Wednesday, October 27, 2004
20. Oktober 2004
I'm in Pfunds this morning. I stayed at a Pension for 23 Euros. Better, considering it includes a buffet breakfast (with Appenzeller cheese!) and a TV in the room (not that that matters). Oh man, is that cheese ever good. Actually, it's pretty different from Mariazeller: much heaver, creamier, and more delicious.
I'm almost in Switzerland. I wonder what I'm going to do when I get to St. Moritz. All exits to the city are via mountain passes. I wonder if I can handle it on my bike. I still don't know where I'm going to go. I'd like to go to Valais (Wallis), because it's so beautiful. Then maybe to France. I wonder if there are bicycle paths from St. Moritz to Valais. (I can hear Marco laughgin, for some reason...)
The weather man said that warm air is coming up from the Mediterranean - what the German-speaking people call the "Foehn". So I should expect warmer temperatures (i.e., high teens) for the next few days. That's good, since I seem to be getting higher and higher into the mountains. Right now I'm almost 1000 m high.
I'm in Pfunds this morning. I stayed at a Pension for 23 Euros. Better, considering it includes a buffet breakfast (with Appenzeller cheese!) and a TV in the room (not that that matters). Oh man, is that cheese ever good. Actually, it's pretty different from Mariazeller: much heaver, creamier, and more delicious.
I'm almost in Switzerland. I wonder what I'm going to do when I get to St. Moritz. All exits to the city are via mountain passes. I wonder if I can handle it on my bike. I still don't know where I'm going to go. I'd like to go to Valais (Wallis), because it's so beautiful. Then maybe to France. I wonder if there are bicycle paths from St. Moritz to Valais. (I can hear Marco laughgin, for some reason...)
The weather man said that warm air is coming up from the Mediterranean - what the German-speaking people call the "Foehn". So I should expect warmer temperatures (i.e., high teens) for the next few days. That's good, since I seem to be getting higher and higher into the mountains. Right now I'm almost 1000 m high.
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19. Oktober 2004
I got to Landeck yesterday. It's not a particularly fancy town. The Inn river takes a bend southwards here. On the way I passed two valleys that went nearlly southwards from the Inn valley. In that area, the vegetation seemed to abruptly change. The woods consisted of many crooked, short pines and feathery deciduous trees with a thick coniferous-looking ground cover. There were also lots of squirrels with pointy, fuzzy ears. It had an almost Mediterranean feel, in fact.
I stayed in a low-quality pension that charged me 24 Euros. The breakfast was pitiful: two stale buns, a few slices of meat, some butter and jam. I mean, these days I need at least 3 buns in the morning, if not more (these buns aren't particularly filling, and probably not very nutritious).
I got to Landeck yesterday. It's not a particularly fancy town. The Inn river takes a bend southwards here. On the way I passed two valleys that went nearlly southwards from the Inn valley. In that area, the vegetation seemed to abruptly change. The woods consisted of many crooked, short pines and feathery deciduous trees with a thick coniferous-looking ground cover. There were also lots of squirrels with pointy, fuzzy ears. It had an almost Mediterranean feel, in fact.
I stayed in a low-quality pension that charged me 24 Euros. The breakfast was pitiful: two stale buns, a few slices of meat, some butter and jam. I mean, these days I need at least 3 buns in the morning, if not more (these buns aren't particularly filling, and probably not very nutritious).
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18. Oktober 2004
Actually, I decided not to stay in Innsbruck another night. I couldn't find any free wireless access points (thought I know there are some, somewhere), even by searching the web. Innsbruck really isn't that popular a city. I guess the skiing is its main attraction.
So I decided I'd like to venture to a warmer climate. If I do find a free WiFi hotspot, it most likely won't be indoors [except here in Milan, where I happen to be as I type this], or if so, then it will be in a restaurant or expensive hotel, which no longer makes it exactly free. But it's getting too chilly up here to type outside, so I'll go to someplace warm in Switzerland or France.
I continued along the Inntal Radwanderweg, which follows the Inn river all the way to St. Moritz, Switzerland. That's one region of Switzerland I never got to see, so that should be nice - although I am getting higher in altitude as I follow the river upstream. I hope I'll be going downhill soon after I get to St. Moritz.
Right now I'm in Rietz, a small village past Innsbruck on the bicycle path. It was Sunday so the tourist offices were closed and I couldn't get a detailed listing of places to stay in the area. Also, I felt it rude to knock on the doors of private houses offering rooms on a Sunday evening. So I had to settle for the Gasthoefe advertised on tourist signs, which are generally more expensive than private places. The place I ended up at was 30 Euros. Too much, but the hostess was very kind. She had a kind face. A familiar one, too - a bit like a smiling, happier version of my aunt's friend, whom I won't name, but maybe Meta knows whom I'm talking about.
