Geoff Jones

A day in the blazing heat riding along the exposed top of the dam that holds The Rhine into a navigable river, its all very reminiscent of fenland rivers, alongside the main river are poulders which  are flooded when the water flow is to high for the river.

The German’s struggle with the signing so that in the main centres like Kehl (Strasbourg) you get a proliferation of contradicting signs! I also love the sign covered in German & French text that forbids entry but fails to give you any information as to where the route has been diverted too! These guys need lessons in the use of simple signage like the Swiss and French GR5.

I drank about 10 litres of water/beer/apple juice yesterday but still felt dehydrated with an headache. Hopefully, today will be overcast

Oh yes why do German hotels only have wired internet and all WiFi is locked down?  and why can’t T-Mobile sort out my internet – instead of sending me messages that an error occurred and try again To me its pretty obvious the glorious days of open internet have gone for ever..

Here’s my route yesterday:-

Ottenheim-Schwanau to Karlsruhe at EveryTrail

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My first day without having to engage the lowest set of gears Pretty well flat and alongside the river most of the day. The first part was wandering through the container port and industrial area of Basel. Then I entered Germany which was rural apart from the huge aggregate workings. Stopped for a supermarket lunch in Breisach, noted in modern history for where the first meetings of what became the EU in 1950!

After lunch I had to turn away from the river and ended up in Rust which has an enormous Disney / Alton Tower type theme park. I then made a total hash of getting back onto the river – best not to look to closely at the gpx trail The German waymarking is not a patch on the Switz!

After 79.8 miles and over 7 hours of cycling with an average spped of  11mph, I ended up in Ottenheim at the delightful Hotel Gasthof Erbprinzen above Toni’s pizzeria ( 21 Euro for two beers, water, salad, pizza, ice cream & coffee). I asked the landlady if she had internet – she presented me with a shoebox!!

Here’s the route and pics.
Basel to Ottenheim-Schwanau at EveryTrail

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Sorry, Sally, I’m doing these posts direct from the WP control panel

>Today’s 73miles in 7hours brings me to the end of the first Rhein Radweg book, only another two to go! From now on the Rhine runs pretty well due North rather than going in the mega loop I’ve just done plus the terrain is a lot flatter, I hope! especially after todays climb into Teufen.

Another hot day only partly alleviated by a little swim in The Rhine and copious, but expensive cold sparkling waters! The water mark up is horrendous less than 1F in the supermarket anything up to 8F in a cafe

Tomorrow I’m going to use the right bank rather than the left I’ve been using the last day or so (The handedness is taken looking downstream) as it seems to keep the waters edge better.

I’ve been eyeing up the ginormous barges which have now appeared in the river – maybe I will take a rest day on one

The bike is holding up well although it took an almighty bang when I failed to notice that  the bridge had a step getting onto it! plus the saddle is now loose due to the vibration of all the off road riding I’ve been doing.

We are getting heavy thundery showers right now so hopefully tomorrow will be cooler. I’m going to celebrate by staying for the 7am breakfast rather than setting of at 6am

Here’s today trail:-
Ellikon to Basel at EveryTrail

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Today was yet another scorcher, last nights lightning made no difference.

I did 64 miles in just over 6 hours making it 10mph! Some of the places I went through were simply unbelievable eg Stein am Rhein a real postcard town!

Its pretty amazing to see folks been carried along in the current at 6mph, they just get out and walk back to the start! I did it outside my hotel in Ellikon – great fun they also have a cunning ferry crossing too, basically its like a giant pendleum that swings across the river on a slider wire! The hotel itself, Hotel Zum Schiff dates from 1541 so is an interesting place although a fan would be useful.

Apparently the river is navigable all the way to Rotterdam now – so maybe I will just float down.Its at 272m altitude so compared to The Amazon its a pretty fast river.

Here’s the route and statistics:
Rorschach to Ellikon (Rhein Radweg Day 3) at EveryTrail

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Perfect Cycle path

As The Sun would say – Phew what a scorcher! The temperature was well into the thirties today, so just as well I started at 6am to get all the hills out of the way before 8am. I had an excellent section along The Rhine embankment with the wind behind me, amazing to see inline skaters going at well over 15mph the surface was that smooth

I had a slap up breakfast in Buchs with a fish soup lunch at Rohcspitz campsite the campsite wasn’t to my taste so I ventured on, couldn’t find a hotel until Rorschach. It has to be said that there seem to be very view zimmer frei signs around. Even more amazing that the waterfront has loads of industrial buildings rather than hotels..

Managed a quick dip in The Bodensee before my hotel then a longer one from the rather quaint  Badhutte on stilts in the sea.

Todays statistics where 71.6miles in 6hr 42min  about 10.7mph Heres the route:-

Zizers to Rorschach at EveryTrail

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According to my  Bikeline books I have 11 more nights to get to Rotterdam, if the bike and me hold up