June 5, 2010 - Au to Melk

Estimated Mileage - 55 miles
Trip Route Link
Photo Album Link

Ah, another perfect day with perfect weather.  Things started off on a strange note, with a flat tire and a bolt missing off the rear rack.

Luckily, I've got plenty of spares-a-plenty, thanks to the neurosis instilled in me by all of the various experienced bicycle tourists who helped me with planning my inventory.  I guess those days of non-stop rain and rocky roads helped it squirm it's way out.  Once repairs were finished, it was time for another day of world-class bicycle touring along the Austrian Danube.  However, I hadn't gone longer than 15 miles when the aftermath of the previous flooding reared it's ugly head:

It was hard to see acres upon acres of crops ruined, with me traipsing through it all, oblivious.  Here's the Chump Steamroller, waiting for me to ford through a knee-deep section of flood with my shoes off:

This was the worst damage I've seen so far from the floods, but the evidence of it is still everywhere.  Mud and dirt over all of the low-lying bike paths, and still tons of clean-up crews and street sweepers going up and down the roads.

In addition of the flood debris strewn over the road, the cottonwoods here are shedding like crazy.  I'll ride through a section of river with the cottonwood looking like a snowstorm.  All the fluff will stick to my beard stubble and I end up looking like a sweaty Santa Claus.  Here's how much cottonwood detritus is on a typical stretch of road:

When I got to Melk, I set up my tent just across the way from a nice group of folks who run a bike touring outfit.  They schlep 20 or so bike tourist by bus, and everybody sleeps in the back.  Not my cup of tea, but also an interesting way of seeing the world.  Here's their website, in case anybody is interested.

The day ended like most of them do these days, with a bit of journalling, planning with my maps and an ice cold beer.

June 4, 2010 - Engelhartzell to Au

Estimated Mileage: 65 miles
Trip Route Link
Photo Album Link

Ah, the sun! Behold!

Yes, it's the return of the sky here in Austria. After a week of straight raining the sun has made an appearance. It's a good thing I took the day off on the 3rd because all day I saw the after-affects of what appeared to be some low-level flooding. The bike path had debris and mud on it during stretches, and I was dodging bulldozers and back-hoes most of the day. The first sign that things had gone wrong the previous day was the bike ferry I was planning on taking first thing in the morning. It had been cancelled for the morning, due to cleanup.  Note the small back hoe scraping mud:

Regardless of the various messes, it was a glorious day. Unbelievable riding and a seriously brightened mood. The morning I spent going around this piece of the Donau called the "Schlogen Loop". The entire river makes a full 180 degree turn before turning back to it's original direction. Along the side of the water is a dedicated bike path that goes for about 15 miles. Flat, gorgeous, nearly deserted. Just awesome.

At the end of the day, I ended up going to the Mauthausen concentration camp. I won't get into it, except to say that it's a bit of an awkward transition going through the small town of "Wienergraben" into the gates of a Nazi work camp. Couldn't they have changed the name of the town to something less chuckle-inducing? What's next, the admission gate staffed by employee Seymour Butts?

Jokes aside, it was sobering and heavy. I'll probably write more about it later.

Ended up spending the night at a campground named "Au am der Donau" (Au on the Danube). What a great spot! Spent the night relaxing, until I fell asleep at 9 PM to gentle sounds of the Austrian families playing on the jungle gym about 50 feet from the tent camping area. Did I mention that ear plugs are now my number 1 piece of gear I brought with me?

June 2-3, 2010 - Deggendorf, Germany to Engelhartzell, Austria (and a rest day in Engelhartzell)

Estimated Mileage: 55 miles
Trip Route Link
Photo Album Link

Austria!  Finally!

Today was a tough, tough day, riding wise.  The roads were nearly completely paved, which was good, but the bad news was that it rained even harder than the day before.  I set out a completely do-able goal, of a town named "Engelhartzell".

