Day 50. Dingelsdorf to Jestetten. 76 km, 5h00.
Lake Constance was looking its best as we set off over the hills to the Zellersee, the next of the Rhine Lakes. Unbeknown to us it is another public holiday, so with the current school holiday, the shoreline campsites of both lakes are bursting and the bicycles are swarming. We have fallen victim to numerous public holidays on this trip - I thought South Africa was supposed to have an excessive number of holidays, but here everything closes at midday Saturday to Monday morning, and then every business also takes a ruhetag which is a rest day during the week whenever they feel like it, or the fishing looks good, or they have a hangover.
We had a good cycle along the edge of the lake past berry, cherry and strawberry farms to the Swiss town of Stein am Rhein, where the Rhine leaves the Zellersee. All the buildings here are covered in colourful murals, which makes for an very attractive if touristy town. After weaving our way through the tour groups we found a good spot on the banks on the Rhine for a swim and a lunch of rolls and the best cherries ever, bought at a farmstall in Wangen.
The Rhine water is very clear, and a beautiful aquamarine colour. So it makes for great views as we cycle along the side. This is the first time we are cycling downstream since one morning along the Sava in Slovenia, although with the number of hills the cycle path took us over, one would never have thought so. The route varied between stony gravel paths through forests, asphalt roads through fields with great views to distant mountains, and cycle paths alongside the river - all in all it makes for excellent touring.
Just downstream of Schaffhausen we deviated to see the Rhine Falls, one of the biggest waterfalls in Europe. They are 150m wide and 23m high with a massive volume of water cascading down between rocky outcrops - certainly an impressive sight.
The border between Germany and Switzerland in incredibly convoluted with the odd "island" of Germany totally surrounded by Switzerland. After a while we realized that if the cycle route signs were green we were in Germany, and in Switzerland red. We decided to stay the night in Germany as it's supposed to be cheaper, but wasn't. We eventually found the only accommodation that was open.The only open shops were Italian ice-cream parlors. The Germans are totally ice-cream verskrik; they stream into these places and order massive multicolored castles of ice-cream at about R120 each.
We are now onto the last of our 6 maps which cover the Vienna to Basel section of the trip. It is a 1:100000 series so has been really easy to follow while riding. The Ortlieb mapholder on the barbag works very well; it is easy to see, keeps the maps dry and is big enough to see the route ahead to know the names of villages along the way. We tried Google maps for a bit. A pain in the butt. An Ipad is impossible to read in the sun and the cycle routes are not given. We often see a cyclist on the side of the road squinting into his iPhone. So a decent map with a 1:100000 to 1:150000 scale works far better.
Berry picking at the Zellersee.
The Swiss town of Stein am Rhein.
Rhine Falls from below.
Really lovely scenery. Good maps make such a difference don't they?
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