Sunday October 13 - Geiselbullach

Tho they call it Holiday Inn Express Olching, it’s a couple km from there, a place called Geiselbullach, besides the hotel there’s a McDonald (they are McCafes here) I did go in one looking for milk one day but no… but they do serve on permanent dishes and it’s more like a regular cafe, then next door theres a gas station, a breakfast-lunch restaurant and bakery, and a light industrial park. 

I’m crashing hard I realize I’m going to have a huge letdown now, my legs are sore my head kinda numb… my routine is out of whack it’s been 28 straight days living on the go out of my bike panniers and riding, now it’s all stopped and I feel real tired. 

I went on the x800 bus to esting station, got the s3 train to pasing, caught the sev19 replacement bus from there to Siglstrase, and the 19 tram from there to the Shurgard storage on Landsbergestrase. It was chilly and raining good, so I cut through a big parking garage well it was not empty must have been half a dozen cars of immigrants and homeless type people hanging out in there out of the rain… broken liquor bottles garbage … quite a wake up call I haven’t seen any litter or garbage or dirty filthy people by the bunch for a long time… anyway, nobody bothers me I got my stuff out of storage 2 big pieces of luggage and the mvgo app says take the tram to the central station then back out on the sev 19 bus to pasing, s6 to esting, x800 bus from there. That’s what I did but that train station was exhausting, I did a video for the kids you never saw such a crowded busy place… 30 tracks plus all the trams and buses and all the tourists like me are looking for S trains they don’t know they ain’t working a lot of places you have to get buses and trams out to the stations the s trains start, which for me is pasing. 

The app confuses me so I go in to a information office the gal has me repeat where I’m trying to get to… types it in, turns around and gets a printout off the printer and hands it to me. S6 on track 27 at 13:36 to pasing, S3 to Esting, x800 bus from there. I get up to track 27 there’s a long distance train there… luckily I see a conductor show her my paper she says oh this one goes pasing too…tho it was going 2 hours away… so I get on…and so does everyone else lol standing room only the whole train I have these 2 huge bags right by the door, packed are the steps with people not another person could fit, but they do,,, 5 10 20 more people squeeze in til no one can move and still more people try to get on… finally the door closes and off we go for the 6 minute ride to pasing… and as we get there, I’m last on the platform dragging my 2 bags, here comes the s6 I would have ridden, almost empty…. 

Oh there was so much more at that station but I know this all is going on too long, the rain has stopped it’s cloudy but blue sky, I have decided to ride my bike to dinner, even here 15 miles out from city center there are bike trails connecting all the little towns, been that way all throughout Germany and Austria, cuz they use bikes for transportation. No wonder they are buying e-bikes starting about $2,000 and up, why use a car when you can bike and get fresh air n exercise? 

I enjoyed that thali platter the other day so and because there’s an Indian restaurant that’s open at 530, I’m gonna go there for dinner and it’s really different to have a choice of regular clothes to wear again! lol 

Ok well blogging is going to wind down now I think… so, it’s been good and I’ll probly do some recap after my head gets back to “normal” 

Saturday October 12 - Reisbach to Munich (Olching)

 

It was a damp chilly start, but a good breakfast and i got going early, hoping to get close to munich because rain forecast tomorrow. Nice rolling hills what you think of bavaria, pine trees, houses with flowered balconies, pretty skies. About 30 km out i was making good time, and thinking how i’d finish up rain or not tomorrow, i realized i had left my rain booties and a pair of socks hanging on the shower door. I had washed them out they were pretty dirty muddy… so, now i don’t know what to do, well stop for lunch and figure out where to stop. I made good time and got to Vilsbiburg by 130 or so, really hungry but didn’t see anything open that i liked… didn’t want to spend time in a restaurant, want something quick, not a gyro or pizza. 

Couldn’t find anything so i said heck with it i’ll head out of town and make time, well at the end of town was a Thai restaurant the sign said open til 2 but the lights were off… i looked in there and here an older man came out for a smoke, yes we are open he said. So i had a tom ka gai and a veg pad thai and it was really good. 

Looking at the maps, well the cycle.travel map had me going on bike routes only 33 km’s to erding, which i could make in 2 more hours or so, but the hotels were a little pricey because it’s not too far from the munich airport, which is 40km north of town. I really don’t want that… but looking further, the s2 bahn train from munich comes to there, and goes out the other side northwest to Olching, which is where my Holiday Inn Express is! Yay so that’s the plan i already had booked 3 nights there i’ll just make it 4. They have a good breakfast and queen size bed i am tired of these guest house and pensions twins… i should make it easily by dark. 

Well, one last adventure, the train goes in to the Leuchtenbergring and stops, construction on all the S lines it’s replacement bus or a different train in 26 minutes. And there’s no elevator, lots of steep steps down, which isn’t so bad, but then all back up again… so by the time i figured out to take all the bags off, carry them down the stairs, come back up and get the bike, carry it down, i did not feel up to carrying everything back up and didn’t think i would make the train anyway, so i said heck with it, i’ll just ride my bike to one of those stops i know from our visit here in August… this was about 4:00 i should be ok… maybe just ride all the way out there? I wish i would have just rode out here, because, by the time i found more train stations closer in, they too were all closed, all the S trains from Friday to Monday for construction and repairs…. after 2 failed stations, i decided just to go to the main train station, well Oktoberfest just finished last week and some of the 6 million visitors are still around, a lot of them, every street sidewalk bike path was crowded as could be, took me forever and i didn’t even get close to the train station. So i figured just to ride on out to the hotel. Well it was about 14 miles, an hour and a half and it was starting to get dark. 

