Boog's Blog

2008-04-28 05:08 PDT
A short ride to Donauworth, a very rich city in Bavaria according to our unreliable guide book (done by an English Cyclist).  

The roads here made us remember the roads in Palo Alto. Ours are an embarassment!   The German roads are almost perfect asphalt: no potholes, no asphalt fillings, no metal plates, no dirt (we saw a farmer cleaning the road in front of his farm), nothing but smooth good asphalt.  Off road in the forests or along the Danube the dirt is hard packed, clean, without potholes ( the  few larger  potholes were filled in very well with either hard pack or cement made to match the road color).  The pebbly roads, not much fun, are clean and of mostly uniform pebbles- good walking and maybe jogging surface but not designed for biking. many shrines(?) on the roadside, mainly crucifixes.

One picture might be labeled "A better class of dirt".

Brought to you by Tip Top Tea (The Tea of Record). Try the Monday Special, our Donau blend, continual flavor turns and bends.

Second day in a row that we could not take our bikes into the room; they were appalled by the idea. Usually in the US we have no problem and larger hotels seem more flexible here.  Owner operated ones are unable to imagine bringing dirt into the rooms.

View down the largish uphill in Donnauworth would be spectacular if we had not seen so many before, took picture (pic) anyway.

Menu tonight at the local restaurant included Pigs Foot Monday (very good value at Euro 6,90, although we failed to order any). The menu is included (pic), as well as our meals, good and generous.  No way would the Swabians dare to say that American portions are large.  Finished with some possibly local Schnappes or Grappa, made of pears;  head clearing. Watched a guy eat the pigs foot, methodically clearing the meat and fat from the bone, adding potatoes to the plate, then slowly consuming everything but the bone. Two beers to wash it down.

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2008-04-27 12:16 PDT

Staying in Dillengen on the Danau at the oddly named Convikt Hotel.
No internet connection at this high end Gasthof. Only IE can be used to connect to their LAN.  
 
Perfect weather Sunday, so the local bike paths were crowded with families and riders of all ages; very nice to see.  Many were helpful with directions.   Rode along the Danube on a road of smallish pebbles. Dry and bumpy for a dozen or so kms, then a portage around a water tower (dry portage this time). There is a pic of the trail and the river, could not be nicer.
 
The road continues and soon we are on the Kartoffel (Potato) Tour route 4. No indication why it was so named; no potatoes seen.
 
Brought to you by Tip Top Tea (The Tea of Record). Try our Potatoes 'n' Pebbles Blend, not our favorite or a good seller. Immediate availability!

Nordic walkers, many, on the path (pic).
 
Arrived at the town of Gunsberg, an oldish Bavarian town (we have left Bad-Wittenburg).  The old town has been restored and now looks a bit like the Bath Crescent except with Bavarian architecture (pics). 
 
Through the utterly charming, yet again, town of Lauingen. Then to the equally charming one of Dettingen. Two Baroqe churches here.  Each more ornate than the other (yes they continue to get better with each visit).  Heard groups singing in both and the acoustics are of the quality of Prague.  Similar putti too. 

Dinner was of the high end variety (pics) as the Gasthof has a fine restaurant. Garlic homemade green pasta with fruits d'mer, trout, large, with boiled potatoes and a very special appetizer of scallops with white asparagus (almost $20 for the appetizer). 

General notes on the road:

Travels of other much more adventuresome cyclists we have met and had "conversations" with.

-couple about our ages, in town for a class in Feldenkreis:  oh yes, road ahead is good, we biked here earlier today (we were finishing a long hill after taking two days to get to the same spot). When traveling they ride 120km plus per day and by their own admission see nothing. No looking at churches or landscape, just ride fast to get there.  We met them about 5km out of town while they were walking in the hills.  In six weeks they will take their vacation, a 2800km ride in three weeks – mostly in Holland and along the North Sea

-a retired bike designer living on a pension and non-compete.   Bikes and camps full time.  Seems to be on the road constantly.  Girl friend from Luxemburg meeting him and then they will go together for a while.  Oh yes, I biked across the US three times.  I like the hills.

-young Swiss cyclist:  and your trip?  We are off to India.  One year, then to Nepal and the Himalayas.

