July 18, 2012
Day 60:Tuttlingen, Germany: Compulsory Rest Day
We woke up at 6:30, ready for our first day down the Donau. But as soon as Dodie left the tent she realized that she was dizzy, too dizzy to stand. We put her back to bed, and in a couple of hours she could very carefully walk around our little yard. We looked up all the causes of dizziness and vertigo on the internet, and came up with stuff ranging from "it's nothing" to "you're gonna die". Back to bed to sleep that off!
Now, at 1:30, Dodie is asleep, but has been around the yard quite briskly. I think she will be ok. We are putting it down to dehydration and too much sun.
Sometime in the morning our Korean camping mates left. So also did the Vinkenvleugel family, from Voorbarg, Netherlands. The family Joosje (12), Yann (9), and Thijmen (7), plus mom and dad Maartja and Joost. (Please correct me on these spellings, anyone). The family is travelling down the Donau, and covers about 40 km per day.
Have a look at the gizmo that allows dad to tandem with the smallest kid's bike. check out followme.com for more info on it.
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I left Dodie in the tent sand went off to research the grocery that the Dutch family had already scoped out. It turned out to be quite giant and less than 1/2 km away.
I wanted to show Dodie with a photo what the available sandwiches and salads looked like, so she could decide if it was worth it to totter over/send me back. I snapped a photo, just as the counter lady came to help me. "I'm OK for now" I said (in English of course). So here we have a wild (and unwashed because of some random shower room schedule) bearded guy in a reflective vest photographing the goods and babbling in some foreign language. I strode off before she could call security!
Maybe we will test out Dodie's walking skills and go there in the evening for a luxury sandwich and coffee. I assume security has stopped looking for me!
Now that we are over our pique at having the only camping in town be an unmarked patch of lawn in a park, with a washroom that is locked and unlocked on a random schedule and for which you can get a key at city hall, if you would know where city hall is, it's fairly ok to be stuck here. The icky city is out beyond the park, the lock on the ladies washroom is broken - so always open, and he e-Center has all the pastries a Grampie needs for power.
Speaking of power, I am again coming to you from a sink with a shaver plug, though in the men's washroom, which randomly happens to be open right now. Life is good, eh?
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In the end we were joined by a few other tourers. This included a really impressive four parents and four children from Barcelona. There were two five year olds and two toddlers. The parents had two really big bikes, with a child up front in a recumbent position, two front bags per side and two rear bags! One parent had a Bike Friday and was pulling a trailer containing the youngest toddler. One of the couples runs a folding bike sales business in Barcelona, and they were testing this, their first imported Friday.
The couples are doing only 20-30 km per day, since obviously you can not chain toddlers to a bike for too long. We think they are brave to undertake to provide food, shelter, and entertainment for four small kids on the road, so far from home.
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