Gottlieben to Schaffhausen

June 17, 2022

hot, hot, hot

I am running out of superlatives to describe the heat. It sure would be nice if a few of these hotels had A/C, but alas, few do. Today we rode alongside the Rhine for a good portion, and saw how the Swiss (we passed into Switzerland after Konstanz) enjoy the water. Every little town had a park along the bank.

There was a fair amount of gravel road today, but easy to traverse. Quite a mix though, as we had cycle lanes along streets as well as D roads, and some dedicated cycle paths.

started out along a gravel road through farm land

It is obvious now that I think about it, but we were struck by the amount of agriculture here, then realized that we are in the flood zone, and the meander zone of this river so it has deposited fertile soil here for 10's of thousands if not millions of years.

We stayed pretty close to the river today, and rode through some spectacular towns. Some touristic, and some just pretty towns where lucky people have a place near this water. The Rhine really is a lot wider after Konstanz.

We screeched to a stop outside a Coop grocery store in a small town, as it had a Die Post sign. Could we maybe be able to send off that cold-weather clothing? This bag on top of Marjory's rack is ready to go!

Success! Ok, it took about 45 minutes, but after the 6 forms were made out, and 72 francs exchanged (yikes!), Marjory's bike looks a little lighter!

I thought it was pretty cool they way they have hooks set up for people to leave their dogs. These dogs are so well behaved, its amazing. Every time the Coop door opened, all the dogs would look expectantly hoping it was their mistress. I thought it was cute until I realized I was doing the same thing!

Finally came upon the fabled town of Stein am Rhein, the best preserved medieval town along the Rhine. We had to stop to take a few photos here! And decide if we wanted to take a boat ride the rest of the way, as it now was searing hot.

And this is the main old town section. Stacked with people, we decided to find a quiet spot near the river instead to have lunch.

main street in the old town of Stein am Rhein.

There was a park where we could sit in the shade, and have our Coop lunch. All the boats were motor boats, no sailing here!

still in Stein am Rhein, but on the western side away from the throngs

We both wanted to bike some more, and the boats looked crowded and hot anyway. So off we went, and luckily, good sections were in forested paths. Check out this cycle intersection, there were a number of these with signs pointing to all directions. We were still using Komoot which performed flawlessly.

The heat got to us, and we came to a park near Gailingen, Germany (Switzerland on the other side) with easy access to the water. Not quite up to our knees, but it felt so so good.

This is a long covered bridge at Gailingen. That's me waving - its a single lane bridge for cars so I was saying "hurry and take the picture"!

A turn in the river, and there is our destination for tonight. Another cute town!

We had to climb steadily away from the river to get to our hotel, which turned out to be a castle. Wonderful place, but no A/C! An outstanding dinner, with the best chocolate mousse I have ever tasted. And Max, the charming owner of this place, tells me that Ginkos are said to bring happiness. Since they have been my favourite tree since I was a teenager, and the tree was positioned directly in front of our "al fresco" dinner table, it already had.

our castle for the night, with a Ginko Biloba in front

Interesting furniture throughout, but this old telephone exchange caught my eye.

the old (unused now) telephone exchange for the castle

Tomorrow we will head towards Basel, with a stop tomorrow night in Laufenberg. It a longer ride (72 km) and even hotter tomorrow, so we'll try for an 8 am start.

Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 535 km (332 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	10
Comment on this entry	Comment	0