Susan Dixon – Page 9 – Wayward Explorers

Boat Trip: Little River, SC to Plattsburgh, NY – DAY 7: Elizabeth City, NC

Another successful night at anchor. We tracked our position in Navionics all night and we barely moved, just rotating around the anchor with the changes in wind and current. Captain Mark made breakfast, an omelet with artichoke hearts and extra cheese for Sidekick Sue since we were running low on meat sides. After breakfast, we pulled anchor and started across Albermarle Sound.

Albermarle Sound is a vast open crossing. There are times when you can’t even see land in some directions. The guide books warn against attempting it during high winds; one guide book warned that it can be tougher to cross than the Gulf of Mexico. We happened to be here under ideal conditions, warm and very low winds. Because of conditions, it was easier than some of the other open water crossings we have made. Leaving the sound, we went by the shapes that we had thought were large tankers or container ships out in the distance when we saw them on the horizon the night before. It turns out these objects were much closer than we thought, and much smaller than we thought. More investigation revealed that they were actually duck blinds built out in the shallower water. We wanted to get closer to see them, but didn’t want to stray too far into the shallows for a picture. None of them were occupied; duck hunting in NC is in the Fall.

Crossing the Sound was, thankfully, uneventful. Mark did most of the driving, as Sidekick Sue prefers the canals over open water. Sue is still trying to get the hang of holding onto a course when there isn’t any land on both sides; it’s easier to just “stay in the middle” then to try to follow a course using infrequent channel markers and the electronics. Nothing that we can’t fix with more practice. 🙂

Across the Sound, we entered the Pasquotank River to one of the most inland points on the river, Elizabeth City. We had learned of a free dock available, which is always an incentive, but we are slowly learning why many people choose to pay instead of searching out the free docks. This “dock” is a tiny little triangle surrounded by 4 pilings. Because our boat is square in the back and pointed in the front, we had to back in between the pilings to be close enough to the tiny dock to be able to get off the boat. Between that, and our lack of experience with tying up to pilings, we just did the best we could to get into the slip (didn’t hit the pilings), tie up to the cleats behind us and do some makeshift “lassoing” of the pilings until we could research the proper way to tie up (thank God for the internet and Youtube). Even secured properly, the deck is too short to reach the opening on our railing, so we are having to climb over the railing to get off the boat (the things we do to save money). Here is the image from Google Maps, if we are not clearly conveying the dock situation:

We know that once we start getting near the big cities (Norfolk, Baltimore, NYC, etc.) we will have to start paying for dockage, so we’re trying to delay the inevitable.

We walked around Elizabeth City, and a couple miles out to the Food Lion to stock up on some fresh food. It is a beautiful city, with lots of historic old homes, including the The Pond House Inn, that we were inspired to photograph. Notice the Cypress knees, sticking up like little garden gnomes around the base of the tree. We weren’t really familiar with these trees until spending time in North and South Carolina. As we’ve seen in other towns in North Carolina, the people are extremely friendly and inviting.

When we returned to the boat, we had new neighbors, who are travelling the same route as us tomorrow, so we will probably be seeing them on and off for the next few days. One of the best parts about meeting people on the loop is getting advice and suggestions from seasoned “loopers”. We are finding that a lot of knowledge in boating is “local”, meaning, you can’t find all the tricks and tips in the books. The people that have passed through before, have learned all the secrets, and are happy to share.

Duck blinds…. from farther away, we thought these were big ships on the horizon the night before. LOL

See how tiny the little dock is. It doesn’t come close to where our railing opens (near the green door). If we had come in bow first, we wouldn’t even be able to get off the boat to the dock.

Another view of our boat in our “dockless dock” next to our new neighbor.

Some historic buildings around the waterfront.

Our welcome to the “free dock”. We understand that back in “the old days”, the town had “dock buddies” that would greet the incoming boats with roses for the ladies and wine and cheese. No such greeting today. Even the Visitors Center was closed. 🙁

Beautiful historic Inn that we walked by. Notice the “knees” of the Cypress tree in the foreground. We don’t see those in New England. The beautiful pond was bordered with an old stone wall. The entire yard was meticulously maintained.

Boat Trip: Little River, SC to Plattsburgh, NY – DAY 6: Alligator River, NC

The theme for today is “accidents”….. but luckily not ours (knock on wood). More on that later. We started the morning with omelets and ham cooked by Captain Mark. Sidekick Sue had trouble getting up after the first 8 hour sleep in a VERY long time. Being isolated from all noise has its benefits. We also felt comfortable running the generator because there was no one to disturb.

