Day 44: Neuhaus to Schleching

May 26, 2022

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We woke up and looked out at "our" little mountain, which is also clearer now that I have figured out how to open the window! The main feature, though, was an almost clear sky behind it. That meant we could return to frolic mode, from trying to survive in the rain mode. We began with another 10 jammer breakfast. Ours was a family run guesthouse, and it's just amazing how the husband and wife organized and arranged such an array of high quality foods. Today again there was lachs, with the characteristic horesradish sauce. So great.

Before we get going with the day, we have two contributions from or about two of our so sweet grandchildren. On April 25 we had a shout out for Amelia, who lives in Montreal, and who had her 11th birthday that day. Our broken PC prevented us from putting in her photo. But that is fixed now. Hello lovely Amelia!:

In Seattle, we have 13 year old Violet. Her Mom, Laurie, denies that Violet has been following this blog (hmmm), but notwithstanding she just produced this painting, which could illustrate many of our pages. Telepathy!

We are now truly and deeply into Bavaria, and we can see it easily in the buildings. There are still many of the huge ones, with house on one end and barn on the other, but there are more of ones that could better be called chalets - still generally huge, but not humongous, with balconies and flower filled window boxes.

Here is a selection of what these look like:

One hazard of cycle touring in foreign lands is their habit of inventing holidays you never saw coming. On such days, it will be almost impossible to find an open grocery or bakery, or any other service. But in compensation, there can be interesting celebrations going on.

This was the case today, which as everyone but us knows is not only Fathers' Day but also Christi Himmelfahrt. Christi Himmelfahrt? Ja, es ist ein gesetzlicher Feiertag in ganz Deutschland. Aber wann ist Christi Himmelfahrt 2022? Christi Himmelfahrt 2022 ist am Donnerstag, 26. Mai 2022. ... and everything is closed - so live with it!

Our first indication of the holiday, other than the closed bakeries was when we rolled in to a small town and found what could be the whole town lined up behind hay bales, eagerly anticipating something to come down the road. We expected a road bike race, but no, what came down was people on wheeled versions of a luge or skeleton. Dodie asked a bystander and learned that the town boasted two olympic champions of the ice versions, and that they were in the audience.

Among the townsfolk were some in traditional dress. We have seen this enough to surmise that the dress does not have to be the focus of a festivity, it's just what people wear when they put on their not work clothes.

Lots of cyclists from the radweg also joined the bystanders.

One of the joys of cycling in the mountains is that church bells sound so great, when ringing in distant valleys. We were listening to one such bell ringing, but after a while we began to wonder about just how exuberant the bells were, and why they were going on and on. We did this wondering for at least twenty minutes, until we finally arrived in the town. There we found traffic backed up for kms on the roads leading to the town centre, and from the exuberant church was issuing a stream of marchers, again in unique traditional dress. The parade (or whatever) was almost over, so I whipped out my camera and filmed a bit. I was on my bike and kind of pressed, but the photos and video do give the idea.

We asked a bystander and sort of understood that this was a procession from the exuberant church to some other church.

We have of course been following the Bodensee-Konigsee Radweg for the last several days. As a west-east route it intersects with north-south radwegs, the first of which was the Munchen-Venedig at Bad Tolz. An intersection like that makes the town famous in the eyes of long distance tourers. For non-touring readers, dunno, maybe if there would be an intersection of the Oregon Trail and Route 66, or something, it would be equivalent in WoW factor, for somebody.

Well today the Bod-Kon crossed the Inn River, and with it the Inn Radweg, which is sort of fresh from leaving Innsbruck. The town at the intersection is Neubeuren. Admittedly, it was not as famous with us as Bad Tolz, but now it is!

The green lines are radwegs. I think 33 is Bod-Kon and 35 is Inn. The map is more complicated than it felt on the ground!

It's a bit of a climb up to downtown Neubeuren, but it's worth it. You go through a gate and into a small but highly decorated core.

The best thing was that we happened into the middle of yet another town celebration. A band was playing and everyone was wearing their traditional best. I would guess that the styles, the hats in particular, are specific to this region, or maybe town, or maybe the group putting on the party. Does anyone know?

We had one last piece of serendipity for the day. As we cruised along beyond Neubeuren, a young man popped out of the woods and it seemed he needed a bike pump. He had a flat but did have a pump. What he was missing was glue for a patch. He had been carrying two patch kits, but both were dried up! We were glad we could help. We had come on this trip with two new tubes of glue!

We had somewhat underestimated the total kms needed to reach our destination today, and so were open to possible shortcuts. This usually means going on road and bypassing some of the radweg twiddles. Of course the twiddles may be there for a reason, like keeping off a dubious road. We came to one such decision point, and actually discussed it with other cyclists looking at the same issue. We all decided to go for the road.

Well it helped save the day, in terms of distance, but yikes. The road was a curving affair that descended steeply and for a long time. Motorcylists seemed to have discovered this fun moto playground, and were zoomed around, as were car drivers. We leaned on the brakes, and hoped it would end soon. It didn't.

Take the path - straight, or the road, right?

We had a lot of cyclist company today, beyond that at the road decision.

In this shot, the road cyclists think they are getting ahead. Maybe Dodie is just playing possum before blowing past them?

We left the radweg on a planned hop (ausflug) to the little town where Jurgen and Susanne live. Jurgen and Susanne had noted our blog in 2014, when they lived along Bodensee, and they invited us then to sleep over. They are avid cyclists and we all enjoyed the visit a lot. We subsequently followed Jurgen's blog when he cycled from Alaska to Vancouver, though he did not happen to come to our Vancouver Island. When we discovered that Jurgen and Susanne had moved with 7 km of the Bod-Kon, we invited ourselves again to their place!

Jurgen is out of town for the next while, but we did have Susanne. Jurgen is a great baker, specializing in Black Forest Cake, but Susanne is also a stellar baker, and cook. She had a really super rhubarb cake waiting for us. It was most welcome, since all stores have been closed today.

We had a good long session of catching up with Susanne. Then Susanne's friend Silke came over for supper. Silke wanted to meet us, because her 18 year old daughter, Fenia, is heading to Canada to join a work/travel program. We tried to cover any issues Fenia might encounter, like getting a phone working, exchanging money, or having documentation for any potential employer to be able to hire her on. Of course, now we will also be there as a backstop for Fenia should she run into any problems. Silke also let us talk about our travels, something that we were keen to do, since right now, of course, we are very into it.

Susanne mentioned that tomorrow morning she would cycle off to the bakery. "Cycle" and "bakery" are my thing, so I have asked to tag along. I need to finish the blog, and go to bed so as to be ready for the bakery expedition!

What gave Meaning to Life today: Being able to help Sebastian get unstranded by his flat. As with John and Julie, we just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 2,561 km (1,590 miles)

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Scott AndersonIt was a holiday here in France yesterday also: Ascension Day, which is apparently a holiday in much of Europe: “It is a moveable holiday and depends on when Easter occurs. Ascension Day is celebrated on a Thursday, 40 days after Easter Sunday because, before his ascension, Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples after he rose from death.”.

It was a surprise to us as well.
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1 year ago

Rich FrasierWe were shocked to see that in Rome there was no evidence of a holiday on Thursday. All stores and banks appeared open. Business as usual in the capital of Catholicism.
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1 year ago