Danube - Day in Triberg

Had time to build the bike and explore a bit of Triberg today.  It’s very Black Forest and Alpine here with the (rather large) hills and quite Bavarian looking houses, which isn’t surprising really as it’s located smack-dab in the middle of it.

The windows were open last night to hear the Wasserfall and we had the best sleep in ages!

Triberg overview 

The big job of the day was to get the bike put together for tomorrow and the box ready to ship to Hungary.  This was not a hardship since it was pouring rain outside! The owner of the hotel was so fascinated by the tandem and asked to take a picture. Steve has the rebuild down to about two hours now, although we did take a break for a proper Germanic breakfast. Several different kinds of yogurt with fruit and nuts, boiled eggs, a variety of crisp vegetables, and sliced meats and cheeses along with crusty bread and fresh butter.  Won’t be needing any more food until dinner!

We knew there was a Lidl in town so we walked until we found it - a mile downhill.  Picked up snacks for tomorrow, checked out the very low wine prices and walked the mile back uphill, passing not one, not two, but three other markets we’d missed on our way down!  Oh well, at least we got our steps in and were also incredibly thankful that we hadn’t had to push that box all the way up that hill!  

When we checked in, we paid the €12 city tax and received a card for entry to three museums and the Wasserfalls.  First time we’ve gotten something back from paying the city tax.  More uphill on the walk to the falls, but definitely worth it - they were just as billed - very high and gorgeous!

Then on our way down the hill, we visited the Schwarzwald Museum which was all about Triberg, the Black Forest, the costumes and the clocks.  Thought it was going to be just a little place, but it was packed with rooms depicting life here - lots of big stoves, fluffy duvets and snow boots, along with views of how people lived and worked.  A woodworker, clockmakers, a granny in her kitchen braiding straw into slippers and an interesting mine shaft showing the workers and hundreds of different sparking crystals and stones that they mined.  The area is renowned for its clocks and musical glockenspiels.  The clocks ranged from hand painted enamel to moving farm cuckoo clocks, and intricately carved grandfather clocks.  There is an annual festival here called the Ham Festival where people dress up in costumes and masks so we saw some of those. There were also some amazing miniatures throughout the museum including a replica of the hills and valley we’re in. Well worth the visit!

Came across some teddy bears climbing the House of a Thousand Clocks!  So many cool things here, but can’t add any weight at this stage - we’d have to carry it all the way to Hungary!

There was more rain, but we missed most of it. Had another great dinner at La Cascata and then headed off for an early bed!

Comments:

1. SteveJune 4, 2025 at 5:08 PM

   Bike went together pretty well, still have to get it down to street level, left the tyres flat in case wheels need to come off🤔. Wine price is in euros, it’s like being back in Italy, in both the UK and the USA wine is taxed to death!! Fun starts tomorrow with a climb out of here and off we go … hopefully the “biblical rain” holds off 😎

   Reply
2. 
   BrianJune 5, 2025 at 6:47 PM

   What a cute town! Nice to get in a day of sightseeing before hitting the road. Hopefully you get at least your first day with no rain, especially with the climb. I'm such a fairweather rider. 😀

Danube - Heading to Germany

 

Had a lovely visit with Sofia!  And did one last birthday celebration with Jess!

Up early (really early as neither of us slept well) w/ enough time for a coffee with Sofia, Jess and Jack before our taxi to St. Pancras arrived. Thought we’d have plenty of time to make our 10:24 departure with a 7:00 pick up, but prime London commuting time on the first day back after a half-term week made for a tense journey. We made it to the Eurostar terminal in time and just a tiny bit early.  When one of the guards saw our enormous tandem box, he waved us right up to a desk and we were able to skip a massive queue!  We also were early enough to get on the 9:30 rather than the 10:24 train, making the transit time from Gare du Nord to Gare de l’Est a bit more comfortable - a French coffee and baguette stop perhaps?!

The walk to Gare de l’Est was as promised, short and no steps!  Found a baguette and coffee place, didn’t find a bathroom or euros.😬 There is a new policy on Paris - if we’re going through it, we must stay overnight! 

