the Black Forest

May 12, 92

I began my cycling trek through the Black Forest...


The countryside is so beautiful. I really loved it here.
St. Peter and St. Margen are two idyllic towns in the Black Forest.
This was my first big hill on the trip. But the view was so beautiful.




And a perfect place to stop for a lunch break:

Switzerland

And into Switzerland!

What a beautiful country.






And here is the when the nicely marked road turned into a gravel path. And then it went narrower and narrower, and then there were stairs, and I had to carry my bike. And at the end of it I ended up on the wrong side of the lake!!!!!!!

but I would never have seen the following views if I didn't!

(Boy was I tired though!)


I made it to Konstanz in one day from Freiburg, although at 3pm when I was in Bondorf I was thinking about calling it a day. My goal was to stop at some town on the other side of the river, but I was feeling fine and just kept going. I was getting very frustrated with the nice detours but that would turn into little paths and then disappear. For the final 30km I decided to stay on the road. I was tired, but I was very happy and had done at least 140 km today.

and off to Germany!

The Beginning

I had taken my bicycle to Europe as almost an afterthought. At the last minute I thought it would be a good way to get around in Prague while I worked there for the summer teaching English. (I had no clue about cobblestone roads either!) So I found a bike box and my bike came with me.

May 2, 1992

I left Vancouver at 8am and arrived in Frankfurt at 9am the following morning. I had met some MBA exchange students while studying at UBC and one of them, Michael, let me stay at his place in Siegen for the first night. I spent a day there and got my bicycle ready for the trip.

And that is how it all began...


May 7, 92

I cycled about 100km from Bonn to Aachem.

Here is part of my journal entry:
14h00

I am in Duren eating an excellent lunch of buns and cheese, a kiwi, strudel and orange juice. I'm sitting under a cherry tree which is blossoming and has left a blanket of pink on the ground. And the church bells are ringing.

So far the cycling is easy. Not many hills, although the wind is in my face and slowing me down. Lots of farmland and very peaceful except for these jets flying overhead right now.

I'm going to have to ask directions from here - I hate asking because people I am often misdirected. The last shortcut I took I ended up very lost and had to come back the same way. I want to learn to speak German very badly!

Here are some pictures along my round-about route:









Freiburg May 11, 92

(Boy did I love this city!)

I stayed here with Eva, a friend of a friend. She lived with another woman with a child and a man. At that time I thought that was a very "forward" way of living. They all spoke English so that was nice as well. I am also surprised at the lack of such things as microwaves and answering machines. I am also blown away by the talk of politics and world events again and I just listen to all the neat ideas.

The view from the cathedral:

(I had climbed all the way up only to find you need to pay 1 DM at the top so I walked home and got it and went all the way back up again.)



We did a small cycle tour to the west and it was very nice. They have great areas set up for cycling! I decided that I would like to do some more cycling and thought the Black Forest would be a nice place to head to.

It was here that I also noted that I was running out of money. However, I thought that since I would be working in Prague I wouldn't have to worry too much.

So I tuned up my bicycle and headed east on May 12th.