Leaving the Rhine, on to the Danube

 After a rainy day rest (we did only 20km) on Sunday on the shore of Lake Constance (well, a smaller sub-lake called Untersee), it was time to cross over the watershed, leave the Rhine and head north to the Danube and the town of Tuttlingen. This would be continuing on EuroVelo 6 and leaving EV 15. The latter continues to the source of the Rhine to the east end of Lake Constance and on up the mountains to Andermatt, Switzerland.

This is what European camping can be like, especially on a holiday weekend along a lake!
Fortunately most of our camps haven't been like this, but on rainy Sunday this was the scene 

This shows Randolfzell on the shore of Lake Constance which the Rhine flows into, and to the north the town of Tuttlingen which is on the Danube. EuroVelo 6 cycle route connects the two.

The landscape changed as we left the lake and headed up quite a few rolling hills through what is part of the Black forest region. It was really quite pretty. Being the holiday Monday, nothing was open in the villages, but we did find a fancy golf and country club at a Schloss where we were able to have coffee.

Rolling hills and apple orchards covered with netting

Climbing hills on Monday along wheat and barley fields smattered with poppies

We rolled into Tuttlingen which is a good-sized town and happy to find some open cafes, the four of us had coffee, beer and dessert before heading to Tuttlingen's campground. Alas, we then found that the campground was closed! What! 

It seemed like the next campground was 7 km west, so we set off, being also aware of a camp just 2km from town that showed up on our app but sounded private. When we got to that one, sure enough it was a youth camp, and you could hear the yelps and laughter of kids. But we thought we'd check it out anyway, talked to the scout leaders who were in charge of one group of kids, and they agreed to let us camp on part of the meadow and use the bathroom facilities. BINGO! Dinner rations were  bit limited due to no grocery stores open and no restaurants in the vicinity. However we conjured up a good enough meal with what we had. A good evening was had, and we were entertained by watching the scout groups play games, do their meal routine and sing around the campfire. Reminded me of my girl-guide days.

Yesterday, Tuesday, Frank and I set off to continue east along the Danube. Jenny and Gerald have time to kill before getting to the city of Ulm where they are to meet some other friends on Sunday. So they were heading west to the source of the Danube another 30 km from Tuttlingen. It had been great fun sharing five days of riding with them, and we'll see them back in Calgary.

Yesterday was one of our nicest rides of the whole trip. Between Tuttlingen and Sigmaringen, the Danube winds its way through a narrow gorge with forested limestone hills on either side, small villages along the valley bottom and castles perched on the clifftops. Beautiful pathways carried us through the area which is within the Obere National Park.

We did have some very heavy rain during the day but it just made the surroundings all the more dramatic. A Biergarten stop in the late afternoon for tea, dessert and beer was so well timed during the worst  of these torrential downpours. 

Limestone cliffs on yesterday's ride

A great way to wait out the heavy rain

At that place, we got WiFi and decided to book a hotel for the evening. We found an apartment in the little village of Inzigkofen, just before the larger town of Sigmaringen. The description said it had a view of the golf course, but we didn't know that it was actually in the clubhouse! As we followed our Maps.me navigation, we were sure we were lost as we headed to the middle of nowhere. Suddenly there was the Golf Course and the Clubhouse, and the app announced "you have arrived "! Really?

Turns out they have a few apartments upstairs, but when we walked in and there was a private party going on with an accordion player doing his thing with the party group, we felt like fish out of water ( dirty ones at that). However, we did learn about the apartment upstairs, but it wasn't ready yet ( They apparently hadn't noticed that the booking came in during the afternoon), so we had to wait an hour for them to get it ready. We were invited to the restaurant to have a drink while we waited, which was fine, although by now it was 7pm and we were fatigued, grubby and hungry. Drinks were on the house and the apartment turned out to be fabulous. We cooked up some thai chicken and enjoyed the night looking out at the rain and listening to the frogs.

We have now clocked up 1700 km and are still on track to make it to Venice by early July barring any major incidents. 😊

View from our Golf course apartment last night

Great apartment with full kitchen and looking onto the Golf Course.

A view that would be better appreciated by someone who golfed

Stephan, who joined our entourage in Alsace got quite bedraggled in the rain yesterday