-Swabians as Scottish.   While in a store looking around struck up a conversaton with the local shopkeeper.  His English was better than mine so easy to converse.  I purchased something and he said just put it in my pocket.  I said he should not forget to charge me.   Well, he explained, there was no chance of that.  The Swabians are just like the Scots, maybe more so.  Never forget a penny.  That, and they have a dialect that only they can understand and prefer it that way.  Very Scots like.

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2008-04-26 12:06

Rest and touristing day in Ulm.  

Not enough time to see Ulm in just a hurried afternoon.  Old town walk, there is a codified one of course, a more detailed visit to the Munster in Ulm (English and German usage for sure, not a word Americans seem to use).   Time to do chores like laundry (coin operated, high tech, of course) after mud-splattered rides.

Great natural fabric store in Neu-Ulm. QB certain that Sara would love a particular skirt and shoes.  Herb to mention. 

Spargel stand at the market (pic) – white asparagus to those with Blackberry phones as the keypad does not permit spargel as a collection of letters in autocomplete mode.

Walk in the old town- most of today's pics are from there. The Blau river (or stream) runs through the old town and empties into the Donau. There are bridges to some buildings and one old inn had a boat ramp.

Brought to you by Tip Top Tea (The Tea of Record). Today's blend at a special price is Kepler's Own. Kepler was a local of Ulm as was Einstein.  

After Munster visit, good stained glass windows and large gothic vaulting inside, followed by trip to the Bread Kulture Museum. History of hunger and bread, paintings and sketches by Picasso, Max Beckman, Breugal, Chagal and many others.  Good exhibit of history of making bread as well as how it fit into the culture from Egyptian, Judean, Roman, middle ages to present.  

QB got Arche shoes from a shoe cheese shop, a cheese shop in the Monty Python vein:  "Do you have this color (catalog shoes turquoise shoes)?" "No, you cannot sell this color here;my shoes are expensive, everyone wants black." "Do you have this model in my size?" "No, that model is two years old and no one wants them anymore-now they are more rounded." Blah, etc.

Dinner, a decent in hotel room picnic.  Smoked Atlantic salmon, Sprat (no idea what kind of fish this might have been – not a sardine), Camerbert cheese and drinkable Yougurt, plus good german rolls.  The rolls and bread remain outstanding.

Tomorrow to Bavaria. 

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2008-04-25 12:58

Ehlingen to Ulm

QB German joke, rosti (pic) , stork (pic), haircut with lingerie, Munster in Ulm, Swabian accent, fabulous Donau again.

QB started the day with a question – really a joke.  Is the wi-fi free here?  Quite funny; this country is basically a la carte.  Nice stork on the road out of Ehingen, maybe the same one we saw on a roof a bit ago.

Herb mentioned that the locals in this area were not especially friendly; we find then overly so at times.  Suspect it is the bikes –
we find them interested in the bikes and our travels and very helpful with directions and advice.  The manageress of the Gasthof in Ehingen was from New Cladonia, spoke many languages, had a degree from Instead in Switzerland, and went out of her way to be helpful.  Ran a very good hotel – with husband.  Her story is good enough for a human interest story/piece.  Even after 10 years in the town, and having three children, and running a hotel that has been in the family for four generations she is still not invited to local social functions.

Brought to you by Tip Top Tea (the Tea of Record).  Have you tried our special blend this week?  Boogs blend number 3.

Got to Ulm.  Famous old cathedral – tallest in Europe.  Started in the 14th century, voted to become Protestant in 1530, and has remained so.  Spires added in 1890.  See Wikipedia.

Wandered the old town (pics).  Great rathaus.

Dinner at Movenpick.  Good fish soup, Geneva style (pic) and large, very large salad (pic)    Lunch had us eating a Rosti – grated potatoes, pressed to a pancake, and fried on a grill – covered in cheese and veggies (pic)

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Introduction added on the 23rd of April.  
Have not had connectivity for three days so this is a combined post.  There are many ( about 35-40 ) pictures on Flickr, too many to add to this post so only a few are added here – those interested should go to the Boog flickr page – referenced in the weekly note.

