This was not one of our more glamorous European excursions. Weather was iffy. As the weekend neared, predictions held for rain Sunday, but maybe not Saturday. On Friday, with Jon working at home, we watched the beautiful blue sky and wished for retirement. Next best thing: Autodesk believes in flextime. With his deadline Sunday night, we opted to take off late Friday to get a few hours of good weather biking before the rains came and return early enough Sunday for him to finish.
In part this was a shake-down cruise for our latest acquisitions: Ortlieb front panniers and a handlebar rack to hold some of our camping gear . With a bit of last-minute hurrying, we took off for Burgdorf where we knew there was a campsite which was on the way to our goal: Baden.
A light 32 km later we’re setting up camp. The campsite’s website had said they were open until Oct. 30. When we arrived, signs said they were closing Oct. 13. Another weekend and we would have been hotelling it again. But, no problem today.
Down in a valley, cliffs to both sides, next to the river…campers will know: the rainfly was soaked by morning and nothing could dry before leaving. No problem: we wouldn’t need the tent again because we were staying at a Schlaf-im-Stroh, “Sleep in the Straw”. Some farmers supplement their income and give city folk a chance to semi-rough it, by renting out empty barn space.
The day remained cool, the clouds kept at bay, the 64 km went well. Except that final hill to the farm with what would have been a great view of the Alps were the sky clear (and the nuclear power plant not in the center of the landscape!). A little bit of walking the bike and we were welcomed to the Family Kaeser’s Gugenhof. Well, I knew it would be rustic. Didn’t mind the earthy smells. There was a tarp over the hay, so that made it a bit neater. BUT the bathroom facilities were definitely less clean, less well-kept, smellier than I would have guessed permissible (these places are supposed to be checked by an organization). Well, no real problem. Until the mosquitoes showed up. We had spread out our gear to let things dry overnight, but we ended up setting up the tent, on top of the hay, to keep out the bugs. So, no problem. Well, then there was that one cow. The rest all seemed to sleep. Maybe this gal was having bad dreams. Her bell, with an oddly regular beat, rang into the night.
We heard the rain pour down in the night and prayed it was passing through early. No such luck. But still no problem. We had wanted to test our new set-up for rain-tightness. The day varied from mist to solid rain, but we felt fine and carried on. Troopers, you know.
Reached Lenzburg where we had thought to visit the local castle museum, but well, it was raining, castles are always up steep hills, where would we stow the gear if we went in…so we skipped it.
On to Baden. A few minutes in old town, some nice quiche for lunch, and off to the train station. A little cold, rather damp, but no problem.
Until we couldn’t find the ramp to get us to the right platform because when I bought the tickets they had forgotten things were changed due to construction. By the time it was all straightened out, we had to wait an extra hour for the next train. No real problem. They had a nice enclosed set of benches on the platform and we could rest a bit while waiting.
Home again, home again. Bern looked so good. Sun was peeking through the clouds, the Kirchenfeld Bridge was now open for traffic (it had been closed off for construction until this weekend) so we didn’t have to take the long way home. No problem.
And then it happened. The front tire caught in a tram track when we turned at a large intersection. One second, all is well. The next, we’re on our sides on the asphalt. We’re okay. Bruised, bloodied and a little twisted. But we, and the bike, are okay. We think the bike did so well because it’s made to come apart, so while the force of the fall might have broken another bike, ours just twisted where it was intended to. We straightened everything out, sat at a bus stop to let the shock wear off a bit. And now we’re at home, camp gear spread everywhere, Jon finishing his work, me telling you our story.