Once again, we got an early start. We had a little bit of river travel (Pongo River) this morning, but it was fairly calm. Like most mornings so far, we had an early bridge crossing, but it was a tall fixed bridge that caused no obstacle. As we approached, we were hailed on the radio from another boat requesting to pass (as we mentioned earlier… we never pass anyone). Their captain commented on our hailing port of Lincoln, NH (painted on the side of our boat) because he knows Lincoln well (spends time in Lancaster). We chatted for a while. We don’t run into many people down here that know anything about New Hampshire. In our travels, we’ve found that very few people outside of New England have any idea which state is which and how they are organized. LOL

After the bridge we were in a nice calm canal for the majority of the day. At first, the scenery was like the previous days… tall trees and thick foliage. The guidebooks said to be on the lookout for deer and bears, but we were not lucky enough to spot any large wildlife today. As time went on, the riverbanks took on a swamp-like appearance, with stumps sticking out dangerously out the water. The navigation advice was to stay as close as possible to the very center of the canal to avoid deadheads (logs or trees hidden in the waterline) or snags (fallen trees, limbs or bushes). We made it through fine… but this brings us to the first accident. We passed a guy who was not so lucky. He was already being aided by a tow boat, so there was nothing for us to do but sympathize and move on, carefully. He clearly had hit something because there was water being pumped out of his boat and someone was diving around in the water to assess the damage. We were thankful to make a safe passage through the canal into the Alligator River

When you hear the name “Alligator River”, your first question might be “Are there alligators in the river?”. We didn’t see any, but we wondered the same thing. Today was a day without cell phone service for most of the trip, so there was no Googling until the end of the day. What I found out is there ARE alligators in the river, in fact, the river adjoins the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. However, it is believed that the river was named for the shape of the river long before any alligators migrated this far north. You be the judge:

Do you think the Alligator River looks like an Alligator? It sorta does…

At the mouth of the Alligator River was a swinging bridge (you can see the crossing for Route 64 above). The clearance was only 14′, so we needed to ask for a bridge opening. From far away, Captain Mark, with his eagle eyes, noticed that the cars did not seem to be moving across the bridge. As if the bridgetender had heard him, the radio came alive with a warning that there was an accident (the second one we encountered today) on the bridge and that the bridge would not be opening until the accident was cleared, since there were cars on the “swinging part”. So we bobbed around for over an hour and a half, watching from afar as the emergency vehicles and tow trucks arrived and left. Three more boats queued up behind us during the wait. Finally, the traffic started moving again, and as soon as the swinging portion was clear, the bridgetender stopped the traffic again and let the boats pass.

The first anchorage we were considering was too rough, so we decided to move on to a second recommended anchorage, which was just right. So we are anchored for the night, in the middle of nowhere with a sailboat in the distance and what looks like big tankers or container boats further out in the body of water we have to cross tomorrow…. Albemarle Sound. It may be our largest open water crossing so far, but the weather and wind predictions are looking good. Tonight we have more research to do; coincidently, there is a cell tower near the bridge we just passed so we have cell service for the first time since we left this morning.

Our friends from Lancaster entering the canal in front of us.

Scenery changed from forest to swamp. New vocabulary….. deadheads and snags.

Boat under assist from TowBoatUS. Notice the water getting pumped out in the back.

Traffic not moving on the Alligator River Swing Bridge

Other boats started gathering, waiting for the bridge opening.

Tow truck taking away one of the vehicles from the wreck.

Swing bridge opening after an hour and a half wait. Good time to remember that we weren’t having a bad day compared to the folks involved in the accident.

Boat Trip: Little River, SC to Plattsburgh, NY – DAY 5: Belhaven, NC

We got a really early start this morning. Backing a boat out of a slip is difficult because the rotation of the propeller tends to kick your stern out. Since we didn’t want to hit the gigantic “Chaz’s Toy”, we used the lines to pull the boat to the end of the dock and hopped on. Just as Mark was ready to go, another boat pulled out behind us…. and then another. Since we had already cast off, we crossed our fingers. Sidekick Sue grabbed a spare fender and waited on the starboard side of the boat, ready to use it to bounce off of old Chaz if need be. Luckily we didn’t drift very far, and were finally able to back out and join the line of boats heading north on the ICW.

