Day 31- Ulm to Reutlingin

Guess what time I was awake this morning?

Yes you guessed it right…. 5.30 am again!

I awoke to the sound of rain but looking out the window it was merely a passing shower thankfully. The temperature was cool to start off with at around 14 degrees with cloud cover but as the day wore on the sun was quite warm with temperatures around 28 degrees.

We skipped breakfast at the hotel and decided to have it along the way. It means we can get about 20 kms in before stopping for breakfast…. We started off at about 6.30 am and arrived at a lovely town called Blaubeuren for breakfast of 2 croissants and 2 cappuccino’s… it was nice to have a break!

After breakfast it was on towards our destination of Reutlingen which was a steady uphill for most of the ride. We seemed to be in lovely valleys with the roads and cycling paths following the valley in twists and turns. It is interesting that the roads and paths are generally all paved with good surfaces and the roads etc go in all directions. There is also very little traffic.

At about the 50 km mark we were looking for a place to stop for a coffee break and arrived at a town called Buttenhausen. Chris spotted a table and chairs out what seemed to be a cafe and we went inside to checkout what was available. It turned out to be a disability centre. We then met several of the staff of the centre and were given a tour of the facilities by Sabine Mede who has had a 40 year association with the organisation Bruderhaus Diakonie. They are an organisation which looks after people with disabilities of various kinds and have over 200 clients under their care. It seems that they have both residential and day services throughout the who town and the facilities we were shown included a cafe which I was most excited to see. This because I am doing this ride particularly to raise funds for the Alkira Cafe where the cafe will train Alkira Participants to be cafe staff and baristas to be later employed in the work force. So here we are in Germany and we come across this organisation which has so many similarities to Alkira…

They also have a lovely arts centre which they call a Living Museum where clients paint and do art with visiting local artists…. Very impressive indeed

The tour of the cafe was quite special and it seems that it was inspired by a fellow who lived in the building and was inspired by flying and made several flying machines. The cafe is called Ikarus and was well equipped and provided a real inspiration to the possibilities of the Alkira Cafe. I was presented with a couple of books which will be mailed back to Alkira on the story of the man who inspired the Ikarus cafe.

During the tour we made several video recordings which will be shared with the folk at Alkira and it no might be the catalyst to share information on latest trends in disability matters.

Finally, we had a coffee and ice cream at the facility which are made by the clients… wonderful end to the tour.

Then it was on for the remainder of the trip. By this time Steve was struggling a bit with the load of his bags after his illness yesterday. Chris and I that we should take a bag each on our bikes to lighten his load. Fortunately the Aero Spider bag system allows multiple bag carry arrangements to accommodate 3 bags on a bike. This worked really well in this case. Steve really appreciated the help to ensure the day went smoothly.

The days climbing ended at about the 70 km mark with a lovely downhill into Reutlingen and we were at our accommodation at about 4.15pm

We had completed 84 kms and climbed about 520 metres which was a good day of riding.

The check in at the hotel was a bit of a hassle as it was done “ on line” and I had to spend time on the phone with the hotel owner to get the check in sorted.

In all it was a great day and I was particularly pleased with the visit we made at Buttenhausen

Today’s photos are the route

Breakfast!

Outside the Living Museum

Chris loaded up!

My bike loaded up!

Some of the country we passed through

An ice cream at the end of the day

A mill wheel we saw along the way