Day 26: Bayreuth to Horlach

May 25, 2014

This is the beginning of the segment that we are calling the Ortlieb Ausflug. This is what it is all about: We wanted to cycle the whole Main Radweg, and that technically ends at Bayreuth. The next major segment is the Romantische Strasse, which technically begins at Wurzburg. We passed through Wurzburg about six days ago, and could have hung a right there, to be on the Romantische Strasse. But continuing to Bayreuth leaves us sort of stranded out east.

The "Ortlieb Ausflug" joins for us the Main (blue green on this map) and the Romantische Strasse (green on this map)

Our answer is to cut back west, passing through Nurnberg and rejoining the Romantische Strasse at Rothenberg. It means we miss the bit from Wurzburg to Rothenberg. However, there is one compensation. Sort of between Nurnberg and Rothenberg lies Heilsbronn. It's a town we know nothing about (as usual), except for one thing: we believe it is the world headquarters of Ortlieb, the makers of our panniers and handlebar bags. These panniers and bags have been critical to whatever success we have had with touring in tough conditions over the past four years, so we just thought we would like to cruise by Ortlieb and say Hi.

Our other favourites - the Bikeline books - like to give a lot of alternate or extra routes you could try. Such an extra route is called an Ausflug - literally a flying out. So here we go on the Ortlieb Ausflug!

These 19th century personalities are the most famous people of Bayreuth, and still the staple of tourism here.

Surprisingly the runners of this marathon did not show up to swarm us on the path. Maybe even mathoners do not start until the breakfast buffets at the hotels are all eaten up.

This is the beer festival that booked up the town.

Coming out of Bayreuth, rather than flying we more like ground almost to a halt. The area in the triangle between Bamberg, Bayreuth, and Nurnberg is called the Frankische Schweiz - the Franconian Switzerland. Of course, Switzerland has many characteristics, and in principle any of these could figure in drawing the comparison. However, we can tell you this - its not the chocolate! No, no, it's the hills. Dodie's knees are really not up to hills of almost any sort right now, so this has meant a lot of Ibuprophen. Even so, it's too uncomfortable and risky to stress them out, so the going was very slow.

Unlike most other sections of this tour, there is no Bikeline book for us to follow here. There are, however, signed Radwegs - lots of them, maybe too many. We downloaded the .gpx tracks for the ones that seem to lead where we are going. However quite quickly we were faced with the decision of whether to follow the .gpx or to follow the signs on the posts, because very often the two did not agree. The thing is, if you follow the signs you can feel confident you are going right, because there it is, in green and white, posted right in front of you. However, as soon as you lose the chain of signs, you have no recourse. On the other hand, if you follow the .gpx, it is always there to coach you along, that is, if the sun does not wash out your screen and if your batteries hold out.

We decided to mostly follow the .gpx this time. So that meant a lot of stopping in the shade for a better look, and a lot of uncertainty at subtle Y shaped intersections, where it would not be clear at first which way we were heading.

The Frankonian Switzerland is supposed to be famous as a beautiful tourist retreat. We didn't quite see it that way. The path wound its way up, down, and around farms and little farming villages. Pleasant (except for the ups and downs), but not exceptionally interesting or spectacular. There were a few other touring cyclists on the path, but nothing like the hundreds and thousands we found on the Main. And though there are a few campgrounds sprinkled through the area, none were near our route.

The green and white sign that should have comfortably taken us on our way.

The huddled medieval buildings of Creussen seemed more interesting that Bayreuth. We did not actually pass through the town centre though.

Our typical path in the Franken Switzerland

Our route out of Bayreuth actually followed or paralleled the part of the Main Radweg that leads to the source for the Red Main. We turned away from it with only about 2 km to go.

Some slopes required tediously pushing both bikes to the top.

Despite the two styles of Pegnitz Radweg indicators we found and followed, this mysterious red faced fellow proved a more reliable guide for us to reach the town of Pegnitz.

We liked this sign, because of its forcefull approach. We would translate it as "Back Off!"

We reached the town of Pegnitz fairly beat, and looking forward to a place to stop. The town did greet us with a Sunday market. Running along the high street for a distance of a least a km, this market was packed. However the goods on offer, being mostly not food, were not super interesting. The crowds seemed to share this assessment, because though they had packed the street, they did not seem to be particularly buying. The merchants, in turn, looked bored.

We pushed our bikes through the throng and finally exited on the other side. We had known, though, that our continuation route started at the beginning of the market. Before turning around and going through again, we checked the GPS for any camping in the area. No luck. We asked people about a guest house. Not in this town. Yikes, a large town of at least 15,000 and no guest house?

So we pushed our way back through, and then followed the .gpx on a crazy convoluted zig zag up (it's always up!) and out of town. South of Pegnitz, the river passes through a large and empty forest area. Looking at it on the map, I felt sure there would be a good wild camp to be found. We didn't have to test that, though, because in the little town of Horlach, a guest house did pop up.

In past years we avoided guest houses in part because of all the trouble involved in asking about a room, finding where to put the bikes, and dragging our stuff up to the room. Now we have streamlined that quite well. We have our necessary overnight stuff isolated in one or two bags, so these can come off and be ready to go quickly. Every guest house in this country has a solution for the bikes (a garage, basement, or special room) worked out. So within ten minutes of arriving it is possible to be in the shower. That is actually faster than with the tent. Of course, with the wild camp you don't even have to think about the shower, which is a time saver!

It seems like we may be following the Pegnitz river tomorrow, which could signal easier cycling. The Pegnitz is certainly going our way - to Nurnberg. Coming our way though is apparently a system of thunderstorms and rain, that will start tomorrow afternoon and continue for several days. So far we have not spotted camping near Nurnberg, so it may be guest house again. That will be great if it's in a thunderstorm.

We (as usual) know nothing about Nurnberg, except for the movie title (Judgement at Nuremberg), so there will be something new and exciting coming up for us.

The market in Pegnitz went on for a long distance.

Lots of miscellaneous fry goods were on sale. another favourite category is home improvement or gadget stuff - like a super duper window cleaniing squeegee or a slicer that makes fancy cucmber bits.

The .gpx took us through endless twists and turns up through dull suburbs and out of town.

Ahhh, a shady room in Horlach. As usual this also features fluffy duvets and an included breakfast!

Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 1,487 km (923 miles)

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