“All right, we’ll meet at Lake Illmen“ I said to my girlfriend, who had planned two weeks of camping vacation there with her three girls. By car, of course. A good 250 km – we can do that by bike! An old luggage trailer from the flea market and the children, just under one and four years old, together in the children’s trailer, that would have to work!
Actually, you should get on your socks early when a good 100 km distance is waiting for you. Even though we knew it, it was afternoon, until we had packed the followers with all the essentials of life, such as tents, oatmeal, bottles, diapers and biscuits to keep the children happy.
Pack up the kids and go! Stop! Not 100 m behind the house did we notice at the railway barrier that we had forgotten our water bottles. So sprint back before it was called “free ride ahead“ in bright sunshine.
It was fantastic and the sweat was flowing, especially after we had made our way to the albaufstieg. The sweat ran even more here, but the ride was clearly stalled. On shady forest floor the wheels often went through and we had to push – on the idea that the big one could walk, we only came on the way back. Bravely, we fought ahead. Finally! In the late afternoon at five we had the ascent behind us. We made a complete Vesperspause and would have preferred to pitch our tent right here on this forest clearing. But even if we were at the end, our way was unfortunately far from it. In fact, half the distance to Sigmaringen was still ahead of us. Luckily with less incline...
At night at half past eleven, we dribbled into our stage destination, the campsite in Sigmaringen. Of course, we didn’t come up with the idea that this could be banging during the summer holidays, nor did we have to – of course – present your identity card. Ups, who stayed at home in the big wallet... We almost had been rejected quite unkindly, but when the night watchman saw our two sleeping crumbs in the bike trailer, he pressed both eyes, which we did after tent construction and a quick portion of spaghetti from the pack.
The night was loud – somehow everyone was in party mood, only we had other plans. Moderately rested and with a painful back we swung after breakfast and shower again on our wheels. The children were in a good mood and played with their cuddly toy rhinoceros – which have been pushed out of the hanger several times. We were also good things, because we had the ascent behind us and the sun laughed. But “the day was no less strenuous, but it felt like it was uphill for hours, interrupted by a few minutes flat track or downhill (of course, that looks different for miles, but down was always so fast over...). During the breaks, Talida practiced running diligently while I stretched out all fours of me.
Juhu! Five hours earlier than yesterday we reached our destination, the nice campsite Seewiese on Lake Illmensee. To celebrate the day, we enjoyed a delicious pizza after the tent was built.
Together with our friend and their children we spent a wonderful week with splashing, hiking, relaxing and of course cycling. During a detour to the Pfrunger Ried, we had our horror experience: our GPS drove us over dirt roads, which eventually lost themselves in nothingness and ended up in high grass and bushwork, where we were almost eaten up by mosquitoes and brakes. Let’s get out of here! Slightly panicked we fought with followers through the bush and were reconciled with nature at a rest at the nature conservation center and later at a pub where we found hundreds of small frogs.
After a week of wonderful weather, it had to rain naturally on the day of departure... Luckily only until noon, so that we packed our tent quickly and started with full throttle towards the Danube, not without feeding an ice cream on the way. Once again we arrived in Beuron on the Danube – for the way back we had chosen a different route for several reasons – and only wanted to roll to the campground. However, we did not find any at first. The next pedestrian was willing to tell us that the place was in the direction of houses, about 7 km away. At that moment, I was so disappointed, I thought we’d made it for the day. So again “Pustekuchen“ with rest, now it was said to continue trampling. But what is 7 km? Especially since the campsite with its old construction cars is idyllically located on the Danube and this time expected us a quiet and relaxing night, so that we could leave strengthened to the last stage. In the meantime, we were almost professionals when it came to steep climbs on gravel roads, especially because Nora was allowed to run. Still, it got dark over the way home, but what’s the point? Made, happy and also a bit proud to have mastered the challenge (and 3113 altitude meters), we arrived at home again. And now, with new wheel rearers, we would make it smooth again - the two big ones will of course drive themselves!