To Sidekick Sue’s disappointment, most of the day was spent crossing open waters, first the rest of the Neuse River, around a peninsula and then up the Bay River. There was a relatively short channel , with calm water, which gradually opened up to Goose Creek, the Pamlico River, and the Pungo River. Needless to say, all the travel on the rivers today was wild, cold and wavy. Captain Mark stayed at the helm wearing his insulated coveralls. Even though the sun was out, it remained chilly until late in the afternoon. Because we spent very little time in a channel today, there was only one uneventful bridge crossing where we waved at an oncoming Coast Guard vessel. Sidekick Sue took breaks from the flybridge to warm up in the cabin; it was not her favorite day on the water so far.

Around 2:00 PM, we pulled into the small town of Belhaven. There is a free town dock that is about half a mile from the town center, that apparently nobody uses because they don’t want to walk into town when there is a cheap dock right in downtown. Of course, the Dixons chose the free dock, since they needed to go for a walk to satisfy the Fitbit Gods anyway. So here we sit, in a VERY isolated dock at the end of a huge grassy field. We saw a couple of fisherman on the dock, but no other signs of life. Because the dock had no cleats, and the pilings that were on the outside perimeter of the dock, we spent some time getting creative with our fenders, positioning them sideways against the pilings and making sure that our lines were tightly wrapped and knotted around the pilings. After that we ventured into town.

Belhaven is a little town with a lot of personality. Its downtown area is cute, but clearly many stores have closed leaving a lot of vacant retail space (like many small towns across America). We did did our 5 miles of walking, weaving through the beautiful waterfront mansions, to the “regular” suburban homes and finally to the double-wide mobile homes. The town is very quiet, but the few people we encountered were extremely friendly. Drainage ditches run around the residential blocks, probably for flood control. At one point, a beaver popped out of a culvert, not realizing we were there. When he saw us, he disappeared in a flash. Sidekick Sue stopped to get a ice cream cone at an odd store that didn’t know if it was a restaurant, an ice cream stand or a thrift store. Got a “Pirate’s Treasure” on a waffle cone and chatted with the store owners, that were clearly glad to have our business. They told us that had we been there 2 weeks ago, we would have witnessed swarms of genetically modified mosquitoes that had been released to help control the mosquito population. It’s a good thing we missed that, because mosquitoes and Sidekick Sue do not mingle well.

We returned to the boat, able to use the generator to make dinner since no one is within a quarter mile of us. The Wayward Explorers are VERY tired and will probably call it an early night.

In the early morning light, you can see the two boats that pulled out before us. Before long, the caravan had grown long, but many turned off to go visit the Outer Banks.

Only bridge crossing today…. a fixed bridge with a vertical height well above what we needed. Waved at the Coast Guard as they approached and passed.

The Wayward Explorer parked at the free dock that nobody wants because they don’t want to walk half a mile to town.

Gives a better perspective of just how isolated we were at the end of this dock, which was accessed through a huge field.

Captain Mark, clowning around with the local characters.

Boat Trip: Little River, SC to Plattsburgh, NY – DAY 4: Oriental, NC

Today was a fantastic day. We were able to stick to “Plan A” and everything clicked like clockwork. We left our slip in Morehead City early, eager to beat the crowd and get a free town dock at our destination…. Oriental, NC.

Before very long, we approached a bridge crossing…. or actually a double bridge crossing. As Captain Mark drove, Sidekick Sue looked up information in the Navionics app to see what we had to do to request a bridge opening (if we needed a bridge opening). One bridge was tall… 65′ clearance…. no problem for the Wayward Explorer. The other bridge had only a 4′ clearance, but turned out to be a railroad bridge that is left in the open position, unless a train is approaching, so we breezed right through.

Most of today’s trip was through a well-defined channel of the Intercoastal Waterway which turned inland away from the ocean, keeping the water relatively calm. We finally motored out from under the cloud cover to beautiful blue skies. The final segment of our trip was a 3 mile crossing of the Neuse River. Like previous river crossings, the water became rough under heavy winds and wild waves. For the first time, we had water crashing over the bow. Sidekick Sue had gone downstairs to warm up, and was frantically running (or falling) around the boat (as it lurched from side to side) securing loose items and latching cupboards that hadn’t been properly latched (we get a little lazy on the trawler because we aren’t used to such rough water).

As we turned into the harbor in Oriental, NC, the water was suddenly calm. Our plan was to get a spot at one of the two free docks, provided by the town. There was a boat in front of us that looked like they were searching for somewhere to park, and we patiently waited at the opening to the narrow harbor, with our fingers crossed, that they wouldn’t take the spot we were eying. Luck was with us again, as they circled several times and finally pulled in somewhere else. We happily pulled into our desired spot, bow first again, as it was a tight spot with “Chaz’s Toy” next to us. We pulled the boat forward to make room for someone else to part behind us, excited to be at our destination by noon, with plenty of time to walk, sightsee, and take care of a few chores.