One thing I've noticed about the eggs here: their yolks are so dark, not just dark yellow but dark orange. And they taste great. Not sure if that means anything. Also, I just looked at the ingredients for Nutella, and it says it contains only 13% hazelnuts. The first two ingredients are sugar and vegetable oil. The organic hazelnut spread that I bought before was 45% hazelnuts, and I tell you, I've never had a better hazelnut spread. I'm going to have send a jar to Jon and Nathan at Everdale, assuming Jon will send me his mailing address.
The "Mariazeller" cheese that I bought is actually a lot like Appenzeller, in flavour, smell, and texture. But it's milder and also not as rich. It seems to me that one village tried to copy the other, because the two villages aren't exactly in the same region (not even the same country).
Actually, I decided not to stay in Innsbruck another night. I couldn't find any free wireless access points (thought I know there are some, somewhere), even by searching the web. Innsbruck really isn't that popular a city. I guess the skiing is its main attraction.
So I decided I'd like to venture to a warmer climate. If I do find a free WiFi hotspot, it most likely won't be indoors [except here in Milan, where I happen to be as I type this], or if so, then it will be in a restaurant or expensive hotel, which no longer makes it exactly free. But it's getting too chilly up here to type outside, so I'll go to someplace warm in Switzerland or France.
I continued along the Inntal Radwanderweg, which follows the Inn river all the way to St. Moritz, Switzerland. That's one region of Switzerland I never got to see, so that should be nice - although I am getting higher in altitude as I follow the river upstream. I hope I'll be going downhill soon after I get to St. Moritz.
Right now I'm in Rietz, a small village past Innsbruck on the bicycle path. It was Sunday so the tourist offices were closed and I couldn't get a detailed listing of places to stay in the area. Also, I felt it rude to knock on the doors of private houses offering rooms on a Sunday evening. So I had to settle for the Gasthoefe advertised on tourist signs, which are generally more expensive than private places. The place I ended up at was 30 Euros. Too much, but the hostess was very kind. She had a kind face. A familiar one, too - a bit like a smiling, happier version of my aunt's friend, whom I won't name, but maybe Meta knows whom I'm talking about.
One thing I've noticed about the eggs here: their yolks are so dark, not just dark yellow but dark orange. And they taste great. Not sure if that means anything. Also, I just looked at the ingredients for Nutella, and it says it contains only 13% hazelnuts. The first two ingredients are sugar and vegetable oil. The organic hazelnut spread that I bought before was 45% hazelnuts, and I tell you, I've never had a better hazelnut spread. I'm going to have send a jar to Jon and Nathan at Everdale, assuming Jon will send me his mailing address.
The "Mariazeller" cheese that I bought is actually a lot like Appenzeller, in flavour, smell, and texture. But it's milder and also not as rich. It seems to me that one village tried to copy the other, because the two villages aren't exactly in the same region (not even the same country).
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17. Oktober 2004
I stayed at the international youth hostel in Innsbruck. It wasn't very good. It didn't open until 5pm, for one thing (I guess most hostels are like this). Then it cost me 17.50 Euros, 1.50 Euros more than that private house in Oberaudorf , which was twice as nice. The quilts were synthetic and uncomfortable (very hot), the bathrooms smelled, the Internet terminal cost 10 cents a minute (more than the cafe by the train station), and the people in my room made vulgar noises (which they probably couldn't help) or ranted loudly to themselves in the middle of the night. And the PA system announced at 7am on a Sunday morning that it was time to come down for breakfast. So yeah, hostels can be uncomfortable places to sleep. But if you want to pay under 20 Euros in a big city, they're your best option. Tonight I'm going to try the other hostel across the river and see if it's any better.
I stayed at the international youth hostel in Innsbruck. It wasn't very good. It didn't open until 5pm, for one thing (I guess most hostels are like this). Then it cost me 17.50 Euros, 1.50 Euros more than that private house in Oberaudorf , which was twice as nice. The quilts were synthetic and uncomfortable (very hot), the bathrooms smelled, the Internet terminal cost 10 cents a minute (more than the cafe by the train station), and the people in my room made vulgar noises (which they probably couldn't help) or ranted loudly to themselves in the middle of the night. And the PA system announced at 7am on a Sunday morning that it was time to come down for breakfast. So yeah, hostels can be uncomfortable places to sleep. But if you want to pay under 20 Euros in a big city, they're your best option. Tonight I'm going to try the other hostel across the river and see if it's any better.
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16. Oktober 2004
Now I'm in Innsbruck. It was raining all morning and the previous night, and the clouds still hung low until mid-afternoon. When they lifted, you could see the layer of snow that they left behind on the tops of all the mountains surrounding Innsbruck. The natural landscape around the city is quite spectacular. The city itself has its magnificent aspects, but, by European standards, isn't something to get too excited about.
