Travel Tips for Guest Houses in this Region

This is my first attempt at writing something approaching a travel tip, so bear with me.  Over the last 3 weeks of biking through Northern Switzerland and Southern Germany, there's a few items I've learned that I wish I would've known previously.  So, here's hoping the next intrepid traveller can get his hands on this knowledge before heading over here.

The best prices for overnight accomdations seems to be the "Gasthaus" (guest house) rather than the normal hotel.  Typical prices range between 25-40 Euros for a single room at a nicely appointed place (similar to low-end B&B's in the US), with the cheaper ones being the more rural spots.

Most of the smaller guest houses here are run by a single or perhaps a couple of people (usually a family).  Sometimes there'll just be a handful of rooms which are mostly empty in the off-season and mostly full in the high season.  Because of this, there's a definite schedule to the day when they do their various chores: Morning until 10 is taking care of everyone's breakfast and settling up bills.  After that, until around 4 or 5 is cleaning up the rooms and prepping for dinner.  5 to 7 is usually when they will actually man some kind of reception desk and after 7 is reserved for them putting together and serving dinner for everybody.

So, if you're someone like me, who trundles casually into a town and knocks on a door randomly at 11 AM and asks to be shown to a room, don't be surprised when you're met with a mild annoyance.  Don't get me wrong: they are professional and courteous, but you've just thrown them a bit off their schedule and you'll get very rushed service.

After a couple of weeks, I finally picked up on the rhythm of the day, and have found things to go much smoother.  My days are planned around me arriving in my destination no earlier than 4 PM and no later than 6:30 PM, which means that all of the reception areas are staffed properly and all of the folks I meet are more or less ready to accomdate the dirt-encrusted bicycle tourist.

Of course, for the larger hotels, this schedule means nothing: most of them have staffed reception areas 24 hours a day, always ready to help out.

May 29, 2010 - Gunzburg to Neuburg

Estimated Mileage: 75 miles
Trip Route Link
Photo Album Link

I was up feeling like someone had poured the contents of an ashtray into my mouth. To bed at 3 AM, up at 8 AM. Ugh. And the Planning Committee had set out a solid 75 miles for me steamroll today.

Around 2 AM the previous night, I ran into the hotel owner playing cards, so when I saw his wife at breakfast, she laughed at me, obviously aware of my raging hangover. Ha ha, very funny...

I hit the road, going at a snail's pace for the entire morning, sweating out the contents of some of the finest beer I'd ever tasted. In this region, they make this stuff called "Weissbier" or White Beer, which is truly spectactular.

About 30 miles into the trip, I made what was to be one of the most fortuitous stops of the trip so far:

At this market, I purchased what was to be the simply the finest salami I've ever tasted. Here's where the Refreshments Committee determined we were to stop for lunch, and I had a lunch meat-induced religous experience

Well, that solved the hangover. I did the longest day of the trip yet, going 75 miles all the way into the town of Neuberg. It was only 65 to the town, but I spent another 10 miles cruising around, looking for a camping spot that turned out not to exist.

I was pointed to a guest house in the Altstadt (Old town) which happens to be at the top of a hill. It was primarily a Greek restaurant, that had a few rooms up above.

 As soon as I got into my room, thunderstorms made themselves heard and suddenly the difficulty in finding the camping spot seemed like the best thing that happened that day, after the salami.

May 28, 2010 - Munderkingen to Gunzburg

Estimated Mileage: 45 miles
Trip Route Link
Photo Album Link

This was an odd day, in that I felt very strange and shaky the entire time.  I don't know what the cause was, but I took it easy, going at a slow pace for about 45 miles, taking me about 4 hours.

It rained in the afternoon, and I stopped in the gorgeous town of Ulm for a cup of hot tomato soup

After waiting out the worst of the storm under a tree in the town square, I went another 10 miles or so to the town of Gunzburg (there should be a couple of dots above the first "u", but I don't have the right keyboard).  More importantly, this was the first town I was going to stay in that was officially in Bavaria.  I'd heard many stories about Bavarian friendliness and warmth, so it was much anticipated.

