Tuesday 4th Septmber (not December-thanks Aniket!!) 2007 (Day 49): Rettenberg to Lindau (83km, average temperature 9° centigrade)

Brrrrr...well, the promised rain was falling (nay, hosing down) when we got up and had breakfast. It later turned to fair size hail, but I´m getting ahead of myself here! The route description was once again next to useless, and the day that had promised to be mainly downhill, undulated wildly. We are using one of the usually useful route descriptions available in Germany and Austria, with maps, places to stay, things to see, and relief profiles. The relief profile in this particular book had just averaged our the relief and drawn straight lines between destinations, thereby showing only total ascent or descent. On a given day the book might show 300 meters of ascent, but cumulatively you might in face ascend 1,000 or 2,000 meters in total. It has been a couple of days like this...ah well, we´re getting fitter.

We were, however, dressed in our rather splendid waterproofs (North Face trousers, Sprayway jacket, Goretex gaiters (can´t remember the make) and Sealskin waterproof socks). As such, we were warm and feeling rather rufty tufty, although the extremeties were somewhat chilly. The wickedly steep hill (not shown) did provide an opportunity to warm our feet up, though, when we ended up pushing the bikes as the surface was fine, `skiddy' gravel.

Between downpours we had a couple of heavenly, sunny moments to enjoy the landscape and our surroundings. The mountains were looking their best, with tendrils of clouds shot through with sunshine twining around the slopes and peaks.

The final few kilometers into Lindau were a bit of a mystery tour as there was no sight of the lake or the town until we were alomst there. Lindau is another of those fascinating Medieval towns with houses built topsy turvy beside each other, tiny alleyways, and frescoes beautifully restored on many of the buildings.

There was no dissent between us when it was suggested that we book into a guest house. After trying a few places we found a superb´`Bett und Bike' place called Hotel Schreier (Fabergasse 2, D-88131 Lindau, Bodensee, info@hotel-schreier.de, http://www.hotel-schreier/) where we even have a mini sauna in the room, something we made immediate use of. The staff are friendly and helpful too. No cycling tomorrow!