If I get through this, I might actually be posting my second blog of the summer, without an opening apology for how late it is (okay, that didn't work out as planned). I mentioned in the last post that Matthias had a significant birthday in July, and what better way to celebrate the big 5-0 than with a five country bike tour?! Okay, the tour itinerary was probably designed a bit more with me in mind, but we did start with a two-day extravaganza meant mainly for Matthias....
On July 23rd (almost a week after his actual birthday), we set off with our bikes on the train to Munich, with a reservation at our favorite hotel. Well, the only hotel we know - it's economical, comfy, centrally located by the train station, and has a garage for bike parking. But we hadn't even considered what turned out to be the biggest perk: The air conditioning! We were traveling during the big 2019 heatwave in Europe, nearly 40 degrees Celsius (about 100F) in Munich and not many places around here are air-conditioned. But we lucked out with the A/C for two cool nights' sleep, and still managed to have fun during the day walking around town in the morning and heading out to the Hirschgarten to spend the afternoon drinking beer under the trees. It was Matthias' birthday trip, after all.
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Hirschgarten in Munich! The heat was practically
bearable under the trees. |
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| Schneider Weisse Brauhaus, Munich |
From Munich, we took our favorite train (EC 85) into the Alps. The original plan was to disembark in Bolzano, Italy and then ride up over two mountain passes through Austria back into Germany on the Claudia Augusta bike route. We have done many parts of this route before, but never the section over the passes. Well, we chickened out once again due to the heat wave and decided to disembark halfway there - at the Brenner pass on the Austrian/Italian border - about 1,400 meters high - where it was cool. So, after a lunch in Italy (Country #1), we crossed the border back into Austria (Country #2) and headed down, down, down, to a campsite I found (online) the night before. Unfortunately, it was booked - they wouldn't even let us pitch our tent there (we've never actually encountered this before). So I found another campsite on the map near Innsbruck and we headed there. The ride was breathtakingly beautiful - on a backroad/path through the woods and down, down, down further - but we couldn't really enjoy it because we were tired and stressed about finding a place to sleep. We found the site, and they found space for us, but at a whopping 34 Euros (would have been 38 if they had included electricity) in a packed field about a quarter mile away from the nearest (albeit lovely) bathrooms. To top it off, there was a downpour in the evening, but we somewhat welcomed it because it made for a nice cool sleep. Still, we were beginning to regret our decision to head into such a touristy area during the height of summer break. Actually, it wasn't really a
decision, I merely overlooked the fact that we would be traveling in high season. Didn't even consider it. Mistake #1.
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| Riding down from the Brenner Pass |
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| On the way to Campsite #2 |
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| The storm brought a cool evening and a dramatic skyscape. |
The next day, we had a lovely ride down to the Inn river and through the valley it to the next campsite at Imst. I had emailed ahead and secured us a spot but the host said they almost always have rooms for bikers and charged us a mere 17 Euros per night. We decided to stay a couple of days because the campsite and the area were so nice, and also because I was nervous about making it over the mountain pass. More on that in a minute. First, we had great fun riding along the Inn river valley, hiking up to a chairlift that took us even further up into the mountains, having lunch at a fabulous lookout restaurant and a riding the ALPINE COASTER (Wheeee!)
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| Riding along the Inn - and Matthias' dream factory. |
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| Cold beer after a cold chairlift ride. |
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| Start of the Alpine Coaster in Imst! 6km long and FUN!! |
Unfortunately, despite weeks of planning, I missed a pretty major potential problem - mistake #2. That is, the guidebook I was using was meant for southward travel, and we were traveling north. So when it stated that cyclists were better off using the narrow, busy road instead of the steep, rough bike path on one portion of the route, it presumed that we would be traveling
down the large incline, which would only take a few minutes. But we were going to be heading
up the big incline and everyone we spoke to said that although the rough path was really meant for mountain bikes, they strongly advised against taking the narrow, busy road. Of course, I wasn't too keen on pushing the bikes along a steep gravel path....but we set off anyway. Luckily, about 10 kms outside of Imst and just before the big incline leading up to the mountain pass, I checked in at a tourist info center and got a spot on a designated bike shuttle which, fortunately, was passing by (empty) in about 10 minutes. So, for 30 euros we got a lift over the pass, and pedaled easily - though a bit grumpily - to the next campsite in Lermoos. We had stayed at this campsite before and really liked it. It was still nice, but we weren't thrilled with the high-season price of 30 euros per night.
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| Scenic campsite in Lermoos |
The next day we headed back into Germany (Country #3). The ride would have been really lovely, but it poured nearly all day - starting just after we packed up our tent (had it started earlier, we wouldn't have left....) Actually, the rain tapered off in the late afternoon, so we had somewhat dried off when we arrived at the Grüntensee campsite, which was another big, busy and expensive campsite. We got over that quickly, however, because it was located in the rolling green hills of the Allgaü region, which we love. Indeed, we had a beautiful ride the next day to the campsite at Isny, which was cute (and affordable) and another beautiful ride, mostly downhill, to Bodensee (Lake Constance), a huge regional tourist destination. And yes, still in the height of the school holiday season. Fortunately, the campsite I selected had a tent meadow just for cyclists, which never got full, although there were no vacancies in the rest of the place. The meadow was right on the edge of the lake, which made it the perfect spot to see fireworks at night (Swiss national holiday and Switzerland was across the lake). We spent the next day checking out the busy harbor town of Friedrichshafen, known for the founding of the Zeppelin. We passed on the Hindenburg museum in favor of a walk - and a few beers - by the harbor.
