Typical Bavarian Summer!

I always remembered German weather being on the extremes, blisteringly hot summers, snow and freezing temperatures in the winter. Maybe this was because I was much younger and you never really notice the  rubbish rainy days in between (they never stick in the memory).

This preconception was confirmed on the first day, Germany greeted me with sun and beautiful scenery. The Black Forest is a very underrated part of the world, like the lower parts of the alps, just without or the ugly industrial buildings that are always nestling in the valley bottoms. The whole area seems completely unspoilt. But it was steep!!!!! Someone should warn people about that, is the German government even aware of this fact? The first half of the day went really well, I flew up the first 'mountain', getting a little competitive with the lycra clad warriors that were on the road, staying with them, to make myself feel better and to irritate them! The second climb was a very different proposition, I started it late (about 4pm) I pulled into a tiny road, that immediately ramped up to a 10% gradient!!! 'This can't be the way" I was thinking to myself, but the guys fixing the road confirmed that it was the only real way over the mountain, so on I pushed. 10% on a road bike is very do-able, with 4 paniers strapped on it becomes a lot harder, when the road pitches up to between 13-15% there's no option but to push, especially when your pedal decides that this would be the perfect time to fall off (2 legs=hard, 1 leg=impossible). So i pushed the last 4km of the day, over logging tracks, slipping and sliding and swearing!

Thank god it was sunny that day because for the next 10 days I didn't see the sun! My first proper day in the rain was trekking up from Furtwangen to find the source of the Berg (official head-stream of the Danube) walking for 3hours up the side of the mountains, in the rain, makes life hard.

İt's all ok though İ can't expect to be in the sun for the entire trip and İ'm sure that there will be times when İ look back at the rain and miss it. Also İ'm English, rain is what we do, what else would we talk about!
The rest of my journey through Germany was a lıttle dryer, the Eurovelo 6 (Danube bike path) means that İ didn't have to plan the route in quite the same way as before, İ could just follow the signs, and it lead to some interestimg places. The first night İ wandered into a circus at 11.30pm which was in the process of packing up and moving on but they were doing one final show as more of a practise for free! Haven't been to the circus in years, there were lion tamers, jugglers, and dancing seals, all good stuff.

One of the weird parts about following the 'bıke path' is how many Germans have all the kit but then when you actually ask them how far it is that they are going, they say maybe 2 days longest a week, they love to have all the kit. There was an Austrian couple that İ met just as İ neared the boarder who said the same thing, they had cycled to Vietnam from their home in Vienna and (having flown back to London) were on the final leg (check out their site at www.slowbike.at) but they noticed that İ was on a long trip and said that it had been so weird to not know who was doing what. Once you get out into places lıke the 'Stans' or China, anyone on a bike is doing a big journey and so will be willing to stop and swap stories, here if you're just doing a short trip, you don't need the company of others as much. This will be my life for the next couple of years needing other people, who İ randomly meet on the road, to keep me sane!!