Day # 54 Rheinfelden to Bad Sackingen

Shooo---I said "shoooo"!

             No great rush to day as my first port of call has to be the bike shop. Happily this particular bike retailer was of the punctual 9.00 am opening time variety ---not 11, or even 2.00 pm which is not unusual in these parts. The retail margins must be massive in Germany to enable 2 hour lunch breaks and such short working hours! No wonder Walmart got chased out and had to leave the country.
                 Purchased tyres from said retailer and dutifully installed one to replace yesterday's trouble-maker. Finally rolled out of Rheinfellen at 9.30am, into a fine dry morning albeit with a thick grey mist hanging in the air 500ft. up. Opted on the footpath routing that generally followed the main line train track, coming at points very near the river. I experienced several  times having a German ICE train (the equivalent of the French TGF) pass me only 3/4 metres away travelling probably in excess of 125 mph. A truly frightening and very noisy experience that set my knees a knocking.
              At this up river point, the Rhine is no longer navigable by commercial shipping and as such had devolved into a sanctuary for water birds. Part of my route this morning took me through a very quiet and heavily treed section, right along the German river bank. It was one of those sections of the walk where I sometimes do not see another human being for an hour at a time. In this quiet and treed section, I found that my foot path was blocked by perhaps 50 very large and mean looking swans. Turn back or confront these beasts?
            I tried banging and shouting in the hope that they would all jump into the river and leave my way free. Like the proud birds that they are, they totally ignored my gestures and stood their ground. I decided to continue walking straight towards them and just accept their presence with a polite "Guten Morgen". It worked ---I made my way through the flock without incident, although I was not sure what some of the (German) hissing meant!
         Arrived in Bad Sackingen towards 1.00 pm and lucked onto an acceptable gast haus for the night.
Tomorrow, I plan a rather longer stretch to Koblenz on the Swiss side, so will arouse myself early ready to hit the road with Jack.

17 kms. walked today per Google Maps.
972.7 Cumulative kms. walked.
 Type of overnight lodging: Delphi Hotel
 Cost of lodging: 40E. No breakfast.