Day 28- AT LAST THE famed Rhine Water falls

Today we started with a magical view of snow covered alps in the distance that had been obscured by clouds last night. Off to an early start as I was panicing as I kept reading in our dear guide book the words STEEP so although it was going to be cooler today a mere 27C it was still very humid. The first hill we had to push our bikes up climbing out from Eglisau I was soaked in sweat and it was still only 830am.

The other thing that was making life harderfor me we discovered was that my front tyre seems to be losing air, I think maybe a faulty valve as it snouldnt ever need pumping up we were told, hence harder to pedal anywhere!Also you can only reinflate with a proper pump not just a small hand pump, these tubeless tyres do have their issues but at least you can still pedal with them half flat…

Through some scenic villages, the typical hairpin bends taking us up and down away from the Rhine and finally back to it.The dreaded 4kms uphill wasnt too bad and some of it was cycleable so we werent pushing the whole way. Almost impossible to catch with our cameras an anxious mother hawk looking after the maiden flights of her 2 chicks including fighting off crows.

Our fully frozen water bottles armed with hydralite today had fully melted after 2 hours!

Managed to keep hubby peddling to 5kms before the Rhine falls so stopped at a great coffee shop with wonderful selection of teas and Im afraid to say hubby had the biggest and best piece of black forest gateau he said he had ever had. I was allowed a few morcels and it was pretty good. Hubby did comment that his bike computer said hed used up 960calories and I should have thought the cake was at least 2000 calories he was going to have to cycle a long way to burn that off.

Finally we reached the castle overlooking thevRhine falls with only a gentle ascent clearly we were going in the right direction. Alas everywhere were big signs ” KEIN RADFAHRER/RADFAHREN VERBOTEN” etc clearly cyclists werent welcome. The plan had been to take it in turns on the boat trip near the falls but if one person got moved on the other person wouldnt find them and there was nowhere not forbidden to rest. We picked the best place away from officials and took it in turns to go up and look at the falls, an adequate compromise.Another time it would have been better to have stayed at the youth hostel there but they only had dormitory beds left when i checked.The falls looked stunning but its a pity that the swiss side certainly have made them a touristy ghetto.

We then tested our brakes out on the very steep descent and pitied the cyclists coming in this direction.We peddled on into Schaffhaussen which for some reason was exceptionally expensive for lunch or the restaurants had no safe place for our bikes so we could keep an eye on them. A few historic towers around but being peckish and hot we didnt pay them much attention and the main square was not overly attractive. We gave up and peddled on towards the bed and breakfast we’d booked, the only restaurant we passed was shut for its rest day. So having established where our bed and breakfast was we cycled back into Schaffhaussen and tried a different part of town. This time we found a delightful Indian/Sri Lankan restaurant whose owner kept telling us how cheap he was and we had to agree. A very nice curry and nasi goreng set us back the same as one meal at all the other restaurants we’d seen.I left hubby chatting to the restaurant owner and went in search of supplies for our evening picnic. The restaurant owner was yet another Swiss person telling us Switzerland was the best place to live. My picnic shopping accomplished we had to race off to our bed and breakfast so our salad stuff didn’t wilt.

I rang the bell at the B & B no response. It clearly said b&b Busingen which is where we’d booked, nobody was there. I pulled my note pad out and checked the booking, this was the wrong B&B! It was in the same street, same name but different number. It took a little while to find it as it was a huge street and strange numbering system.The salad stuff survived, just.

Finally found the correct B&B and were able to get an early check in to escape the heat. Even better we hadnt realised this B&B had its own private beach on the Rhine, complete with recliners, table and chairs with shade screens, really lovely. No bar though. So we joined in with the locals swimming and lounging by the Rhine. Beautiful clear water but quite a current, you just swam on the spot without going anywhere. A very fit 83 year old Swiss gentleman fended off the male swan so hubby could get in the water and luckily the male swan had gone away when i went to get in.

Busingen incidently is german, it wants to be swiss but the swiss can’t find any land to swap to get it back. So it is surrounded entirely by Switzerland and you can use euros or swiss francs

An evening picnic on our own private Rhine beach made a perfect ending to the day, this is the life….Im not so sure about sleeping tonight I think we are back in the 70s a vivid bright orange….room.

Goal for tomorrow a bike shop somewhere that front tyre has to be sorted.