Tuttlingen-Orsingen-Germany-8-20-14

We have completed our journey along the fabulous Danube River from Budapest, Hungary to Tuttlingen, Germany near the Danube source. We rode about 1446 kilometers across.

Today we started a new adventure. We left the Danube River in the afternoon and headed straight South for Lake of Konstanz. This is the route that Euro Velo 6 takes even though the Danube Bike Trail continues up to the headwaters of the Danube which is another 30 miles west. It became an adventure in more ways than one.

We had no map, we had no idea where we were really going, Euro Velo 6 website doesn’t explain any of the towns that you ride through and has no detailed maps for viewing. Further research on the web just became frustrating.

We stopped into Tuttlingen to try to buy a map of the area, but the book store didn’t have a map even of their own town. So we decided to just follow the Euro Velo 6 signs and hope that we didn’t miss one or that they forgot to put one up. We were going to be riding completely blind with no expectations of the kind of terrain or distance we would be riding.

Tuttlingen-Orsingen-Germany–Tuttlingen

The first obstacle was the hill out of Tuttlingen. No sooner did we bicycle through the center of of town, and then we started climbing out of the Danube Valley. The climb is about 1.6 miles long at 11% most of the distance. This was a push bike hill as our tied legs did not want to make a strong effort for so long. Anne even pushed her trike up as the grade was too tiring to peddle.

Exhausted by the time we reached the top, we soared down a steep hill only to see another equal one rising up in front of us.

Tuttlingen-Orsingen-Germany-climb out of Tuttlingen is steep

With thoughts of this being the case for the whole day, we just decided to go as far as the first town with a campsite. Much to our surprise we started going downhill and continued going downhill and more and more and more as if riding to the bottom of the sea. Our speeds were 20 mph as we glided down this beautiful paving. The descent turned out to be a thrilling 12 miles total with grades up to 9%. This is one instance where doing the EV 6 route in reverse was a benefit! Numerous cyclists were struggling up this long, long hill as we glided down. This has to be the first day that we have really had a smile on our face.

A small town at the bottom of the hill was to be a lunch stop, but there were no grocery stores and the only restaurant was closed. So, we just continued on towards Orsingen.

We managed to follow the Euro Velo 6 signs and by 4 o’clock, we found a campsite in Orsingen. We were very close to Lake of Konstanz, the source of the Rhine River.

The campground prices had risen up to €20 for two people and a tent. The campground is very large, very clean, and very modern. It has many mobile home sites and it has many permanent house sites. The tent site is up on top of the hill, which means another climb up, but it has great views of the beautiful valleys below. There is a very nice restaurant at the campground and a market across the street.