Letter 5
Monday 25.07.11
I'm awake. This time so I look at my watch. I have to get the
flashlight, it's still dark. 5.15. A car passes. I didn't hear any
during a night, where it kept on raining. Not violently, just a steady
light rain. Now it's stopped. Traffic has started, another car. Sleep
from 22 until 5.15, that must be sufficient, but I cannot get up when
it's still dark!
In this writing moment it has turned 6.30, now's the time...
I'm not hurrying, I have to have time to enjoy the morning. At the cycle
path I turn on my gas cooker. The surface is dry but the grass and the
tent are wet, but most of the water run down when I shake it. Just when
the water's boiling the sky shines through - but the tent is behind the
bushes - unfortunately. But I had foreseen that.
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| First camp | First glimpse of the Donau |
I roll out in the morning traffic and am quickly on a bigger road, where
I from time to time stop beside the road to let endless rows of cars
pass.
I get to Tuttlingen and have my first glimpse of Donau, that has it's
origin in Donaueschingen, where Hanna and Walter live. She tried to make
me stay for the night there yesterday, but I prefered this shorter, more
east going road and needed also to be alone.
I feel an urge for a toilet. The train station seems to be in my
direction. There are public toilets downstairs. Cost 50 cents. It's the
perfect german style as usual. Like being at home. I take a small supply
of paper tissues - for my 50 cent. "Eine Käsespeckstange und ein
Cappucino" from the Imbiss and I sit for a while on a bench in the sun
at the bus stop enjoying. Then I ask the man with the broomstick about
"die rote strecke" in the map. Then one that looks local. "Weiss nicht".
Of course: the road worker! And he's capable. First he explains
precisely how, but asks then if I'm going to Boden See? Yes, definitely.
Then I ought to take another road which is better - "nur meine meinung",
as he says.
It's the other way round the mountain, it's not on the map, but I rely
on his exact suggestions. And the crossing of the railway can be seen in
the map. And the height markings tell about a valley where the cycle
path is bound to be.
It's a wonderful valley I'm going up through. I pick handful of
raspberries and go on. The road is ascending. Not until I've come
through the woods and reached fields and meadows and see the TV tower on
top start the real hard work. From time to time more than 15% according
to my estimation, but it changes. Down to 8% I should say. Witthöh is
862 a.s.l. and is the highest point in Eurovelo 6, that leads from the
Atlantic to the Black Sea. I didn't know. Worth a try some day, maybe?
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| Witthoh | On a clear day you can see the snowcapped Alps |
On top I speak to an elderly lady (74 - I didn't ask), no SHE talks,
and I understand what she says, and manage to put in a few words from
time to time. I find my way down to Emmingen and shop food. Drink/eat
the yougurt I missed this morning. And buy an extra for tomorrow to be
sure. Meet with a sign for cyclists: Bodensee ->. I could see the
nearest ends from up there.
I have to ascend again from Emmingen, then I see Bodensee in the
distance and the route branches off the main road and a downhill starts.
Km after km the road winds down a forrest along a roaring stream. I'm
freewheeling down until now.
Then the narrow wooded valley ends in a more open green one. It's
terrific! On and on is goes through deserted green valleys.
I reach more populated districts. In Wahlwies I change map! I have
tossed and turned the old one incessant to be able to find the actual
part. Now it's all finished. The one with Bodensee has to be found.
I take the wrong direction once more. But I go less than a kilometer on
the road. I should have turned in the middle of the 12% down hill.
Thought I had to follow the Euroroad. I must learn not to believe - it
often leads me astray.
There are branches in all direcctions and no signs here in land of the
orchards. I have to find my compas. It must to the right now, we have to
follow the valley. I catch up with a cyclist in front of me. He THINKS
we heading for Ludwigshafen. I say that I do too and wishes him a good
day.
13.05 after 48 km I'm at the see for the first time, now I'll have a cup
of cappucino from my own powder and the cake I bought. I stop at a bus
shelter - unfortunately. But there's shelter for the gas cooker.
Pflaumkuchen in a 4 cm depth where the halved plums lying watching me.
Sweet cake with sour plums, that's perfect!
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| First view over Bodensee | An airship above the lake |
There's blood in the diary. My wound on the thumb has started bleeding
again. It was the other day when I was going to help Hanna to cut the
cabbage with a special kitchen tool. And when she took over, she did the
same, so I wasn't the only idiot.
I should have washed in the brilliant toilet this morning. A rutine that
still has to be incorporated, but now I get the chance in Bodensee, and
I don't neglect it. Should I also treat me with the deo?
It has become 15.30 and I find a piece of common stony beach, which is
rather rare and eat lunch. First I roll up my trousers and wade in the
wateer. The sun is shining, a breeze is blowing against me and life is
great. I'm sitting right where the lake's "arms" end and the lakee is
seen in its full width. To the right an airship floats and to the left
snowy peaks in the Alps. That's the ones the lady at Withöh said could
be seen from there on a clear day.
I've had water 3 times today. First at the supermarket in Emmingen, when
I asked where, the cassier went out to get it for me herfelf. Next time
I asked at a garage, if there was water in the taps outside and I guess
there wasn't because I was shown into the garage. And finally at a
icecream booth here in Langenhagen. When I asked if there might be a tap
at the toilet, she said, I'd have to pay for that. And she found that
too much to ask, so she took my bottles and filled them somewhere in the
back. Then I felt like having a cone - with three balls. Sitting on a
bench in the park with the sun shining it feels warm, but the air was
cold during the day. I can make all the way to Lindau today.
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| Vines... | ...all over |
20.05 I'm in Pizzaria Portofino in Lindau after 121 km. I've been
through most of the town. It all looked very expensive. Here I decided
to take a look at the menu, and the prizes were as I'd hoped to find
them. 7.20€ for a pizza Napoli (the one with the anchovis) and 2.80€ for
half a liter of beer. I'm really enjoying it.
I succeeded finding a spot for the tent in the middle of town so to say.
It's an area the size of a football plane, but the grass is high like in
a meadow. I put up the tent in a corner behind some bushes behind some
rubbish containers.
I can't find the pegs. This morning I forgot to roll the pegs and the
sticks inside the tent, and when I realised, I won't roll out the wet
tent again. And I thought that I would be able to remember where I put
them. Now I know I wouldn't. They're nowhere to be found.
Luckily the tent itself goes up easy. Two pegs in each end can do the
job, so I break some branches and in a minute all is ready. When
everything is inside I find them - of course.
Just as I'm in my sleepingbag it's as somebody pushes the tent, is
anybody there? I lie down listening. There are some faint rustle. Then a
fierce blow to the tent, I start up and slowly the true matter is
revieled: I put an extra peg in for the string in the end, and it has
apparently come loose? Anyway the tent stand still and no sound can be
heared. Soon after there is, and I think: what odd time to deliver ones
rubbish - and there's no special lights there.
126.85 km
16.4 km/h
44.4 km/h
7:41:36 h