Day 15 Schiltach to Konstanz

Today is the halfway point of my trip. Two weeks ago I left Andover and in 2 weeks I will arrive in Rome, barring disasters. However the hardest cycling is ahead of me and today was another long day after failing to get as far South as I had hoped yesterday.

I planned to start at 9.00am as I was due to meet Richard at the Rheinfalls at about 3.30pm. These are the largest waterfalls in Europe and are about an hours bike ride north of Zurich Airport where Richard was flying into. In the end I got away just before 10.00am as I had the opportunity to use the landlady's computer at the hotel.

Getting to write these blogs is one of my daily challenges as I don't seem to be able to write on my phone.So far I have waited an hour in Stavelot for the tourist info office to open, only to be told that they no longer have an internet computer. Walked for 30 mins in Luxembourg to find the internet cafe shut when I was told it would be open and queued in Kaiserslautern until 11pm at night to get into a smokey internet cafe. This blog is being texted to Paula who will kindly type it up. Thx.

Anyhow my ride started on a coolish morning with a long climb up to Hardt from here the road more or less stayed at about 700m but the temperature dropped to a chilly 11C. I didn't have time for lunch so it was again bananas and biscuits. I reached a new high point of the tour at 790m just after Blumberg, followed by my fastest speed of 67.5kph on the descent and reached the Rheinfalls at about 3.20, crossed the Rhein to the Swiss side and waited for Richard. The only problem was that he had also gone over the Rhein but to the German side, hence we missed each other!

After we eventually met we viewed the falls - which were pretty impressive - hid from the rain until it stopped and headed along the Rhein path to Konstantz. This is one of the longest cycle paths in Europe at about 1700k long and we were about to follow it for the next day and a half.

The path was mainly tarmac but on one gravel bit through the woods we saw about 3 very friendly red squirrels. We eventually got to Konstanz at 8.20, which is a pleasant enough town half in Germany and half in Switzerland, to end another long day in the saddle.

Todays Stats
Distance: 149.36k
Climb: 1363m
Riding Time: 7:00:18
Average Speed: 21.3kph
Total Time: 10.25

Paula Says : Hope I have copied this out right as its getting late, but you can change whatever another time night night!!