Well, I got a nap in at another guesthouse (the wet afternoon made the decision for me) and went out in search of the infamous Bavarian hospitality.  Well, I found it, and then some.  I looked out my window and saw general revelry coming from this place right across the street:

I peeked in and saw a dark wood panelled place, with a cast of characters sitting around a wooden table.  I came in and was immediately welcomed by the bartender, a Greek man who spoke no English, putting "Jukebox Hero" on at ear-bleed volume and pouring me a shot of ouzo.  I met his wife, a sweet lady named Cornelia (who they called "Corni") and a manic guy named Klaus who had his own set of hilarious stories to tell, which included his blood-fued with the gypsies of Hungary.  He had a tiny Pekinese with him that he loved.  There was also the hard-living guy in the corner who didn't say anything, who I was ordered not to engage with.  There's lots more to tell about this place, but I'll have to save it for another day...

Anyway, let's just say that I may have enjoyed myself a little too much, and it put a very nice end on what started off as a pretty difficult day.

May 27, 2010 - Tuttlingen to Munderkingen

Estimated mileage: 70 miles
Trip Route Link
Photo Album Link

Well honk my hooter! Look who I found about 10 miles into the ride today:

Yes, it's mon bon ami Remy, camping on the bank of the Danube and packing up to be on his way. He had made his way up from the Bodensee the day before and was recuperating from all the hills. So we rode together for about 20 miles before saying goodbye. It was good to spend a few hours with him, and the ride was truly spectacular.

The Danube isn't a wide river at this point, but rather narrow, cutting it's way through various bends and turns, with the steep, bare cliffs on either side showing clearly how the natural erosion has occurred over the years. The natural terrain lends itself to semi-circles of cliffs overlooking the river, which, in turn, lends itself to building fortresses and castles on top of those cliffs to control the river traffic.

It seemed like every bend in the river lent itself to another castle or abbey perched on top of a a cliff. Each one from a different era, and each one with it's own storied and bloody history.

And then you end up at one of the seats of power of the old Hohenzollern dynasty in Sigmaringen.

The Hohenzollerns, in addition to ruling this part of southern Germany, also ruled East Prussia for many years. This is the part of what is now Poland that encompasses Gdansk and parts east of there. In addition to being one of the main components of the German state which caused WWI and WWII, the Hohenzollerns ancestors, the Teutonic Knights, were religion-mad militants, hell bent on importing their particular brand of crazy to the godless Slavs. Their main export was zealots, and they would send their unlanded youth to the Gdansk region (then Danzig) to fight the heathens and establish a name for themselves. These young noblemen were called "Junkers" and until all of the Germans were expelled from Gdansk in the aftermath of WWII, these guys were the ruling class of the North Baltic coast. Considering the general misery this bunch of twisted dudes caused upon Europe and my ancestors, I got shivers up my spine when I came upon their Place of Power.

Anyway, the day ended in a town called Munderkingen. It was rainy and wet all day, so the Planning Committee met and chose to stay in a hotel, despite the fact that the expedition had already spent the two previous nights in a guest house. Various motions were passed to permit such an unprecedented move, and the night was spent at the Hotel Adler in Munderkingen. This is a highly recommended establishment, with the nicest family on Earth running the place.

The funniest part of the day was no doubt the scene at the kebab place where I had a cheapie dinner.  There was a young guy running the place, bossing around his two elderly parents, shouting out to-go pizza orders and screaming at them to go faster.  While eating my dinner, he came over and said, in fairly good English "Where you from?".  I told him I was from Seattle, which caused him to launch into a fairly hilarious stream-of-consciousness monologue about he and I were going to open up a chain of fine kebab houses in Seattle and how I was going to sponser his greencard.  It went something like "You find space and tables, then you give greencard then I come to USA and then we have finest restaurants then I pay you money then when I come over you help find space and you get the tables then I run kebab shop then we make good money then..." it went on for a while till I said "greencards are pretty hard to get" and without a goodbye or anything he left to deliver some pizzas.  When he left, the two older folks visibly relaxed, and the guy put on a soccer match.