First the good stuff: I got to take two ferries across the river which was very fun.  Each time I was the only passenger, and each time it only cost 1.50 EUR to get across, which was probably a tiny fraction of the cost to keep a ferry boat idling in the Danube for moron bike tourists who like to ride in rainstorms. Here's an action shot of the Expedition cruising across the Danube at the Neideralteich Abbey crossing:

And here's a shot of the rain-soaked ferry captain on the Sandbach ferry.  She was officially one of the nicest women I've ever met.  She told me in her not-so-great English "An old man from Munich told me that I am happy when it rains because when it does not rain I am sometimes not so happy".  I think the meaning got garbled a bit in the translation, so I just took it to mean "Buck up, trooper, and quit yer bitching".

The riding was actually spectacular, with well-paved roads most of the way and great scenery.  However, it was also raining buckets and was around 50 degrees again.  Harder rain than the previous day, and that's saying a lot.  Here's me:

I got into Passau, a town that the locals call "The Venice of the North" because it has so many canals and is so beautiful.  I think it's because the entire town was underwater when I was there.

From what I could tell, Passau was an extremely beautiful city.  It's at the confluence of three major rivers: the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz.  There's huge and well-marked bike paths along each of them, just like the one I'm doing on the Danube.  I made a mental note that there's lots more to explore in the region, and blew through town.

Once past Passau and  into Austria, the landscape changed dramatically.  Through the last 4 days in Germany, the Danube was part of huge farm valleys, with the river providing irrigation as far as you could see.  Here in Austria, all of a sudden, the valley narrows and become much more similar to the first part of the ride, where it is carving out a path among steep cliffs on either side:

Even though I was soaked to the bone, even though I was chilled and tired, this part of the day was spectacular.  These pictures and my thoughts don't do it justice...

Once settled and warm, the Expedition's Planning Committee had a Emergency Session and it was decided to improve our weather forecasting capabilities.  So I checked the The Weather Channel's home page and saw that the next day of good weather was on Friday.  I'm taking another day of rest here in this town of Engelhartzell, drying out all of my riding clothes and looking forward to seeing the sun again soon.  My room has a great view of the swollen and muddy Danube, and I can see huge river boats fill up with German biddies and make their way towards the nearby historical and geological sites:

Some Thoughts About Seeing German War Memorials

While cycling through the Germany these last 2 weeks, I've only come across three monuments that make any kind of reference to WWI or WWII. All three were monuments to the war dead affixed on the side of a church.

I snapped pictures of all three furtively, hoping no one would interpret it as a sign of disrespect, or assume I was going to put it on the web with the caption "Here lies a bunch of Nazi assholes".

Of course, this isn't how I feel. The dead are the the dead, after all, and it's useless to call them names. No doubt that within the names there were some particularly vicious dudes, rousting Jews from farmhouses and doing unspeakable things. There is no forgiveness or understanding there. But I can't help but think that most of these names were just German dudes that were swept up in events much larger than them, put into motion by people much more vicious and evil than them.

For World War I, this is undoubtably true: from what I've read the Germans seem no more "evil" or "wrong" than any other party in that ridiculous war. All the heads of states were all inter-related, they were all a bunch of buffoons, and all of the people on the ground were merely part of a much larger mistake. From my limited understanding, it sounds like a series of pent-up 19th century grudges and conflicts played out with 20th century technology and methods. For the Germans who died in that war, I can't summon an ounce of anger or bitterness.

In World War II, things get murkier for me. Hitler came to power with promises to get rid of the Jews. He was very up front about what an evil son-of-a-bitch he was, and if you signed up with him, you signed up for non-stop Evil. But at the same time, it's no doubt true that most of the Germans who died in WWII were no more "Evil" or "Wrong" than any other soldier of any other conflict. Of course, the Nazis needed to be stopped. But looking at a list of the dead, how are these individuals to blame? Why "blame" anyway?

