Day # 46 Lahr to Malterdingen.

Lahr town centre.

         Awoke at 7.30 am, time to pack and be ready for 8.00pm hotel Sunday breakfast. Emerged into a world of gentle rain and leaden skies. Rain gear unpacked and at the ready and with only a 50m walk to the corner, was again on route #3 heading south. As part of my route preparation, I have found that writing down a list of the names of the small towns and villages that I can expect to pass through, or nearby, is an effective tool to have in hand as locals often know the name of the next village, but will indicate total lack of knowledge of a major city perhaps 30-40 kms down the road. Today, I had a list of 6 villages and it seemed to make the kilometres slip way quicker being able to mark off as each point arrived.

             The weather, mild, dickered around the point where it is difficult to decide whether it is worth pulling on full rain gear, or putting up with general dampness. Last night at the hotel a guest told me that in Germany, October is considered to be the ‘golden month’. It is certainly not the case this year, after such a golden September.

             Exiting Lahr, I passed what would have been the former Canadian airbase, the vast area now contains 10’s of thousands of late model used cars all parked neatly in lines. Apparently Lahr is a main assembly point for the shipment of used vehicles to Russia, Middle East and Africa. Another German export industry.

            The miles went by quickly and I arrived at 1.30pm at my overnight pre-booked Malterdingen guest house and restaurant. The assistant manager told me that it was hotel rules that guests could not have their rooms until 5.00pm. How did he expect me to kill 3 hours on a rainy afternoon in a deserted village, after having just walked 25+ kms? Yours truly went into serious, but friendly Kraut bashing mode---result I got my room in 15 minutes flat and was even supplied with a very tasty sample of the local beer. Germans are very quick to say: “that is a German law”. My advice in dealing with them, is to push back hard, but keep it friendly and good humoured and they mostly concede the point.

         Anyone travelling in Germany with an eye to design and manufacturing excellence, has to be very impressed with the superior quality of their goods---especially in their use of metals. Yesterday evening in Lahr, I rode the bus from my hotel to the town centre area to search out my evening meal and noted that it was a Mercedes product (the bus that is!)--- very quiet & comfortable inside with excellent ease of access & exit. An extremely large vehicle that was handily manoeuvred through the narrow medieval streets. Could not help comparing the Lahr bus to the rattle-traps I sometimes use in my home town of Mississauga. German faucets and windows are other products that have caught my eye for their design excellence.

26.4 kms. walked today per Google Maps.
Cumulative kms. walked: 868.1
Type of overnight lodging: Gasthaus Rebold
Cost of lodging: E.39