So today we slept late again. It was nice. We toddled down to a nice breakfast around 9:30am.We were not the last folks to show up for breakfast, at least. Like most hotels, the breakfast is a buffet of mostly cold cuts, cheese, breads, cereals, yogurts, jams, fruit juices, boiled eggs, and scrambled eggs. Amelia is fortunate to have a juice option she can drink here: grape juice.
It's a postcard perfect weather day! Here's the view from the front of the hotel toward the town in the valley below.
And, here's a view of the hotel. Our room is on the back facing the fields and forests. It's very quiet, except for the many birds.
As you can see, not so many folks here right now. The Thermalbad is on the left of the picture (the silvery looking buildings).
So, today we rode our bikes in a loop as suggested in the tourist cycling brochure. The map showed 19 kilometers and about 500 feet of climbing (mostly in the first half - uphill, then downhill for the second half).
Unfortunately, the map was a bit vague about the actual names of the streets, even of how to get through Bad Rodach on the intended bath. But, we figured out more or less how to do that, but we had to stop pretty frequently to check the map against our location on google maps. It made for a slow ride in more ways than one. However, the weather was perfect. Once out of Bad Rodach, we found a bike path to take us to the next village, Heldritt. It was a nice wide paved path, but clearly hillier than the road it sort of followed. The views were lovely, though, mostly farmland.
We are wondering what this crop really is?
This sort of grain is most common here. You can see the undulating fields and meadows. We were going mostly uphill but nothing really steep.
We saw a few other folks on the path, mostly families with children cycling. We saw many wildflowers and lots of poppies.
So, we figured our way through Heldritt once the bike path ended at the village limit, and managed to stay on route according to google maps and the tour map. However, we were clearly expected to take a right turn upon leaving Heldritt and we did. This was clearly a country road, with some rough pavement, some farms and horses around. It was scenic but a bit rough.
Then, the road ended and we had a two track path through the deep woods. We checked and double checked and we were really on the path the tour map said to take, so we ventured forward. We have no photos from this section because Amelia is the photographer and she was busy peddling slowly uphill in the mud and gravel, wondering how she suddenly became a mountain biker but thankful for her hugely fat tires on this terrain. We did a couple of very slow miles through this section and finally came out into dryer tracks and eventually into fields and back to a mostly paved path, shown below.
Because we'd been steadily climbing we had nice views in all directions. Looking back we could see in the distance our hotel and the other buildings near it (the light colored bits between the dark green bands).
Zoomed here to show the roof of the buildings and to show that it was all uphill for us.
We carried on toward the next tinier village, Grattstadt, which doesn't even seem to have a pub or anything. It had very nice homes, though. Perhaps these folks don't want to live in the big city of Bad Rodach (big city = 6,000 population). The farms around the village are lovely, too.
This is Grattstadt.
With some difficulty we figured out how to get through Grattstadt's streets and stay on the planned route (no thanks to the tour map). We kept going slowly uphill again but the view north was quite magnificent and we could see giant windmills to the east and farms and villages and forests in all directions.
The path became a gloriously smooth way, with fields and trees here and there. And we made it to the highest point of the ride which was also roughly the half way point (6 miles). It took an hour to go 6 miles. Seriously. That's an hour of moving time, not counting time spent stopping to check google maps on the iPhone running up our international roaming data bill (priceless, that has been, in keeping us from getting totally lost while out on the bike).
After a short while, we entered deep woods. The trees here are very tall and the woods are very dark in places. It was so nice and shady and cool. However, we were now on unpaved dual track again and this time we were going down hill, sometimes sharply down hill. Did we mention we are not mountain bikers (even though Amelia is riding a mountain bike in Germany)? It was wild.
In some places it was bit muddy because of the rain all day yesterday and in some places there were potholes with water but we mostly avoided them. We went straight down hill for about 3 miles. It was pretty awesome but also a bit scary since we are mostly road cyclists, not off-road!
Everywhere we bike in Germany we pass countless fields of whatever this is (wheat? hay? Some sort of grain...).
We went through another tiny village, Lempertshausen, climbed out to more farm fields, and we could see Bad Rodach not too far away. The path diverged from the road again and took us between fields until we got to Bad Rodach and returned to the roads yet again.
We entered Bad Rodach from the north west, and saw some streets and buildings we haven't seen before, including another stretch of the city walls and another wall tower here (left of center). We made it back to the center (i.e. where the city hall is) and biked back toward our hotel on the next hill.
Unfortunately, it was past 2pm which means no regular restaurant is going to be serving lunch. We stopped at the local Döner Kebab house but it was closed. It's not even open on Saturday and Sunday. What is up with that? We biked on, thinking we might get some food in the eating part of the Thermalbad, which we intended to swim in afterwards. However, right before our last turn, Andy found this little Bratwürst shack. It was in a parking lot a block from the Thermalbad and next to a construction site and not much else. Folks were eating there, though, so we stopped and ordered grilled bratwurst with bread, mainly because we had no idea what the other things he had for sale really were. Note the orange flame! He's grilling in there.
It was rather tasty but the only cola available was this one Bad Brambacher, which is a mix of cola, orange juice, and lemonade. What drunk came up with that combination? Amelia couldn't drink it because of her orange allergy, so Andy had one.
So, there were were, sitting on a bench on the side of the road in our Super Grover jerseys, having Bratwurst. YUMMY!
Yes, he really does serve it in a bun and the sausage hangs out. No plates, either. Just a bun. He did have ketchup, though!
We then climbed the last little hill to the hotel and put the bikes back in the hotel garage, which is around the side by the kitchen. Certain times of day the smell is amazing in there!
As you can see, it was a picture perfect day!
We changed and went over to the Thermalbad and had an hour and a half of swimming in two different indoor pools. We did not swim outside because it was very sunny (Hello? Do you want to get skin cancer?) and the outdoor pools were really crowded.
This outdoor pool is connected to the indoor pool above. Almost all the folks were in the outdoor pool and it had live music going (a woman with a keyboard and mic) and the folks were dancing in the pool to the music. Clearly, they knew all these songs and dances. After the live music ended, a man came out with swim noodles for everyone and then lead a big water aerobics class. None of these folks were as young as we are! It was hilarious to watch.
After our swim, we walked back to the hotel for showers, then we walked back to the Thermalbad to try the restaurant upstairs. We ate outside. You can see the blue umbrellas in the photo above. That's the restaurant over looking the outdoor pools.
Amelia had Frankenwaldschnitzel which is cooked with a slice of ham and Gouda cheese on top, and served with a topping of cranberry chutney and a creamy mushroom sauce. It was heavenly.
Andy had the Hungarian paprika schnitzel which was also very good.
Like most German restaurants, this one serves ice cream. Andy had the combination selection.
Amelia had a combination of vanilla and chocolate. It was yummy. Germans are serious about their ice cream. Daddy would be proud!
Here's a view of the outdoor pools after supper.
After supper, we took a half hour walk through the Kurpark which is just below the hotel. It has paths, and a brook (we think it's a spring), and a pond, and benches and ducks and other amusements aimed at children.
Apparently, the Kurpark is only 26 years old! It's a lovely place for a walk and to end the day.
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