Author: Brian Burger

Nice ride today, warm but not hot and through a good mix of small town, forest and farmland.

Siegmaringen Schloss is what happens when you take the fairly standard German castle-onna-big-rock and turn it all the way up to eleven. Start with a dramatic rocky bluff, add castle, keep adding castle, then start renovating castle right up to the opening years of the 20th C and you get Schloss Siegmaringen. The plaque at the door calls the current architectural style “Historisch”, which as far as I can tell is a polite way to say “made to look as romantic as possible”. It looks like the Hollywood version of a German castle onna rock because it’s supposed to look that way.

Incidentally, this photo was taken from a side of the schloss only visible to cyclists, pedestrians and possibly train passengers. Car users need not apply.

Off into the edge of the Black Forest tomorrow to spend the night at a guesthouse that used to be a Jagerhaus, a hunter’s lodge. It’s supposed to be spectacular and all by itself on a hill beside the Donau, so WiFi seems unlikely!

Reasonable ride of fifty or so clicks today from Ulm to the village of Ubermarchtal. Cool and overcast most of the day, which made for very pleasant riding weather.

We’re staying in a spectacular Catholic Church-owned monestary complex, the Ubermarchtal Kloster. Parts of the buildings apparently date back to about 800 AD, the guest rooms are freshly renovated and well equipped, and the food was really, really good. The place is also some sort of Church school/education centre, but also provides lodging for modern pilgrims and, apparently, random groups of sweaty pagan touring cyclists!

I might have to revise my opinion of the Catholic Church up one or two notches if they always run such lavish and reasonably priced accommodation…

Off down the Danube to Siegmaringen tomorrow, another easy and fairly short stage.

Very short ride today, just down the valley from Blaubeuren back to Ulm and the Danube.

Nice riding weather, slightly overcast and comfortable.

Ulm is a nice city with a great bike path setup. The central Munster (cathedral) is a grand Gothic spiky pile, and I can see it from my cafe chair as I write this…

The cafe is related to one of the annoyances of no longer being in Bavaria – the hostel here charges for WiFi. Steep rates, too – €2/hr. Highway robbery, in 2014. Apparently hostels in Bavaria, if they offer WiFi, are forbidden from charging for it. Wish Baden-Wurtemburg would adopt the same rule.

Off down the Danube tomorrow and staying at a monestary at Obermarchtal, so who knows if they’ll gave WiFi!

A second night without WiFi – coping quite well, actually.

Back to a longer day on the road, from Dilligen to Blaubeuren, 85km or so. Warm but not seriously hot, but more humid still.

We also passed from Bavaria to Baden-Wurtemburg, or as a Bavarian I met once put it, from Bavaria to Germany…

Blaubeuren is a compact little town up in the hills above Ulm, about 20km from the Danube. Nice to get away from the river a bit and see some different terrain.

One of the things that has been neat to observe on this trip has been the slow shift in architectural styles as we bike through Austria and Germany. Up here in Blaubeuren the traditional older buildings are mostly half-timber and plaster, not the white plaster over brick we’ve seen along the river.

With the hills crowding close around town and the closely packed half-timber buildings below, Blaubeuren tickles the mythic and storytelling parts of my brain. It’s even got a bottomless water-filled cave right on the edge of town next to the old monestary complex… Things to conjure story with, perhaps…

Out of the hills back to Ulm down on the Danube tomorrow, just a short ride and partial rest day.