We both love being outside, 24-7. The fresh air. Direct light. Gentle breezes. Moonlight. Stars. Sounds of running water, birds, wind, animals, etc. These elements, and more, sum to a rewarding experience and great way of life. I can understand the attraction of a nomadic way of life, such as the Native American's lived, in the wild and moving camps to follow the game, surrounded by your community.
But, living outside 24-7 also has its down side, usually associated with the weather, in particular, water. Today, we immersed ourselves, literally, in water, both airborne and in pools.
The forecast this morning is for rain, starting about 11:00 am and continuing for four or five hours. As we pack, we take special care to make sure everything is inside plastic and our rain gear is on top and easy to get to.
We are locked in at this campsite. They close and lock the gate at 10:00 pm and don't open it until 7:00 am. This will work well for us, as long as they are actually here at 7:00am, because we want to get on the road. But, this is Switzerland, land of watches and time keeping. They will be on time. They aren't. I grow restless and start walking the perimeter of the campground like a caged animal looking for a hole in the fence. I find one, and enlarge it for our bikes to fit through. As I walk back to get Sally and the bikes the owner appears and starts opening gates, so I leave the escape route I created and glide through the now open gate.
As I roll through the gate I swing my foot up over my bike to mount it. As I do the handle on the gate hooks one of the stamps on my sandle and I come to a complete stop half on-half off my bike. It takes a few seconds to awkwardly back up my bike while balancing myself and the bike with one foot, the other foot is attached to the gate. I finally get my foot released from the gate and ride away, embarrassed, but laughing. That doesn't happen everyday.
Our first stop is the Rheinfall, where the whole Rhein river plunges over a falls. We visited it in 2009 when with Gallus, however this year we are on the opposite bank. It is only 8:30 am, so the tourist shops are closed and the area is very quiet, with only a hand full of people. Many photos later we pull ourselves away.
Every time we cross the Rhine, it is steep downhill as we drop into the river and then a steep climb out of the river bottom to continue downstream. Today was no different. Sally struggles on the up hills. I ride my bike to the top, then run down and ride her bike up while she walks up. Pushing her bike strains her back-not a good thing to injure when out on a physically challenging trip for six more weeks.
Our route takes us up and down hills and through small towns on the German side of the river. About 10:30 am, as advertised, the rain begins. It has been cool all morning (55-60°) and I have been wearing my Goretex shell to keep the wind off me. I stop along the road and slip my rain pants on. Sally left the campsite with full rain gear just for warmth. Now the route levels off and we cycle at a steady pace through fields of corn, sunflowers, wheat and hay, passing through the occasional small town. Noon comes and we are hungry for lunch, but there is no dry place to stop and eat. Nature starts screaming at Sally. We try to find a WC, but are denied 3 times. Finally, a grocery store in a small town has a toilet and the world is set right. They have a covered area outside their doors. Sally and I have a perpendicular snack of a nectarine and a baked pretzel. The rain stops for a few minutes and we are hopeful. But, before we can get our bike helmets on the rain picks up to a down pour again. Off we ride, our glasses a smear of rain drops. As we enter our destination town, Bad Zurzach, I notice a Chinese restaurant. Warm, dry and vegetables. What could be better. We locked up our bikes and sat down indoors to a wonderful shared meal.
I would like to report that our rain gear worked magnificently. After three hours of riding in the rain we were warm and dry. Our plan for the afternoon? Get wet.
Bad Zurzach boasts a thermal bath. It is huge with four swimming pool sized pools, each at a different temperature, an underground salinity pool that is dimly lit for floating and isolation therapy, a nude coed sauna, steam room, and nice restaurant. Their system for monitoring patrons is amazingly high tech. Upon entrance, you are given a wrist band with an IR chip. You swipe it upon entry and it records how long you are in the complex. You are charged by the hour. Also, if you want other services or to buy something from the restaurant, you just hold your wrist band up to a scanner, like Apple Pay, and it adds the cost to your bill. At checkout they read your band and bill you for what you did.
So, even though we spent all morning awash in water, we rode directly to the thermal baths, donned our wrist bands and spent the next four hours soaking, being bubbled, swirled, brined, steamed and saunna'd.
About 6:30 pm we dragged our now limp bodies from the pools and cycled 2 miles back through to town to the campground, registered, pitched our tent, made and ate our salad for dinner and crawled in the tent to blog and rest when two gentlemen appeared outside the tent flap and stared in. And this presents the problem I am having writing this blog.
When Sally and I conceived this trip, we did so without an itinerary. No plans for where we would be each night. As Indiana Jones says, "I'm making this up as I go along!" We left it intentionally open so we could have the flexibly to meet people and if the chance presented itself, spend time to get to know them. So far, this has worked perfectly. Every night in the campground we meet someone or someones wonderful and talk for hours. Aldi and Skynee in Chur, Gabrial and Lillian in Leichtenstein, the Swiss couple in Wasserburg and now Eddie and Willi from Munich in Zurzach.
Eddie has cycled the Rhine route before. He retired 29 days ago from AT work. Willi has been retired for 6 years. He was a BMW motorbike designer and engineer. We crawled out of our tent and joined them at the campground community picnic table and talked until after dark across a wide range of subject. It was fascinating and fun.
We got back in the tent about 10:30 pm, beneath a nearly full moon. The last water of the day, dew, started to collect on the nylon fabric of our tent beneath the clear and cooling skies. Forecast tomorrow. Clear skies and cool temperatures. Perfect.
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