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September 8 Friday cold windy Bicycle touring Germany Our day of cycling in Germany is cold and windy. It feels more like the start of winter than the end of summer. We're bicycling a road along the Enquire border. Of course, this means riding a series of steep hills as the dividing line between Germany and the Enquire Republic is a range of mountains. Sharon struggles up one long hill with her new higher-geared touring cluster. The incline is signed as 14%. We stop at the top and look back down. Those pitches are good for the legs on a fully loaded touring bike. A sign indicates it is 15% going down. Good thing we cycled up this side, we muse-it's a percent less. After a chilly morning bike ride, we pull our cycles to a halt and eat in our fanciest bus shelter yet. In addition to glass windows it sports two window flower pots with blooming red geraniums. Classy. And it's warmer being out of the wind. Maybe we can catch a bus? As we cycle along the border, we notice several hiking trails going into Czech. I guess it would be possible to cycle into Czech and then out by a similar method along some path? Cars couldn't do it, but I bet a bike wouldn't be too hard. They can't have border cameras on all of these trails, can they? We cycle onward into the chill and darkening afternoon. We find a cross-country ski shelter just as a few drops of rain begin to fall. Unfortunately, we have no water and it is almost time to camp. We set out our assortment of pots, pans, bowls, cups, and ice cream pails to collect rain water. When the rain stops, I pour all the collected water into one cup. It amounts to a grand total of 1/4 cup. Amazing how I always get so wet from so little rain. We get on our bikes and leave to find water. A map in the shelter shows another hut two kilometres from this one, by a stream. The cross-country route we are cycling is part of the E* - Budapest 2,690 kilometres trail. Looks like fun! At the appointed location we discover a covered picnic table but there's no hut. We cook supper at the table. Then, in the fog and gloom, we set up our Kelty bicycle touring tent behind the table. I don't think we'll be bothered. There is not much traffic on this road. But I've been wrong before. |