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| Riding in the rain back to Germany |
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| Friedrichshafen campsite |
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| The harbor in Friedrichshafen |
Next was a ride around the lake to a point on the south called Gaienhofen, which didn't have much around it but made a good base from which to make a side trip to Konstanz the next day. I was all excited for a day trip to Konstanz, basically because I thought it was in Switzerland. But it isn't. It's a German town on the border with Switzerland, so part of our circular route included a ride back through Switzerland (Country #4 and a new biking country for me). Actually, over the following days as we started to ride along the Rhein river, we were constantly riding in and out of Switzerland and I was confounded by the fact that the border didn't follow the river. I expected that if we stayed on the east side of the river, we would be traveling in Germany. But no, and this was particularly frustrating as I thought the supermarkets I had mapped out along our route were in Germany (because the Swiss ones were too expensive.) I learned later (thanks Jen!) that one German town we passed through on the east side of the river is completely surrounded by Switzerland. Huh.
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Had to take a swim in Lake Constance!
That's Switzerland across the lake. |
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First point of interest in Switzerland.
An amazing (and free) public toilet!! |
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Second impression of Switzerland:
pretty town square |
After riding through Stein am Rhein (above) where Lake Constance flows into the Rhein river, we came to the Rheinfall. I didn't know about this pretty large waterfall, but I guess it seems to be a major destination given the large number of tourists coming to see it, most of whom I assume were from riverboats that stopped downriver. That night, we stayed at a campsite in Switzerland, our most expensive yet (40 Euros!) and left the next day despite heavy rain partly because of the price and partly because it was in the middle of nowhere - near the town of Flaach. That day's ride was the wettest yet (and overall) but ended at a simple boat rental place/campsite in Murg, Germany where we paid $12 for the night, including electricity! Plus, there was a big tent under which we could sit to eat and watch the rain.
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| Waterfall selfie |
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| Rheinfall |
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| Switzerland, from Germany |
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| Staying dry in the campsite during the downpour |
And now for the highlight of the tour! We were on course to meet Jennifer and Brenda in Basel and our next day involved a short ride to and through the center of the city (stressful) and on to a campsite on the outskirts, which happened to be in France (Country #5!). I would call it a "cozy" campsite (Matthias would call it something else) with pretty basic facilities, a fair price, and a great location - walking distance to a huge shopping center (in Germany) and the streetcar to the center of Basel. Two days later, we enjoyed a nice lunch at a French bistro and then headed into Basel to celebrate Matthias' birthday (yet again) in grand style! We arrived just as Jen and Brenda's train was pulling in, so we walked with them to their hotel and then took a leisurely stroll down to the river. And, since it was after 5pm (already!) we found a fun place to have a couple of drinks on the Rhein, enjoy the scenery, watch people float by in tubes and listen to a band warming up for an evening concert. If that wasn't awesome enough, we then enjoyed a Swiss feast at a lovely restaurant and then more drinking into the night. I think we got the last streetcar back to the campsite, but it was easy peasy and oh, so much fun!!
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| On the bridge over the Rhein in Basel |
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| Open air bar in Basel! |
We had good weather the next day for the ride to Ihringen, which I knew nothing about except that it was outside of Freiburg, a town I had wanted to see. It turned out to be in the middle of a beautiful wine-growing area, called Kaiserstuhl. This basically consisted of a hill - or kind of a big "bump" - in the middle of an otherwise flat area full of vineyards. So of course the surrounding towns were cute, too. Plus, the campsite was nice, and proved to be a good place to do laundry, so we settled in for a few days. We visited Breisgau (also a stop for Rhein river cruises) and Freiburg, but the highlight was riding through the local hills and vineyards. We plan to be back here someday!
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| Kaiserstuhl |
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| Freiburg |
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| A black swan! On the Rhein |
After three days in the Kaiserstuhl area, we made our way down the Rhein (downstream, that is - but northward). After two nights at unremarkable campsites, we reached Ettlingen and the Albgau (Alb Valley). This was an area on the edge of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest), which we had been skirting around since Basel. Staying at the campsite here for two nights over the weekend allowed us to venture along the pretty valley to Bad Herrenalb, where we got to hang out for a bit at a local festival (love these!) Next, we rode through Karlsruhe and on to Speyer, another historic town and river cruise stop, where we had some typical regional (pfälzisch) food at a pretty biergarten/restaurant. While we didn't fall in love with the cuisine - saumagen, leberknödel - we liked the place. Then we set off for a campsite outside of Worms, which despite its name is also quite beautiful.
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| Ettlingen in Albgau |
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In Karlsruhe, the seat of Germany's highest court,
the light of justice illuminates all! |
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| Famous Dom (cathedral) in Speyer |
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Nibelungen statue in Worms.
If you have a few hours, Matthias can tell you about this legend |
Rounding out the tour, we rode through Mannheim and Darmstadt, making sure to check out a portion of the new "bike highway" being built to connect major cities by bike. We spent the last night in a campsite outside of Frankfurt and then traveled into town the next day to catch our afternoon train home, but not before grabbing some Apfelwein on the Rhein!
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| Bike "superhighway" in progress |
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