No More Regrets: BACK IN GERMANY AND A NEW GOAL

Although our stay in Switzerland was short and sweet, we did enjoy it and one day when we have plenty of money we will return!
But we are again on a mission to head back into Germany and make our way to the Danube and head for Austria.
We soon were back in familiar surrounds as far as the lovely German buildings:

And although Switzerland had their own cycle sign system it could not really compete with the German one.
This was a variation on the usual though!

Dave is very observant and likes to pick up on the unusual or different - this little fella was quite a long way up the trunk of a large tree.....

We made our way to the Ille river and as usual there was a lovely cycle path for us to ride on.

We have had such good weather since we crossed the channel that a little rain does not worry us greatly, that is unless we are trying to cook our dinner, but Dave remedied that by putting up the basher and we didn't get a soggy meal!!

we have traveled through so many woods and forests on this trip, and through a lot of bush at home, but sometimes it is just good to stop and really absorb the beauty that is a tree ( some more brilliant than others!!)

As we are so much fitter and stronger these days and able to cover more territory each day ( the flat terrain helps) it seemed no time at all when we reached the intersection of the Ille and the danube..or Donau as it is locally known..

As with the Rhine they have markers to show the distances - - this is how far it is to the mouth of the River where it enters the Black Sea.....

The first large town we headed towards was called Ulm and we encountered this bridge on our way there:

It would be interesting to know the history behind all these structures and what has happened here over the centuries.....especially with sections like this:

The city square like so many towns was the home of a magnificent cathedral....so large that we could not get to a vantage point to fit in the whole structure.

You could literally spend hours just looking at the exterior of these buildings. The detail in the statues and ornate decorations. I was fascinated always by the gargoyles. Sometimes every few feet there would be one and often times no two were the same with faces of people, monsters, animals, fish or birds, and thatis without even getting to the inside.... Just the entrance of this particular church was pretty special.

We went to a bookshop to try and buy a cycle guide to the Danube and were very surprised when we were told that they are now printed in English!!!! WOW that's going to make it a whole lot easier!!! BUT the only thing was she did not have one in stock and we would have to wait - - - - - until 9am next day. It was 4.30pm by this time. We were stunned by the fast delivery so in view of that decided to treat ourselves toa real bed for the night.

this was one of a growing number of cheap hotels that are created in a modular fashion and duplicated. the bathrooms are all plastic and installed as a unit. But for all that it was clean and relatively comfortable and you can see that we soon made ourselves at home.... The bikes even got a room of their own.

Before we leave Ulm I just have to add one more of the beautiful buildings - we have taken so many building pics, but they are just....welll.....look:

I think this may have been the Rathause ( local city council)
We rode out of Ulm along yet another city wall ... still pretty solid after centuries.....

Then all of a sudden ancient meets modern.....a bit unusual and we have no idea what it representes but it was quite striking!!!

As we drew away from the towns and traveled through woodlands and forests we came across a lot of little boxes up in the trees, often numbered, but never found out if they were for birds or squirrels....

Never really found out what this was for either, but we sort of guessed........lol

Dave has become quite proficient at taking photos as he's riding and every so often I catch him trying to catch me out.....

Lots more towns along the route and lots more buildings... I couldn't help thinking that they looked like a Disneyland set, almost too pretty

And there were the funny things.......

But generally the towns were just so pretty and colorful....

We came across more of these insect houses which I have since learned are called beneficial bug houses, and are constructed to encourage all the good bugs to come and stay so that they will naturally take care of (KILL) all the bad bugs........This one was pretty high end real estate for bugs.......

As we enter a lot of towns it is hard to know exactly where we are as not all have signage on the roads that we take leading in, but this one we could not miss...

And to add to the wonderfully artistic town sign, we have added this picture postcard view....

How could you not just love a view like this!

Then as we were out in the countryside we saw this sight through the trees.......looks interesting..........