I managed to get groceries before stores closed - but not all organic. The health food stores all close at noon or 1pm on Saturdays. To give you and idea of the kind of food I'm eating, right now I have one of those whole grain rye breads that you get in an airtight plastic package, a loaf of Tiroler Bio-Brot (organic Tirol-style bread), a bunch of bananas, 6 stolen apples, a cucumber, a chunk of organic Mariazeller cheese (from Mariazell, Austria; I wonder if it's anything like Appenzell...), a slice of Brie, a bunch of dried figs, 2 different kinds of organic bread spreads (one is curry-pineapple, another is called "delikatess"), a jar of organic peanut butter, still some of that kohlrabi, a weird mayonnaisey salad thing, and a tetra-pak of whole milk (not organic this time, since I went to one of those budget grocery stores). Oh, and a bag of muesli, of course.
Now I'm in Innsbruck. It was raining all morning and the previous night, and the clouds still hung low until mid-afternoon. When they lifted, you could see the layer of snow that they left behind on the tops of all the mountains surrounding Innsbruck. The natural landscape around the city is quite spectacular. The city itself has its magnificent aspects, but, by European standards, isn't something to get too excited about.
I managed to get groceries before stores closed - but not all organic. The health food stores all close at noon or 1pm on Saturdays. To give you and idea of the kind of food I'm eating, right now I have one of those whole grain rye breads that you get in an airtight plastic package, a loaf of Tiroler Bio-Brot (organic Tirol-style bread), a bunch of bananas, 6 stolen apples, a cucumber, a chunk of organic Mariazeller cheese (from Mariazell, Austria; I wonder if it's anything like Appenzell...), a slice of Brie, a bunch of dried figs, 2 different kinds of organic bread spreads (one is curry-pineapple, another is called "delikatess"), a jar of organic peanut butter, still some of that kohlrabi, a weird mayonnaisey salad thing, and a tetra-pak of whole milk (not organic this time, since I went to one of those budget grocery stores). Oh, and a bag of muesli, of course.
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16. Oktober, 2004
The hostess charged me 4 Euros for doing my laundry. It's better than 8.50 Euros, which is what I'd have been charged had I had it done in Rosenheim.
I rode from Walchsee to Muenster, still in Tirol, Austria. The weather was pretty nice. A bit misty and cold in the morning, but sunny for most of the day. I had little luck trying to follow the bike path that connected Kufstein to Muenster (or thereabouts). The bike paths aren't as clearly marked in Austria as they are in Germany. I found myself riding on some very bike-unfriendly roads at times (but drivers were very cautious around me, for the most part).
In Muenster, I realized I had no cash. I tried to use the only international Bancomat (ATM) to get some, but it was out of order. I tried twice using a local Bancomat as well, where the employees were just leaving to go home (it was past 6pm), but they didn't work with my card, as I'd predicted. I explained my dilemma to a woman who was there, that I needed some money to pay the Gasthaus across the street (they didn't take credit cards). She was very kind (and probably only a few years older than me) and offered to drive me to the next town to use its Bancomat, which I accepted.
She was very friendly and pretty good-looking, but probably out of my league. ;) She was born in Muenster, but now she lived a few towns away and commuted here for work. She said my German was very good. Lots of Germans and Austrians have told me this. I think they're confusing accent and pronunciation with real command of language. I know my accent is pretty good, so I think people mistakenly get the impression that I'm pretty fluent when I'm really far from it. About three quarters of the time I don't really know what people speaking to me are saying (especially in Austria), and I often just guess what they're saying by their intonation, hand motions, the context of the conversation, and my experience.
For instance, whenever I buy something at the store and the cashier asks me something, I know it's "Would you like a bag?", because I've never been asked anything else by a cashier. I know this even though I have no idea what words they actually said. I couldn't tell you or recognize what "Would you like a bag?" sounds like as spoken by an Austrian, out of the blue. All I know is that it doesn't sounds anything like "Moechten Sie eine Tuette?", which is how I would translate it to German.
I wonder how long it will take me before I can actually speak and understand German fluently. I really envied those classmates of mine from German 331, who spoke without pauses and understood everything the instructor said, and yet German wasn't their first language. When I watch TV, which is almost entirely in high German (supposedly the easiest for me to understand), I can only catch a small fraction, maybe 10%, of what is being said. So I don't know how people can say that my German is "very good". They're being a bit too polite.
Anyway, back to the story. So I got some cash and the woman drove me back to Muenster. I tried paying her for helping me, but she wouldn't take anything (neither would I in her position). I thanked her and she left.
I stayed at Kirchenwirt in Muenster. It seems every village has a hotel/guesthouse called Kirchenwirt, near the church. I tel lyou, I find a real lack of imagination in their town, street and hotel names. There must be a thousand villages in Austria alone simply called "Dorf" (the German translation for "village").
