Things unexpected… Take 2.
We started the cycle ride going up hill. We expected it to be hilly. Our bike gearing was not up to par. Severely lacking. Or could it be the strength in my legs or lack of it. Or it could be that the hill is just mental.
So off we trundled until we couldn’t trundle no more and we got off the bikes and walked. Unfortunately for us this was just outside Triberg. We knew we had a hard slog of 11 kms at the start followed by a long downhill.
Then to our surprise we got to see snow on our travels. So lovely.
However it wasn’t to last. The cycling that is. the snow got deep. Very deep. So deep the bikes ould stand up all by themselves.
Anyway, it’s an adventure so off we went. pushing the bikes up a steep hill through the snow that we couldn’t have cycled up anyway. It didn’t help that where the tyres are wasn’t snow but slush so the bikes kept slipping sideways hindering our progress.
The first 11 kms of this journey took us 4 hours! But we finally reached St Martin’s Kapelle.
Not even 50 metres away was the Bregquelle. AKA the Donauquelle.
The spring where the river Breg or Donau (Danube) starts.
There’s contention as to where the start of the Danube really is. This contention is good as it allows us all to make our own minds up as to the start and argue symantics.
If you didn’t know, a spring is usually the start of a river. When rivers join, the biggest river is usually the one that it’s called by and the Breg is the bigger of the Breg and the Brigach that meet. The “Donau” also starts where the Breg and the Bigach meet even though the Breg is the larger. Then there’s the “Official” start which is in Donaueschingen, all made up and fancy to make it mean something.
Anyway, back to the trip. We left the start of the Breg in the snow although the snow stopped on the roads just by the Chapel and spring. Convenient.
We bombed down the road at speed, following the Breg towards Donaueschingen.
We went through beautiful villages.
and lovely countryside
Arriving at Donaueschingen it was busier than normal. Everything closes on Sunday’s in Germany. I suspect not in the main cities but here on the Danube, it sounded like it didn’t. I say sounded because this Sunday they had a car show on. It seemed as though many car companies brought out their cars to show Donaueschingen what they had to offer and many shops took advantage of this and were open.
So we found the “official” source of the Danube.
We then went for coffee and Myra started chatting to a German couple who seemed quite interested in our adventure and we spent a good 30 minutes or so talking with them about that and their adventures.
Next we got back on the bikes and headed just outside of town to Ridsee camping where we were staying the night where we got talking to 2 people who gave us some useful information about cycling, bikes, apps and more.
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EuroTrip 
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