Blaubeuren to Dillingen Wednesday May 17th

Blaubeuren Hotel

 Today had to be better than yesterday and it has been.

 No rain, a hint of sun and the cold was bearable. Everything looks better when there is sun. First of all I managed to resolve my phone issue. Basically my phone ran out of juice during a system update. Eee. This morning I could see that the update had failed and I was able to reinstate it. It is amazing how helpless you feel without a working phone in a foreign land. 

No google, no camera, no WhatsApp no nothing. 

Blautopf Lagoon

The hotel in which I stayed (chosen because it was the only one open at 16.30 ) had huge rooms and an even more huge breakfast. I breakfasted not like a prince as advised but like a king. The older morning receptionist insisted that I should go and see the Blautopf lagoon which was indeed worthy of the small diversion. I should correct yesterday. The river that I was folowing but could never see was not the Danube but the Blau. Today I rejoined the Danube at Ulm and spent most of the afternoon cycling along its banks.

As I write this I am eating in the restaurant of the Donau Campingplatz which is right on the Donau in Dillingen. Half way through the afternoon I began to long for a road or a town. I may never want to see the Danube ever again by the end of this trip! I am trying hard to divest myself of the previously ingrained attitude of choose a destination and get there get there get there, do not stop unless you have to. I am trying to stop often to "smell the roses" although for much of today all I could smell was an overpowering  smell of wild garlic which was everywhere and in flower.

I reached Ulm at about lunchtime but it is a big busy bustling city unsuited to my kind of cycling. Germany is second only to Holland for the number and the quality of the cycle facilities.

I made for the Danube as quickly as possible and with remarkable few hiccups emerged unscathed on the other side. At one point when the famous green signs gave up on me I was consulting my guide book when a gentleman even older than me asked me if I needed help. In impeccable English he asked if I was English and understood when I said no but I was Scottish. He confirmed my direction "East towards Vienna," he said.

Oh no I have got on a motorway again!

There are not many of us hardy adventurers on the Donauradweg at the moment. Tonight there is a very nice Dutch couple (who speak very good English) who are cycling from Amsterdam to Vienna and the Quebecois who were on the same campsite two nights ago. I haven't met anyone going in the other direction all day. I was worried that it might be like a bicycle motorway!

A random thought as I look around the restaurant at my fellow diners. It is obvious why Germans are so big and fat. The portions are enormous. Germany isn't as expensive as France has become. The prices are quite reasonable. A large beer 4 euros. My huge burger and chips with all the trimmings 11 euros.

I wasn't going to consign this next story to posterity but it happened so what the hell. About 10kms from Dillingen at Petersworth I passed an attractive hostelry with a couple of people sitting outside. A coffee would be good I thought, so I took my guidebook to hide behind and went in. As I had expected no English was forthcoming and since I can order a small beer more easily than a black coffee..... They kept trying to have a conversation but it was hard going. However I had managed to say that I was camping in Dillingen. When it was time to leave I went inside to pay and when I emerged another guy had appeared who wanted to chat. ( my poor excuse) I wished them all "tchuss" and left. About 2kms later a black mercedes passed me and honked his horn. I thought I was being invited to rejoin the cycle path rather than the road but instead it was the guy from the cafe with my guide book which I had left on the table. The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me. Danke!!

distance cycled so far:    415kms