Germany

Roden to Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Made it to Roden today. Hope to make it to Regensburg tomorrow, although there is talk of rain by the locals. Was traveling on a busy highway b/w Plzen and the German border when an oldtimer on a bike passed me and then advised me (me using my broken Czech) of another route which he claimed flatter with less traffic. There was certainly less trafficit was very scenic, but . . . it wasn't so flat. Scares me to think about what the other route would have entailed. I did stumble across an incredible path (it can't be called a road) almost at the border. I was afraid I might be stumbling through some private property and get shot at. I did see one bike trail sign so it must be some sort of park with bike trails (obviously). At one point, several trails crossed but I followed the direction indicated on my map (even though nothing was labelled and the other trails were not shown on my map and ended up exactly where I hoped.. Talk about blind ass luck. While traveling through this park, I also noticed several signs, with a picture of a fox. I presume this was a rabies warning which merely added to the drama of racing through a forest of tall pines which practically blot out the sun and prevented the growth of underbrush.

Bavaria is incredibly beautiful with rolling hills covered by a patchwork of multi-colored fields interspersed with groves of tall pines. I tried to take several shortcuts (which I again seemed to find with my friend BA luck). However, I think taking the back roads (which are like our highways back home) added to my time significantly.

Arrived in Regensburg at about 2:30 PM. Spent the day meandering along the Regen river - an absolutely incredible trip. The scenery was lower mountains on either side, cut by the river. The highway pretty much followed the river, so it was pretty flat. Even better, there was a separate paved bike path for probably better than 70% of the way. The Regen is a slow moving, relatively shallow (though too deep to cross) rock strewn river. Every now and again would be ducks, and even swans, swimming. I think this may be the first time I have actually seen swans in the wild. ( I am easily amused).

Regensburg has an incredible gothic cathedral with twin spires. There is a bridge between the spires on which I though I could see (from afar) people walking. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see if this was an observation deck or something. The cathedral (up close) appears to be in rough shape. According to one of the locals I met at the cathedral info center, the local building inspector hasrestricted the number of visitors @ any given time and the official tours are booked 3 days out. Imagine! I am even here in the middle of the week. I plan to follow the Danube towards Augsberg tomorrow. More then.

Day of rest and thought. Spoke with Mom over the telephone to confirm her e-mail that the University of Chicago needs a decision by tomorrow (June 16). Most of the day was spent on the internet (researching) or telephone (w/ Universities - Chicago and Penn). Why am I going back to school? Growth. This will come, I expect from the educational as well as the living experiences. I imagine that New York has as edge as for living experience. While the University of Chicago and Columbia University are about the same overall, I get the sense that the University of Chicago is a little intellectually superior.

June 16 (AM) update - I tried to confirm with the University of Chicago Law School last night but was informed that I had missed the May 15 deadline and the class was now full. They (Anna Praschma) had the gall to say if I had only called, they would have provided an extension - even thought their written correspondence mentioned no such flexibility (only providing two options - (No) or (Yes and rescind all other acceptance to other law schools) and thereby my MBA/JD aspirations as I had not yet heard from Chicago's Business School by May 15th. Fate has cast its card - Columbia is it.

Rode from Regensburg to Ingolstadt today. Even though I made good distance, most of the ride was into a stiff headwind. I was riding along the Danube for part of the day. However, the surrounding land is relatively flat and not so interesting (at least in this area). One thing of note is the Roman ruins in southern Germany. There were the remains of a Roman settlement in Regensburg and I passed what looked like to be the foundations of an entire village at Rising today.

I am staying in the Gasthof Anker in Ingolstadt whish is a little nicer (and more expensive - 88DM) than where I have been staying. Its got a good breakfast and situated close to the center of town. To conserve $$, I think I should focus on staying in smaller towns.

Schools are again the predominant thought of the day. I have decided that I want to start in Law School in the hopes that it might allow me to find my career direction (and who knows - maybe I will find myself doing what I should have been doing all along and skip business school). This of course means that Chicago is out and Columbia is it.

