Day 47 - Riedingen to Ehringen - Planned Spontaneity

August 6, 2018

Day 47 - Riedingen to Ehringen

Just because we can!

Today was a very nice pedal, not too long, a fair amount of up and down, up to 36 C toward the end but a really enjoyable day overall.

There was one long climb that doesn't show up on this track. I am sure that it was a sustained 20% plus climb. It got so steep for such a distance (say a hundred yards of REALLY STEEP going) that I could not keep the bike moving with the heavy load, even in gear 1 with max assist. I had to bail and push and then go back and help Erika. The whole climb was about a half km or more and the average grade according to the sign was 20%.

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Only a few minutes earlier, this garage was full of bikes

Downtown Riedingen. While I went looking for a bank, Erika took pictures around the main square.

These towns are just pretty, pretty pretty

We see a lot of storks but they just seem so exotic to us we keep taking pictures of them

Loved the man with his pigs. Pork seems to be a basic part of the diet around here.

All of the bikes in this picture were in that shed only a half hour ago. Well, the bike beyond the statue of the man with the pigs and the bike being ridden by the man in grey were not in the shed, but mine was, and it is not in this picture

The group consisted of grandparents, parents and a couple of kids. They were in the same hotel as us and headed in the same direction. They were from different parts of Germany and were well organized and happy to be doing such a trip together.

The early part of our track for the day. It wasn't too hot yet and we are well fed and rested. It is such a glorious thing to be doing in the morning

I noticed the river had lilypads and I thought of you , Steve (of the Grampies)

Even on a Monday, canoeists are on the river

Another pretty town appears and beckons us as we approach

Don't know who this is, but it was pretty ornate for a statue on the side of the road

Oh oh, here we go again, can't stop the camera from jumping into our hands

These working barns just begged to be photographed. It is impressive how clean and organized a working barn can be.

This was the coolest thing: the bicycle tire is a water wheel

I offered to climb up and sit on the seat but Marvin said "NO!". (Erika)

Oh oh, where is Dodie when we need her? The man raked away the cuttings on the side of the truck to our left and we had to squeeze by with our loaded bikes while stepping down into the ditch where the fence is. They actually tried very heart to make it passable for us.

Shortly thereafter, we had to negotiate this bridge. Erika rode the length of it perfectly. Her balance has improved greatly on this trip and immensely since a few years ago. Keep in mind we are riding heavily loaded bikes, wide and top heavy.

Trout are a big deal in the upper Donau. The river has a good population of Brook trout (like this one) and Rainbows. In fact, as in yesterday's pictures, we can often spot trout from the bridges

A beckoning downhill entrance into another lovely town

In this case, we barely leave one town and we are in another

Yes, I know we have left the trail, we are going into that town. Those are twin onion towers

A weir and then stones placed so that fish can negotiate up and downstream

Altenburg: never heard of it before but it is OLD!

We are going up the hill to the church, because we CAN!

Well, after all, this is what e-bikes make possible, exploring castles and churches that you just wouldn't even try for if you didn't have the assist. The spire in this picture is just a bonus that showed up as we came up the backside of the twin tower church

The sign tells us that we are in Obermarchtal

And what we have here is an old Catholic cloister

Inside, we discover the most ornate church we have ever seen. Must have had very well to do followers in its time

A benefit of the wealthy trying to buy their way into heaven is that the arts were supported and beautiful paintings such as this were commissioned.

If I taught from a pulpit like this I am pretty sure for the first several lectures the students would be checking out the pulpit and not hearing me. (Erika)

There wasn't any stained glass windows, just this one decorated with children's drawings in the grapes.

The detailed carving on the front of the pews.

A lot of pictures, I know, but the amount of ornate objects and art was really kind of overwhelming

Up-side down painting above the main alter.

Even the door handle and lock as we are leaving is unusual

One last picture before we went back down. They had bike parking area and WC's in another building on the grounds where we topped up our water bottles. Quite extensive buildings and grounds but no one really around at the time. We did get to listen to a lot of bells as we were there over the noon period. Both towers had bells and then there was the tower of the church we passed on the way into this one. They really sounded lovely all together

Back down below, we sit down to Bench of the Day! with a table in the shade and the lovely river beside us

As we head back to the trail, we get a good angle on this quintessential house of the region

The path had a couple of heavy gravel spots today. Here it is not bad but on a track like this there will sometimes be a bad spot, usually as it is transitioning a slope of some kind

Erika had to get water from the pump, just because we could! Notice there is good drinking water provided also, from the tap

Darn! the lighting is bad on this girl carrying a milk can

This was just particularly pretty rows of trees escorting us into the next town

This town was full of fun pictures, waiting to be taken. A lot of use of the painted stork statues.

Oh oh, here we go again. Actually this time was not bad at all. When he saw us coming he pulled to the side a bit to let us by. They are actually doing a great job of maintaining the trail

A really big weir with another channel coming from the left through some little rapids

This was a lake or backwater of the river on the other side of us. You can hardly see them but there were kids on the water in tubes

So as we arrived in the vicinity of Ehringden, we crossed the river and turned into town, going through a really stinky industrial section and finally arriving at a bike store where I wanted them to replace the front brake pads on my bike. They figured they had just enough time to do that for me and that was all. So we will watch for another chance to have all brakes and chains checked tomorrow when we reach Ulm.

After that was done we had good data reception so we checked some places out and made a Skype call and reserved a room. Then we pedaled back through the stinky part of town to cross the river and get to where we are settled in for the night. (What Marvin and I found so smelly was actually the smell from a very large brewery)

Quite a nice hotel (The Roseburg Hotel) and room for 65 eu with breakfast.

Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 1,851 km (1,149 miles)

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