Everybody I've met these last few weeks has been so unbelievably gracious, kind and welcoming to me, and this region is the conservative part of Germany that gave Hitler much of his power base. Now I'm in Austria, his homeland, and people here are equally wonderful. Am I to believe that there was some inherent evil in the mothers and fathers of these people that is no longer present after one or two generations. That the anti-semitism and the hate and the war-mongering were all some disease that captured everybody and then went away?

To me, that makes no sense. The simple lesson I take from it is that I've got the same capacity of evil as the names on these monuments. I'm no different than any of them, and for me to judge them is to deny my own nature. Who am I to say that I wouldn't do the same things under the same circumstances? Maybe I'd be a hero or a matyr, maybe I'd be a great villain. Until I'm faced with the same choices, I can't know. And I'll never be faced with the same choices since every moment in history is unique, with it's own context and stories.

To judge the Nazis is easy: they are history's greatest villains and there is nothing that will ever wipe that away. But I can't do the same to Karl Ertl, who was born on the 16th of April, 1923 and died on the 18th of October in 1944 and who probably belonged to a small church in the town of Kunzing in Eastern Bavaria, by the banks of the Danube river, whose named is carved on this plaque that lies on the main road through town.

June 1, 2010 - Regensburg to Deggendorf

Estimated Mileage: 55 miles
Photo Album Link
Trip Route Link

This last year I've done a lot of reading about folks on serious bike treks, though deserts, mountains, snow and ice.  I read about Barbara Savage getting pelted with rocks by Egyptians on the road to the Pyramids.  I've read about Dave Stamboulis surviving the Karakoram Highway, with endless climbs and suspicious natives.  And I've read Matt Cazalas' great journal "Long Haul Truckin'", which documents his 2+ years of crusing around the US on his bike, pulling 120 mile days through some of the toughest biking terrain that there is.

So it is with great sadness that I report today I let the weather get the best of me, when the obstacles I had were nothing compared to the things these other folks faced.  I started out at 6:00 AM, mentally and physically prepared to go my first 100 miles, all of it completely flat, along the Danube.  A few miles into the ride, the rain began and didn't stop.  The last week the weather had been fairly easy: a little heavy rain, a lot of drizzling and sun breaks here and there.  This day was the first time it simply rained heavily all day without a single break.

On top of rain, it was also cold: around 50 degrees.  And the roads were extremely bad.  At one point, the mud got too thick to ride anymore.  I got off my bike and was trouncing through the mud in the poring rain, having gone through about 5 hours of riding and thought to myself, "I have the time, the money and the desire to go to a hotel right this moment.  I think that's what I'll do".  I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the German version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and catching up on my celebrity news (the pictures from the Sex and the City premiere are great, by the way).

Not much else to report from Duggendorf beside the fact that it has a really neat looking, oddly-shaped center of town (it's pear-shaped) and that I'm really happy to be warm and inside for a few hours...

May 31, 2010 - Rest Day in Regensburg

Estimated Mileage: Zero Miles
Photo Album Link



View Larger Map

The idea was to hang out in one of the most beautiful cities of Europe, cool my jets and rest up for my first 100 mile day the next day.  The night before, the reception desk lady had given me a handy map which directed me from the hotel to a touristy Bavarian food place which was sort of like the German equivalent of a T.G.I.F.'s or Red Robin.
Well, I had a series of places to see that I marked on the map that I wanted to see. 

• the Snuff Factory museum
• the Johan Kepler house (we learned a bunch about him in all of my Physics classes)
• the Jewish Cultural Center
• the Old Reichstag, the deliberative body of the Holy Roman Empire way back in the 1600's to the 1800's
• the Cathedral

Well, every single one of them was closed, but I took what pictures I could.  It also was raining off and on the whole day, so mostly I stuck to cafes and parks with big trees. Despite the weather, the town was an amazing place to spend a day, especially when every corner you turn, you're faced with this:

Or this:

Like my other rest days I've had, around 11 AM I started getting restless once all of my chores and to-dos were done.  My legs needed Action!  I went to bed around 8 PM, since the next day I had 100 miles planned, and I wanted to be on the road by 6 AM.

