Day 10; Bad Mergentheim - Michelstadt; July 28, 2003 (Monday)

I start around 7:30. Paddles everywhere. It was raining most of the night, but now the air so much fresher. I have to fix my front mudguard. It is too short, and water splashes on my legs.

Königheim

Until Walldürn road is relatively flat then it starts to climb again. I am on normal road.

I buy bicycle map of this region and find new route through forests. Fantastic. At least for first few kilometres. Asphalt road only for bicycle of course in the middle of the forest. It is quiet, trees everywhere.

I reach Günz, very small village which I cannot find on this map. But unfortunately from that point I have to climb for 6km :-( And this is very steep climb through forest pathway. There is no way I can ride there, have to push the bike. Complete wilderness, nothing expect trees. In a way it was great.

Suddenly I saw passing deer but wasn't quick enough to get my camera. It stopped for a while but when saw me quickly disappeared in the woods.

It is always like this, you climb first then you go down. So after killing climb I had 8 km downhill.

That was fun :-)

I got to Michelstadt, already new land - Hessen Odenwald - and started to look for the camping, which was indicated on the map. By the way today I was back in Bavaria.

In this area three lands meet - Bavaria, Hessen and Baden. But now I have left Bavaria for good.

Now back to the camping. So I am being directed to the camping, again have to climb heavily (my hopes for leaving hills in Bavaria are fading away) through the streets. I find the place and see a sign "Camping Closed". Can you believe it! I dead tired, It's been already close to 7 p.m. and was hungry. Nearest camping was another 30 or so km. Forget it.

Found a small hotel (€35), but at least had decent dinner, bed and breakfast, and shower.

Waldürn

Coming back to Waldürn for a moment. It was Monday noon, and all restaurants were closed! In Germany they have this thing "Ruhe Tag" - quiet day. This is ridiculous, you want to eat something and nothing is available. Ended up again at the petrol station.

Distance: 98 km
Average speed: 15 km/h