Woke up early. Breakfast started at 7. We made it down before 8. Had hot chocolate – tasted like they made it with Wasser. Ate a lot today. It was very good again. I really like the egg salad and the dried cereal with various yogurts mixed in. The peach is the best.
Did not want to overdo the warmup walks before we arrive in the Alps.
| Old church by the hotel without people |  |
| Walked down to the river and turned left to avoid the 7 mile lake loop Took pictures of some really nice reflections in the river. Diane has a good eye for pictures |
|
 |
River bridge |
| River building |  |
 |
Another river bridge |
| We stumbled upon a 6 mile lake walk going to the next town. Lots of bicycles, roller bladers and runners | |
| A walking tunnel on the long walk |  |
| Those Germans really like to exercise. Does not match up with the number of people smoking. We are constantly walking through clouds of smoke whenever it gets crowded in the city. | |
 |
Saw an interesting water wheel that pickup up water from the river to feed a fake stream through the park. |
| Saw several people playing ping-pong outdoors. The city had stone tables with metal nets. The people brought their own paddles. Must be quite a challenge to account for the wind.
Finally turned around and came back when we reached the next town. Returned through a cemetery. If the feet weren’t complaining about the mileage we were asking them to do before the mountain hiking, the cemetery walk would have been interesting. Very large trees, thousands of graves. Most graves had multiple live flowers. The grass was well kept short weeds not mowed. It looked so natural – just what most people say about corpses in the coffin at the viewing. Finally made it back to the room. 6 miles. Collapsed and fell asleep for an hour. Feet got life back in them enough to drag ourselves outside again. We did not come all this distance to sit inside a room with weather this nice, in spite of what the feet would prefer to do. We had to stop and buy pistachio and cherry gelato to re-energize. And a slice of tomato mozzarella pizza. Gelato good. Pizza, well, lesson learned. |
|
|
Decided to get lost today in the train station instead of tomorrow morning when under pressure to get a German vending machine to give me the correct ticket. We went to 4 machines and pushed the English Flag button and did not see one English word on any of the screens. Perhaps it is payback. I read that Nuremberg was destroyed by 554 English bombers 6 months after DDay. That was payback for the London blitz. I also saw several trees that are the same kind as the one that was in my back yard growing up. They look to be about 50 years old. I wonder if the Germans know the English name of the tree is London Plane Sycamore. Kind of warped British humor. Guessed at the ticket, bought something and then found our way out of the train station. |
|
|
Sun was still up. No sense wasting daylight. Decided to walk around the city wall. It is a lot farther walking the perimeter of a city than wandering around inside. In one place, some old guys took pity on us and tried to tell us in German that we were walking into a dead end. When they found we didn’t understand what they were saying it took some hand waving and slow talking to get the idea across. We saw about 10 old guys playing bocce ball. They threw from one end over rough ground with spots of grass growing and after 30 feet the ground slanted to the right and the last 10 feet was fairly smooth. We finally reached the same bridges we left the city on for the 6 mile hike earlier in the day. |
|
| City skyline; the bicycle sign does not help |  |
 |
Outer wall battlement; the umbrellas do not help |
| Another round tower on the wall; the homeless guy in the archway does not help |  |
|
Quickly head to the gelato shop for a chocolate and raspberry. Tried to eat it near the pan pipe player but just when we arrived he put away his pan pipe. We went inside the hotel, finished the gelato, made tea, had a juice mixture, went to the room, and listened to the feet. Sat down and rested after 11.7 miles. Tomorrow we sit on the train for 4 hours. Diane is looking forward to me dashing down to the bakery before we leave so I can buy her a piece of carrot cake and chocolate cake so she does not get hungry on the train ride. The bakery is about 1/2 mile away so it is not really a dash from my perspective. |
|