We have been on tour for nearly a week now! And today we reached Bodensee, the official goal of our tour!
Here is our track for today.
We enjoyed a full breakfast with Jos and Marian. We are very grateful for their hospitality and hope we can return it some day.
We then set off on our way at about 8am. It was much cooler today and there were some clouds in the sky.
After about 400 metres we crossed the border from Switzerland back to Germany. Once again we were riding in the rush hour and we had to be on the road for some of this route so were trying to go at a good pace, but we also had some climbing so couldn’t go really fast. At other times there was a cycle path beside the road and we used that when possible. There was even a special bridge just for cyclists.
We rode through Waldshut-Tiengen and then Lauchringen, riding mostly along the B34, a quite busy road. Just before Geisslingen we turned off onto a parallel road and we were separated from the B34 for the rest of the ride, so were on much more relaxing routes.
Here was a quick stop to enjoy the view.
We then rode through Erzingen/Klettgau and we crossed again into Switzerland. We were now in more rural area with lots of rolling fields. I saw some oats growing, the first time I have seen them in Germany.
We rode through Neunkirchen and then we were heading towards Schaffhausen, but before this we had to ride over a bit of a hill, but it was reasonable going with a fast road (no cycle path) and we enjoyed it, and the views.
And then of course we had the downhill which was great fun! We arrived in Neuhausen am Rheinfall and made our way down to the Rhein river, where we stopped at a café for a piece of cake.
The service in the café was very good and the cake was also tasty but not as exciting as German cake. The price was OK though, we had expected worse!
We rode along the Rhein to Schaffhausen and then crossed over again to Feuerthalen which involved a bit more hill climbing. My motor makes this much easier than I used to find it, so it’s just a matter of getting the speed and gears right.
The opposite side of the Rhein had a German enclave around Büsingen am Hochrhein. It’s worth a read of the Wikipedia article on it, here.
We rode through some villages including the very pretty Diessenhofen.
We crossed the Rhein just before Stein am Rhein but didn’t carry on to along the Rhein but instead headed north, with the mountains visible before us.
We arrived in a village named Moskau (the German for Moscow) and then turned off the main route and headed over the hill which would lead us to Konstanz. We crossed the border again at this point, returning to Germany.
It was a lovely time up the hill and then on the way down I didn’t pedal at all for about 4km, reaching speeds of 50 km/h. It was an exhilarating downhill!
We arrived in Radolfzell where we had decided to stop for some lunch. So we found a café right next to Bodensee.
We were staying with Christoph and Anna tonight in Konstanz and we had sent Anna messages throughout the day showing her our location. She said to wait for her as she would come and meet us, and in fact Christoph arrived first, so there were four velomobiles in total.
After Christoph and Anna had a drink we then headed off to their house, just 16km further. It is always nice to be guided by people with good knowledge of the routes.
In total we had ridden 92km, and despite more climbing than normal we neither of us felt particularly tired. I think because it wasn’t as hot and because we had now had two shorter days.
We put the bikes in the garage and then freshened up. Anna had spent lots of today preparing our food and she was cooking focaccia bread whilst we were showering. The two loaves were works of art!
We went for a short walk up the hill to get some great views of Bodensee.
Christoph had also invited Uli and TimB to join us so there was a good group of six velomobilists for our evening meal.
We had a wonderful barbecue with loads of food, excellently cooked by Anna. Klaus and Tim shared some wine and so were very jolly by the end of it!
We went for a walk after dinner down to the harbour.
Tomorrow we ride to Tettnang with a TimB and Uli. I am not yet sure of the route as there is some discussion about it, but I hope we will have a chance to set a wheel in Austria to tick off another country in my Velomobile-visited list!
Thanks to Christoph and Anna for their great hospitality.
Here is a full list of all the blog postings on this tour:
Day 1: Kempen to Drachenfels
Day 2: Drachenfels to Walluf
Day 3: Walluf to Speyer
Day 4: Speyer to Appenweier
Day 5: Appenweier to Bamlach
Day 6: Bamlach to Koblenz (CH)
Day 7: Koblenz to Konstanz
Day 8: Konstanz to Tettnang
Day 9: Tettnang to Bad Buchau
Day 10: Bad Buchau to Eislingen
Day 11: Eislingen to Gündelbach
Day 12: Gündelbach to Viernheim
Day 13: Viernheim to Bacharach
Day 14: Bacharach to Drachenfels
Day 15: Drachenfels to Kempen