1300kms-Bikes made it to Lake Bodensee in one piece, owners ?..

Today was the day we reached our goal the Rhine tnrough to the Bodensee except hubbie has changed the goal posts and has decided that he wants to go to the source in the Alps. I have pointed out we struggle to push up a little hill…..the alps…..

Bikes have coped well with the 1300kms, tough road has lost its chain a few times and Thorn mk 4 seems to lose air from its tyres and needs a good reinflate every 500kms but otherwise performing well. The owners : my neck is suffering from the lack of fluff in any of the german or swiss pillows and feeling pretty stiff generally, and hubby even though he is carrying his own pillow also is suffering with his neck.

We are now in another spa town Meersburg so all can be fixed.

So much for cooling down, 30C and humid. It started initially cooler this morning as we’d had thunder and lightning and a bit of rain in the night, I naturally slept through it all.Great breakfast at the b and b this morning, met up with a 71 year old doing the same trip as us except he started 2 weeks later, he is using an electric bike however and sailed past us after 5kms.

Picturesque villages, a quaint covered bridge over the Rhine at Gassenheim and the best swiss medieval town Stein am Rhein made for an interesting morning.The other good thing about Stein am Rhein is it had a bike shop with an electric pump so we could reinflate my tyres. Hubby also tried with his hand pump and contrary to Thorn bike shop could get air into my tyres. I was scared if hubby tried I’d end up with no air, so he was only allowed to try within the safety of the bike shop pump.

Quite a few hills again but we seem to get the long slow up and then the steep descent perfect for us.Once we reached Untersee the first of the lakes we cheered it was exciting we’d made it.

Signeage disappeared a bit around Konstanz but eventually found the car ferry over to Meersburg. Meersburg is yet another historic town but we didnt realise it is built right into the cliff so more then steep , almost straight up. To ensure we had a quiet night we’d also booked 2kms out of the town centre which meant a further 2 kms straight up the hill. Most of it was too steep to cycle so by the time we got to our hotel after a 55km day we were the worst for wear and had run out of water.

We parked our bikes with soft panniers against the hotel wall and suddenly we were confronted by the owner yelling at us to get our bikes away from the front of the hotel and go round to the car park. Thinking he was going to open the garage up for us round we went. We then put the bikes against the wall to get our luggage off. Then his wife came round yelling at us not to put the bikes against the wall. I said it was impossible to get the luggage off without leaning the bikes on something. Hubby hot and tired was now getting very cross. We were told to put the bikes in the bike rack which was impossible as all our luggage on the back meant we’d buckle the front wheel. I also explained in german that we had never left our bikes in full view of the road in the car park at any hotel. They had always been locked in a garage or shed.

She explained they had just had the hotel walls painted and the garage was full of their cars…Hubby was now irate ….escalation ….and we couldnt walk away as we wouldnt get our money back. I was ready to cry all those reviews saying what a warm welcome from the owners not for us.. Other hotel owners had carried my bike off to the garage etc for me and empathised how hot and tired we were.

We gave up parked our bikes in the car park and I signed in, hubby glowering in the background but asking for a room on first floor, we were told not possible. I then said we needed a non smoking room and she said it was a nonsmoking hotel . We got in our room and what did i smell SMOKE. I walked to the terrace next door and asked them politely to smoke away from the building as my husband has asthma. Success!

It is a lovely room looking out on gardens with a lawn mower whizzing around by itself, only in Germany! No road noise so definitely quiet.

I also told hubby “looks like roman ruins nearby Augustinium Meersburg” so off we walked. Augustinium turned out to be a very posh seniors residential complex with beautiful views and gardens, which we found out we shouldnt have been walking in…verboten.We did chat to several old ladies with their dogs, very funny hubby talking english and they speaking german.