May 26, 2010 - Rest Day in Tuttlingen

Estimated Mileage: A BIG ZERO

Map of Tuttlingen

Photo Album

Waking up in a random beautiful German town on the Danube, I had a list of very quaint to-dos which should be familiar to travelers and bike tourists.  Some items included

• Write postcard to niece
• Buy a salami
• Groom

So you can see that I had a very slow day.  Whatever words are the exact opposite of "action-packed", those are the words to use.  Languid.  Molasses-speed.  You get the idea.  And despite the fact that Tuttlingen was quite a nice little town, it was also a very little town.  I walked the main drag to find a salami, the post office, some bread, a postcard, a coffee and a barber.  I found all three within 5 minutes.  By 10 AM, all my chores were done.

After days of constant forward motion, I needed ACTION dammit!

The whole day I took 3 pictures.  The first is of a duck that was nesting in a river.

I watched the partner of this duck deliver straw a few times.  This killed an hour or so.

This next picture is a wood carving of a dude with a high collar.  I call it "Wood Carving of High Collar Dude":

And the last picture is of the bike superstore that solved my loose rear cartridge problem.  They are called "N.E.R.Z" for reasons known only to them since I am not on the Internet and cannot really speak German.  They were amazingly professional, fast and cheap.  If you're anywhere near Tuttlingen and need some bike work, go here first:

By the end of the day, I was champing at the bit.  I've never champed before, and here I was, in Tuttlingen, champing.  Go figure.

May 25, 2010 - Titisee to Tuttlingen

Estimated Mileage - 55 Miles
Photo Album Link
Trip Route Link

I had expected the day to be mostly flat, after the grueling ascent of the previous day.  I was mistaken.  This was the typical terrain for the first 20 miles of the day:

Each town was nestled in a valley, which meant: climb, descend, repeat.  Also, I had to wear a jacket the whole time because my forearms were turning into lobster claws from the sun.  This made me sweat like a madman.

But the ride was another world-class beaut.  Behold:

Empty roads, beautiful weather, picturesque towns with friendly people waving to me the whole time.  My mood was brightening slowly all day long knowing that I was getting closer and closer to a goal that I've spent the last half-year dreaming about...the start of the Danube River.  Here's my first glimpse of the Breg River, one of the feeder rivers to the Danube:

It felt a bit like a pilgrimage, and I was arriving at the start of the official route:  the Donauquelle at the Furstenburg castle in Donaueschingen:

If you look past the fine looking piece of machinery, you'll see the circular pool of water.  That's the source.  Here's me, standing in front of it, taken by a couple of German fellows also on a bike trip:

Head full of crazy thoughts linking me to centuries of travellers, soldiers, merchants, explorers and pilgrims who have all used the Danube to get some place far away, I started down the river, into adventure...

Some Random and Superficial Thoughts on Germans

• They seem to enjoy an inordinate amount of miniature golf.
• Their native cuisine is not conducive to slender builds
• Everybody who is at work is a total professional at their jobs
• Many older German men have cartoonishly large beer bellies
• Most older German woman will avert their eyes from me if they are alone or with only other women
• For a country that loves their pork as much as Germany, I haven't seen a single live pig
• Many of their dogs are bearded and moustachioed
• They really know how to make and serve beer properly
• They have clearly done a bang-up job in protecting their eagle and falcon habitats.  Almost every field has a handful of them hunting overhead
• Young German teens love hair product
• They use the hell out of their bicycles
• Once approached, every single German I have spoken to has been extremely helpful and kind.