Wrong turns build character

We got up Monday morning, refreshed from a long night's sleep.  In fact, I nearly jumped out of bed fearing an air raid when my little Timex alarm beeped at 7.  We had to get our bags packed and waiting by the hotel front desk at 9, so we triaged our packing and dropped them off with 30 seconds to spare.  After that we had a very generous breakfast, packed our bikes, and checked out.  The hotel was kind of strange, but nice and roomy.  Here's our bikes parking outside of our window:

Today's mileage was going to be 45 Km (28 miles).    We exited Konstanz, now pros at navigating our way through town.   We stopped on a big bridge to take this picture, using the cool flexible tripod that Bob bought for the trip.  Due to its precarious position, we thought it would be funny to say we lost the camera on  the first day after it was run over on the highway and then flung into the Rhein.  Fortunately, it worked out perfectly.

Things were going well until, about 45 minutes into the ride, but then I looked at my Garmin (a wrist GPS unit I own, worn to track time and distance) and we'd traveled a whole 6 miles.   Oh well.  The paths were a mix of gravel and asphalt.  The pavement seemed to just come right when my teeth were just about rattled out of my head.

The path system was well marked and each town was interlaced with multiple paths.  It would be like riding from Prescott, to Woodbury, to Hopkins, all on one path.  Amazing.   Since it was Easter Monday, they were busy.  I can't imagine what it's like in the summer.

We followed our sign posting fairly confidently, stopping here and there for pictures.   After lunch in Stein am Rhein, we continued "west-ish" toward Schaffhausen.  Somewhere along the way, probably due to an unreasonable level of comfort in navigating, we found ourselves staring up an incline so steep and windy it deserved its own warning sign.  Even though Bob said "this can't be right", we checked the map and ultimately decided to continue.  The route was 1.6 km long and might be steeper than the hills along the Mississippi south of Prescott on 35.  Let's just say, I walked.  Bob pedaled away and made it up the whole darn thing, switchbacks and all.  Fortunately, he waited for me at the top.   At least this was the beginning of a thrilling downhill ride into the next town.  Also fortunately, it was a town on our route.

Here is Bob posing by some street art in Stein am Rhein, prior to the wrong turn:

We finally found the ridiculously flat and easy route that we were supposed to have taken and completed our ride to Schaffhausen.  The scenery was beautiful and we got a glimpse into the vacation trends of the Swiss.

Schaffhausen is fairly large, but very old fashioned in the area that we are staying.  It reminds me of Florence with charming piazzas and crazy statues.  Oddly, all of the restaurants are Italian.  Here I am standing by a fountain.

 After looking at 10 Italian restaurants (which I normally love, don't get me wrong) we settled on the hotel restaurant with a more local feel to the menu.  Bob had the Kronenstube Schnitzel and I had the
"Spezial" Ox Burger.

Now we are left with just enough time to repack for tomorrow and rest up for our longest cycling leg yet.   Bob just said "we've got to go to bed!"  I agree.