Niederschaeffolsheim !

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Part One

Doing circles through the Black Forest of Bavaria on nameless slug covered roads. Drops of water continually fall under the thick and leafy evergreen canopy, though I´m almost positive its not raining. The trees obscure the sky and behind what I cannot see, the clouds hide the sun. East, North, West , South; the Black Forest has no direction. My clock ticks slower here, moving as if it measured time by the change in light, here where day and night are as different as mist and drizzle.

Eventually I find the strength to resist turning, passing every fork. Turning, I´ve concluded, leads only to circles. On a long climb, twisting and turning past many false summits, I finallly see the one. There is glow there where the trees are thinned. The slugs on the road point like compass needles to this spot. I follow their path, caught too, in the magnet, and reach the point where they have gahtered.

In the orgy of slugs, I rejoice. I bask in the light I have found, which is that of the moon. The cold glow is the color of brie, creamy and grey. It allows me to read a lonesome wooden sign pointing down a dirt road. Kabine. I find the little shelter after after two kilometers, with the help of a flashlight. Sleep is strange and feverish after falling asleep in the dense and damp silence.

Part 2

France ended and germany began. It was more a dramatic transition than I had imagined. Quiet counry roads were replaced with busy ones. The cars were shinier and moving much faster. The towns were no longer preserved, but tainted with modern architecture. Roads were poorly marked and the maze of bike paths along the roads were confusing and inconvenient. Baguettes and esspresso became harder to find as well. In my culture shock, I quckly grew to dislike Germany. The constant rain aided in this judgement.

I got lost in the black forest, but found a cabin in the woods. THe next morning I found my way. Germany had few rewarding moments until Munich and even that was a struggle. It rained everyday, sometimes hard and some times soft, but always steady. The forests and the mountains were nice, but it was difficult to find backroads, and the bike lanes were often frustrating. I got lost many times on the roads and lead to dead ends on the bike paths. When things began to go well it would start to rain. No campgrounds could be found, so I remained dirty and damp. I made a dash for Munich. made it in 3 days from the border. With only 100 Km to Munich I got lost and turned it into 140. THe last 25 it poured as I raced into the city on a bike path along highway 2. I suddenly found myself by the train station in the center of town, blocks from a hostel.

The shelter, warmth, and companionship of a hostel was rather appealing at that point, but it did not come so easy as distance. They only had one bed left. I had no cash and they wanted to charge me extra for using a debit card to pay. I ran to an ATM. Declined. I ran to another. Delcined, etc. etc. I gave up and went back to pay for the room. I had not even the cash for the key deposit, but they let it go. My card worked fine as a credit card. When I got to my room the bed I was assigned was taken. They moved me to another, more expensive room. I put my stuff there, stowed my bike in the basement and wandered out into the transient filled streets around the train station. It was still raining. The smell of food reminded me athat I had not eaten in hours and that I had no food. Absolutlely no one accepted credit cards of any kind for any purchases. I continued to try different ATMs to no avail. I went back to my room and dug through the pockets of a wet pair of shorts and found some change. I drank a small glass of beer at the bar and went back to my room to sleep. When I arrived, there were already three people in the room, three to match the three beds. I was the fourth. I was moved again, this time bumped to a private room. I fell asleep after flipping through strange german porn and gameshows on the little TV.

The next monrning began with financial institutions shoving sharp metal objects up my rectum an beginnning to turn them slowly. I discovered that there is no toll free calling in gemany. I could not use my calling card and even if I wanted to pay the 12.50/minute to call my bank via credit card, I could not because it was still sunday night in Portland.

I came up with the idea to try and buy traveller´s checks. THey accepted my card, but I had to pay way too much for them. Then, after more searching, I had to return to the same place and pay more money to cash them because no one accepted those either. But alas, Finally I had money.

PArt 3

My second day in Munich brightened my short-sighted views on Germany. THough it rained off and on, I rolled around on the bike and took in the main sights. I drank coffee at cafes, ate lunch in the park, hung out around the university, sat down to a traditional German meal, and then drank some giant 1 liter beers at the hostel with a group of italians. Munich is a very pleansant and beautiful city. I think there are at least twice as many bikes here than cars. Every road has a bike lane between the sidewalk and the parked cars. It has Portland beat for biking by light years. Everybody rides a bike everywhere. It is a consatnat critical mass, especially at rush hour.

There are also four big breweries here and they pump out some fine lagers, almost not quick enough to meet the massive consumption.

PArt4.....

Well, I´ve decided to keep this trip in Western Europe. Im skipping out on slovenia and Croatia. I´m going over the alps through western Austria, straight to Italy, then back to france through the Riviera and into Spain. More time in less places sounds good to me, and so does a Mediterranean climate.

Ciao,

steve

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Photos

My favorite town in germany
I´ve never been there and its actually in france

Comments

[justin]

du ist eine bedrucken affa
glockenspiel! glockenspiel!

[tonya]

sunshine
Hi Steve. It's a good thing you've lived in the rainy NW for the past few years, preparing yourself for all this rainy weather. Hope your journey is soon blessed with ample sunshine. t