It was another beautiful morning, and warming up quickly. The trail was getting a bit rougher, mostly gravel but our sturdy bikes didn't mind. Thankfully the route didn't involve much more hill climbing, our legs were still complaining about the exercise the day before.
It was a day of contrasts, one moment we were cycling through a nature reserve, with waterfowl galore, the next we passed a nuclear power station, and then again a medieval village. and every time we crossed the bridge over river Rhine we jumped back and forth between Switzerland and Germany.
Early afternoon we arrived at the wooden covered bridge connecting Stein, CH and Bad Säckingen, DE. The bridge is the longest covered bridge in Europe, and spans 204 meters across the Rhine. It origins from the mid 13th century, and had been destroyed and built up several times.
Since a new bridge had been built in the seventies it merely serves as a pedestrian bridge, and is no longer in use for motorised traffic.
We had a coffee break on the market place in front of a picturesque church and found out that half the village was covered by free wireless. We took our chance and asked TripAdvisor for dinner recommendations. A craving for Eastern Indian food pointed into the direction of Culinarium, the rating for this place was outstanding, and rightly so. We were delighted and our taste buds more than satisfied.
Our last night ended in a fairly posh but reasonably priced hotel outside Bad Säckingen opposite a golf course, where they rolled out the red carpet for us and our bikes. Overall we spent more than 200km in the saddle, which we think isn't too bad given that one of us had never been on a pedal powered journey before...
The next morning we had a relaxed ride to the railway station, boarded the train to Basel, changed trains, and traveled back home. We are sure there will be more of this new way of travel to come this year.
Life is good!
great end to quite the biking adventure....still seems like a lot of work though.
ReplyDelete:)
Dom, it was worth it, and we found out that we like it very much.
Deletewhat a great pleasure it was for me reading your "travel journal". makes me miss Europe's beauty, especially all the medieval buildings. hopefully you legs recovered since, 200 km is quite a bit of distance on bikes :-).
ReplyDeleteYvonne, I am not shy to admit that I suffered another day before the legs (or better knees) fully recovered. But it was fun, and the weather really played along nicely for a change.
DeleteBoah, ich bin beeindruckt. Aber wer, wenn nicht ihr, begibt sich mal eben ganz spontan in solch ein Abenteuer :-) Das mit dem Zug musst du mir mal ganz genau erklären.
ReplyDeleteNa im schlechtesten Fall (Panne, Wetter, keine Unterkunft etc.) hätten wir uns einfach wieder in den Zug nach Hause gesetzt...
DeleteHi Ihr Zwei,
ReplyDeletehabe auch mal wieder vorbeigeschaut und bemerkt, dass ihr nach wie vor - egal in welcher Heimat ihr seid - das Beste aus allem herausholt. Hut ab vor dieser "neuen" Herausforderung mit dem Radl auf Tour zu sein.
Eure Bilder sind wie immer wunderschön. LG aus Ludwigsburg, und wann immer euch euer Weg mal in unsere Richtung führt, lasst es uns wissen würden uns über einen Besuch freuen. LG Rita
(Wollten eigentlich über Pfingsten nach Kappel/Lenzkirch (Wohnung von Onkel), aber die Wetteraussichten waren uns zu schlecht.)
Hi Rita, danke für Deinen lieben Kommentar. Wir merken uns Ludwigsburg mal vor, so weit weg ist das ja auch nicht.
DeleteUnd? Werdet Ihr Euch den "Rest" auch noch vor den Lenker nehmen? Wenn ja, dann sagt vorher Bescheid!
ReplyDeleteHi Minya, wir haben in der Tat vor, den Euro-Velo stückweise abzufahren...
DeleteAch, guck mal da, in Todtnau war mein Onkel Förster :-)
ReplyDeleteDie Welt ist klein, Irina.
DeleteOnce gain I just want to say how awesome I think it is you two went on this bike trip. You'll be in such great shape by the time summer comes the next trip will seem easy.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for sharing all the lovely photos (and making us all jealous - in a good way)
Thanks so much, Brandy. We are a bit proud that we did this, and we hope indeed that trips like this will further improve our fitness level.
DeleteWhat a lovely post Sonja, the scenery is breath taking! I kerp looking at my forlorn townie in the basement and really should haul it out and go for a ride, I just keep getting busy and then forget about it. Need to remedy that soon.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dar. Speaking of Townie... mine has become a dust collector and sits in the shed. I need to take care of that, and maybe use it to commute to work (meaning the Vespa needs to stay put for a change). Too many vehicles too little time.
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