While taking a quick break, a sailboat pulled in behind us. The sailor was alone (besides his two dogs) and didn’t have his fenders or lines ready for docking so we ran out to help him get tied up (and keep him from ramming into our boat LOL). As it turned out, the docks filled up quickly; we had arrived just in time. Once settled in for the day, we took a long walk, stopping at a cute marine provisioning/general store (to gets some parts for the alternator) and out of the town center to Piggly Wiggly to get some eggs and pizza fixings.

Returned to the boat to take care of some chores. Mark fixed the alternator, which wasn’t properly charging the batteries while the motor was running (requiring us to run the generator for several hours a day). Sidekick Sue applied some opaque film to the window in the boat shower, because she was super grossed out by the fact that there was a fabric curtain inside the shower stall (who does that?). There was free pump-out and water at the dock, so of course we took full advantage.

Finally, we found a cute Café for dinner, since we aren’t supposed to run the generator at the town dock (so no cooking in our Ninja Foodi or our hotplate). The menu told us that the curious name of Oriental was given to the town (originally named Smith’s Creek) in 1899 when the postmaster’s wife found the nameplate from the wrecked sailing steamer “Oriental” on the beaches of the Outer Banks. Apparently, she decided it would be a more fitting name for the town. I guess the postmaster’s wife was a powerful position.

Settled in for the night, very satisfied that everything ran according to “Plan A” all day long (well except maybe the crazy rough water). I guess that makes up for the future days when we will have to go to “Plans B, C & D”.

Double bridge opening. The front one is a railroad bridge and it only closes when a train is coming.

Close up after we passed through the railroad bridge.

The Provisioning store. Everything in Oriental has Chinese dragons on it. We walked past numerous houses that had some kind of “yard art” involving dragons.

Captain Mark’s flawless parking next to “Chaz’s Toy”

Picture that better shows the scale of our size compared to Chaz’s Toy.

M & M’s Cafe. Got a great seat out on the porch. Sadly, they had no M &M’s. The owner is a retired aerospace engineer.

Captain Mark smiling (you just can’t tell) because his alternator is working correctly now.

Bicycle Trip: The Rhine River Tujetsch, Switzerland to Amsterdam: DAY 7: Eglisau, Switzerland

Having stayed in our campground for a couple of days, it was actually sad to leave, because we had met several wonderful people in the camping area. As I mentioned earlier, tent camping here is very different. You don’t get a particular site assignment. There is just a general area where everyone pitches their tents and shares amenities (charging stations, water pump, picnic tables, etc.). As a result, it is more social and we find ourselves engaging with the neighbors (despite the language differences) more than we ever have in the U.S.

We had one neighbor woman who was completely obsessed with our bike. She insisted on letting Mark take her on a trial run in the morning before we set off. It was hysterical watching her ride up the hill singing Queen’s “I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike” in English at the top of her lungs.

Today was a lot of ups and downs… both literally and figuratively. We went through lots of very hilly farm land and wooded trails. We encountered two detours that required us to do a lot of extra uphill pedaling. Along the way I stopped to admire gardens of wildflowers and cows engaged in mysterious business (see video below). After a lot of hills, we made it to Rheinfall (Rhine Falls), where there is a pretty spectacular waterfall.

For any of you that are still following us, the rest of this post will be bittersweet. It appears that today may well be the last day of our bicycle adventure, even though we only finished 1/4 of our planned ride.

We had an equipment failure on a piece of our setup that is pretty critical to move our gear around. Our tandem, created by Bike Friday (Ours is actually the Tandem TwosDay) is designed to fold and disassemble in order to fit into two rolling Samsonite suitcases that have been specially designed for this purpose. The bike traveled with us to Amsterdam in the suitcases and we carried our gear in backpack duffle bags. Once we were at our starting point, Mark built the bike, the duffle bags went into the suitcases, and the suitcases are attached to a frame with wheels to become the trailer. Perfect set-up, right…..?

Well, from the day the bike and trailer arrived back in the Spring, Mark has been concerned that the quality of the trailer did not match the quality of the bike. Even back in the summer when we were doing test rides, Mark had made modifications to the trailer hitch system as the tubing was starting to separate. You might remember that Mark was seeking duct tape on Day 4 to address this problem. Well, the duct tape solution survived, but the trailer frame didn’t. The metal axle sheared on a tight downhill curve, causing us to loose a wheel in a cornfield (in Teufen, Switzerland), and drag our suitcases along the ground, creating even more damage, before we could stop on the hill.