Kirchenwirt cost me 20 Euros, without breakfast (breakfast would have cost 5 Euros more, and I already had muesli and yoghurt with me). Every other property around here (actually, starting in Bavaria), has fruit trees on it, usually apple. I'm so tempted to steal some, especially when they hang right over the sidewalk, but it feels wrong. So I waited until nightfall and took a walk. When I got to some fruit, I walked back and forth until no cars were passing, and picked some. I couldn't see how blemished it was, mind you, so much of what I got wasn't particularly spectacular. Of course, that probably also meant it was organic. :)
The next day was beautiful. Sunny with a few clouds, and very mild later in the day. It also got quite windy. I managed to follow the bike path all the way to Hall in Tirol, a quaint old town on a hill. For some reason, narrow, cobblestoned streets on steep slopes are incredibly charming. I tried finding a place to stay in the area, and I had to go north (and uphill) to Absam to get something in my price range. I probably spent over an hour looking for a place. It was Friday evening, so many places were full. I ended up staying at a Bauernhof (farm house) for 18 Euros, with breakfast. Yum.
Oh yeah: Oh my way to Hall I got my first flat tire. It took me a while to fix it, maybe an hour. It was my first time, so I tried a few things the wrong way at first. But I patched the hole in the inner tube, and it seemed to do the trick. There was a cornfieldright by the bike path where I was fixing the tire. The corn looked ripe, but I tried one and it was terribly hard. I guess it's a hard kind of corn (duh). I know nothing about corn.
The hostess charged me 4 Euros for doing my laundry. It's better than 8.50 Euros, which is what I'd have been charged had I had it done in Rosenheim.
I rode from Walchsee to Muenster, still in Tirol, Austria. The weather was pretty nice. A bit misty and cold in the morning, but sunny for most of the day. I had little luck trying to follow the bike path that connected Kufstein to Muenster (or thereabouts). The bike paths aren't as clearly marked in Austria as they are in Germany. I found myself riding on some very bike-unfriendly roads at times (but drivers were very cautious around me, for the most part).
In Muenster, I realized I had no cash. I tried to use the only international Bancomat (ATM) to get some, but it was out of order. I tried twice using a local Bancomat as well, where the employees were just leaving to go home (it was past 6pm), but they didn't work with my card, as I'd predicted. I explained my dilemma to a woman who was there, that I needed some money to pay the Gasthaus across the street (they didn't take credit cards). She was very kind (and probably only a few years older than me) and offered to drive me to the next town to use its Bancomat, which I accepted.
She was very friendly and pretty good-looking, but probably out of my league. ;) She was born in Muenster, but now she lived a few towns away and commuted here for work. She said my German was very good. Lots of Germans and Austrians have told me this. I think they're confusing accent and pronunciation with real command of language. I know my accent is pretty good, so I think people mistakenly get the impression that I'm pretty fluent when I'm really far from it. About three quarters of the time I don't really know what people speaking to me are saying (especially in Austria), and I often just guess what they're saying by their intonation, hand motions, the context of the conversation, and my experience.
For instance, whenever I buy something at the store and the cashier asks me something, I know it's "Would you like a bag?", because I've never been asked anything else by a cashier. I know this even though I have no idea what words they actually said. I couldn't tell you or recognize what "Would you like a bag?" sounds like as spoken by an Austrian, out of the blue. All I know is that it doesn't sounds anything like "Moechten Sie eine Tuette?", which is how I would translate it to German.
I wonder how long it will take me before I can actually speak and understand German fluently. I really envied those classmates of mine from German 331, who spoke without pauses and understood everything the instructor said, and yet German wasn't their first language. When I watch TV, which is almost entirely in high German (supposedly the easiest for me to understand), I can only catch a small fraction, maybe 10%, of what is being said. So I don't know how people can say that my German is "very good". They're being a bit too polite.
Anyway, back to the story. So I got some cash and the woman drove me back to Muenster. I tried paying her for helping me, but she wouldn't take anything (neither would I in her position). I thanked her and she left.
I stayed at Kirchenwirt in Muenster. It seems every village has a hotel/guesthouse called Kirchenwirt, near the church. I tel lyou, I find a real lack of imagination in their town, street and hotel names. There must be a thousand villages in Austria alone simply called "Dorf" (the German translation for "village").
Kirchenwirt cost me 20 Euros, without breakfast (breakfast would have cost 5 Euros more, and I already had muesli and yoghurt with me). Every other property around here (actually, starting in Bavaria), has fruit trees on it, usually apple. I'm so tempted to steal some, especially when they hang right over the sidewalk, but it feels wrong. So I waited until nightfall and took a walk. When I got to some fruit, I walked back and forth until no cars were passing, and picked some. I couldn't see how blemished it was, mind you, so much of what I got wasn't particularly spectacular. Of course, that probably also meant it was organic. :)
The next day was beautiful. Sunny with a few clouds, and very mild later in the day. It also got quite windy. I managed to follow the bike path all the way to Hall in Tirol, a quaint old town on a hill. For some reason, narrow, cobblestoned streets on steep slopes are incredibly charming. I tried finding a place to stay in the area, and I had to go north (and uphill) to Absam to get something in my price range. I probably spent over an hour looking for a place. It was Friday evening, so many places were full. I ended up staying at a Bauernhof (farm house) for 18 Euros, with breakfast. Yum.
