Schwaebisch Hall to Rothenburg... But wait. there's more...

 First things first. Breakfast in Schwaebisch Hall. They had muffin-ish thingies, like omelets and pached egs, including herbs and/or bacon.
And coffee, of course.
Carb loading.
I already had some good carbs the day before - in the shape of potatoes. Now the breadrolls.

When I had woken up I had noticed that my special contraption I had made for my watch to keep on my arm without the long end of the wristband sticking out - that this contraption had failed. Or... actually not the leather piece but the plastic it was holding.

I also had noticed that my charging cradle for the Garmin was at home so I had to deal with one full charge for two days and a bit. This in combination made me use a piece of string and mount the garmin on the stumps of the wristband around the handlebar.  It was still all functional
The garmin screen usually shows me a tiny  part of the map. Green where I should be, black where I am.
In this way I could see the screen on the handlebar, and it was good for navigation.

The Paneuropean goes from Schwaebisch Hall to Rothenburg ob der Tauber through a handful of smaller towns. Rothenburg being in Upper Franconia, not in the Federal State I live in anymore.
The beginning of the path went along the Kocher - a narrow river, very winding, but without too many elevations.
Then it connects to the bike path "Liebliches Taubertal" (lovely valley of the Tauber) - more water involved. And there are romantic fews - at least if the random cyclist is able to avert the eyes from the road.

Bridges galore. Always good for a pic with bike...  

Or without. 
A lot of Geranium about in each city.
As soon as I left the Kocher the hills restarted. They were not as nasty as the ones I had the previous day but they were hills.
And my legs let me know.

Beautiful weather - this time I had added an electrolyte tab into my water bottle.
Very wide landscape at some places.
And eventually I came close to Rothenburg. It was about 70km I rode that day, and I was thinking to take a hotel room here.
Turning into an icecream parlor (see a pattern here?) I was observing my surroundings, and defined I don't want to be tourist at a location where shopkeepers want tourists to buy something but not to require service.   
                                                              which meant for me ...

   

... off to Crailsheim. Back to Swabia. I rode past the fortification of Rothenburg, enjoyed the arghitecture, noticed they have a criminal history museum (meaning I need to get back there...)

 One maybe portal to be - When I ride I do not have my scanner open. But when I see an old cross like this, I am stopping and opening it. submitting a new portal if that's not there yet.
#thingsyouseeplayingingress I like to share these things.
I would not blog if I didn't like to share ...
Another vanilla-ice-coffee. Another sweet something (nut corner - Nussecke - lots of nuts and sugar and chocolate involved)
My Garmin's battery finally failed. I switched over to Endomondo, a tracking program I use for years already - even before I had a Garmin device.

Also on the way to Crailsheim I found some more hills.
A pair of road cyclists passing me.
Most cyclists say hello - especially when we are single on our merry tours.
I do like this in-between-sporting-people attitude.
It is similar like an between-smurfs attitude.
Similar interests, similar goals. Friendly attitude.

I found a hill with power stations, windmills essentially, old but trusted technics.
And I had a lot of wind on my way - most were headwinds. East wind.
Doesn't matter - nobody chases me - and I have gears.

I found the city of Crailsheim. Not very large, not ugly, not beautiful, two cinemas (which I noticed) and I found a hotel directly at the trainstation.
In the corner of my room I found a collection of empty (what a pity) beer bottles.
Shower, and off for food. Pizza with shrimps.
Cheese. Recarbohydrate. and rehydrate. Thinking about some sharp alcohol but... no. Ingress for the night? why not? Missions nearby? No. So I took good care of the local green, deleted some weeds, replaced by a small green field - and a bit larger one to one back to Schrozberg a town I had visited. And from where I had linked a narrow field to Schwaebisch Hall...
One more link and it would have been a triangle...
too bad.No key.
Crailsheim became blue. More or less.
Then I had to figure out how to get home.
From Rothenburg it would have been a 5+ hours ride with busses, trains, all of it. For Crailsheim it supposedly were three+

 But what a surprise , next morning, I found that also here train had been replaced by bus service. usually those don't take bikes. My more expensive alternative did not have space for a bike. So I decided to hope for a friendly bus driver and just ask. And if he says nom to ride back to Schwaebisch Hall by bike. Another one and a half hours.
But he said yes and so I ended up riding a bus, bike next to me. hacking away all the portals which speedlock let me, and getting out in Hessetal.

Hessetal to Bretten. Train. No problem, just that it was three steep steps up into the wagon again.
And they had a carpet.
Else it was like any other old train.
Bretten to Bruchsal...
Martin picked me up there, and we rode home he on his race bike me on my bee bike.

 This short tour. fewer km than the last. fewer days as well. Actyually too short for "getting into the cycling" but this had been the same at my first paneurope visit to Heilbronn.
And... not European, just inner-German - yet, you would find differences from my area (Baden) to Swabia. I also learned how huge the county of Schwaebisch Hall ist. I literally did not get our of there with a day of cycling.
I also figured I should get used to offline maps - on my way to Crailsheim I took a picture some place, but the map had exited and I could not get it to work. I went by feel for the next few km.
Still all was fun. I have now covered Rothenburg to Paris. Missing now: Rothenburg to Prague.
Gotta learn som Czech....

Now. some more little bricks to my fitness for my next Ironman race. It is coming. It will be coming.
Those long trail sessions really nail training for me. Additionally of course I need speed. But first condition to sit on the bike for all that time.