July 19, 2013

Distance: 42.6 miles                        Climbing: 2119.4 ft

We had our usual breakfast of eggs and potatoes before heading off to McDonald’s for coffee and internet. The coffee wasn’t bad but the internet was only available by entering a cell phone number into the website to receive a password. As we were trying to figure out a way to access the internet without a cell phone, a man approached our table and inquired about our bicycles. After chatting about bike touring and our trip, he asked us where we were headed for the night and offered us a place to stay. Ulrich’s town was actually in the general direction of Stuttgart and roughly 50km away.

Bike path

Back on the road, we figured if we made it to Ulrich’s place, great and if not, we would camp, but we would head in his direction. For the most part, we were on bike paths, which was a nice change from the hectic cycling we had become accustomed to in Croatia. However, the cycling was still fairly stressful due to the number of choices. There are so many more roads that the GPS gets bogged down and doesn’t always pick the most direct route, so Chandler was constantly stopping to check out the map.

Free water

Not sure what this is, but every town had one

Being in Germany has been such a drastic change. Suddenly, we are in a first world country. There was recycling on every corner, bike lanes, every house has solar panels and drivers respected the road signs. It has been a long time since we have been in a country were being “green” is the thing to do.

Solar panels

Super green roof

At some point in the day, we realized we weren’t interested in biking too far and would just go to Ulrich’s house. We weren’t very far from his village and didn’t want to show up too early, so we decided to take a little break and try some new German beers. Apparently, beer and soda is quite popular, so Chandler decided we should try one out. He picked out a coke and beer flavored beverage, which turned out to be as bad as one would imagine it to be. We washed it down by sharing a regular, more traditional pilsner.

Cola beer

When we turned onto Ulrich’s street, we didn’t see any house numbers and were not sure we were even in the right place. Right when we were turning around for a second look at the first house, a window popped open and Ulrich was waving and calling to us. He had just begun to wonder if we were going to show up and had arrived at the perfect time. He immediately showed us where to put our bikes and handed us each a radler. Radler is a low alcoholic beer mixed with sparkling lemonade, very refreshing and delicious. Next, we were given towels, shown the bathroom for showers and told to relax while he went to the store. Once cleaned up, laundry started and reclining in chairs outside in the sun, Ulrich returned with giant bags full of food. We were going to have a feast!

Chan getting the BBQ ready

Chandler and Ulrich

While Ulrich made me some veggie pasta, Chandler fired up the BBQ for steaks and sausages. Ulrich pulled out all the stops for us with wine, beer, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and fresh salad. Dessert included fruit and chocolate. We ended up chatting late into the night about anything and everything. We were so lucky to have met Ulrich at the McDonald’s and had a truly amazing night!

July 18, 2013

Distance: 26.8 miles              Climbing: 2696.9 ft

We woke up and used the kitchen at the campground to make a huge breakfast including some of the leftovers from our biergarten feast the day before. Sauerkraut actually goes pretty well with fried eggs and potatoes! After enjoying ourselves thoroughly in Munich we were ready to head to the country, so we made a plan to roughly head west towards Stuttgart. We dallied a little on the way out of town, stopping for a while at a grocery store stocking up on some ingredients for dinner.

Adventure path

We had done some research in the library of the campground and realized that we were quite near Dachau. We made a little detour to the north in order to visit the notorious prison camp located near the city.

As expected, it was a somber experience. The main gate building was intact as were several of the guard towers which dominated the grounds. All of the camp structures where the prisoners lived were razed after the war, but the foundations were left intact in two long columns. At one end of the yard was the former maintenance building which now houses a museum which provided an overview of the concentration/death camp system and specifically what life was like at Dachau. Specific emphasis was placed on the way that camp life degraded from relatively clean and humane conditions before the war, worsening when war was declared to the disgusting environment that existed as the Allies closed on Germany and ultimately liberated the camp in 1945.

Barbed wire fence

The other end of the yard was dominated by memorials erected for those who were imprisoned and murdered at the camp, each representing a specific religion.

The Jewish memorial

A road led across a small canal and through the main fence, which bounded the west side of the yard. In a small wooded area along the road, two innocuous-looking buildings were the most disturbing parts of the whole complex. In these buildings, thousands of innocent people were murdered and disposed of. Walking though the holding rooms, the “showers” and the oven rooms carried a similar weight that we felt when we visited the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh. What was most striking, to me at least, was how “normal” everything looked.  My mind’s eye had pictured a grotesque killing factory equal in appearance to the nature of the acts committed there, but instead they were just small, simple buildings. Their disarming appearance made them seem even more sinister.

One of many gas chambers

The ovens

When done at the camp, we reset our course to the west and headed towards a campground marked on the GPS. The riding was fine, but not extraordinary. We passed through lots of fields of barley. When we got to the campground it turned out to be a parking lot for RV’s with not a blade of grass in sight. It was probably the most depressing campsite ever, wedged up against the autobahn to boot! We made a quick reverse and ducked into some woods we had seen shortly before. The area seemed to be logged periodically, so there were some old roads crisscrossing that we followed until we found a nice spot in some tall straight conifers.

Barley field

We pulled out the ingredients for a new camp stove creation: Eggplant Parmesan! It actually worked pretty well. Jenny breaded while I fried the eggplant, we made up a garlicy tomato sauce, then put it all together with a bunch of mozzarella and parmesan. A perfect meal for hungry cycle tourists.

Chandler and the Animator

Dinner

July 17, 2013

Our train arrived in Munich around 6am. We were both a little cranky due to lack of sleep. We decided to head to the cheapest place with coffee and free internet that would be open: McDonald’s. Outside the train station, we encountered a new world. There were bike lanes everywhere with special lights indicate when it was safe to cross the street. And it seemed like everyone was on a bicycle, dressed up for work. It was obvious that coming to Munich was a good idea.

Traffic lights just for us

Dressed for biking success

We hung out at the McDonald’s until we came up with a plan for the day. We decided to bike around for a bit before trying to find something to remind us of home: a boardgame!

Clock tower

Lovely building

Back at home, Chandler and I have a pretty good boardgame collection. Boardgames that are found in stores where people play Dungeons and Dragons in back rooms, possibly dressed as their favorite character. Germany happens to be a bit of a boardgame utopia. So, figured we might be able to find an English edition of some of the more pricey games and headed off for the game store. Unfortunately, the stores in town didn’t have of the games we were looking for in English. We settled on a WWII card game to get our fix.

Multi-sided dice on display is always a good sign for a game store

Next, we headed to the hostel “The Tent”. This hostel is a giant circus tent with bunk beds or floor space to sleep on right in the center of town. There is also a large yard for people to set up their own tents. A perfect place for us. We pitched the tent, unloaded our bikes and headed off  for lunch at Hirschgarten, the largest biergarten in Munich.

Biergarten Picnic

It was still pretty early by the time we were done drinking our liters of beer, I emailed a family friend who lives in the area and made plans for the evening. There was a music festival going on that night, so it was decided we would meet up with Matus for a beer and live music.

Live music!

We had a nice night hanging out with Matus and a few of his colleagues. We learned about life in Munich and were tempted to come back in the winter for some skiing in the Alps.

Thoroughly exhausted after a long day we rode back to our tent at ‘The Tent’ and fell asleep.