geeteetravels

We learned today that the Germans call the city Basel but the French say Bâle (baahl).

The city is typically Swiss, very clean and orderly but also very expensive so it’s a good thing we aren’t here long.

The weather continues to be unusually hot so we were thankful to not be riding today. The high today was 38 celsius.

We started the day with a self guided walking tour of the old city, it was only 30 degrees then. We visited the Rathaus or town hall and the Minster Cathedral and square. We also followed the tour along various streets and saw buildings and homes of interest. The Swiss keep their historic areas in excellent condition, I feel that it’s much better than in Italy.

Once we were starting to get baked we headed for the Kunstmuseum. This is a notable European art gallery with a vast and important art collection. They also had a special exhibit on cubism focusing mainly on Picasso and Braque. It was a very good day to be in an air conditioned building, that alone was worth the price of admission.

Here are some photos from the day.

As we’ve seen before in Europe the trams are right on the roads with the people and bikes, you have to pay attention. I wonder if they have more or less pedestrian collisions than we do at home?

Called “Window to the Heavens”, this is an opening in the roof of the convention centre creating a huge open skylight.

Rathaus

Inner courtyard of Rathaus

Frescoes in the inner courtyard

This fresco was depicting the story of Susanna and the Elders

Another shot of the Rathaus

Minsterplatz, the large square around the cathedral

Minster Cathedral

Another view of the square

And another…

Beautiful streets in the historic centre

Next to the art gallery where it was refreshingly cool.

A Rodin sculpture called the Bourgeois of Calais.

Renoir

A huge painting called A View to Infinity, even bigger than Riisa’s paintings, by Ferdinand Hodler

A must have for the next trip.

Today’s ride was dominated by the persistent heat wave coming from Africa no doubt, and too many gravel pathways.

It’s still crazy hot in this part of the world, somewhere around 36° while we were meandering downhill along with the mighty Rhine. Perhaps Tara struggles with the heat more than GG but she seems to recover nicely with an afternoon mango ice-cream so not that serious an issue.

A lovely town gate at Waldshut

We passed by a nuclear power station just after Waldshut, not something we see at home. This one is on the Swiss side of the Rhine, is quite new and supplies 14% of Switzerland’s entire power need.

Swiss power

About halfway through the ride we crossed the river into Switzerland for the next two days by riding across a long covered bridge, one of several covered bridges which are kept in top shape.

About to go Swiss again

Now just a few words about pathways. This year our nicely planned (by me) route has unintentionally taken us onto a number of gravel pathways that we don’t appreciate. With our skinny tired road machine this makes for some nervous and slow riding so note to self, get it figured out. We did a few on the fly reroutes with our fancy GPS tech to avoid some of it.

What we did like was the route into Basel avoided the usual high traffic roadways which come into all major cities, pretty peaceful today. With all this heat we discovered the Baselians were jumping into the river by the hundreds and merrily and coolly floating downstream. Weird but true.

You just need to get yourself a Wickelfish, stuff your clothes into it, and jump in the river

The river is the place to be at (in)

A few of the hordes floating downstream

Today’s ride started out with a bike lane closure that meant we had to find a new route and climb a steep few hundred metres extra to get around the falls. We weren’t alone though as we met several other cyclists trying to find new routes also and they had much less navigating technology than us. Once again we were mostly following the Rhine on the established Rhine cycle route which is also part of one of the Eurovelo routes. Most of the day was in rural areas and smaller towns. As is usual here we are rarely on the actual roads but on cycle lanes or paths beside the highway. We think some of our Calgary councilors should spend a bit of time here seeing how this can work.

Our destination today wasn’t really a notable location, we just needed a place to stay the night as it was too far to go all the way to Basel where we are heading tomorrow. We thought we were staying in a place called Waldshut Tiengen but in fact the hotel is north of the town by a few kms. in village called Gurtweil. There’s little here but there is a hotel with a restaurant. It is a nice place with very reasonable prices and decent food. Also it is back in Germany. The prices in Switzerland are noticeably steep, probably 50% more for some things. A coffee is about $7.50. However in Switzerland everything is extremely tidy and well organized and there are clean public washrooms and drinking water fountains everywhere, something you appreciate as a touring cyclist. So maybe it’s worth it.

