Immenstadt – Lindau
64.2km, 5hr 51mins, 1306m total climb
From the hotel bar last night we
checked the weather and booked a hotel for Lindau as putting a tent
up in cold rain does not bode well for a good night. We chose Hotel
Bulligan for 62EUR without breakfast. We are starting to notice an
increase of prices the closer you get to Switzerland. We left Hotel
Engel after a good night sleep and big breakfast at around 9.30am
(usual time), and followed the route pat the camp-site that we should
have stayed at. It was very nice and a great place for swimming if it
had been sunny. Oh well it can only get better!
We followed the road around the lake
and found ourselves back on the Jakobsweg (we don't seem to be able
to escape it!), which is pure coincidence again. The weather was not
great, we hoped it would improve but the signs were not promising! :)
Today we were cycling at the far west
end of Austria, and we are crossing the border back and forth. One
crossing was just a small foot bridge but had the Austrian
(Voralberg) and German coats at either side, must have been important
at some point, there was also a big waterfall there.
It was heavily cloudy and drizzly all
morning, but the low thick clouds started to lift and get wispy
around us, and you could feel the sun trying to break through, almost
springlike. Our route led us up a 7km long, 400m climb where we
chased the retreating clouds and beat them to the top. Right back
into freezing Winter!
The work was done though and we enjoyed
a very long downhill where we rapidly increased our average speed. It
was such along downhill though, always inside the freezing clouds,
that we really were numb by the bottom. We stopped and bought a latte
each and considered pouring it into our shoes and gloves instead of
drinking it.
16.5kph, not bad for a day with a total
climb of 1306m
Arriving through a flat section into
the area around Lindau, it was full of fruit growing farms and
vinyards, very scenic much like parts of Kent really. Only because
the clouds hid the Alps completely and for all we knew the landscape
was as flat as Holland. What a shame we couldn’t see the Toblerone peaks
today.
We arrived at Hotel Bulligan just
outside Lindau at around 3pm. Decided to take a bus into town to have
a look at the island and stock up on supplies. Craving fresh veg and
fruit, we decided to buy ingredients for a vitamin rich salad
(hard-boiled eggs, cucumber, tomatoes, radishes, lambs lettuce,
apple). We also bought some supplies for tomorrows lunch as nothing
at all is open in Germany/Austria on a Sunday.
We walked with heavy bags from the
shopping centre to the Lindau Insel (little Island in the Bodensee,
200m off the main land) and had a look at the sights. Almost noone
around again, nothing really open, cold (8 degrees) Was beautiful,
but would have been nice to see the faces of all the great peaks
around us, the clouds obscuring their gaze. The harbour (Yacht
parking) was also completely empty. This place would be mobbed in the
summer. Very expensive.
We hopped on the bus back and had a
feast of a salad in the room
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