Ruine Neuschlag

It was a sunny morning and both T and I wanted to go out on our bikes. We started out no where in particular but happened to be heading north. There was a ruin marked on the map that I was curious about so we started heading toward it. It was quite a trip and I asked T several times if he was tired and wanted to head back. He said "are you kidding, I love riding my bike"! For most of the way we followed a nice bike path that was separate but parallel to the road.



Off and on the entire trip T would sing "Life is a highway, and I want to ride it all night long, if you're going my way, ...". We stopped and got some snacks at a gas station both on the way out and on the way back.

Most of the way to the ruin, T was up ahead of me and going downhill pretty fast toward a relatively busy intersection. He forgot about his pedal brake and the front brake wasn't stopping his bike so he veered into the beginning edge of a sloped rock wall which ramped him up into the air. I saw him fly up and over onto his side, the bike falling on him, and he skidding to a stop on the sidewalk just before the intersection. I jumped off my bike, shoved it toward the bank, and ran toward him. At the same time a truck coming the opposite direction saw what had happened and did a U turn and pulled up onto the sidewalk behind us. The man hopped out and asked if he was OK (in German). T seemed fine considering. I pulled his bike out of the way and sat him down to rest for a minute then went back to pull my bike out of the bank. T wanted to keep going but first I had him practice the pedal brake a few times to get the bike to stop quickly. I'm sure he won't forget it again.

Eventually the road petered out and we ended up following a muddy trail in a field. There are deer stands all over the place here and T made use of them as lookouts to see if he could spot anything.



In a cluster of trees we came to a ditch full of water and followed around it to a road to cross.



Then there was another, higher ditch, with a small cemetery behind it, and it occurred to me that this was part of the ruins defenses. There were many concentric rings, perhaps four or five inside each other, and each one got higher then the last.





Finally we were on top of the highest central part. We were much higher then the surrounding land but it was hard to get an idea of how it all fit together because the forest limited visibility. On the back side the fortifications were very close to a lake and spring flowers were blooming.



We eventually headed back




(by the way, this is the "Rotten See," I presume translates as "Red Lake")

and part way it started sleeting on us. The small frozen pellets stung. We got to the gas station and T got a lollipop that was half red candy and half white candy (it becomes important later). Then the sky cleared up and we continued back to town. Going through town there is a ramp over the train tracks and then a narrow quick turn to an underpass under the highway. T and I collided on the turn, he came up fast behind me, and hit a rock wall and flipped over the bike. When I got stopped and looked back he was face down and I saw red and white on the sidewalk under his head and thought his teeth were knocked out! But thankfully it was just the crushed up bits of the lollipop. T was again fine, but the impact bent the fender around the front wheel so it wouldn't turn and smashed the bell to pieces.
I straddled his bike over the back of mine so I could roll them both on my wheels and we limped on the rest of the way home. The first thing he wanted to know was when I would get his bike fixed so he could go back out on it.