Made the train on time, pushing the very big box!  Off to Germany for a change in Karlsruhe and on to Triberg.  Very short connection, hope we make it!

The trains in Europe are so fast, think this was the fastest one we’d ever been on!

 

We missed the connection!  Darn!  There was a passport check on the train from Paris to Karlsruhe and some people were ‘de-trained’. That made the arrival 15 minutes late and we only had 17 minutes to make the connection - even with being first off the train, no luck!  Oh well, sorted it out with the hotel and they seemed okay so we arrive in Triberg at 20:45.

Hotel Central Garni was amazing, sorting out restaurants and taxis (or trying to).  Finally the hotel owner himself came to the station, met us on the platform, helped carry the big box and stuffed our whole business in his tiny European car.  If he hadn’t come to get us, we would have had to walk a mile uphill pushing the big tandem box and, quite frankly, would have been a bit cranky at that point.  Writing the best review ever!

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant, La Cascata, which we never complain about.  And very happy to get back to our room after a very long day, and the comfy German beds, and the sound of the Wasserfall outside our window.  Ahhhh!

Comment from Steve:

Long day but we made it intact I think. This (Triberg) is a great place, it’s still out of season so it is quiet, just us chickens in the hotel I think. The sound of the waterfall, great start. Had the good fortune to meet some really helpful people today, we love Europe. Tomorrow is “build the tandem” day, well morning.

The day after is day 1 of the peddling. We are at 2000 ft (last few miles of the train ride were a climb out of the Rhine Valley), by mile 8 on day one we will be at 3600 ft then it’s basically downhill all the way way 😁😁😁. Well, not quite but I think Day 1 will be the hardest of the tour. Pleased to report German beer is still very good, maybe tomorrow we will find some traditional German food? Bring it on.

Danube - And We’re Off!

 Home to West End

Doing one big tandem tour a year has been part of the annual plan for a while now and Steve is always hunting for (and finding!) good routes. This year’s trip is following the Danube River from the Black Forest to Budapest, which will take us through Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.  Theoretically it’s downhill, but there’s 12,000 feet of climbing over the 750-800 miles.

All the hotels have been booked, 17 in total. Each one has been carefully selected according to the criteria developed on the LEJOG trip - price, quality, a location close to the trail, close to the Old Town (and dinner), not at the top of a hill and having parking / storage for the tandem.

Finding the gpx route was a challenge.  The gpx files were a godsend on LEJOG so I wanted them to be all loaded on Komoot and ready to go.  We have the Cicerone book, Cycling the Danube Part 1, but the route in the book is so complex to follow, I would spend all my time staring at the book to find the hundreds of turns each day.  I have no idea how a solo cyclist could even use it without continually stopping to look at the next few turns.  After looking at a variety of routes, I checked the book website and found matching downloadable gpx files!  Neither Steve nor I noticed any mention of them in the book, but very happy to have found them.  We have them now and they are all uploaded to Komoot. However, I do suspect that, given the route runs through Germany and Austria, it will be well sign-posted.  

We’ve been packing for days!  The complexity on this is the new elements of bringing the tandem, in its box, all of the tandem gear that doesn’t fit in the box (top box, bottle cages, pannier racks, panniers, pedals, chains), plus pedalling / nighttime clothes for all the days of the trip, travel to Jess’s clothes, travel to Germany clothes, travel from Budapest clothes, horn / lights, wet / cold weather gear, credit cards / passports and the all important document pack with every single reservation - travel and hotels. Steve boxed up the tandem and we put all of the bike gear in which filled most of the suitcase and we still had all of the clothing / wash kit / shoes, etc., to fit it.  We crammed in as much as we could into the suitcase around the bike gear and stuffed the rest into two backpacks and, voila, it all fit and was under the weight limit!

For this trip we had to travel to Germany and come back from Budapest, as mentioned 800 miles.  Normally we would take a car and do a circular loop, not possible for this one.  Also not really feasible (or comfortable) to take a two-day train ride back from Budapest, even if they would allow the tandem on the train, which they won’t.  So we’re going out by train to Germany and flying back from Budapest.  