DHL, Lingere and Coffee, Touring Group, Blackforest

First order of the day was to send the Turducken ( our three nested bike and traveling suitcases) via DHL to Bobby.  Prior to leaving had, with the help of Randy, gone to dhl.de and printed out the routing tag and an invoice.  In theory, go to the front desk of the hotel and have the Concierge arrange for pickup.  Five minutes, max.  We left 30 minutes for the transaction; took 45.  

The very helpful Concierge ( I will send a complimentary note to Starwood after the package is on its way ) called DHL.   Took three internal transfers, many attempts at the billing or pakcing or other numbers for DHL to finally understand that this was an internet booking number and not their "normal" number.     Then the fun started when it turns out we did not pay a pickup fee of 3 Euro, must have missed it – certainly did not expect it.  Can only pay the fee online.  Online has a minimum credit card payment of 20 Euro.  More phone calls.  Finally a solution was found to pay with paypal (site does not seem to indicate that smaller amounts can be paid with paypal).  So, we departed with package in the hands of the hotel.

Strolled around town and noticed, more than once, the chain Tchibo which markets lingere and coffee.  In the front is coffee and the back lingere.  In the larger shops additional clothing.  Germans seem to need a lot of lingere.  One night stands?

Train  to Donaueshingen, the start of the Danube and our cycling trip.  On the road tomorrow.  We are riding with reserved seats, ours has a table for which I expect we paid extra (usually they ask at the bahnhoff); sqeeze the Americans, they will not know or maybe they will want.   .

On the train was a group of about 12 women of a certain age.  All with their bikes;  we are in a dedicated bike car with excellent seats and well designed racks for the bikes – spaces reserved and paid for of course.  Heavy touring bikes with heavy panniers, very well organized, and not friendly to us. Sat next to us but I could not get a conversation started.  Their loss.

GPS use to be tried for the first time when we get off the train.

——22nd of April in Donneschingin to Tutlingin —-
First official day of sacking, starting in Donaueschingen, allegedly the source of the Danube and with a fountain with water flowing out (only) to prove it. Excellent breakfast at Sinnhotel Carleton, and off into the wind and rain. Alt route to cycle way courtesy of Tourist Info because von Furstenburg, the local aristocrat, doesn't want cyclists messing up his private park.

Brought to you by Tip Top Tea (The Tea of Record). Try our Breakroom Blend!

Ride beautiful, but damp. A couple of covered bridges, a number of cute towns. Kaffee und kuchen at noon and again at 4:30 (plus cheese sandwiches).

Coffee was jus, in time.  Cafe's seem to close, some of them in the smaller towns where there are only one or two, at 12:30 and reopen later around 14:30    Dry time for a bike break.

Internet access in the smaller towns is a problem.  Not always available in the hotels in the smaller towns/  Tried to get a card at T-Mobile or O2 but need a contract for two years and Linux drivers not available for their hardware.  Used the local library (small cost here, free in Denmark) to book a hotel for tomorrow.

Still no food pictures as, to expected, no food worth photographing, except the bread and pastries.

My blackberry is partially disabled, cannot scroll down, only up which makes much of the functionality, well non functional.  QB's cell phone has died and the eeePC does not seem to be able to revive it.  Viva technology!

The ride, as mentioned above, is just lovely with flowing water, asphalt almost all the way (so far), gentle grades, Nature Preserves, and zero traffic – neither bikes nor cars.

——–Tutlingin to Sigmaringin 23rd April————–
2008-04-23 07:15 PDT

excessive charm, gorge-us, beef on weg  (not on weck), perfect and schmutzig roads, attacking swan ( maybe), fabulous Danube

Great ride today to Sigmaringen today.  That and back on the net again.  Three star hotel with free net access via hrs.de deal. 

Brought to you today by Tip-Top-Tea (The Tea of Record) : Have you tried our pillaging blend? Loved by sacking teams worldwide.

Riding slow due to frequent stops to look at charming, excessively, small towns and villages, each one more charming than the previous.  Like the olafactory system one eventually saturates and can bike onwards.

