Day 38: Hergensweiler to Ratholz

May 20, 2022

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Our guesthouse is in a huge building. Huge. The thing is we don't think it is at all a purpose built hotel, but rather a converted farm house. The regular inhabitants seem to be Valerie and her husband, and baby Eda, with one more in the works. We might also have spotted an Oma, too old to help with Eda. Of course we have no way to know how this huge and immaculate building came into the hands of this young couple. But as we cycled today we saw many (many, many) such buildings with young women and young children in the gardens. There is clearly a new flush of population taking over the farms and houses of this region. Since the labour of large farm families is now replaced by machinery, the former farm houses (usually with giant barn attached) are converted to other uses. That's our take, anyway.

These giant houses are just one of the spectacular features of this Allgau region, that we jumped right into simply by climbing a dozen of so km above the Bodensee. The other features are brown cows!, immense pastures reaching up high hills/mountains, famous cheese production, unique house styles, including the iconic window boxes and the "Swiss chalet" style, and oh, did I mention hills??

These features are so dramatic and so in your face, at first I was just snapping photos - snap, snap, snap, but in the end, how many picturesque cows can you photograph? Dodie did not even try to chivy me along the path when there were cows (or giant houses, or meadows, or paths, or unique houses, or churches) about. But she did tease me a bit, pointing out cows high up and suggesting I might want to go visit them. It's tempting, because I am attracted to their musical bells.

Here are just two cow shots:

The cows are living in idyllic surroundings, that look great to us and are surely good for them too. It's all green green meadows, many filled with flowers, and extending from the valley floors to the high hills.

This area is healthful for Grampies too, if you count climbing hills in the open sun!

If you see the hill coming, you are probably going up it!

Among the cows and within the meadows we have so many of these huge and unique buildings. Many are large on their own, but also have large barns directly attached. Sometimes the barn bits have been converted to house bits, and some of the buildings are four stories high, though three is the norm.

Many houses have significant numbers of solar panels. In this shot you see wood and solar.

Ok, this one is nuts. It's just a private house.

This typical gasthof seems a little worn by local standards.

Different sections glued together (with added black sheep).

You might call this row housing, if it weren't absolutely just one residence.

We had been thinking that strawberries on offer locally must be from Spain, but no, we have seen fields with ripe ones. Certainly these were super! We had to negotiate to buy just 1/2 kilo. The standard container seemed to be 2 kilos!

If you just glance at a map of this area, it looks like towns were sprinkled randomly over the surface, and lots of them. In fact, yes, towns are 1-2 km apart. But this does not mean services are 1-2 km away. Towns with services are more like 20 km apart. And on the map, most of the points are not towns, but named mountain tops!

Along with the limited services came limited chances to buy cheese. However there is a high tech solution. Below you see a cheese automat on a farm. There are many interesting kinds. Unfortunately the pieces were too big, and costly, for us.

With all the up and downing, we began to cast an appraising eye at our range indicators for the bikes. We cycled this same route 8 years ago, on Bike Fridays loaded for camping, and I tried to remember how we did it, and to compare to today's experience. I think that with the ultra low gears we had on the Fridays, the pedal effort on a steep hill was about the same as on the ebike today in gear 1 of 7 and assist "turbo". The difference is that the Friday would then be travelling at 4 kph, while the ebike progresses at 9 kph.

Near the town of Oberstaufen I spotted a sign touting ebike charging, 1 km ahead. That sounded tempting, so we went off route to check it out. The charging was at the TI, in what turned out to be an active town full of shops and eis cafes.

At the ebike charging, we found two of the three spots already occupied. But ok, the bike owners were just returning and would be ready to go. They told us a fractured story about having to pay for the charging, and it having to be arranged inside the TI. I went in to arrange it, and they thought I was nuts. As near as I can figure it, they do rent ebikes, and also charging cables, if you need one. The one unexplained bit is why the charging station had a custom outlet. But no matter, because just above were standard receptacles. So we plugged in an went off to one of the eis cafes.

If somebody has time -- research why the custom cables?

Our conservative 3 kugel choko becher - 2 spoons!

My bike gained 20 km of range in 30 minutes. It turned out not to be needed, because the rest of the way was straight down the middle of a moderately wide valley. Our guesthouse Jaeger - (hunter) did not actually host hunters. In practice it is at the base of a chair lift up a honking great mountain. Beside the lift is a radelbahn, which is a darn scary looking water slide with no water, all the way down from the top. Underneath this contraption is a herd of super calm brown cows. What a contrast. We listened to the screams of the thrill seekers and the bong bonk of the cows. The cows gave us a thrill by deciding on their own when it was time to go home. They ambled off the hill and into the bush somewhere.

Meanwhile under our window (it's always under our window) the talker/drinkers gathered. I went down for a look at who could talk so loud and continuously, and initially found 6 24-30 year old men. They all had on the same tee shirt, so I asked them what team they were from. It turned out they were not team players but all fans of the same German football team. "No", they said, "we are not players, just drinkers!"

Later, others gathered under our window (it's a great room with lots of windows, and a long balcony) to dine, and talk. We need the windows open, because it is so darn hot!

Usually I photograph our meal, vs those of others.

What gives our life meaning today? No, not brown cows, not eis, not mountains, but daughter Laurie's Birthday. Laurie is lovely and talented on her own, but add Avi and Violet and its all stars.

Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 2,222 km (1,380 miles)

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