Next challenge, what to do with the box?  Steve managed to find a company that would pick up from our first hotel and ship it to a bike shop in Budapest who would store it until we get there 🤞🤞🤞

So, looking forward to a nice visit with Jess and Matt and the kiddos!  Then off to St. Pancras and the Eurostar in the morning!

Danube Shakedown Pedal - Final Day Complete!

 Day three and the final one of this Shakedown Pedal.  We were pretty wrecked last night, but had a lovely meal and a very early bed.  Malham is a fantastic place for a walk, but we didn’t 😂

The route home was a bit more civilised.  Back over the Malham hill and into Airton, then we were back on familiar territory - Hellifield, Bolton-by-Bowland, Sawley, Whalley and from there the 6 mile long slow climb back home (and the promised negroni!).

Danube Shakedown complete!  Bike, gear and us tested.  Forgot a couple minor things, but that was it.  Very pleased and ready to do the final pack and head out!

Danube Shakedown Pedal Day 2 - Conder Green to Malham

Hills, hills and more hills would be a good way to describe today!  I don’t know that we’ll have this many on the Danube!

As it’s a shakedown: new tires are okay, they work on crushed gravel which is what we need for Danube, legs and backsides seem to be okay with this tandem (pedals and seats), we’re doing okay fully loaded - this is all progress!

The bike will be fine for Danube which is not incredibly hilly, but needs adjustments for Lancashire / Yorkshire.  It needs a lower gear (or two) and better brakes.  The hills that we did today were many and pretty brutal.

We went from Conder Green to Malham today and as you’ll see from the profile, it was hilly.  48 miles and 2600 feet.  Started out on the gravel path from Glasson Dock to Lancaster, one of Sofia’s favourites.  The bike did well on that track and received the tick in the Shakedown box.  We then picked up the Way of the Roses route, which we’d followed 10 or so years ago on our first Coast to Coast.

Then we encountered the Yorkshire hills.  Up and down, up and down.  Found a great tearoom at Horton and stopped at the Naked Man in Settle for lunch - where we met another couple (this time on a tandem) who were doing LEJOG.  Made our way from there to Rathmell, Wigglesworth, Hellifield, Airton (with a stop for a restorative orange) before making the last climb over the last hill to Malham.

Staying at The Buck Inn.  We’ve wanted to stay in Malham for a few years now, but because of Covid and high prices after Covid we haven’t been able to find a room.  Tonight was lovely, had a drink outside in the centre of the village and then had a really nice meal at the pub (even had chicken wings!).  The rooms are very comfy and much quieter than last night!

Think Steve said it best today, ‘Welcome to Yorkshire, have a hill!’

Danube Shakedown Pedal - The Official One

We’ve had a couple of pre-shakedown pedals to get the kinks out after the tandem rebuild, but this is the official one!  Home to Conder Green via Longridge and Scorton, then over to Malham in Yorkshire tomorrow and then back home via Hellifield on Tuesday.  We’ll see how many miles and what the altitude gain is when we get back!

Headed out at 10ish with the first 7 miles mostly downhill, and with the next 4-5 mostly uphill - welcome back to Lancashire!  Longridge was an open cafe ‘free’ zone on Sunday morning so we made do with a Diet Coke from Sainsbury’s.  Did find a great cafe (that was open) a few miles outside of Longridge, complete with clean and fluffy llamas.

The Barn at Scorton was absolutely heaving, but provided an excellent and refreshing lunch.  Everybody thinks we’re doing LEJOG because we’re wearing the jerseys - nope, that was 2023 and those are ‘trophy jerseys’.  We did bump into a couple doing LEJOG there though!

Not far from Scorton to our overnight stay at The Stork at Conder Green.  Had to dodge a few obstacles on the way, but we made it!

Not the biggest or highest day, but a good ride out.  Shakedown tweaks - one.  The rear wheel stopped working, had moved slightly in the frame and the brakes caught it, easy fix.  That’s what shakedown pedals are all about!

Had a great day and a very nice night at the Stork!