the donau radweg is beautiful every which way you look at it. Here you can see some effect of the rain that came after we got back to the b&b last night. It makes things very refreshing
Storks have been a regular occurrence on this trip. We see them pretty much every day. They are really big birds, bigger than geese and I'm sure they outweigh the herons
We were really relaxed at this stop just after Immendingen but our order must have been misplaced because it took them about 45 minutes before we finally got our food
Here is something else we have seen more than once lately. If we were in a pinch we could plug in. They seem very proud in this region of the effort they are making to accommodate cyclists including e-bikes
We have set up our tent in a free tenting area in the middle of the parkland (free to cyclists only for one night's stay). Then we brought the bikes back into town without their heavy loads so they could have some fun too :)
Remember that elevation profile at the beginning of this day's blog? Well in the next picture I am looking down on the city from the top of a hill with a ruined castle on it. We wanted to see the ruins, it was a 1.7 km climb with an average grade of 6% but went as high as 17.5%. Erika has become a real hill climber on the bike this trip. We would never have done it 4 years ago
This picture was taken last after we had explored the ruins, but I put it first to illustrate what we had accomplished to get up there. Even with e-bikes it is real work, since the e-bike gives you assistance proportional to the effort you are putting in. That is the way these touring e-bikes are set up.
I have to say at this point, this is what I really love about these e-assist bikes: You put in a big day's effort every day and you are able to do things you would never be able to do otherwise.
A more zoomed in view of the city from up on the castle hill
Further stories of the day: After coming down from the castle, we went back to the big park that had our tenting area in it. A short ride from the tent brought us to a big swimming facility, partly indoor and partly outdoor. It was a large pool complex with a number of different features, indoors was several pools including a laps pool, a really big long tube slide, very fast, I did it 3 times, also one of those circular runs with jets making the water flow very fast, the fastest we have ever seen. We had a lot of fun in that. It was hard getting out of it for that matter :)
But the real treat was the outdoor area with various kinds of powerful bubble jets that made the whole experience feel like a spa. In fact, we discovered, the water was hot spring water, full of minerals that were supposed to be very good for you. But the water was crystal clear and odorless, there didn't even seem to be chlorine in it. It was still warmer than normal swimming pool water, although it had cooled quite a bit from when it first comes from underground. Man what a way to relax at the end of a day.
