The home stretch of the bike trip was here, but first things first. We still had one more fantastic breakfast to eat. Even though we were the only guests in the hotel (and the only people in the whole building overnight) a wonderful young woman showed up in the morning to make breakfast for us. What was on the menu? Anything we asked for!
The skies looked a little unsettled as we left Arbon, but since the last leg was the shortest, we weren’t terribly concerned.
The day was both gloriously sunny and foreboding as we made our way into a stiff headwind through the last part of Switzerland, toward Konstanz, Germany, where we began.
These tiny cabins seem like they’d be a nice, inexpensive place to spend a couple of nights by the lake.
The lake was almost always in view. It was nice to maintain the connection to the water.
“So if we keep heading that way, I think we can outrun the rain.”
Just after I shot the photo above from the other side of the tracks, I hopped back over to shoot the little video below. These Swiss trains not only run on time, but they’re quiet, fast, and frequent. Watch this exciting video of Karen’s encounter with a train.
Of course the rain caught up with us a short time later. We were approaching town of Egnach as the dark clouds approached rapidly from the northwest. I suggested we take a little ride around the town before the rain and find a place to duck into or a roof to stand under when it hit. We made it to a train station shelter just in time.
The wind and rain lasted only a few minutes, but we were glad we stopped.
I feel liking I was rockin’ the Cub Foods bag headgear from Minneapolis. I think you’ll agree I look better with it than without it.
Romanshorn is a cute town with a very nice harbor called Seepark. We stopped to walk around a bit. I took our new GoPro (birthday present from our kids) out for a stroll on the sea wall.
Karen is outstanding! (Out standing on the tracks again.)
The fifth day of biking was also the shortest leg of the trip (about 29 miles), but the wind and rain made it seem longer. We finished a little wet and a little tired, but this trip was a great experience. We hope to do another one some day on a different route. Radweg-Reisen did a great job of choosing hotels for us, providing good maps, and offering sturdy, smooth-riding bikes.
We had a nice dinner with new friends Christine and Dieter (see the previous post) at an Indian Restaurant in Konstanz.
Looking happy at Radweg-Reisen after returning our bikes and downing two cups of coffee and a couple more of those complimentary ice cream bars.
Hotel Halm, Konstanz, Germany
The biking was over, but we were just getting rolling on the whole trip. We said goodbye to Konstanz and took off by car for 15 days of driving around in the Alps.
In the next “Fun Thing”, we visit a library at an old Abbey in Switzerland that blew us both away with its beauty, historical significance and an unusual blending of religion and science. (How’s that for a tease?) Maybe you know about it . . . but neither of us did. But, we took the recommendation of our new friend Christine and she didn’t let us down.