Friendly and concerned locals helped us get to a boat dock at the bottom of the hill where we could catch a small ferry to the town of Eglisau which has a train station. Luckily the Swiss train system is phenomenal, and we will be able to get anywhere we want, once we decide what to do. We still have over 3 weeks here, but now we are saddled with two heavy suitcases that no longer can be a trailer. So continuing with the current plan is not really possible.

On the bright side:

1. We had a awesome ride.
2. We are still in Europe and there are plenty of things we haven’t yet seen.
3. We are not discouraged and we will come back and finish this route someday.
4. We had already decided that the trailer was too heavy for any trip that had any significant hills and we were discussing ideas on doing “loops” in the future instead of starting and finishing in different cities so that we could leave the suitcases somewhere (a willing hotel or airBnB) and utilizing more pannier bags and racks to move our stuff (and further reduce unnecessary gear).

Thank you for following us on this abbreviated trip. We’ll update to let you know what we ended up doing.

Many farmers seem to have these gardens of wildflowers along the roads.

It appears this cow is getting a butt massage. Can anyone explain this?

Rhine Falls

More Rhine Falls

More Rhine Falls. Along with their version of “Maid of the Mist” for those familiar with Niagra.

And here is what happened. The axle sheared off, the wheel went flying and the frame tore away from the suitcase. Back to the drawing board.

Ferry ride to Eglisau after the “incident” to get to a town with a train station.

Bicycle Trip: The Rhine River Tujetsch, Switzerland to Amsterdam: DAY 6: Wagenhausen, Switzerland

As planned, we decided to take our first full day of rest. We waved goodbye to our UK friends as they packed up to head upstream. We walked to the grocery store to find something for breakfast and sat out on a bench to eat. The sun was out again today, so it felt good to soak up the sun. I picked out some yogurt and some kind of honey-waffle crackers to use as my spoon. The food selections at the grocery store are quite different here. I don’t know how much is influenced by the fact that we are in Europe, or whether it is more because we are in small town stores. It will be interesting to compare when we get to some larger cities.

We walked upstream about a mile along the Rhine to the town of Stein am Rhein (German spelling of Rhine). It is said to be one of the best preserved medieval towns in Switzerland. The buildings are truly remarkable and covered with detailed fresco paintings. Inside the buildings are some of the original walls and stone floors. It reminded me a lot of the old buildings in Italy. We were able to walk through the old St. Georgen Abby, including the old wood-framed building where the monks presumably made their wine. As with many of these old towns, a castle, Hohenklingen, was perched on the hills above the town.

We did a little shopping (decided on my Christmas ornament from Switzerland) and tried to find ice cream, but the only shop we found did not have chocolate (tragic). The vendor claimed the Swiss prefer strawberry. Not sure if that is true, but we saved our calories for some Swiss Chocolate. We ran into our friends from the UK, who had also stopped in town. Had a nice chat and said our goodbyes again.

Before the heat of the afternoon, we walked back to our campground for a little more R&R and catching up using the wi-fi. Walked back to Stein am Rhein again for a wonderful riverside pasta dinner at the Spaghetteria. One more walk back to the campground to get off our feet since we are back on the road tomorrow.

Photo of us taken by Mike from UK (originally from New Zealand)

Mike and Jane from UK by way of New Zealand. They are doing the same route as us, but going upstream. They have been out for 4 weeks, we have been out one.

Friends I made on the walk to town. Sadly, they were not wearing cowbells.

Beautifully painted buildings in Stein am Rhein.

Grape press and wooden barrels in St. Georgen Abbey.

Shore of the Rhine from the Dtein am Rhein side of the river.

View of Hohenklingen Castle from our campground across the river.

Mark patiently waiting for his dinner at the Spaghetteria.

Bicycle Trip: The Rhine River Tujetsch, Switzerland to Amsterdam: DAY 5: Wagenhausen, Switzerland

Sometimes things just work out. We quit early last night to avoid the rain, got our laundry done and our bellies fed. This morning the rain stopped right about 10:45 am and we were on the road by 11:00. It stayed dark and cloudy all day, but we only encountered a few spitting rains throughout the day.

