August 20, 2006
Friedrichshafen - Widnau[CH]
After breakfast we retrieved our bikes from the rear of the hotel and set out in an easterly direction through the town, all the while keeping an eye out for the Bodensee Radweg, the Lake Constance bike path. The weather was cool, grey and still. We negotiated our way through the town centre, quiet on this Sunday morning and picked up the cycle path some way out to the east. The way was flat, on compacted gravel and well signposted. It rained then, for the first time for 10 minutes or so. We didn't see much of the lake until Langenargen, a small resort village. I looked at maps but none of the shops had anything suitable. In fact, we rode map-less until Chur. The Radweg signposting was enough.
We pressed on towards Lindau, a small corner of Bavaria on the lake. The weather took a turn for the worse. It rained hard. We put on our waterproof stuff, ignored Lindau, the centre of the town being on a peninsular off the route and pressed on to Bregenz. The landscape became more industrial once we crossed the Austrian frontier, in the rain it looked grim. At Bregenz Hafen station the bike path runs along the platform. In the centre of Bregenz we stopped at a lakeside café/ice cream parlour. It was still raining furiously. We drank coffee and ate sandwiches and ice-cream until the rain stopped about an hour later. Within ten minutes the sun was shining and the café staff were wiping down the outside tables and chairs, in anticipation of more business.
We left and continued to follow the Radweg signing around the lake. We passed the football stadium. I was mightily impressed with the condition of the playing area. Given what we'd just experienced, I shouldn't have been so surprised. Soon, on the edge of town the path turned inland from the lake following a river, the Bregenzer Aach, for perhaps 2 km. There were rapids and people fishing in its glacial waters. The path met the main road out of Bregenz to Lustenau, followed it over the bridge then turned right again, to continue on the opposite bank.
Here we lost each other for the first time. I turned right and right again following the bike route sign, Barbara, further behind than I had expected, followed the main road. I backtracked and found her among the traffic. Back on the path we rode through the village of Hard and into the Rhine delta. [there's another one in the Netherlands]. Rather surprisingly, there were similarities with Holland in spite of the near presence of the mountains, for several kilometres we rode on top of a dyke. There was evidence of the risk of flood. We had crossed the Rhine canal near Fussach, now we'd reached the river, with no way across. We turned south and, following the Radweg signs, crossed a footbridge at Geissau into Switzerland. We were now on the Swiss National cycle route 2, which follows the valley of the Rhine.
God save our Rhine Delta communities from high water, breached dams and flood.
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For two kilometres or so we were riding along a woodland path, at the same time tracking the autobahn. We stopped at a service station to see if they had accommodation. They hadn't. There was a gate from the path into the forecourt. The occasional motorists stretched their legs in the woods. The bike route took to minor roads, then a field path before depositing us in St. Margrethen. We rode around awhile. I found a hotel near the railway station. It was closed, in need of renovation. The bike route kept us away from the main road, but took us on a side trip around the town's most recent industrial sites. This was not picture-postcard Switzerland. We took the main road southwards, in the hope of finding perhaps, a motel. It was mostly built-up so fast moving traffic wasn't a problem. We passed a motor repair shop outside of which, a bunch of lumpy, hairy-arsed motor-heads, dressed in studded leather were hanging out listening to very loud heavy-metal music from a car streo; no cuckoo-clock kitsch in this part of town.
I had printed out from the Véloland-Schweiz website a list of cycle-friendly hotels on our approximate route. I pulled it out of my handlebar bag. The first on the list was in St. Margrethen, I should have looked earlier. Next, was the Metropole in nearby Widnau. We turned off the main road following signs to the town, Half-expecting a cosy country inn, [ the Metropole, are you sure?] I was surprised to see a six-storey steel and glass building bearing the name. Nevertheless the woman on the desk was friendly and helpful. She spoke English, but was happy enough to let me exercise my German. We stowed our bikes in a corner of the lobby and took the lift to our room. After showering I went downstairs to check on restaurant opening times. The Metropole has a rooftop restaurant, but was closed on Sundays. The alternative, the ground-floor Spanish restaurant was open for another half-hour.
I had been trying to educate myself to be Germanic but now, the server, most of the clientele and the food were Spanish. This caused me some confusion while ordering. We ate some undistinguished tapas and then went into the adjoining bar for a beer, where, curious, I spoke to a local Spanish resident, Jose. Originally from near La Coruña in Galicia he had moved to Widnau in the 1970s and had worked in a local chemical plant ever since. He and a number of others from Spain, he said, enough to support a restaurant anyway.
Today's ride: 81 km (50 miles)
Total: 102 km (63 miles)
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