A Vorderburg wedding

May 1, 2023

Immenstadt to Füssen

it was a mizzly old day outside when I woke early. Not wanting to wake John I snuck down to the darkened and empty breakfast room and read the good weekend magazine online and managed to scare the bejesus out of the Fraulein who burst into the room to set up breakfast. The forecast was for showers tending to rain, so we got our skates on and left by nine. It’s a public holiday Monday and nothing is open except a bakery where load up on goodies in case we find nothing else.

We’re in the heartland of Bavaria and it is stunning even without blue skies.

The rain holds off most of the morning . We pull into the little village of Vorderburg and find a shelter to eat our German version of pain au chocolat called pan aus chocolade. In front of us is a tractor with a 50 metre log hanging off the back of it supported by a buggy 2/3 of the way along it. On the tractor are flowers and streamers and a sign saying Simone loves Roman.

Imagine trying to run that past the RTA.

I asked a guy walking past what this was all about and his response was that in the town of Vorderburg they have a tradition dating back many centuries where the bride approaches the church ‘surfing’ on a log with her veil trailing in the breeze as homage to the timber felling industry Vorderburg is renowned for.

We pedal onwards and upwards. Again it’s mostly bike paths connecting hillside towns so it’s up and down for most of the day. In the next village there’s quite a crowd and it’s then that we realise what’s going on. It’s May Day and each village is celebrating the day by erecting the May Pole and then they dance around it for a little bit and then drink gallons of beer and finally fall over.

That wacky guy in the last village actually said that the wedding of Simone and Roman was two days ago and they had to borrow his tractor to get the log and couldn’t be stuffed getting the decorations off. I prefer my version.

After another misty hour we break for lunch in a bus shelter and raid our pantry of 4 bread rolls and half a stick of salami, half a bag of peanuts and 3 worthers originals. In the next town we finally found an open shop. It was nice and warm inside and they served a proper hot chocolate.

With twenty kilometres to our destination we pass with cooee of the township of Wank. Now I’m not going to descend into boorish schoolboy humour but the reason I’m highlighting this is because a couple of my followers are descendants of the Wanks this town is named after. They have asked me to look out for their town and pop into the library and find the leather bound tome of their entire family history; ‘The Complete Wank’.

Unfortunately by now the rain had started to come down so we headed past the turnoff and climbed some more hills.

No fashion statement but those yellow shoe covers help keep the rain out.

Within the last five kilometres the heavens opened and we got soaked. Füssen is an old but quite touristy town mainly because of its proximity to Neuschwanstein Castle. We’re not interested for the moment. We just want to be dry and warm. We splash out on a hotel with a sauna and spa that was still cheaper than the dog box we had in Switzerland.

The sauna is on the second floor second window from the left.

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 635 km (394 miles)

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Mike AylingA 50 metre log! You must have included GST!
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11 months ago

Dennis LangleyIt was at least 2 cricket pitches in length and then I rounded it up.
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11 months ago