Here are some photos of the day.

We wash where we can, and dry in what ever way works.

GG went for a post dinner walk to Tiengen. There were A LOT of power lines and towers.. due to the nearby nuclear generation station as seen the next day.

Downstream from the falls. This is a BIG river with a lot of power.

Geez Tara, I’ll be needing to oil the chain again soon.

We got an early start today as we were worried about the forecasted high of 34 (was actually 37!) but it didn’t really help as it was already 28 at 9am. At least the ride was short, less than 60 kms and little climbing.

We took plenty of shade/cold drink breaks and Tara even dunked her head in the Rhine to cool off. At the end of the day we found a swimming pool to get completely cooled.

The route took us out of Konstanz along the “untersee”, part of Lake Konstanz that eventually becomes the Rhine again, which we basically followed the rest of the day. We crossed back and forth between Germany and Switzerland a few times today, finishing in Switzerland at Neuhausen am Rheinfall. The city is called this as there is a beautiful water fall in the river here. The city developed because of the falls. Goods being transported along the river needed to be off loaded and moved on land around the falls.

We stopped in one Swiss town called Stein am Rhein which has particularly beautiful and well preserved medieval buildings. It is situated partly on the north side of the Rhine which is officially the German side except for this one exception. During WWII it was bombed accidentally because it was presumed to be German, but sustained minimal damage thankfully.

Here’s some photos of the day.

Beautiful timbered homes and buildings common here.

Scenic cycling.

Leaving Konstanz, bridge over the Untersee.

Polka-dot man.

Stein am Rhein buildings

Can you believe this place? Seems like a fairy tale scene.

Town clock and gate.

Covered bridge. Germany on the north, Switzerland on the south.

Rhein falls

We’re staying two nights in Dettingen so today was optional for the bike. We had a bit of difficulty finding a place to stay in Konstanz so we are here. Had we known it would be 35° we would have tried harder for a place by the lake. We wanted to explore Konstanz about 10km away and with a direct bus for free we kept the bike parked in the garage.

The tourist office was first to find out about self-guided tour options. There wasn’t an audio guide as in Strasbourg but they had an english language written guide with map we followed. Of course Konstanz has a long history but there was a large focus on the “Council of Konstanz” occurring from 1414 to 1418 and recently celebrated with a 600th anniversary. I will summarize it to say that the catholic church came to agreement on the next pope after a schism which had each of three ‘applicants’ for the job busily trying to excommunicate the other two. One other thing they agreed on was execution of a couple of brothers who were attempting to reform the church. Wrong place, wrong time guys. There are many houses, buildings and statues which are all related to this event which were part of our tour.

Of particular interest is the statue of “Imperia”, based on a story of a courtesan (courtly prostitute) of popes, clergy, and kings. She stands and slowly rotates at the entrance to Konstanz harbour while holding caricatures of the new pope and local king in the palms of her hands. It was created by Peter Lenk again (see Überlingen) and controversially erected in 1993. It’s a beauty.

And was it hot out, and did we see more Zeppelins? Ja und ja.

Cooling off by Konstanz harbour

Tara, with parasol /umbrella and Imperia

Another freakin’ Zeppelin

The smirking Imperia in all her glory

’nuff said

Many of the old houses had the old name or dedication beautifully presented

Lots of satirical street art

“Wahrheit” means “Truth”. The letters only show when the sun shines through the blocks. This was dedicated to the executed church reformers Jan Hus and his brother.

Today’s ride took us from Austria into Switzerland and back into Germany, a 3 country route. Again most of the way was along bike lanes and beside Lake Konstanz.

It was a very hot day today, the hottest we have had, 32 celsius, so hard for us Calgarians used to much cooler weather. Tomorrow is supposed to be 34!

