Day 61:Tuttlingen to Sigmaringen, Germany: Along the Upper Danube

July 19, 2012

The scenic part of Tuttlingen is limited to a very narrow slice along the Danube. I snapped one carefully chosen shot, and it looks quite good:

The Donau looking the best it can at Tuttlingen

After that, we were out into the true city, though still close to the river. At least we tried to be. As it happened, a large billboard distractd us both, and we missed an EV 6 sign. It was only several km later that Dodie said "This doesn't feel right". The GPS took us back, pretty much to square one, and we had another crack at getting the hell out of Tuttlingen.

Typical view when trying to leave Tuttlingen

We came to the sign we had missed, and Dodie declares in our defense that right turn signs should be on the right, not up some post way to the left!

The path now passed through fairly undistinguished villages, as a compacted gravel way, often through lightly forested areas, sometimes with the river in view and sometimes not. Crabby from our Tuttlingen experiences, we found ourselves saying "Hmmm, well this is OK, but I would not spend airfare to get here."

Later, somewhat less crabby, we would still not rate this part of the route as super spectacular or interesting. True enough, the path began to lead beside the river as it passed beneath towering white cliffs. True enough, these cliffs often housed small castles. Have a look and decide what you think:

A fair sprinkling of tourers as the path runs by the cliffs

A possibly good camping spot after Fridingen

A camp looking a lot like ones we think we remember in photos from Dodies Dad from the 1930's

Werenwag Castle near Langenbrunn, was built around 1100 ad.

For many kilometres, when the path gave us a view of the river we noted that it was full of kids in kayaks. The river looks very safe, and it was amusing watching some of them trying to keep their craft going straight.

Many, many kids in the river with rented kayaks

We also noted at each town something we had read about in others' blogs - the availability of guesthouses and their ads by the trailside. This is a great difference from England, where even if we had wanted to stay indoors it did not feel like we could easily find places from the trail or just muddling through the towns.

It's true that guesthouses advertise by the cycle way

Our sample is still small, but we are getting the feeling that campsites along the route will be crowded, and that tents will be relegated to small patches of grass without a lot of services. On the other hand, to be fair, I am typing this from a communal table (as long as my battery holds out!), and there is apparently a restaurant and store nearby. There are also phalanxes of teenagers swarming about. But Grampies are supposed to like kids, right?

The camping is also a kayak rental and so features dozens of 13-16 year old tearing around.

Our small crowded tent area with the showers up a hill.

Say what? Vodka and brandy at the checkout at kid level with the candies??

Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 2,718 km (1,688 miles)

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