I cleaned up my campsite in Reinlach and said goodbye to the my new friends. They have a converted fire truck camper van I’d love to see at some point should I make it to the Netherlands.
I expected today to be a bit of a push. I wasn’t in the shape to do a 4,000ft+ climb into the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) and much of the area I was passing through before Freiburg was to be farm land. There was also the unfortunate fact that it was a public holiday with most grocery stores sold out and essentially everything booked.
I went through Basel and didn’t take note of much aside from my continued confusion with city navigation and finding the right bridge. Basel was first place I saw graffiti in Switzerland.
I crossed into Germany.
The next couple hours I pedaled hard without much of a break. I’d been set on a 90 mile day with the 4000ft elevation gain to get to a neat place to rest. I haven’t had the true rest day I’ve needed but I’ve been holding off until Germany where I can get a decent hotel for a bit cheaper. It wouldn’t be until later in the day when I’d reevaluate.
I made it to Freiburg and started towards the Black Forest. I was completely spent. I stopped and sat on a bench planning my next move. The end result was booking the last bed in town at a Black Forest Hostel. At that same moment an elderly couple sat next to me on a bench. They spoke English enough and we discussed his travels, aging, and life as a cake/confectionary maker. I almost thought they were going to offer me a place to stay but I think I selected the wrong choose-your-adventure questions for that outcome.
I passed out next to a creek for an hour barely able to move. Finally, I made my way to the hostel. Freiburg, rather uniquely, is a university town with an absolutely outstanding number of bicycles. And it turns out a correspondingly massive amount of bike theft. The hostel is one of only that didn’t offer some sort of solution aside from leaving it locked up outside which adds to unexpected anxiety.
I’m really struggling with the language barrier in Germany. Time to fix that as well.