Here are some photos from the ride.

It is very tempting to jump into the lake.

We are feeling a bit intimidated…

Polka dots and chevrons

Here’s something unusual, a vending machine with meat varieties.

The Swiss border, but we weren’t stopped.

Lunch time in Arbon Switzerland.

A break for the buttocks

Constance harbour entrance. The statue on the left is another work by Peter Lenk depicting the courtesan Imperia.

Today was a beautiful clear day so we opted to ride the cable car up to the Pfander summit above Bregenz. The view was spectacular and reminded us of the Heidi movie from our childhoods.

View of Bregenz on the way up

View of Lake Konstanz

“The hills are alive with the sound of music. “

We rode into Bregenz from the direction behind us.

Alps view. Definitely not as jagged as the Rockies.

Another Zeppelin sighting from the top of the mountain.

Pfanderspitze, the summit.

We rode the cable car up but hiked down. Not very far but quite steep, rocky, and slippery in spots, however a nice walk in the forest.

Cable cars above us during the hike down.

Interesting steeples.

The beast that guards the gate

Roses are everywhere you look.

We also had a walk around the old city.

Old Town Hall

St. Martins Cathedral

Old city above, newer homes below.

We also found this odd fountain.

Kein trinkwasser (not drinking water) The pool is the shape of Lake Konstanz.

We did a 60 km loop out of Bregenz Austria towards the alps, again following a pathway along the Rhine for part of the way. Today was Sunday and the cyclists were out in droves. Cycling is very popular here and there are bike paths or lanes almost everywhere. There were serious cyclists but also many families and trailers.

A smooth and fast pathway, we had the wind behind us and could easily do 35 kms/hr.

Lovely villages and the alps in the background.

A nice lunch spot beside a vineyard.

We went for a walk after the ride to check out the lakeside activities. We found the lakefront opera stage being prepared for Rigoletto. Unfortunately we will miss it as it doesn’t start until mid July. It is an amazing head complete with articulated jaw and hands. Not sure where the orchestra goes?

Clowns can be so scary looking.

Today was a gentle lakeshore ride for the most part. The weather forecast has been bad with a lot of rain but fortunately it has also been mostly wrong. We were sprinkled around lunch but then it cleared up considerably.

We rode once again mostly along pathways close to the shore so it was peaceful but not fast.

Lakeshore and the riding is easy

One of the highlights along the way was at Friedrichshaufen which is the historic and current home of the Zeppelin air ships. We had already seen them gracefully flying above the lake, but here was a chance to learn something more about their history and especially the Hindenburg disaster in 1937. George visited the museum and was quite impressed with it all.

The Zeppelin theme dominated as we approached Friedrichshaufen

The actual museum alongside a small Zeppelin in a play area

Further along we came to Lindau which is a small island connected by a bridge to the mainland. There is a nice harbour with an imposing lion on one side and lighthouse on the other side of the entrance. Another good spot for an eis on a warm afternoon.

Lindau Island from just a km or so away

We had an enthusiastic conversation about cycling and the tandems with this fellow and his wife

Cyclists still in huge numbers throughout the day

What’s your superpower?

Looking out from Lindau harbour towards Austria and Bregenz

We started the day with a panoramic boat tour of this part of Lake Konstanz. It’s a very large lake, the 3rd largest in Europe. The water was very calm the sun was shining so it was a pleasant ride. While out on the lake a Zeppelin flew right over us, something we haven’t seen before.

It is huge!

Many towns and cities line the lakeshore.

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around Überlingen and walking on the promenade.

Hotel not recommended.

View of the lake from up high.

A very interesting and bizarre sculpture by local artist Peter Lenk.

More interesting carvings.

An ancient tower, part of the old walled city.

Hansel and Gretel house?

Beautiful fuschias.

In the evening we found a herring festival with music, refreshments and food.

A choir of mostly men singing and playing folk tunes.

We opted to not take in the eating of the herring but did enjoy the music and a glass of wine.