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Awake at 07:25. Had a leisurely wash and now I’m in the breakfast room. I seem to be the sole guest. It poured rain yesterday evening after dark and much of the night. It’s 08:32 now and is starting to clear up. It was really lovely to be in a hotel overnight! As much for the ability to comfortably clean up and hand-wash some clothes as to get photos backed up and — best of all — spend almost an hour on the phone with Aisling. This hotel compares extremely favourably with the hostel in the castle price-wise. No kids dashing about, an en-suite, convenient to town — all for just €6.00 extra. Well, €12.00 if you count the fact that I had to buy my own dinner, which the hotel threw in. (It was a huge plate of (rather good) salad.)
The sky is still completely overcast, but the road is dry.
09:15: Fantastic breakfast of bread, hot fluffy white rye rolls, eggs, cheeses, many salami types, jams, yoghurts, cereals, honey, tea, fruit and orange juice — all apparently laid on just for me. Great value. I’m gonna get packed now and hit the road. I have about 25 km to cover today to one of two possible campsites.
09:52:43
09:54: On the road. It’s breezy and cool! Still largely overcast but no risk of rain.
09:52:34
09:52:34
10:01: Riedlingen is only 18 km! Another mellow day. Awesome.
10:03: Leaving Mengen. Nothing special, but a lovely rustic hotel. I am completely happy and chilled out. My bag is lighter than ever.
10:23:03
10:35:14
10:38:14
10:48:43
10:55:36
10:58:56
11:00:33
11:31:59
11:33: I’m in Hundersingen. I’ve been taking it very easy and taking lots of snaps. The colours are so intense in the muted cloudy light after the rain that I feel like I’m hallucinating.
11:45:03
11:53: I can see drizzly showers falling on the landscape ahead. The wind is blowing from more or less that direction.
11:58: Wind is picking up. Just 11 km to Riedlingen.
12:14: Rain, wind.
12:17: Wow, that could have been horrible. I just got the barest trailing edge of it. Blue sky beyond.
12:20:01
12:48: Blue sky. The sun is out. The last short shower was followed by a longer one, also light, which has now cleared. I’m approaching Binzwangen.
13:40:10
14:34: I’m in Riedlingen — or at least on the outskirts, where the Southernmost campsite ought to be. It’s not there anymore, even though Open Street Maps shows it.
15:00: I arrived at the other campsite, which is lovely — just a large garden fringed by trees, with loos, showers and all the rest across the road, all for €5.00! There’s an Ozzie guy from Sydney named Ruben here already, taking a rest day. We chatted for about 45 minutes. He’s a very tall, very smart guy, cycling all over Europe on a custom bike.
I’m setting up now. It’s a beautiful afternoon.
18:04: Having a mug of tea. I’ve decided to make Sundays fasting days from now on. I’ve planned a direct, 35 km route to the next campsite. I forget the name of the town. After that, Ulm is half a day’s walk away or so. I ought to check on AirBnB prices in Ulm, and I need to sign up for warmshowers.org.1
I never did.↩