I actually ended up going back to the Red Robin Bavarian place, and ate these Potato dumplings that were basically baseball-sized spheres of starch drenched in some kind of beef sauce.  They put me into a carb-induced coma as soon as I crawled into bed.  If a region's food is measurered by it's ability to induce sleepiness, Bavaria wins.

Excerpt from the Transcript of the June 1 Plenary Session

The Large Handlebar Bag: The motion reads as follows: "Ben, The Leader of the Expedition, having led us into a embarrassing failure on this day, June 1, 2010, whether through imbecilic action or near-criminal inaction, has lost the faith of the assembled Inventory and shall be removed as Trip Leader to be replaced by another member of the Expedition"

(various cheers and yells come from the crowd)

TLHB: So you see, we have here a crisis of confidence, a lack of leadership.  And we are gathered to install someone who will lead us into the muck no more!

(more cheers)

TLHB: Who can forget the vim and the vigour with which we all began the morning.  Who can forget the 5:00AM wake-up time and the energy we all poured into todays' goals.  100 miles!  Austria!  These were the oases on the horizon!  These were our collective dreams!  And these dreams have been snatched away from us.  It wasn't a twist of fate that stole them from us.  It wasn't bad luck that kept us from our destiny.  No.  It was a man.  And that man is Ben!

(catcalls and hisses are heard from the crowd)

The Leatherman Tool: String 'em up!

TLHB: Oh, Leatherman, you are of a different, ornier age.  And you have much reason to be upset, given that you are a finely-crafted multi-use tool and our so-called leader only uses you to smear his chocolate sauce or cut his precious luncheon meat.  No, we will not be stringing him up.  But we will be meting out the severest mode of justice that our by-laws allow.  I'm talking of course of Impeachment!

The Bike Lock: (translated from the German) He is without loyalty!  He leaves behind our brethren without the slightest hesitation!

TLHB: Yes, it is true that he disposed of the previous Bike Lock at a Tuttlingen bicycle establishment, due to the fact that he lost both of the keys for that lock.  And he had to buy you, a German model to make up for the loss.  On top of that, both the key and it's spare were on the same key ring!  It was a completely avoidable loss!  More testament to his incompetence!

The Bike Lock: (from the German) And let's not forget that he use me to lock up the Bicycle for two days in Regensburg...and left one of the keys in my keyhole the whole time!!!!

(gasps are heard from the audience)

TLHB: It is an act for such profound stupidity it shocks us all that we are subject to his whims.  But subject we are, unless we act now!

(cheers, then jeers, as Ben stands to address the gathered Inventory)

Ben: I understand you're all upset, as I am by the events of today.  I started off with every intention of completing 100 miles.  And for 50 miles, I gave it my all.  But when the rain wouldn't let up for four hours, and I was caught in that mud outside of Deggendorf, and my feet were numb, and my gloves were soaked-

The Gloves: Don't blame us, we were advertised as "water-resistant", not "water-proof", you asshole!

Ben: - and I just didn't see how it would be any fun to continue like that for another 4 hours.  Isn't it much nicer here in this hotel room?

The Wallet: As ranking opposition chairman of the Budget Committee, I formally object to the use of the Expedition's funds in this manner.

Ben: It's not the expedition's funds, it's my funds...

The Large Handlebar Bag: You see how he flaunts his authority!

Ben: Oh, take it easy.  We'll try the Century another day.

The Nutella: I will be long gone by then.

The Salami: As will I...

Ben: Yes...yes you will (eyes the salami menacingly), but let's not let that stop us from having a nice afternoon, ok?

The Bicycle Seat:  Please make the nightmare end...no more of the riding and the darkness and the dampness never ceasing...

Ben: Can we all just agree to relax for the rest of today, quit with the recriminations and see how we all feel in the morning?

(grumbles of begrudging consent are heard)

Ben: Good, that's that then.  I'm off for a beer....I'll see you all when I get back.

The Leatherman Tool: String 'em up!!!!