Oh yeah: Oh my way to Hall I got my first flat tire. It took me a while to fix it, maybe an hour. It was my first time, so I tried a few things the wrong way at first. But I patched the hole in the inner tube, and it seemed to do the trick. There was a cornfieldright by the bike path where I was fixing the tire. The corn looked ripe, but I tried one and it was terribly hard. I guess it's a hard kind of corn (duh). I know nothing about corn.
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Thursday, October 21, 2004
Now for a few more log entries from my trip in Europe:
10. Oktober, 2004[Yes, more coming later.]
I went to Munich by S-Bahn to use the Internet. I left my bike in Ottobrunn. Kind receptionist's kind husband advised me that Ottobrunn is just a place where people live, so there is no public Internet access (not even a public library). Everyone just uses the Internet at home. I had tried a few more times to find open WiFi networks, but had no luck. So I went to Munich and looked for the Internet cafes that the man referred me to. In fact, I couldn't find any of the ones he spoke of. One of them was there but gutted and empty. I wonder why the Internet is so unpopular here. :P
Eventually I found one next to the train station, and I got an hour for 2.20 Euros.
When I was done, I tried calling various hotels in the region between Ottobrunn and Rosenheim. I didn't consider places too far from Ottobrunn since it was already late afternoon and I was still in Munich. The cheapest one my GPS gave me was in the village of Oberpfammern for 47 Euros a night. Ugh. I reluctantly reserved a room. I can't wait until I get to Berchtesgaden [that was where I was planning to end up at the time] so I can stay in the 14 Euro/night hostel there.
I returned to Ottobrunn and got back on my bike. There's an A&P in Ottobrunn. Is A&P American or Canadian? I bought organic apples there for too much money (I'd have gone to the health food store, but it closed early because it was Saturday).
I rode to Oberpfammern. It wasn't raining, but it got foggy. I had to pass through a couple villages and a very pretty forest. I feel a natural urge to greet people I encounter while riding, especially if we're in the middle of nowhere, but I don't think that's socially acceptable here. I said "Guten Abend" to a couple that was walking through the forest in the evening (and it really was in the middle of nowhere), and they just looked at me, didn't smile, and didn't lose a step. It was how I imagine ghosts would react to something you'd say. So I'll assume they were ghosts for now. Certainly people can't be this cold!
This hotel is quite nice, but again way too good for my needs. I'd prefer a concrete floor, a foamy, and a shared bathroom, to be honest. I have no desire to be pampered with satellite TV, tables, carpet and my own bathroom. Plus, the breakfast is way too deluxe. I have my own muesli; I don't need cake and fried eggs.
I'm going to try asking the kind hostess whether she knows of any cheap guesthouses (or even hostels) in Rosenheim. I don't think my GPS is telling me the whole story.
[Later...]
I didn't have a chance to ask her about cheap sleeping, but I read an account of one guy who rode through Bavaria and Austria that I had saved to my laptop before I left. He said that he planned his entire trip well in advance and booked all the hotels before he even departed. He claimed he could get the cheapest rates this way, since many guesthouses offer a discount if you book online. Well, there's no way I could do that in my situation, since my experiences during my trip are dictating where I'd like to go. This guy also said that some people (like me) don't want to book in advance, so in that case the best thing to do is visit the tourist info office in the town you want to stay in and get them to help you find the kind of lodging you want.
Unforunately, I was arriving in Rosenheim on a Sunday, on which day the tourist info place is closed. So again I was forced to use my GPS to find a "cheap" place. More on that later.
It was quite foggy and chilly today. My bike gloves don't seem to be doing the trick of keeping my hands warm (just dry). I'm going to have to buy mittens at the earliest opportunity if it stays this cool for a while. The weather channel shows a big mass of clouds over Bavaria right now, but I think it's going to clear up soon. At least it didn't rain today. Putting those covers over my panniers when it's raining makes it really inconvenient to get anything out of them.
I managed to follow mostly empty routes, thanks to my bike map. Eventually I hit the VIA Julia bike route to Salzburg. I think it's supposed to have something to do with the Romans; maybe an old Roman trade route (though you wouldn't know it by looking at it).
I eventually meandered to Rosenheim and looked for the tourist office, just in case it was open. It wasn't, so I had to do the GPS thing once again. This time I managed to find a "Pension" in nearby Bad Aibling for "only" 34 Euros/night. I'm still counting on things to get cheaper as I distance myself from Munich.
I ended up taking a roundabout way to get to the place (I shouldn't have just blindly tried to follow the straight line shown on the GPS), but I got there and go settles in. Again the receptionist was very friendly, and I'm glad they're letting me speak German. I hate it when they find out I'm Canadian and they start practicing their English on me. It makes it very difficult to stay speaking in German.