The Hostel really worked out perfectly for us, with a place to store our bike, a great breakfast and the flexibility to use a meeting room to charge our electronics and wait out the rain. It was a little more “self-service” than a hotel… we had to return our bed linens and bring down our own garbage, but it was a unique experience. I’d definitely do it again.

On our way out of Friedrichshafen, Germany, we went by the Zepplin Museum to grab a few pictures. Even though the rain had barely stopped, the area was filling with tourists.

The scenery has changed in the last few days. There are no more mountains… even in the distance. The terrain is very level, although there are still smaller, rounded hills in the distance. We rode through some very large and commercial looking vineyards and farms, as opposed to the smaller, family farms we had been seeing over the last few days. We followed along the coastline of Lake Constance, past waterfront parks and some very exclusive waterfront homes.

We biked into the town of Meersburg, which is a medieval town with a clock tower an a very distinctive arch. Up on the hillside stands the Altes Burg which is said to be the oldest inhabited castle in Germany, built in the 7th century.

From Meersburg, we took a ferry across Lake Constance. We met up with a Harley dude from Switzerland who tours Europe regularly (“I work a little, then I travel a little”). He gave us some good advice on places to stay and things to see over the next few days. Departing the ferry, we got a finger-wagging from the ferry terminal staff because we clearly did not understand all the signs telling us which way bikes should go. By the way, the universal street signs we have been taught in the USA are not universal at all. LOL

After a short way, we crossed back into Switzerland and were once again riding through small farms and vineyards. Our strategy of eating a late lunch or early dinner failed miserably, as apparently, nearly every restaurant is closed on Monday. We bike through Berlingen, Steckborn, and Mammern hoping to find a place to eat, but finally gave in and biked to our destination of Wagenhausen where we got our first Rhine River waterfront campsite and spotted our first Rhine River tour boat….. apparently the Rhine becomes navigable after the Lake. It is a great campground, with amazing, warm, showers and a restaurant on site that was actually open. Camped next to us is an entertaining couple from the UK, Jane and Mike, who are doing the same trip as us, but traveling in the opposite direction. We ended up joining them for dinner and drinks and a lovely conversation in English.

We are considering taking our first “break day” of the trip tomorrow to enjoy the nearby town of Stein am Rhein which is accessed by bridge across the river. We could both use a day off the saddle.

Blimp-inspired children’s playground at the Zeppelin Museum.

View of Altes Burg, overlooking Meersburg, Germany.

Mark, making friends with the Harley dude on the ferry.

Boat navigating the Rhine River. Picture taken from our campground.

Bicycle Trip: The Rhine River Tujetsch, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands: Friedrichshafen, Germany: DAY 4:

We finally are getting adjusted to the time change and got on the road at a decent time this morning (about 7:30 AM). Mark was concerned about the design of the trailer hitch that came with the bike, worrying that it is starting to fray so soon into our trip. He managed to secure some duct tape (which is apparently universally know by men from all nationalities, despite the language difference) from a kind German man at our campground. Soon, we were waving goodbye to our toothless neighbor with his wolf hound and heading off for another day.

After a very short ride (we needed breakfast), we rode into the Lindau, Germany which has roots in Medieval times. We were looking for tourist information center, which was not open until ten, so we took our time exploring the town.

The harbor opening into Lake Constance is protected by barriers on both sides with only a small opening for ships to pass. One side is a majestic Bavarian statue of a lion and the other is a lighthouse, both built in the 1800’s. It was a marvel to watch the seamanship of the ferry boat captains maneuvering through the opening into Lake Constance. We walked through town, taking in all the interesting architecture. I was particularly impressed by the colorful painting on the side of the old Town Hall. It reminded me of the fresco paintings in Rome. As it was Sunday, most of the stores and buildings were closed. We grabbed some sandwiches at a small bakery in the train station.

As we biked further around the shore of Lake Constance, we stopped to walk around the grounds of Schloss Montfort, an old Moorish-style castle that is now used as a concert hall, restaurant and wine bar. The grounds were beautiful, containing different varieties of weeping willow trees, some which I had never seen before.

The rest of our bike ride took us through farms again, like yesterday, we were biking on paths cutting right through the fields. But unlike the farms of yesterday, these were predominantly orchards and vineyards. We saw apple trees, pear trees (green and Bosc), plum trees, red grapes, green grapes, blueberries and peaches (or perhaps nectarines). For the first time in my life, I saw, in action, the crazy machine that bales the hay and wraps it into bundles to drop in the field… it looked like a trick from a Dr. Seuss book. A few of my favorite views of the day were an alpaca farm, along with a long stretch of “community gardens” which the inhabitants used from everything to trampolines, to vegetable gardens to Victorian gardens. Presumably, these were folks that didn’t have access to a yard where they live and so they “rented a yard” in another part of town.

