Day 6 Neu Ulm, Germany. Castles and a Steep Hill

Tony's View

The last three days we went over 168 miles and climbed over 5000 feet. I am so grateful to have a spouse go with me on these type of trips. Not many spouses would do that. Even if I have to do more than my share, it is so worth it. We started today with a wonderful breakfast and everything was homemade. See the picture to the right. There were 10 different low sugar jams that she made and a couple were very original. Joan got gluten free bread, which is always a hit. There was several items of fresh fruit and our eggs came with fresh herbs from the garden. We both got plenty to eat, walking away with smiles. Right out of the B&B was a high hill so good thing we were well feed. We got into the first town and there was this huge castle. It was called Eingang Scholass Castle in Sigmaringen. The pictures below were from different angles.

 There were several neat trails today, yet again. The one on the right was about 4 feet wide making it tough to pass bicycles coming from the other direction. The one on the left was a beat up trail that I had in my route. It was a short cut. It worked, but it was sketchy at times. 😀

 We stopped a couple of times for breaks and Joan got a picture of me at this one. Beautiful view and shade, can't beat it.
Then we came to the hill of the trip so far. The pictures below shows the hill and the sign. It was 20% slope and very long. It was ridiculous. We got up about 2/3 of the way up and my gears started acting up. I hopped off and told Joan we could have made it if the gears didn't mess up. She laughed at me probably because I was breathing so hard and for one time appreciating my gears not working right. The one place where they had free water so far on the trip

was at the top of this hill. By the way, we did push the bicycle the rest of the way up. It was tiring enough. When we go up these tough hills and I struggle, Joan asks me what coach Troy would say? I then thought what would Coach Tony to his soccer players? Suck it up! So I just sucked it up and make my way up to the top, suffering and breathing hard.

Speaking of soccer, there are so many soccer fields over here. Oops, I mean football fields. The picture to the right shows one of them. The fields are so well taken care of that the grass is similar to our top maintained golf courses.

After the hills we stopped at another Biergarten, Yea, food and beer in the middle of a 67 mile ride today. The pictures below are some friends we made when they let us sit at there table. I think they thought we were German at first since we look so much like them.

The taller guy in the back standing, Hugo Vorderwuebecke,
was stationed in Texas in the German Air Force getting training for 3 years. He was super nice and helped me order food. He spoke pretty good English. The guy beside me (sitting down) started having a conversation with me in German. I could tell from his pointing and facial reactions what he was saying pretty much. We had fun. The picture above was the walkers that left the restaurant, which these guys were part of, having to all stop and check out the bicycle. Hugo said they were all athletes but are all to old to do anything else but walking. They couldn't believe it didn't have an electric motor. Going through these hills/mountains, several of the bicycles have electric assist motors. When we were breaking at the top of that 20% hill, we saw a few people come up it and we started to clap only to notice that there bicycles had electric assist. 

The picture to the right was just another castle up on a hill. The picture to the left are people Joan stopped on the trail to asked if we could get a picture of their bicycle. It had similarities to our bicycle. It is a Pino, which I looked at, but didn't like the way you steer it. They were friendly and checked our bike out too. Theirs did have an electric assist, but added about 30 pounds to the bicycle. I am interested in one but just not ready for the additional weight. Over all, it was a great day with many miles and great adventures. We got off course a little which added 5 miles to an already long day of 62 miles. Oh well, part of the adventure.

Joan's View

My legs are really starting to feel it after this long ride today. We probably made fewer stops today too, even though there is still plenty to stop for, but we wanted to get to New Ulm sooner than what we arrived at our destinations the other days.

I am enjoying getting to use my limited German, and I keep learning more each day. It's a great feeling when you say something in German and they understand you. Of course, they either think we are German or they think I am fluent, and then they start to talk really fast in German. Then I have to revert to the, "English?"

Lots of crosses and prayer spots again today. We took a picture of a few of our favorites.

In one of the little villages ( forgot which one), Tony wanted to stop to tweek the disc brakes so while he did that I walked over to the railing to see this guy throwing rocks out in the river ahead of his dog. This dog was so determined to get the rocks, but with the strong current he went no where. The dog was swimming in one spot almost the whole time and once when he swam toward his owner, the guy threw another rock head of the dog and the dog went right back swimming against the current after the rock again. And we thought we were tired today?