So right now I'm in the restaurant of the pension and waiting for my pig patty dinner. I'm drinking a particularly good glass of dark beer - AuerBraeu Rosenheim brand. I ddon't know if it's actually good because I don't know much about beer, but I really like it. It's very satisfying.
Germans have very reverberating voices - or German men, I guess. They're often low and nasal sounding. They should work on that. This beer is already starting to make my head swim. I've only drunk a third of it.
This is great pig schnitzel, as immoral it may be. It seems to have all these layers - maybe different parts of the pig. On top is a slice of lemon and this red jam - maybe currant? And a bunch of friend potatoes on the side.
I finished that whole 0.5 L glass of beer. How many bottles is that? Probably not too many. I don't want to be drunk. [I wasn't.]
13. Oktober, 2004
The nice hostess of that hotel in Bad Aibling let me pay only 30 Euros instead of 34. How kind of her. I think she liked me. Too bad she was 72.
I tried finding a laundromat in Rosenheim, but there was only a Waesherei - like a dry cleaners, but they wash your regular laundry too. If it wouldn't have cost 8.50 Euros, I'd have taken my laundry there. Apparently youo're supposed to ask the host of your lodging about washing your clothes, which they'll often do for you for free, or for a small fee. I only realized this after the woman at the next place I stayed at said she'd have done it for me if I'd told her sonner that I needed it done. She was in Oberaudorf. I got there along the Inn river from Rosenheim via the Inntal Radweg. It was overcast and quite cool the whole way. I wore my new mittens that I'd gotten in Rosenheim, which did their job. It would have been nice to see the mountains better.
The Gasthaus/Pension in Oberaudorf cost only 16 Euros for bed and breakfast. That's the cheapest non-hostel I've stayed in so far. I found it from the booklet handed to me at the tourist office in Rosenheim. I've learned that the tourist info places are really helpful.
This hostess was again very friendly, but a bit distant and out of it. She would answer her own questions to me, repeating her answer, nodding her head and smiling afterwards. She was probably just too old and confused. ;)
I had actually reserved a room at another place in Oberaudorf by phone, but when I got there (during the window I said I'd be arriving in), nobody answered the door. It looked like a nice enough farmhouse, with lots of flowers dangling from the windows (like virutally every other house in Europe). So I went to the other place, which was also in the catalog I had.
The next day was overcast and cool still. I decided to head roughtly towards Berchtesgaden, which meant following the so-called "Mozart Radweg", which crossed the Inn and led me into Austria.
Everything in Austria is much like everything in Bavaria, but in just slightly worse shape, it seems. (Still in far better shape than pretty much everywhere I've been in Canada, mind you.) It's as if Austrians have all the same goals as Bavarians - just not as much money, maybe. Or maybe their priorities are slightly different. Hmm.. I'm over-analyzing.
Anyhow, I rode to Walchsee along the Mozart Radweg. It was very idyllic. It started getting sunny, so I could get some beutiful pictures. Here I stayed in another guesthouse for 2 nights, for 18 Euros/night, with breakfast. I thought I should take a break from riding. Walchsee is pretty touristy, but still nice. The cowbells outside the window kept me from sleeping at times. One cow must have been eating until 3am. Maybe it was a somnambulist cow.
After the first night, I ventured up a mountain, mostly by foot, and managed to get some more beautiful photos. The Walchsee valley was flooded with fog for most of the morning.
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Before I forget, here are the last of the photos I wanted to upload from my time on Vancouver Island.
 interesting sky |  contrasts in the sky |  delicious cake #1 |
 delicious cake #2 |  delicious cake #3 |  cake maker (Travis) |
 fatso (Casey) |  morning cotton |  visiting ye ole happie playce on the way to the airport |
 Meta preparing to return to Ontario |  Travis preparing to return to the car |  my campsite at Horne Lake (a trial run of the bike-pannier thing) |
 Horne Lake under the moon |  Horne Lake in the morning |  a Horne Lake cave |
 a Upana cave (my dad and I visited them) |  Upana sparkles |  the Cormies' new puppies, Teasle and Tansy |
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Monday, October 11, 2004
There's more I've written in my log book, but I don't have time to post it yet. Maybe I'll find another Internet place in Oberaudorf, my destination for this evening.
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Well, I had started writing my next entry while still in Munich, but my time ran out before I could post it. The warnings were all in German so I didn't realize that my time was running out until it was too late. So now I'm in Rosenheim, and I'm going to try again.
Note to Meta: I've actually been doing work on the Corvus Mae site when I have time, but I won't be able to upload the changes until I find wireless Internet access somewhere. Sorry about that.
Note to Meta: I've actually been doing work on the Corvus Mae site when I have time, but I won't be able to upload the changes until I find wireless Internet access somewhere. Sorry about that.