Most of the day was spent traveling between the internet cafe, the hotel, and the telephone booth. None of these trips are short either. Part of this is because some German phone booths take prepaid cards and some only take coins. I am relying on the phone card booths because I don't have the coinage to make an international call of any duration. Part of this is the fact that I forgot my phone card on my first trip to the one phone card booth I previously found.

Nevertheless, I was finally able to arrange for Mom to Fedex Columbia's documentation to the Fedex office in Innsbruck. I called Fedex's 1-800 number (obtained from the internet) and confirmed that they are able to receive a package in Innsbruck and hold it a couple of days for me to arrive. I think this will cut down on the distance I need to travel and may even allow me enough time to reach Venice on June 26/27 (I won't have to go into Munich and Innsbruck is on the way I anticipated going anyway).

In walking around downtown Ingolstadt, I came across some sort of festival or street fair. I should mention that last night, there was a huge fireworks display. Today's fair included a lot of health related booths set up testing people for something. One thing I noticed is that there seem to be a large number of mentally handicapped and physically disabled people roaming around. One of the booths today had a sign referencing MS. Maybe there is some sort of center or institute here. I hope it's not something in the water (that's a terrible thing to say :( ).

Waited this morning to have breakfast at 7:30. They actually had a small buffet which was pretty good. Considering I was paying 88 DM per night, it should have been. I try not to spend more than 50 DM and prefer less than 40 DM per night.

The most spectacular sight of my trip so far was cresting a hill and catching first site of the Alps in the distance. They jut up quite abruptly, almost as if they were teeth piercing the Bavarian terra firma.

The wind was relatively kind today. It wasn't really blowing with me, but at least it was not blowing straight at me either. It was pretty cool in the morning but got up to 30C in the afternoon.

I left Dad a happy father's day greeting on Mark's answering machine. I hope he gets it.

I would really like to goto Fussen to see Mad King Ludwig's palace, but that route adds substantially to the distance to Innsbruck - all of which is through the mountains. Also the trails don't look so great on my bicycle map. Given that this is my first tour through mountains, I think I will go through Mittenwald. This should give me plenty of time to get lost (or take an extra day) to recover from any climbing along the way. I will decide for sure tomorrow.

Didn't quite make it to Mittenwald. I decided early in the day that the extra distance to Fussen outweighed the benefit of seeing Mad King Ludwig's place. Nevertheless, Garmisch - Partenkirchen is just inside the start of the Alps. It's hard to believe that I have made it to the start of the mountains so quickly, considering that I only first saw them yesterday. While Mittenwald is only 22 KM from here and Austria just beyond that, it might be kind of neat to see southern Bavaria from the top of what I understand to be the tallest mountains in Germany (i.e., the Bavarian Alps).

I rode through the coolest thing today as I neared Garmisch - Partenkirchen. It was a paved bicycle path which went through several cow pastures - with the cows no less. This lasted for 5KM or so. The path occasionally came to the metal grates in the ground used to separate the various pastures. Sometimes it passed through a stream. There wer park benches along the way, people swimming, sitting on the benches, jogging, anc cycling - all with horses and cows grazing everywhere. Magnificent!

The birds here, when they come out at night, are incredible. Their singing is incredibly elaborate.

A day of rest. Interestinlgy, I have noticed that frequently farms are located within the towns here in southern Germany - livestock and all. You see the typical Bavarian style house (which it strikes me is quite large) with the milking barn attached directly thereto. Even the small time farmers have their yard fenced off and chickens running around. This is so different from my experience in the midwest where farms - expecially those with livestock - are situated at least beyond what would be considered the town proper.

Spent most of the day running erands. Although, at least today they were not associated with getting into school. I looked into going up the Wank mountain, but they were asking DM 29. USD 15 is too much to ride a cable car on a mountain that is only 1700 meters tall (though I expect the view of the Bavarian plains would have been nice). I was told that the Zugspritz (nearby) is the tallest mountain in these parts at 2900 meters (though it costs USD 40 to ascend its peak).

Internet here was 14DM per hour, the most so far. I believe there is an American military base very near here. I wonder if that has some influence. It does not look like Fedex has an office in Innsbruck, so I suppose Columbia U will have to wait until I get to Italy.