Day 8

25/08/2011 – Day 8

Hebelhof to Donaueschingen

Finally!

Dawn breaks and I am awake and ready to go. It is so good to be packing again, knowing that tonight will be in a new town in a new bed. Finally we can set off on the trip and not have to spend another night in this hostel. Not that I have anything against the hostel, they have been very good, putting us up every night at short notice. OK, we did have to change rooms once, and he breakfast is very German, bread rolls with a choice of cold meas and cheese. But it all added to the Groundhog Day like experience.

As we check out I ask them to fax my Damage report and claim to Easyjet, this way they have the details and can start to work out how much they are going to compensate me for the damage and time lost. I can hear you laughing now but there is always the chance that someone there has a soul!

Today we aim to get to Donaueschingen, the source of the river Danube (or Donau to the Germans). The route will take us down out of the high hills and we should not have the extreme climb like we did last Saturday.

Leaving the hostel we cheat slightly, partly because M sets off on the wrong side of the road. The original plan called for cycling against the traffic for about 200m before turning left up hill. Instead we set off downhill for about 4km before turning left onto the ‘official’ route through the woods.

At the turning we meet the first of literally hundreds of cyclist with panniers on their bikes, heading in both directions. Most are just out for the week or weekend but a few are doing the Danube all the way as well, we are just all on different timetables.

Riding through the woods first thing in the morning has good and bad things going for it. Firstly it is cool, this means I don’t get covered in sweat in the first 10 minutes, but it also means the bugs are flying somewhere between mouth and eye height. Since having a major bug strike in the eye a few years ago I ALWAYS wear glasses. These days they have corrective lenses fitted so I can see, but the wrap around lenses protect me from all but the most highly trained ninja bugs that occasionally get through. But the worse of the bugs are the ones you inhale! There is nothing worse than that huge bug that goes straight down the throat into the lungs! You then have the simple choice, choke or crash.

Once again I am very impressed with the tracks we are riding down, dense woodland, overnight rain and the track can only be described as good. Compared to the ones I have ridden recently in Catalonia and Portugal these are like paved motorways. Only the most thoroughbred road bikes would have problems here, anyone with a hybrid or the Tricross will just enjoy it (full blown mountain bikers will be bored!). Occasional muddy puddles and patches of loose gravel just add to the fun!

The first stop today is a town of Titisee (Frankie Howard fans will love this town). A nice little tourist town on the edge of the lake that caters for everyone and anyone, cafés abound and it is just a matter of personal choice. It may be a bit tacky for some but if you have children (or if you still haven’t grown up) it is great.

After a coffee and a tour of the town we head out towards Titisee Neustadt (or new town to you). This is a bit of a misnomer, new does not automatically imply modern, the town is an industrial area surrounding a traditional town centre and the cycle route goes straight through the middle. The route between the two towns is rolling countryside with cows slowly cropping the grass, but once through the town you are back into the high hills. The cycle path north out of Titisee Neustadt soon dumps you onto a minor road that winds uphill for several kilometres. There is not much traffic, but this time of year there are huge trucks carrying whole trees recently felled in the woods. While not usually a problem the winding road makes it very difficult for them to past an exhausted cyclist and you may want to think about pulling in to one of the many parking places if there is one of these stuck behind you.

Once on top of the hill we turn back onto a forest track. The name of the track translates to ‘Long Alley’ and they are not wrong. It runs dead straight through to forest for about 8km. The undergrowth is still wet from last night’s rain and the heat makes it smell like an old laundry in places. Bursting out the other end we are back into rolling hills and cows.

The last leg into Donaueschingen is a series of cycle paths, tarmacked and well sign posted. We book into a cheap hotel with separate bathroom. Although we know where we are going we do not, as a rule, book ahead but rely on finding something when we get there. It has worked well in the past but may require a bit of asking around before you find something within the right price range.

Having showered and changed we walked into the town centre. One of the things we have noticed already is that there is either very cheap junk food or very expensive restaurant food and nothing in the middle, though there is not much imagination. There is the usual range of kebabs and burgers, the stereo typical Italians and the local establishments who specialise in pork (they present it in so many different ways it is almost unrecognisable, but still pork).