9. Oktober, 2004
I forgot to mention: I also got organic hazelnut-chocolate spread, and boy, is it ever good! So hazelnutty, better than Nutella.
I've noticed that drivers look out for bicycles much more around here. I guess that's logical, since there are so many. I'm just not used to seeing bikers get the right of way so often.
After Easy Palace, my first hostel, I rode down to Pullach, a village along the Isar valley. I had remembered there was a hostel in a castle there, but it was fully booked for the previous night (which is why I didn't stay there). I tried calling it from Munich, but I think the number stored in my GPS was outdcated and it wasn't working. So I took the chance and just dropped by to see if I could stay a night. I ended up getting a full 12-bed room all to myself! Only 15 euros. There was lots of construction going on there, so I couldn't get any pictures of the castle. The next morning it was misty and warm.
I thought it was time that I let people know I was okay, but I had a lot of trouble finding Internet cafes or WiFi access points. That is, I found plenty of WiFi access points that were encrypted or weren't functioning properly, but none that worked. So far I haven't seen WiFi advertised anywhere outside of the airport. I'm almost considering visiting one of those T-Mobile outlet stores and getting some cellular Internet device for my laptop. But I'm really trying to keep my costs down, so we'll see.
My rear gearshift was behaving strangely. I tried fixing it myself, but no luck. So I found a bike repair shop in neighbouring Gruenwald. The guy didn't speak much English, so that was fun. It took him about half an hour to fix it; the rear derailleur was bent; he says the bike probably fell on that side once and it got bent then. Seems likely. He fixed it for 20 euros. Way too much, in my opinion, but oh well.
While he was fixing it, I bought some organic, German carrots and kohlrabi (sp?) at a health food store. Organic food in Germany seems less expensive than organics in Canada. Not sure why. Maybe it's just so much more common around here.
I continued towards Taufkirchen and Ottobrunn to the east, passing through the Gruenwaelder forest on the way. Oh, and I already lost Gerald's monopod! I took it out of my knapsack as I was sitting on a bench one time and forgot to put it back before leaving. It must have really blended in with the bench. When I came back later to check, it was already gone. So I'm going to have to buy a new one for him before I return.
Ottobrunn isn't a town to get very excited about, compared to most European towns. It's quite the suburb, although still many times more attractive than Oakville or Burlington. It's quite modern-looking. Very clean and tree-populated, like most places around here, but with very modern-looking plazas and little old architecture.
I did find a great health food store here. I bought organic St. Gallen-style bread and a chocolate bar made with 100% organic ingredients and using the best kind of raw sugar, rapadura! There was a line of these chocolate bars advertising the use of rapadura. That made me almost cry. This is probably the most healthful chocolate bar I've ever had.
I was getting a bit nervous at this point, since I still had no place to stay and no guidebook. None of the bookstores have had hostel guidebooks (or other cheap sleeping books), so I had to resort to the database of lodging that was on my GPS. Thank God for that, though. It even listed the phone numbers of the nearest places so I could call them all to find out the cheapest one.
The first one was 73 euros. Oops. Then one that was 60 euros. Then a couple that were 54 euros. One that was only 30 euros was fully booked, unfortunately. I ended up settling for a place in Ottobrunn that should have cost me 60 euros but that the sweetest receptionist, who understood that I wanted to save money, and gave me a small, but perfect, room for 50 euros (still way too much). She gave me the chance to practice my German. She was really intrigued by my method of transportation and plans for my trip (or rather, the lack thereof). She was so helpful getting me settled in, even though it was past her time to go home for the day.
So for dinner last night I had raw kohlrabi (sp?) and carrots with St. Gallen bread, leberwurst and Butterkaese (some cheap, but good, cheese). Then a bowl of muesli and bread with hazelnut spread for dessert.
Today I'm going to call all the hostels/guesthouses in my planned destination area early and reserve a room at the cheapest one, so I don't end up paying a huge amount of money for the only place that happens to be free. I've also got to find an Internet cafe soon.
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Saturday, October 09, 2004
Sorry it's been taking me forever to post to my blog. It's not as easy to get connected around here (Munich and surroundings) as I thought. I still have lots of pictures that I took weeks ago to post, but I'll do that when I have more time. I'm just at an Internet cafe in Munich right now.
I'll post what I've written in my logbook since arriving in Munich. Sorry for the spelling mistakes (if any); I'm not going to give it any proofreading to save time.
I'll post what I've written in my logbook since arriving in Munich. Sorry for the spelling mistakes (if any); I'm not going to give it any proofreading to save time.