We arrived at our destination in Friedrichshafen early. We decided to have a short ride today because 1.) it was time to do laundry again and 2.) we wanted to try out a Hostel because there is heavy rain coming, and there was one in this town. In another Sunday misfortune, we couldn’t find the tourism office and once again depended on the kindness of strangers to point us to the local train station. Once we got there, it was closed, so we once again depended on the kindness of strangers to find the Hostel (as I had used up my high-speed allowance for the day, so Google was not cooperating).

We found and checked into the Hostel. Not a bad place. The room itself looks a lot like a college dorm room (bunk beds and all), but we have all the amenities we need …. a shower, laundry facilities, free wireless, a bike cage, and free breakfast. We wandered out before the rain started to find a 5-star local pub, and once again shared pizza and beer (I see a theme here). We’ve been super lucky with the weather so far and are hoping tomorrow’s predictions will hold so that the rain will be cleared before noon, giving us time to move on.

Bicycle Trip: The Rhine River Tujetsch, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands: DAY 3: Bregenz, Austria

Still recovering from the initial travel to get the the Alps, we tried to get moving early, but it was 9:45 local time before we actually got on the road. The ride today was mostly along the Rhine River. I have learned that the Rhine gets it milky-green color from the calcium in the limestone that it carries as sediment. There is even a Benjamin Moore paint named after this color (that I will definitely incorporate into one of our bathroom remodels). As we passed into the principality of Liechtenstein, we passed Guttenberg Castle, on the cliffs high above. Our first stop was Vaduz which is the capital of Liechtenstein. It is very much a tourist spot, as there were busloads of people there and tacky gift shops on every corner. We wandered around and admired the scenery. We explored the outside of Vaduz Cathedral, but couldn’t go inside because there were services in progress (as we could best interpret from the sign posted outside in German). We passed by the Government House of Liechtenstein and into “tourist central”, complete with a little train to deliver tourists from one end of town to the other. I may have slipped into a couple tourist shops to score a christmas ornament from Liechtenstein, which has become my collectible of choice. Don’t tell Mark that I added weight to our load as we are already working hard to pull our load now. We grabbed some fresh bread, ham and cheese from the local Coop (which appears to be the local grocery store/convenience store) of the area, and sat on the curb to enjoy our makeshift meal. From where we sat, we had a great view of Vaduz Castle, which is the private residence of the Prince of Liechtenstein.

Back along the shores of the Rhine River, we crossed back over to Switzerland and biked for what seemed like hours. It was nice and level, but the paved path turned to gravel and we encountered construction and heavy wind. It felt as if we were traveling at half-speed. The tour book we’ve been using suggested an alternative route that would have taken us further up into the mountains, but we took the easier route deciding it was fine to view “Heidi-land” from the road. We’ll have to rely on the guide book to see the house restored to match the fabled home of Heidi. The hillsides were dotted with the cutest houses that reminded me of the setting for every Brothers Grimm fairy tale I had ever read. After tiring of the gravel, we stopped and spoke to a Swiss native, trying to determine if the path was paved on the other side of the river. She didn’t speak English, so we used our best charades to describe gravel and pavement and she convinced us it was indeed paved if we crossed back over. After following her advice, we found out that the path on the other side of the river was indeed paved, but only to the bridge we crossed. However, we were going in the other direction from which she had come. We were right back on gravel paths again, no worse for the wear.

Finally crossing into Austria, the bike path took us right through the farm fields, close enough to the livestock to reach out and pet a cow on the nose if one was so inclined (I wasn’t). We pedaled through miles of rows of corn and cow pastures.

Our campground was in the town of Bregenz, Austria which is on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee in German). The Rhine River spreads out and forms Upper Lake Constance, narrows again, and then widens to form Lower Lake Constance. Given the scenery of the day, it was fitting that our campsite was on the edge of a cornfield. In Europe, there doesn’t seem to be much rigid organization in campgrounds as there is in America. They give you a general area that you can set up, but there aren’t established “sites”. Instead of having your own picnic table and fire pit, there are shared spaces with tables, electricity, and BBQ pits where people gather. People in Europe focus much more on the social experience than us Americans. I enjoyed it as much as I could, but the language barrier sometimes gets in the way.

