After quite a good night's sleep I awoke to the sound of thunder and rain, normally one of my most favorite things to listen to...... Anyway, I had a good breakfast, packed up and then left to find free parking for the next weeks. On my short walkabout around Donaueschingen, I felt I had to go and find the source of the river that will be at my side during my trip. I found the Danube in a small spring in the grounds of the castle. Hard to believe that the small body of water with coins floating on the bottom will become the longest river in Europe?.. 

Upon my return to the car I stumbled across the Polizei so decided that they were the ones that I should be asking about free parking. After my limited German and his limited English I ascertained that there was free parking at the train station - excellent. So, once parked I began to sort out my bike and bags. Thunder was still booming overhead and quite frankly it would have been very easy to keep delaying my departure but that wasn't why I had driven 1200km from Spain, so I pulled myself together and got on my bike. Once I found the bike path I began finding my rhythm. As with other German bike routes that I have done,  the routes are always well marked. 

The start of the route was nice and easy, I didn't even notice my trailer behind me. But then the rain came. For the first time that day I stopped to put my cape on, it wasn't to be the last time either. Pedaling was nice even though it was raining, I was very much on my own for the first 30km which had me wondering if I had gone the right way or not. Fortunately, I was on the right track and the sun came out for a while. I didn't last long and I spent the day pedaling through puddles and dripping from head to toe. At one point it was raining so hard and thundering so loudly that I wondered what the hell I had got myself in to.  After taking shelter for a while, mainly to empty the  water out of my shoes and wring my gloves out I stupidly decided to go through the town of Mulheim. Stupid cos I had one helluva climb to get there, yes okay it was old and pretty but it was at this point that I realized that I did have a trailer and that going uphill was no easy feat. From kilometer 60 onwards the trail took me through the cliffs of the Danube. Steep faced cliffs lining the river banks, some with castles perched precariously on the edge. As beautiful as it was, one it would have been even nicer if the sun was shining and two there were too many climbs and it was still raining. The rain didn't let up at all for the rest of the day, in fact the thunder returned just as I reached my destination after completing 92km on my first day, ending up in Sigmaringen. Took a while to find a reasonably priced gasthof but have found a nice one and it is here that I will stay for the rest of the evening cos I am knackered. Will watch Euro 2012 final if I manage to stay awake - Viva España!!!!!

Just seen weather forecast, rain for the rest of the week :-/. Have a feeling the trailer might have to go if I'm gonna survive this.