Day 28 Heidleberg

Up before the sun and first birdsong we roll to the hotel of the biergarten we beered at last night. John had gotten the wifi password so we wanted to download our email. That done we noticed they were open for bfast so we went for it. The ride next followed the typical, we got lost. In our defense getting lost is not always our fault. We'll follow the bike route signs but many signs are missing so we have a 50/50 chance of getting it right at a T intersection. We pick a direction and follow it and end up at a manure chute (actually happened). Then we backtrack and pick the other direction. Another intersection and another 50/50 chance and so on. Today the bike route ended or maybe it turned off and the sign was missing and we ended up on a no bikes allowed freeway with almost no shoulder. A few miles down the road we were able to exit. On one trail or another we came across a very large adult jungle Jim. An interesting piece of challenging exercise equipment. Looks like fun but might be tough to get insurance in the states.
Town signs are much less noticeable in Germany. In France there is a large sign marking town limits at entrance and exit. We rolled around Heidleburg for a while before we knew we were there. Approaches and routes look different by bicycle - it took quite a while before I had my deja vue moment - I had been to this town/castle before. Nice a second time. The TI lady when asked about ,camping pointed up river on the map and said 20 minutes away. It was off her map and she was unsure about distance. Hmmm, noticed this before when asking directions how far? is almost always answered as time. We opted to try the close in youth hostel. Very modern and hotel like with 2 bunkbeds to a room. 32€ each with breakfast buffet not too bad. One of our room mates was a Netherlander heading south to Athens. He had a great map book and I took pictures of out route to Amsterdam. He used a Garmin GPS with the route programmed in so no getting lost. I am not a planner and prefer to keep my options open but for my next ride over here I'll preprogram a GPS and avoid the road confusion.
Keep Rolling,
Pete