When planning this trip, I often used Google Earth to fly over the route. Doing this gave me an idea of the terrain and topography we would encounter. Of course, I always started at Oberalppass because the mountains are so dynamic there. The relief shown with Google Earth in that region is amazing. High in the alps. Ragged peaks, impossibly steep slopes. Glaciers. By the time I had made my way down to Bodensee, the third largest lake in Europe, about 100 miles down the Rhine, the terrain near the Rhine was so flat, the alps being left behind, that I kind of lost interest in the details from that point on. I would fly over the remainder of the ride all the way to Rotterdam, but the details escaped me because the dynamic landscape was no longer there. Today, we did the real thing. As the Rhine flood plain widened, the high Alps moved farther away and we transitioned from ragged peaks and tumbling water to the more stately, smooth flowing water in a large river. I knew I would miss the alpine region, that it would pass too quickly, and it did. But, if Rotterdam is your goal, you can't hang too long in the alps.
90° is forecast for today. We were up, dressed, packed and on our bikes by 6:00 am. The first mile from the campground was a quick, steep downhill plunge off the side of the Rhine valley back down to the river basin. A few minutes of pedaling along the highway and we were in the capital of Liechtenstein. The prince lives in the castle above the city, but from the actual downtown streets it is hard to see because it is straight above, on top of a several hundred foot cliff. Not until we cycled toward the Rhine and out of the downtown core could we see it well. Position is everything in real estate. Whoever built the castle got the overlook the valley and peasants aspect correct, but in their desire to dominate by position they forgot to consider the sun.
The river runs north here. They put the castle high on the eastern shore, tucked up against the mountain on a cliff. The sun does not get to that piece of real east are until at least ten in the summer and who knows when in the winter. Cold and dank. I'll bet the sunsets are nice, but I'll take a southern exposure any day.
Our route took us north along the dike on the east side of the river that constrains the Rhine to a bicycle only bridge that deposited us in Buchs. By crossing the river, we left Liechtenstein and entered Switzerland again. We were back in cell service again. Before we left home I had downloaded all the maps necessary to ride the entire route into my phone just in case we were without service at times, so navigation was not a problem while in Liechtenstein, but communication and information on the places we were heading to was. With cell service back with the crossing of the border we could look up camping, B&Bs, the weather forecast, history and info on the towns we would be visiting, but most important, we could contact Gallus Muenter, our friend in nearby St. Galen and arrange a time and place to meet on Friday.
We met Gallus back I the summer of 2008 in Yosemite. He and I had climbed Half Dome (via the cable) together and had spent 3 days together. We visited him in St. Galen when we had come to Europe in 2009. We were anxious to get together with him again on this visit and catchup on what had transpired over the past six years.
We found a very well tree shaded outdoor restaurant that was not open yet and availed ourselves of their tables and chairs to sit down for an early lunch and info session. We plotted our time to the St. Galen area and our route along the north or German side of the Bodensee, a huge lake bordered by Switzerland on the south, Germany on the north and Austria for a small portion where the Rhine enters the lake. Once we knew our timeline we called Gallus to arrange our meeting. Using Skype, we got through and arranged to have him pick us up at the ferry dock in Konstanz on the Swiss side of the lake. We would take the ferry from Meersburg over, after having ridden the length of the German side of the lake.
We continued to ride toward Altstatten, our destination for the day, passing along one lane paved roads through the middle of farm lands growing corn, grain, potatoes, carrots and grazing dairy cows. Occasionally, we would dodge tractors and cars, for although these seem like bike paths we are on, they are working roads.
We had not established exactly where we were staying tonight. We had hoped for a B&B once we got near Altstatten or a farm with a sign up saying, "schlafen im stroh", meaning "sleeping in the hay", referring to barn space available for a night's rest. We began making inquiries of people we met along the route, usually in very broken English, but soon we learned there was a campground in Kreissen, about 4 miles from Altstatten, adjacent to the Rhine. One women, the owner of a restaurant not yet open for the day googled the location for us on her phone. I mapped the address on mine and we were set for the night.
This is the huge advantage of travel on bikes. We are with the people, not encased in glass and steel. We are moving at their pace, not whisking by, propelled by gasoline. We stop very often, perhaps every 5 minutes, to take a picture, examine a building, drink from a fountain in a town square, talk to someone or buy a pastry (so much for losing weight with all this exercise!). This pace of travel is wonderful. We don't feel the need to go to the "sites", because we are seeing and experiencing so many during our travel time. Occasionally, an especially historic or important landmark merits pulling us off our path to visit, but mostly we are just enjoying the everyday experiences of the area we are traversing.
We debated heading directly to Kreissen and foregoing Altstatten as it was now a 3 mile side trip. But we were so close we decided to go to it first, visit its historic downtown area, then ride the four miles to the campground in Kreissen. It was now 90°. We reached Altstatten and found a sidewalk restaurant for a beer and a coke in the shade. After half an hour's rest we headed for Krissen. We stopped quite a few times in the shade to cool off as we could, but finally reach the campground about 3:00 pm. Sally was as red as a beet by now, and severely overheated. The woman running the campground looked at her with alarm and suggested a swim in the lake adjoining the property. Sally was inclined to agree and was in the lake as I finished setting up our tent in their lawn.
"Camping" continues to be more expensive than we thought it would be, averaging about $25-30 for a night, but within our budget. At our current pace, we could write the book, "Europe on $50 a Day", although we do exceed that number occasionally.
We spent an hour in the lake, a 100 by 200 meter pool of water trapped beside the dike holding I the Rhine and fed by groundwater. As the Rhine rises and falls, so does their lake. It has no inlet nor outlet, but the water is clean. Very similar to the areangement that creates Wallace Pond in Toledo.
Thunderstorms were forecast, and the skies did not disappoint. The wind howled and soon the sky was flashing and booming with rain pelting down. We sat under their snack bar roof and enjoyed the show. The owner came and talked with us for an hour. She has two three year two girls and a 1 year old boy, plays the piano, and travels to Nrw York occasionally to meet s girl friend and attend concerts and shows. She took our email and invited us to visit her when we return to Switzerland I the future.
With the rain nearly finished we crawled under our quilt in our snug tent and called it a day.
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