Then the scenery changed and we were in a large gorge, lasted for about 20 miles.  The Danube runs through a nature preserve with limestone cliffs with almost vertical walls.  We stopped to admire the scenery but a (possibly too agressive)swan – maybe like the one that attacked Gidi approached in a not too friendly way with wings extended.  We motored on.

Up the road a calf or young bull blocked the bike path; we walked behind it for a while but he kept just ahead of us.  On a downhill section we chanced zipping by and the result is in the telling.  The herding dog sat silent and excerted itself not.

The roads today were mostly good asphalt, with short sections of road perfection and other muddy gravel (bikes are filthy).  Everyone is friendly and helpful, language fun to struggle with.

Food.
   There has been much fussing about too much writing and too many pictures of food on trips past;  so far little in the way of food pics or writing.  However, dinner tonite worth mentioning.   White asparagus, penne, pizza, decent wine and beer from tap.  Restaurant overlooked the Danube.  More charm.

DonauquelleThe Source.JPG

Frankfurt Rommer old town.JPG

–

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Digital air pumps! Vacuum cleaners! Good bread, busy cafes.

Brought to you by Tip Top Tea, the Tea of Record.

Breakfast at the Hauptbahnhoff; some bread, fruit and excellent coffee.  Even though it was in a food market area we could not sit and eat as vendors were protective of their seating and we purchased a bit from several of them.  People watching made up for the lack of seating.
 
Assembled the bikes and then took a ride to a gas station to pump up the tires.  This being Germany there were more stations to vacuum clean your car than there were actual gas pumps.   In addition there was a digital air pump.  Set the desired pressure in bar, press ok, and voila, it fills, maybe overfills a bit and releases some until it settles down to the exact pressure; the US is  falling behind in air pumps at gas stations – certainly another overlooked efffect of the harsh Bush years. Most gas stations in the US now charge for air!

The weather turned perfect, literally, as Boog Sacking Team has arrived.  Seems as if everyone who was ambulatory wandered along the river, the Main.  Busy cafes, konditori sold out. Lunch was a place called MoscheMosche, a good Japanese-style ramen and other noodle place, a small chain that is only in this part of Germany.

We learned the word for "stale" (fade") when we asked the waiter in the hotel about how to say the word we wished to use to describe the bread we were served. He caught on after a bit and insisted the bread was fresh (customer is always wrong); indeed, it may have been when it was sliced eight hours before. Eventually we obtained new bread, and it was quite good. Perhaps he mistook us for British and thought we would not make a fuss. Thanks to Bush, we American tourists must struggle to get our Euro's worth.

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Smoking and Markets.

Arrived without incident, light rain which is mentioned only in context of the smoking.   Hotel room is fine except that the charge and outrageous amount of euros, let alone dollars, for access.  Good access. 

After many hours on the plane a walk was appropriate.   Off to the Kleine Markt Halle, a covered market about a twenty minute walk from the hotel.   Pictures are mostly from that market.   Large, crowded, excellent assortment of german  as well as persian and many other nationalities.   Lots and lots of great looking meats.  Pricing about double or more than what can be found in the neighborhood or at the various street vendors.

It appears we have arrived just as the spring wines are arriving.  Many outside as well as inside venues, lots of good wine and sekt, champagne, along with wursts and onion cakes. 

Then a walk on the Zeil, the large walking and shopping street area.  Think Oxford street without cars, or fifth ave. without cars.  High end and mid market.  Naturally I waited outside of some of the stores such as the large Karstadt.  Outside is not good in a light rain, worse when the rain increases.   Smokers congregate in the front.  I chose to get wet by standing in the rain.   Interesting to see the difference between our smokeless california and here in germany.    Mike has not as yet commented about the smoking in Paris. 

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The Boogteam took a midwinter break and drove to Mendocino.

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Jeff,
Thanks for these Cape May photos. I've always been curious. Glad post-jambalaya fiasco has been mitigated in a flurry of other dining.

So the bike trip ended–thanks for all the tours and comments and photos= the blog.

In a flurry again of wind, rain and mud. For some. And 500 mile–great.

Enjoy N.J. and NYC. Wouldn't mind a photo or two of NYC if you've time. I do miss the place. Not the Empire State bldg, but anything that strike your fancy as quintessionally NYC.
Thanks,
Dee

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