Now it's «really» getting started

After spending the first two days travelling in familiar areas and staying overnight with familiar faces, today was the first day into the «unknown». Thanks to the well-prepared routes and my bike computer, however, it was easy to find my way. And it was one thing above all: downhill. Like the water, I took the path of least resistance today - or something like that. As it got a bit late last night and I still wanted to get enough sleep - I only recently learnt how important that is - the start of the stage at 10:20 was a bit later than I had originally planned.

After just a few metres, I had reached the highest point of the day, after which it was all downhill. Incidentally, the German roads are really great for cycling - I was already thinking that yesterday. The cycle network is designed in such a way that you very rarely come into contact with cars and if you do, then only in urban areas where traffic flows slowly. But sometimes there's a small threshold or something every few metres, which was quite annoying today, at least in one area. Or a roadworks. There were at least four of them today, which affected my journey. I couldn't take the planned route at the first two, but at least a diversion was signposted. At the third one, I simply drove through like a car driver in front of me, which was loudly commented on by the construction workers, and at the last one I actually had to turn round and find a new route just before my destination, which was a bit annoying.

Shortly before Ulm, I reached the Danube for the first time, which I would follow through 8 countries over the next few days. I stopped for lunch in Ulm before continuing eastwards along the second longest river in Europe. The cycle path was often a gravel track and I was glad that I have a gravel bike, with which I could pass these roads without any problems, even the one place that was quite muddy. However, the surface has two main disadvantages for me: Firstly, it doesn't roll as well as on smooth road surfaces (and this rolling is one of the main reasons why I like cycling so much, it's just fun) and secondly, the many bumps and frequent potholes are not necessarily pleasant for the rear end either. Today, sitting down was a bit uncomfortable at times and the rough surface probably accentuated the problem.

Apart from that, I've already got used to life on a bike, which isn't too difficult with the beautiful weather that I was able to enjoy again today and the many small, picturesque towns that I cycled through. Something else I noticed today: it's incredibly flat here. There are no mountains or even hills to be seen in any direction up to the horizon. I'm not used to that in Switzerland. So of course there weren't many metres in altitude and despite a late descent and about the same number of kilometres as yesterday - after a small additional loop due to the roadworks mentioned above - I reached my stage finish point shortly before 6 p.m. in slowly fading sunshine.