Reflections on Germany: where are all of the sheep?

We started writing this a few days ago, but after a few long days on the bikes and full evenings chatting with WarmShowers hosts we are only now getting round to posting this...

After 14 nights in Germany, including 10 nights with WarmShowers hosts, we are now leaving Germany for the last time to head south into Austria. We didn't intend to spend this long in Germany, but we've had such a great time, and everyone has been so welcoming, we thought we'd extend the route through Bavaria and we're very glad we did! 

The Bavarian Alps isn't that common a destination for British tourists (in our experience at least!), and following the last few days we don't really understand why. What the region lacks in height relative to the neighbouring Swiss and Austrian Alps, it more than makes up for in quiet serene roads, friendly hospitality and plentiful beautiful lakes to swim in. 

Mary next to one of many beautiful lakes we cycled by/swam in 

Beautiful Bavaria, just after visiting a bobsleigh museum!

After following the Rhine from Basel to Konstanz, and now content that we'd seen enough of the Rhine, we headed east along the German/Austrian border on the northern edge of the alps. We had a very pleasant evening in Konstanz but the infrastructure around the lake is struggling to cope with the sheer number of ebikes; with some semi-pedestrianised streets  being closed to bikes all together, whilst remaining open to cars(!!!!) - very strange. Having too many ebikes on the road isn't an issue that we've really come across in the UK, but with the rapid increase in the number of novice e-cyclists with poor handling/signalling/complete absence of any cycling etiquette or basic awareness of others - it really is an issue in hotspots like Lake Constance!

Leaving Konstanz we've found Bavaria to be a very relaxing and beautiful change from the Rhine. 
Mary doing her best impression of a Disney princess

Neuschwanstein Castle - worth pushing our bikes up a steep hill for!

As we enter Austria, we've been reflecting on the main differences we've noticed as we've cycled through the Netherlands, Germany, France and Switzerland (albeit very briefly): 

 - Cycling infrastructure: this was absolutely fantastic in the Netherlands. Dropped kerbs everwhere, and no potholes! Germany wasn't quite as good, but we've still been so impressed relative to the UK. 
- Ebikes: some sections of the Rhine, as well as the hillier parts of Germany, it seems around 90% of the bikes are electric. We're not sure if it's partly when we cycle mid-week, we're more likely to see older cyclists who are more likely to be on ebikes, but it seems rare to see other non-ebikers. We heard that ebikes outsold other bikes in Germany for the first time last year. It's great it makes cycling more accessible, and if it leads to fewer cars that's fantastic! But it seems a little sad to only see these bikes. This change hasn't yet happened in the UK, perhaps due to the lack of infrastructure putting people off, or the differing cycling culture in the UK (predominantly lycra-clad fitness cyclists with lower numbers for urban mobility and cycle-tourers perhaps)?
- No sheep! We knew the UK has a lot of sheep, but hadn't realised how few Germany seemed to have. This might be linked to...
- More trees: all of the hills are covered in trees, and the landscape left more natural. Probably because the hills aren't covered in sheep! Perhaps Bavaria is what the Lake District should look like?
- Solar panels: high state subsidies of solar panels mean that every barn/square inch of roof is covered in solar panels but very little onshore windrads.
 - Dads with their young children mid-week! In Germany we've been blown away by how many fathers you see with children walking through cities, in parks and at lakes. Due to poor parental leave legislation In the UK, it's sadly a rare site to see fathers being the primary caregiver. In Germany fathers are forced to take some of the parental leave, or lose it. Whilst not the same as Scandinavian countries - it really is light years ahead of the UK! 
 - Lakes you can swim in: even in quite industrial areas. Water quality is something that really is valued. It feels like every few miles you see a sign for a Badasee. 
The second swim of the day

Of course, not everything is better... there is a distinct lack of Yorkshire tea bags, Marmite and baked beans in the supermarkets! 
One of our WS hosts got major bonus points

Comments

  1. Andrew SJune 24, 2023 at 10:50 PM

    Brilliant blog as always. Loving the reflections and following your epic journey!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bikes, bridges and bats; our two days of cycling in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Image
We hadn't originally planned on spending much time in Bosnia, and it wasn't somewhere we'd read much about, beyond hearing its name on the news growing up. We did only spend two days there, but feel like it's deserving of its own blog entry... An unexpectedly beautiful detour into Bosnia  After leaving Slovenia we first headed towards Trieste,  where we had a lovely afternoon with Rhys' mum and friends, who just happened to be on a fortuitously timed cruise around the Adriatic. A leisurely afternoon off the bike drinking coffee with Carolyn felt very enjoyable. The unscrupulous characters you encounter in Trieste We then travelled down through Croatia, mainly on the islands, as we'd been told by multiple sources that cycling down the mainland coastal road was quite unpleasant. (Spoiler alert- they weren't wrong). We had a blast through the quiet istria region of northern Croatia, making the most of more old Austro-hungarian train lines th...
Read more

A week of type I fun - life aboard a cruise around the Galapagos islands

Image
"I could get used to super expensive holidays" mused Rhys after our first full day aboard our Galapagos cruise. Despite some initial queasiness, and a bumpy first night aside, we were already loving life on board. Each day, we were taken to new exciting locations with our wonderful guide, provided with snorkelling equipment and generally didn't have to worry about any logistics. On return to the boat, we were delicately helped off the dinghy by the attentive crew, greeted with refreshments, and we found that in  our room, our fresh towels had been folded into the shape of animals we had seen that day.  Heading back to our boat at sunset We'd booked our cruise pretty last minute, and thought we'd got an okay deal on it. T he boat capacity was for 16 people, but we were amazed to be told at the airport there were just five of us on board. Whilst this had the potential to be a little intense, the ratio of crew to passengers (9:5) was pretty wonde...
Read more

Chimborazo Summit attempt

Image
I write this as we lay in our tent at Chimborazo Base Camp staring up at the towering summit through the tent window. The deep blue sky providing a vivid backdrop to the whisps of clouds being whipped across the summit of the 6273m peak. The gentle domed top is surrounded by more aggressive looking cornices, steep cliffs and the long scree/morraine slopes that surround this dormant volcano. Not a bad tent view Nightime tent view The wind rattling the tent is doing nothing for my nerves, "if it's this windy down here, what will it be like on the summit at hopefully 6am tomorrow" I worry. We shiver in the cold tent; after spending a few weeks in the warmer lowland cities it's somewhat novel feeling cold. Our nerves are slightly calmed by the knowledge that we've acclimatized almost as well as possible: sleeping at over 3500m for almost 10 days and also summiting 3 peaks between 4300-5100m during that time.  Sinscholagua summit ...
Read more