In the morning it is so foggy that I have to stop every few minutes and clean my glasses. The signs 'Radweg nach Weingarten' brings me only as far as Reute. Only the federal road leads to Weingarten. This is too dangerous for me because of the fog and the heavy traffic. I decide to ride a small side road to Gwigg to the Way of St. James.
St. George Chapel, Gwigg
A look inside the chapel:
Now also the fog dissolves and a beautiful sunny day begins. In Bergatreue I quickly visit the church, which is just decorated for the harvest festival. The main road to Weingarten is closed to traffic because of an accident. Ideal for me. So I have a wide bike path that leads steadily downhill and makes the ride a pleasure. At the scene of the accident, a truck is standing across the road. Police and firefighters are cleaning up. The driver's cab looks terribly crushed. Hopefully the driver survived. With the bike I pass easily and enjoy the further downhill ride on the closed road. At Baienfurt an oncoming car driver asks me if he can get through. "No chance" I tell him, but a bypass I can not give him. A cycle track leads me on side roads to the monastery church of Weingarten. I leave the bike at the bottom and climb the stairs to the mighty baroque church. Inside I am a bit disappointed. It is mostly scaffolded. In the monastery store I get a stamp for the pilgrim passport and go to the sign "2400 km to Santiago". This must of course be photographed.
Basilica St. Martinus, Weingarten, largest baroque basilica in Germany
This sign is in the monastery courtyard
On the occasion of my hike on foot from Ulm to Constance I wrote much more about the monastery of Weingarten and there the church was not scaffolded any more: ---›click on the pilgrim
Via a bike path we go directly to the center of Ravensburg, the city of towers. In the glorious midday sunshine, the old town with its beautiful buildings and towers presents itself from its most beautiful side. I cycle through many alleys, from one city tower to another. The city wall, the many towers remind of the medieval past of Ravensburg. Above the city once lay the ancestral castle of the Guelphs, the Ravensburg, later Veitsburg. I have dedicated a separate page to
Through the Frauentor (picture on the left) the pilgrim enters the old town of Ravensburg
The Blaserturm tower stands out from the old town.
It is hard for me to say goodbye to the beautiful city. But around noon I "step on the gas": after all, I still want to reach Constance today, take the train home and cycle from the railwaystation Birmensdorf to Aesch in daylight.
Soon after Ravensburg, I arrive at the Weissenau Monastery on the cycle path towards Lake Constance.
Here I stop again briefly and let myself be impressed by the baroque splendor of the former Premonstratensian Church of Peter and Paul.
Then it goes briskly along. I drive so about the 25km / h. The Jakobsweg I now leave to the right and steer on the bike path to Friedrichshafen directly to Lake Constance. This is indeed a detour, but I think that I come via Bodenseeradweg on the flat faster to Meersburg. On the way I meet a cyclist with whom I talk while driving. Again alone, I get lost at Meckenbeuren and end up in a waste recycling plant. I am not the first one is assured to me. Thus I drive back and by a piece of forest further to the south. A cyclist is interested in me and shows respect for the distance covered by me. He asks, what I carry along there so much at luggage and frightens like heavy my loaded wheel is. He accompanies me a piece and shows me the further way. Now it goes at a fast pace to Friedrichshafen, always on the bike path next to the main road. There already comes the sign "Friedrichshafen". I go straight on towards the city center, but can soon turn onto the Bodensee-Radweg. I am a little disappointed, because the Bodensee-Radweg leads to Immenstadt not at the lake, but along a busy road. In Immenstadt, I take a short break, dial the Swiss home network on my cell phone and make a call to my wife. Now there is no stopping, it all goes very quickly, I am already in Meersburg ...
Meersburg
... and there is already the ferry. I go on board, stow the bike, sit in the upper deck and enjoy my lunch roll.
The ferry arrives in Constance.
Across Constance it goes to the bridge over the Rhine. There I make a stop. Here began my pilgrimage on foot with the parish - first stage to Märstetten. The path is closed.
I take the train to Zurich main station. The S-Bahn brings me with great delay to Birmensdorf. Now comes the climb to Aesch. In the village on Haldenstrasse a neighbor comes to greet me: "Someone will be happy," she says and "I know where you come from!"
Biberach - Bad Waldsee
to Constance
