Day 5 Inzigkofen, Germany. Awe & Wonder at Every Turn

Joan's View

So much beauty and enjoyment today!!! We got a late start, around 11:00, because we were both exhausted from yesterday's ride. We stopped numerous times because there is just tons to see along this bike path. The path takes you through fields, farmers' buildings, pine forests, bier gartens, wheat fields, quaint little German villages, sports complexes, boy scout camps, family camps, valleys that are shadowed by giant rock cliffs, and more than what I can explain. The bike path changes constantly from gravel to paved to streets and back to gravel.

We see crosses all thoughout the path as well, and some of them in the most remote places. I took a picture of one today. We also rode by this Mary grotto somewhere up on a mountainside. Tony is getting better at stopping every time I yell "stop."

Honestly, there was so much today, I lost track of any order. Here, we took a few pictures at the start of the Donau (or we say Danube). Tony has more to say about the Donau below.

Near the time of a potty break, I spotted a WC (water closet) sign, so I did my usual "Stop" and Tony pulled into this massive sports complex. I asked the banana bicycle rider for a picture. I also loved this sign in the park. It says for all you non-Germans, "Bicyclists please slow pace" Isn't that too cute? 

The banana bicycle rider, like many people we talk to, asked about our bike. We get people yelling out lots of nice words, but it's a little tricky here understanding what they are saying. I maybe understand about half of it. You definitely know that they are commenting on the bike though. We had several people ask for pictures with our bike and some gave us the worldwide thumbs up symbol. 👍

Near the time of hunger pangs for me, the path passed behind an Aldi's, my favorite grocery store at home. I had to try it in Aldi's homeland of Germany, and, yes, I love Aldi in Germany almost more than in the U.S. I got some yummy fresh fruit, and I got a deal on ……..sunglasses! Yea! Only 3.99 Euro, so now the bugs will no longer land in my eyes. OK, so I miss my new cycling glasses that I never got to wear because they are enroute to Budapest right now, but these will work. It seems like the bugs slide off of the fairing right into my eyes.

By the way, Tony keeps tracking our cases on their way to Budapest, and as far as he can tell, they are still in Zurich after moving 5 times. Haha.

Some other cool things today. Check out the cool water fountains that Tony is shown filling his water bottle.












You never know what is around the next turn. The picture to the right shows the path going right through wheat fields with the mountains and the cliffs in the background.









The next picture shows a boy scout camp somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, but somewhere along the path, with more cliffs in the background again.

 Another eye catching experience is the artwork in the Donau. This boat, which was one of many art features in this park, was filled with pink whatyamacallits. So cool!

The next picture with our tandem on the right is where we took a good long break and just sucked in the fresh air and simple enjoyed the peacefulness. It was funny how other cyclists, when they passed, were looking solely at our bike.









With only about 5 miles left, and 5 more giant hills to go, we again rode through a farm, and boom, there was another biergarten! Tony was as he said, "way beyond exhausted," so we stopped for dinner before we checked into our bed and breakfast. The food was amazing and Tony had his first schnitzel (along with another large beer). We also had a farm member wander over to the bier garten and join us around our table. 

 Tony was energized enough after eating to make it up the last few ascents, and we checked into our next stop for the night, Nickoff's bed and breakfast. This Nick thing is really becoming a theme. Maybe that is why we have so many Nicks in our family? 
Anyway, check out the cool artist bed that we are sleeping in tonight. Guten Nacht!

Tony's Extras

I love Germany. Where else can you ride on bike paths and see so many beautiful views? Oh yeah, the best part is when you're out in the middle of nowhere, and a Biergarten shows up with about 20 bicycles parked there drinking beer. We saw at least 4 in the middle of no where on the bike path and, as Joan mentioned, we stopped at the last one. I know Yellow Springs Brewery has a beer patio on the bike path and serves awesome beer, but they aren't in the middle of no where relying completely on bicycle riders. Had to mention that because they are following this blog and have my favorite beer in the States, Boat Show. Here, it is Large. They are so hard to pass though. We were riding along in the beginning and there were these people about 100 feet off the path, so
we pulled over. They told us that this is where the Danube river just disappears. They said it was only about a 10 minute hike, so I took off with the camera and Joan stayed with the bike. When I got there the picture to the left was the Danube upstream, and the one to the right was downstream. It completely disappeared. That was freaky. For about 7 miles the Danube river waters wind through an underground caves and channels. It resurfaces in Germany's largest spring with 5000 gallons bubbling up out of the ground every second. The water spends an average of about 60 hours underground. It is really hard to complain about anything since it has been so amazingly beautiful, but that is what I do. For the last couple of months, I have been watching the weather, and the winds were always coming form the west. We were going east. I was happy. Well, we get here and must have gotten our son, Wade's curse because the wind is now coming from the east along with more forecasts to be from the east. Thanks Wade 😀. I would rather have no rain and 70 degrees weather than wind at our back though. Joan talked about me being exhausted. Well, you know when you are completely exhausted. I was two levels past that. I started complaining about every hill like our daughter, Marla. All the hills we went up were extremely steep with stone paths. Another steep hill, ugh!  It was a good thing, when you get to the top, you are in a pine forest and you are sucking air like no other. The air was a fresh pine smell.