We approached the campground through a waterfront public park, where there was some sort of music festival (which we heard late into the night). At the entrance to the campground, we quickly learned that our campground had its own Biergarten (a welcome sign). We needed to shower before dinner so Mark asked the young man checking us in if there was any chance they would run out of beer before we got back. He told Mark “we would run out of pizza before we would ever run out of beer”. So after we cleaned up and set up camp, we came back for pizza and beer. Not knowing what to order, we tried to ask about the types of beer on draft. The bar maid let us know that “we don’t have all those beers like in Germany…. we have two beers…. the one that everyone drinks and the one that is bitter”. So we happily walked away with two of the beers that everyone drinks. (And we may have gone back for seconds). The beer was strong and cheap and accompanied by a great selection of 1970’s and 1980’s American music. This was, by all accounts, one of my most memorable birthdays. I didn’t get my cake and ice cream, but I have a rain check on that.

We returned to our cornfield campsite and did our best to make friends with the guy next door, who didn’t speak any English, had no teeth, and had a dog that he claimed was a wolf. He laughed at us every time we told him we were biking to Amsterdam. It didn’t take long to fall asleep in the cornfield. Just the occasional spritz of rain and the corn stalks making whispering noises through the night.

Tourist train. No… we did not take it…. we walked.

Our view of Vaduz Castle as we sat on the curb eating breakfast.

Today’s view of the Rhine. It’s getting bigger, but not really navigable for boats yet. Many piles of stones block large sections of the waterway.

One of many hillsides that reminds me of a fairy tale land (ignore the more modern farm in the front)

Our cornfield campsite. Good thing Mark has never seen “Children of the Corn”. He doesn’t care for scary movies.

Bicycle Trip: The Rhine River Tujetsch, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands: DAY 2: Bad Ragaz, Switzerland

The day started with completing the uphill assent into Versam. Not bad after we were well rested. After that we partially descended into Ruinaulta canyon , once again on a series of steep switchbacks and turns where we had to stop occasionally to let the brakes cool. We met a nice guy from the Czech Republic at our campground who said this area is called the “Grand Canyon of Switzerland”. I took pictures, but the flat images don’t do justice to the real thing.

After crossing a bridge over the gorge, we started another ascent back to the top of the canyon (have I mentioned that I’m eager for the terrain to level out?). The canyon wall was not as high on this side. We passed through several tunnels carved from the mountains and under several stone “ceilings” that were constructed over the road, apparently to keep the falling rocks from hitting the road. After going downhill into Bonaduz, our route left the main road onto smaller “roads” that we initially thought were bike paths… that is…. until we encountered cars. These “roads” are two-way, but only wide enough to accommodate one vehicle at a time. Someone has to pull to the side (which was more often us).

For most of the day, we found that we were not only following the river, but also the railroad, which was lucky because the railroad stations provide nice, clean, safe restrooms (or WCs as they are called here). We also discovered there are fresh water fountains continually running at regular intervals so we could fill our water bottles. We are getting the hang of things here.

As we descended down to river level, we crossed a bridge that spanned the place where two main branches, the Hinterrhein and the Vorderrhein (which we have been following), join to form the official Rhine River. After this bridge, we encountered one of the worst inclines of the trip so far, not because it was a high incline, but because it was a super steep incline into Tamins. We quit about 25m from the top, when we encountered one of the aforementioned fresh water fountains and decided to break. We pushed the bike up the rest of the way.

We continued on to the city of Chur, which was one of the largest population centers we’ve encountered on our trip (pop 35,000). Our route took us through the outskirts of the city to avoid traffic. As we were stopped at the far side of Chur, while Mark changed map files on the GPS, we were approached by a local who took great interest in our bike set-up. He has never owned a car and he has biked everywhere his whole life. He took a look at our route and gave us advice to avoid a very hilly route (much appreciated). His route took us to a gravel path along the banks of the Rhine. Although we have been “following” the Rhine (or one branch anyway) since the beginning of our trip, it has been more like crossing it here and there. This segment of the trip was the first time we actually rode along the river bank for an extended period of time.

We made it to the town of Bad Ragaz (I learned that “bad” is used the way we would use the word “spa”) where we planned to camp for the night. It is a charming town with spectacular mountain views. We stopped at the tourism information building, only to find out that they were closed for the day for “employee day”. We managed to corral one employee who came out to bring in some banners and he was kind enough to give us a map to find our campground.

It is a wonderful night at a wonderful campground. We have hot showers laundry and WI-FI. We took a walk back into town to have some fried chicken and chips at the national pub. It was a really good day.