6. Oktober, 2004
A few days ago I tried to ride my bike to Vancouver airport from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. I got as far as the tunnel to Richmond, where I met a sign beside the highway that had a picture of a bike and a big red slash over it. So I had to backtrack along the highway for a while until I got to a sidewalk I could ride on. I had tried calling Anna to find out what to do, but nobody was there. So I observed the buses that were going through the tunnel, found a bus stop, got some change for the far at 7-11, and waited for the bus. All Vancouver buses are equipped with bike racks. Thank God for that; otherwise I have no idea what I'd have done. After I took the panniers off my bike, I cought the next bus, put my bike on the rack (beside the other bike that was already taking up the only other spot), and the driver took me to Airport Station in Vancouver. I remembered that little triangle-shaped bus stop from when Meta, Jon and I took the buses when Meta was leaving for Toronto the first time. After I got there, I transferred to another bus, which took me to the airport. It worked out fine after that point. Whew!
I got the bike over the plane in pretty good shape (just the front reflector was broken), and Michi drove me from Pearson to Steve's house in Burlington. Meta met us there and the three of us (Steve was asleep) went out for breakfast and a long walk. We talked for a very long time. It was great.
I did miscellaneous things during my 2-day stay at Steve's, including attending another SIGFOOD in Toronto with my friends. We had Chinese food in Chinatown this time, then went to the Second Cup to have dessert. I really enjoy listening to Woo-Jun, Evan and Elaine. Elaine loves Hawksley Workman! She was asking me about Meta's music and I mentioned him. That's pretty cool.
Anyway, yesterday I had to get my bike and bags to Pearson from Steve's on my own. It was a bit of a challenge. I ended up deciding to go on the GO train until Long Branch, then bike up to the airport. Well, Appleby station isn't really bike-accessible. In fact, the doors all have "no bikes" signs on them. I didn't have time to look into alternatives for getting my bike on the train, so I just broke the rules and took my bike inside and under the tracks to Track 3. I had to make 2 trips because there were long flights of stairs and my panniers are very heavy.
Anyway, I did manage to get to Long Branch safe and sound. Then I rode up Dixie until I got to the airport. Unfortunately, the directions I'd been following led me to the cargo loading entrance of the airport, so I had to make a big detour to get in. God, how messy Pearson's design is! The roads go in loops and spirals, under and over one another, like a plate of spaghetti. I'm reacting to this now because Munich airport is nothing like that. It's so ordered and planned out, as if everything about its design was intentional and considered before construction. It had 2 terminals that are mirror images of each other (at least at a glance).
So yeah, I got my bike onto the Air Transat plane in Toronto. The check-in lady bagged it (with my help) for free. I also bagged my panniers this time so they wouldn't explode. Everything arrived in perfect shape on the other end. I'm always going to bag them now.
After arriving in Munich and setting up my bike again (about 1:30pm) I tried to escape the airport. I'd assumed it would be easy. I started by following the ring-shaped road that encircles the airport terminals. Not 1 minute into that I got pulled over by a cop with a very Bavarian accent. Wow - first time I ever got pulled over. He spoke to me as if I were a Dummkopf; what was I doing riding my bike on the highway like that? He ordered me to walk my bike back to where I started, and then he left. I never had a chance to explain to him that this is the way we have to do it in Toronto to get to and from the airport by bike.
Anyway, that was kind of a disappointment. Sort of a bad first impression of Munich people, but then I've been here before and I already knew that people are cold, for the most part. :) I went to a lady at an info desk in the airport to find out how to ride my bike away from here. She didn't know! She even called another official, and she didn't know either. It turns out that the route for bicycles/pedestrians was labelled on the airport parking map, though not very obviously.
There's a route from the airport to the Isar river, where I knew there were bike trails going all the way to Munich. I finally left the airport at about 2:15pm and arrived at the hostel at about 6:15pm. So it took 4 hours, with many breaks.
Oh yeah - it's still very much summer here [well, not as I'm typing this, but okay]. I arrived in long pants and a sweatshirt and I was sweltering. Maybe high, humid 20s when I first arrived. It got chillier over the evening, but I never had to put my sweatshirt back on.
Finally, I had to get some food once I was settled in at the hostel. I asked the desk girl whether there were any grocery stores still open (it was after 7pm). She said tehre was one, just a block or so away. I found one place, and it was kind of a drugstore/health food store - called "dm". Not sure if this is what she meant. They had no fresh food, but all the canned and packaged stuff was really healthy, and almost all organic. I didn't even notice at first, until I realized everything had a green "bio" logo on it. How convenient! I wasn't even thinking about organic food, just food. I even got some organic Leberwurst! Paradise! And bikes rules many of the roads. It's fantastic here.
Now I should eat some food and sleep, because I'm still in that semi-dreaming mode from not sleeping for so long. So long.
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Friday, October 01, 2004
You asked for photos, you got 'em:
More later, when I have time.
 | I thought this fog was beautiful. This was taken August 6. |
 | These are passion flowers, the flowers of the passion fruit. Anne grows a hardy variety of passion fruit up the side of her house. |
 | Here are Anne's cousin Eileen and Anne swimming in the chilly ocean on August 26. |
 | Travis in the evening. |
 | | Some pictures of the dramatic clouds during a weatherly day. |
More later, when I have time.
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