The Dolomites

For a week our bicycles got a vacation. Stored in the basement of my aunt's cellar, they waited patiently while we extended our mid-bike tour break. My second cousin Pia and her husband Joerg drove from Dresden with borrowed harnesses and...

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Nuremberg

We have reached the symbolic midpoint of our trip. Late on a warm afternoon we arrived in Nuremberg at the doorstop of my Tante Christel, my father´s younger sister. It has been thirteen years since she visited our family in California, and...

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Rothenburg

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a sweet morsel of a town, conveniently located on our route as we headed east towards Nurnberg. The "ob der Tauber" is often left off the name for brevity, but it aptly desribes its lofty position "above the" Tauber...

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The Neckar River

Can I take a moment and express my love of German bread? It is undoubtably the best in the world. Bakeries exist in most towns, and each sell several varieties, some deep, dark and grainy, some with leathery crusts and soft aromatic interiors....

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The Black Forest

We turned north from the flats of the Rhein River into the Southern Black Forest. We followed the road north to the town of Wehr. As we do many days, we found a bench and spread out our tent to dry while we ate lunch, since we packed it wet...

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Lake Constance

If it is one thing that can get my husband sneezing, its freshly mowed grass. And we had two long days of cycling the hills of Bavaria, surrounded by piles of the stuff. Poor guy -- we had a few steep climbs, too, and it only increased his...

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Neuschwanstein

We arrived in the campground on the shores of Froggensee. Glancing at the detailed weather report posted on the bulletin board, the forecast was for clear weather for the next few days -- the unusually wet pattern we had experienced for the...

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