June 25, 2018

We started early to day, (8:15 a.m.) as we knew we had some serious hills to climb. The weather was cool but not cool enough to put the windbreakers on.

We cycled through Lahr and laughed about our memories of Lahr, almost all of them were food related. This place did the best Strammer Max (the Schussel), this one did the best Chateaubriand (the Lowen), we had the best hot raspberry dessert (Zum Schwannen) at this one. We remembered the Riminihof for venison and a wonderful pork and spaetzle dish, the Schutterzel Muhle for flammenkuchen. Also the best Trout place with its own trout farm. It is amazing we weren’t the size of houses when we returned to Canada.

We cycled through Kuhbach where we stopped at the Heimat Museum. I think it used to be the old sword makers place, Ralf was not so sure. There used to be an old fella who made swords and put them on wooden plaques with your family crest on the plaque. They were a great keepsake of this area. We remembered him telling us the story that after the castle was destroyed the \”swordmaker\” had to become a blacksmith, he was no longer allowed to make swords. This was decreed from 1656 or thereabouts and he was only allowed to make ceremonial swords to that day.   Of course I am guessing he is long dead now.

 

The old forge is now a local history musem.  One of the really neat exhibits was the wood school.  It has several logs on a post and when you opened the log it would tell you what sort of wood it was and how to recognize the tree.

Today I was very proud of myself and also really disappointed in myself. I cycled over the Biberach Hill to the Geroldsecker Castle. I geared down and just kept pedaling. It was approximately 208 metres of climbing over 6 kms. I was very proud of cycling over the hill.

We had no paper maps to follow today. We had a rough idea where to go and followed the signs.

Ralf took some photos of the Geroldsecker Castle and we carried on down the other side of the hill towards Haslach and Hausach.

Haslach has a very pretty downtown area and we cycled through the downtown because there was an umleitung (detour) on the route.

The first half of the day was beautiful, the Black Forest as we remembered it, clean colourful and some beautiful old buildings.

We passed the Open Air Farm Museum. The traditional houses of the area were moved to this spot to preserve them. I remember going with Nikki and Chris and the girls. The girls ordered this huge ice-cream that they could barely finish. Again, memories of food.

 

One of the funny things we saw was a Robo Lawnmower. Ralf took a video, but I couldn\’t get it uploaded.  It is like a Robo vacuam cleaner but cuts your lawn instead.  Do not get the two mixed up.

We stopped in Hohenburg for some lunch, Edeka is more expensive than Lidl. We did have a nice lunch with dessert for E12.

An old fella chatted to Ralf about the route and told him we were heading for a tough climb.

As we headed out of Town Ralf hit the side of a wall and came of his bike. He scraped his arm and has a large egg forming on his hip.  He might be a bit stiff in the morning.

We knew it was a long steep hill to Villengen Schwennigan but I thought I was ready for it, I wasn’t.

Eight kilometres of a continuous climb, pushing the bikes most of the way 2 hours up hill and then a 2 kms short downhill which took less than 5 minutes. I even considered taking the bus, but we had missed the last one of the day.

At one point I thought we had crested the hill and was ready to celebrate, then I saw the road climb again. All I wanted to do was lay my bike down and cry.

Every time I stopped to catch my breath Ralf would take a photo.

We stopped to check the map in this small village of Langenschiltach, 22 kms to get to Villingen-Schwennigan and more hills. We were going to be heading back up two more hills for another 220 metres of climbing, we had already climbed 1,091 metres (3,579 ft). I was done I couldn’t cycle anymore. 

There was a gasthaus (hotel) so we headed for it, hoping against hope it wasn’t their Ruhetag (Rest Day). Yes, hotels and restaurants close for rest days in Germany.

Fortunately, it was open or at least it was going to open at 5:00 (it was 4:15) we could wait.

A lovely room, with good hot showers and an excellent restaurant. We had pork steak in a cream sauce with mushrooms and homemade spaetzle and a lovely salad for dinner for E40, about $60.00, it was sooo good. I am sure it will help me get up the remaining hills to Villengen-Schwennigan tomorrow and on towards Donaueschingen – the source of the Danube River.

Sooner or later we have to get back on budget.

While I was writing the blog, Ralf discovered this book in the book case.  I cannot get away from planning – it was a really interesting book with maps, regulations and statistics.

 

 

Windmills. Still no more windmills. Running Total is Ralf 13 Jacky 6