Nothing like liquid sunshine

It’s been a few days since our last update.

For those in a hurry:

Thursday : Rain RAIN LOTS OF RAIN

Friday: Rain in the morning then a beautiful ride into Constance then a big thunderstorm and rain

Saturday: Spent a great day with our nephew Matthias, sunny

Sunday: hill big hill REALLY BIG HILL then rain

Monday: It’s going to rain

For those who have more interest or less to do today.

Thursday we discovered that our bike jackets were no longer waterproof. At home we have more sense than to go for a bike ride in a deluge. By the end of the day we were wet to the skin and cold. To stave off physical as well as marital hypothermia we quickly took the first hotel offered by the tourist bureau. On checking in we both left behind a puddle at the front desk.

Friday we rode into Constance along one arm of Lake Constance, the bike path rose part way up the side of the valley for beautiful sunny views of the lake. We met up with Matthias in the late afternoon at his apartment. He is finishing up a year of classes with an internship in a bio-medical lab on campus. An in-coming line of thunder storms sent us hurrying across town to our campsite for the night.

Looking northeast coming into Constance from Switzerland.

Saturday morning we returned to Matthias’ apartment and collected the rest of the packages that we had been having delivered to his address. Then we spent the day wandering around the old city of Constance. Constance is like Lake George only bigger and 1000 years older. One claim to fame is the Conference of Konstanz in 1417 when 3 competing Popes met in Constance to figure out who was the rightful heir to St. Peter’s Throne. Ahhh nothing like local history.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. We rode north out of Constance to meet up with our Route 6 bike path and return to heading east. Everybody and their uncle and aunt and kids and dogs and everybody was out for a sunny Sunday bike ride. Most of the bikes were electric assist.

At 11:00 we started up the continental divide between the Rhine and the Danube. Up and up, we made the top about 5 and had a great ride down into the Upper Danube valley. For those readers from upstate NY the upper Danube is about the size of the Battenkill, 30-50 feet across and 3-5 feet deep and running fast. All went well, almost.

Our campground was right next to the ‘Sinking or Disappearing Danube’. The layers of limestone under the river have been eroded so that for most of the year the river disappears below ground leaving a dry riverbed, which can be easily ridden across. But after weeks of rain the Danube was running full and all above ground. Our dry creek-bed ford was running 2 meters deep according to the river gauge. We walked our bikes along a 3/4 mile riverside path that was clearly labeled ‘Bike riding Forbidden’ but we were walking so it was probably ok; even for some of the more strident rule-following locals. Last night we were the only campers in the small campground, very quiet and peaceful listening to the drum of the rain on the tent fly. No rain this morning but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time

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In spite of the liquid sunshine we are having a great time. We have noticed that rain showers and bakeries seem to come along at about the same interval. Viva le pan au chocolate !!!