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Friday September 9th
In Which it had been the Best (and Worst) of Days

According to Charles Dickens in the opening to A Tale of Two Cities, it was "the best of times, it was the worst of times". In a similar fashion, today was the best of days and the worst of days. It certainly started on a positive note with yet another perfectly cloudless sky and pure, cool air as clear as crystal. I went to the bike garage to collect my bike, but no matter how hard I looked, it was not to be found anywhere. I tried not to get anxious, but there was no sign of it. I checked all the bikes again and found one that looked like mine, but it had David's GPS, water bottle and panniers on it.

The search continued for another 10 minutes, until I decided to use the scientific approach. I knew my bike had a horizontal bar. That eliminated about half the bikes. My bike had a GPS attachment, That eliminated most of the remainder. I looked more closely at David's Bike. It had cable ties exactly like mine. Hang on a minute - it WAS my bike.

I was not happy. I told David that he was a bare faced thief and took all his junk off. He tried to cover his guilt by looking helpless so I couldn't stay angry for too long, after all I had already mixed up the bikes on numerous previous occasions.

When we were ready, we cycled back up the hill to the bike path. We looked around. We were two riders short of a peloton. Gael and Gerry were missing. At about this time the two riders in question were just arriving at the bike garage. When they saw the door firmly shut, they congratulated themselves on being the first to come down. In fact they were the last. Of course when they opened the door, they realised their error.

With the peloton finally all present we started off along the trail. The first section of the day's ride followed the Danube Gorge and we were fenced in on both sides by towering limestone cliffs. Much of the riding was in the shade of the overhanging trees and the cool air was an absolute delight. We crisscrossed back and forth several times and our ride was also punctuated by a series of quite strenuous climbs. I could imagine how different the scene would be when the river was in flood.

I have had the privilege of cycling in some of the best cycling routes around the world, but I would have to say that the region we were riding through over the past couple of days ranks with the very best I have ever experienced.

On numerous occasions we stopped to take in the beauty that was about us on all sides.

By 10 am we had split into two groups again. I was happy to ride with the rear group and just enjoy every sensation, smell and sound along the way. By 11 am we were getting ready for a coffee and started looking for a suitable rest break. We found a lovely looking trackside cafe and settled down to coffee and cheesecake. After a lengthy break and a chat with the proprietor, we resumed our ride.

I had only gone a short distance when I heard the dreaded cry of "Rider down". We turned back to find that Gael had taken a heavy fall from her bike and was quite stunned. Fortunately the staff at the cafe sprang into action, dressed her wounds and found a place for her to lie down. Of course I was worried about concussion, especially when she was rather confused about what had happened.

Gerry stayed with her and told the rest of us to go ahead. I assumed that they would have chosen to catch the nearby train instead of riding any further. Our reduced peloton was now down to 7 riders as we continued on our way to Sigmaringen and its imposing castle.

That's where we stopped for lunch. After a brief discussion we quickly decided that none of us really wanted to see the inside of the castle. It really is a case of "if you have seen a couple of dozen musty castles, you have probably seen them all".

We climbed back on the bikes and continued the short distance to our next stop at Scheer. You can imagine our utter surprise when we discovered that Gael had made a miraculous recovery and she had somehow made it to the hotel before anyone else. Perhaps this was a true miracle of the pilgrim trail after all.

The Hotel Donaublick is a very comfortable hotel, which used to be the original train station. I guess that explains the proximity of the train line and the fact that the trains race by at high speed every 15 minutes. Personally I didn't mind the trains as they helped to add character to the scene. It had really been a fascinating days of contrasts.Read more