the architecture is becoming clearer

Then doubled back and continued following the EuroVelo route west along the Rhine.

It was a very hot day. I also clocked a lot of mileage, more than planned because I really wanted to see the Rheinfall today.

I did get my wish but tired myself out quite a lot doing so, as I navigated first to one side of the river, realized it was a bad view (and a paid tourist trap), and then had to climb a bunch of hills on the other side to get a better glimpse (for free…).

There were about 15 miles left after that so I made a pit stop at Coop market again to grab some more snacks for the road and I was on my merry way.

Some beautiful sunflowers lit the way.

Finally at the campground, late, at 1845, I setup all of my tent and sleeping gear. A helpful German couple nearby actually gave me some tips on how to do it more efficiently too, suggesting to put the stakes a bit more diagonal and to use my stuff sack as more of a wind sail rather than a blow up. The latter didn’t work super well but well enough that I may do this more than getting dizzy for no reason. Getting the sleeping mat ready was always the worst chore.

I also met an Italian man who had a very creative self-designed and self-built electric cycling rig. Take a look. He was headed back south to his home.

This is pretty sick. And he got it over mountain passes with quite a lot of gear. Crazy.

After a quick dinner I spent 20 mins sitting next to the Rhine staring into space. Then I went to sleep.

Crazy pretty. This was steps from the campground.

Thanks for reading!

Today's ride: 121 km (75 miles)
Total: 546 km (339 miles)

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