Day 15 of the EuroVelo6 bicycle ride across Europe. In my many bike trips I have often come upon a severe climb after a blind turn. I often refer to it as an oh, oh, hill. Like "oh, oh I don't have enough time to gear down". Others I have ridden with have used different language to describe this event, often using profanity.. Use your imagination and vocabulary. So today we were in a slight down hill and Jay decides we should take this shortcut. After he disappears around the corner Tom and I hear "holy cow batman" and I knew we were in for a "climb". But what I wasn't expecting was the severity of the hill. Severe enough that Tom and I had to walk our bikes to the top. And, that never happens so you can imagine how steep it was. I think it was probably a 90 degree uphill......but I could be exaggerating. Anyway, Jay's declaration is now cataloged in the book of surprise expressions on hidden hills.
Today's ride was a modest 55 miler but it seemed much longer. Perfect weather conditions prevailed so no problem there. Basel Switzerland to Hohentengen Germany. We encountered several deviations, the gamut of road contions from gravel, to rocks, to smoothe and several nice uphills climbs included. So by the end of the day the ride seemed much longer that 55 miles.
I witnessed my first bike crash of the trip. As we were leaving Basel on a very busy path along the Rhine, a young biker going in the opposite direction hit a bench and wiped out. There were enough people around to attend him so we didn't stop and I don't know the extent of his injuries. Hopefully he was injuried severly. That aside, it was another great day biking through Europe.
Getting back on trail
Memorial to something important
many swans with "ugly" duckling
couldn't resist
Rhine River-very low with drought conditions
Ancient bridge on Rhine River
Ladies bringing lunch
evening destination
Stairs to room. Knee still able to climb.
End to a hard ride
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