September 5, 2011
A Dark and Mysterious Gorge
Weird. I didn't realise that Beuron was such a religious place. On Ken' explorations he found the Arch Abbey complete with nuns and monks. The only shop was a bookshop selling religious texts. The girl that had shown us to our house had a little English and I had gathered from her the café place where we made contact opened at 7. Along we went at 7 and into another world. It was completely stuffed with things, old books, handbag collections, teapots , cameras etc. Lots of men were sitting alone on elegant sofas reading books and drinking beer, no one was eating and they all looked very studious. The man of the house came along ( thankfully he was the only one who had a little English) asked us when we wanted breakfast and did we want a drink. We did, so we got a large bottle of beer each. We sat and waited for the menu to appear. After an hour we were getting a little anxious. So I saw the man again and in appalling mime asked him if we could get something to eat. He looked somewhat surprised and suggested potato and sausage soup, This came with massive hunks of German bread and another 50ml of beer and very nice it was to. The studious ones bad us goodnight and went to bed and we braved the rain and went back to our little house.
The rain had stopped when we woke. We packed up and went back to the café place for breakfast and while we were eating it started to team down again. Unsure of what to do we just ate more, drank more coffee and talked to the man who spoke some English. He told us there were 60 monks in the monastery and of course they made up the major part of the population of the village. The rain eased a little so we decided to go. The ride was slow, steep and spectacular. Much of the surface was unpaved and we felt grateful thet with all the overnight rain things weren't too muddy to clog up our gears. I was however cured of the romantic thoughts I had had earlier in the trip when I liked the sound of the crunch of gravel under my tyres. I now like the silent swish of tarmac. At one stage we wooshed out of the forest to the glorious sound of Gregorian Chants and there in a tiny chapel where a few monks going about their daily business. This is part of the course has been well fortified with many castles high up on rocky promontories, it is wild and I wouldn't have been surprised to meet a wolf or perhaps a wicked witch.
At Sigmaringen the castle dominates the view but we saw a sign to a bike shop. My bike was giving me increasing problems with the gears and the bell had been shaken off on some rough track, so in we went. What outstanding service, we unloaded our bikes into a locked locker and were told to come back in an hour. Up we went to the castle where we had tomato soup , wandered through the town and bought an umbrella to ward off any further rain - then back to the bike shop where for 22Euros both bikes had been checked and I had a new bell and gear cables. We were out of the gorge so I don't know if it has been fixed as the remaining 33km to here was fast, flat and furious with a raging tail wind - fun.
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 1,673 km (1,039 miles)
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