So I started out, and here was a Lidl on the way, why not stop and get something to eat so i don’t get caught with nothing for dinner, OK. It too was a zoo, packed and the germans are not polite about butting in line, if a new cashier opens up, which happened twice while i was in line, it’s a mad dash people crashing their carts in front of other people, people slipping in front of you quick like… so it took a while and when i came out it was dark, getting real dark. Which wasn’t a problem for about 4 miles, while there were streetlights and a paved bike path, but then… the path turned to gravel and got real dark… i had my little flashlight headlight on, which helps some, but now it started misting, and my apple map directions showed still another 12 miles by bike path, only 8.9 by the road… less than an hour if i keep going in the right direction. Ok i hit a good road not busy, for a while, then it started to rain, i got to about 6.2 miles to go and still raining and by now i’ve ridden over 110 km so i’m plenty tired, you know that feeling right… omg what have i done, why didn’t i just hang on with the trains eventually i would have got here already. Now i’m in a fix. 

Well the road was alongside train tracks and here goes a train whooshing by, an S4 and I know from before I need a S3 or S2 but not how to find them, i’m only a couple stops away so i follow the tracks to the station at Puchheim, and here sits a yellow vw station wagon taxi. Hello ! lol so a $40 cab ride later I’m at the hotel, about 8:30 I’m checked in and that’s the good news, I’m done and really tired.

Had a long hot shower, then my salad and pretzel and radler and apple turnovers, tallied up the miles, all together 1162, i had hoped to hit 1200 maybe I’ll ride 40 Monday if the weather permits. 

And now i was happy I had done it, because I can sleep late and have a good breakfast and figure out the transit to get to town in the rain tomorrow and get my bike bag and big luggage out of the storage bin, and have 2 more nights to just rest. 

Friday October 11 - Passau Germany to Reisbach Germany

 Up early and the big breakfast was great, but it was raining steady and forecast not to stop til 100 ish. So ok get ready full rain gear, check out, the route to Vilshofen goes right past the train station so lets see how it feels when we get there. 

OK fine as I cross the Danube bridge get on the path here’s another touring couple behind me, maybe I’ll get some company today? Nope they turn off at the train station, hm am I making a mistake? It’s only 39 km or so to Vilshofen and the train goes there too, so i say try it… Born to be wild s my song…lol looking for adventure… and whatever comes my way. Well about 7 kms after clearing town here comes adventure, gravel path steep slope up to the road, i click down a couple gears and snap up that hill, halfway, then crunch crunch stop the chain, that new chain with the pin failed. Push up the hill, lucky i did save the old one and quick connect link, didn’t take too long to put it on and now i;m really questioning not getting on the train. 

But the rain slows to a light drizzle and the clouds split and show some pretty blue sky, so maybe it will be OK if I stick with it. Wasn’t too bad of a path, some gravel but it was packed good, no mud, got to Vilshofen where i cross the Danube for the last time and leave it behind…. Now I’m going to follow the Vils river up stream, yup up hill and now we’ve turned south it’s a stiff west southwest wind… and as i walk through old town there, it starts raining again, pretty good… i went to a couple shops where i could park the bike out of the rain to see if i could get a new set of rain boots, really they are just covers for my shoes, nope, but one place had those neck/head gaiters on deal for 5 euro so i got one. One shop had rubber boots i thought about it but 39 euro and they were heavy and bulky and i only have one more rain day Sunday so just try to get by with the ones i got, they are doing OK tho getting holes in them and getting pretty well worn out. 

Now it’s raining good, so I have to find a place to eat where i can park the bike out of the rain, i covered the bar bag and trunk bag with plastic bags so everything will stay dry inside. 

I go past the turn off for the path, up a hill and finally spot a bakery cafe with an awning. Park and go in, the cafe is closing in 15 minutes so i order a veggie sandwich to go, and they had a table and chair outside under the awning so i sit and eat and look at the weather radar it supposed to stop soon, this last band of clouds is it for a while. So I finish the sandwich and go back get on the bike trail, along the Vils river, its a much smaller river and the bike trail is gravel, but not muddy, it’s a light rain i am covered with rain coat and pants and shoe covers so not bad, then it goes into a nature preserve and it gets very nice, lots of birdsong, no big road nearby it’s quiet, and some puddles but not much mud, and the rain slows and then stops and the sun comes out a little. So looks like I’ll be able to ride out the day, won’t get so far to Vilsbiburg as i hoped, but I’ll ride til 3-330 and then look for a place to stop.about 5 or so. It was slow going though, into that stiff headwind took a lot of effort to go 6 mph usually i average about 10. Oh i passed a Christmas tree farm rag pickers dream was in my head… and three pics of a beer stop, there was a sign saying beer stop 3km, well it’s hacklberg beer which is one of those beers from 1600 or something, owned by the Catholic Church ! But yet there it was a beer stop, and the one square has empty cases for to put your empty bottles in…. All the beer in the stores well almost all of it comes in bottles you buy a case like in the old days…. Anyway, thought that was odd why i took 3 pics. 

All went great til i climbed a huge hill, and not paying attention, was supposed to turn off before it got to it… i whooshed down the other side… and stopped in a grocery store for a snack pretzel and protein drink and seltzer water. It was a discount joint with only one cashier and it took about 15 minutes, so then i came out and all the road signs were for towns i didn’t recognize, then i looked hard on the map and saw my mistake, had to backtrack up that hill… so i killed 45 minutes with that now I’m racing darkness. 

I did book a place in Reisbach and get in just before dark 610 or so. And my room on the 2nd fl which they count ground as zero here so up the stairs 2 trips for the bags but they have a storeroom to lock up my bike inside so all is good. 

Quick shower unpack some clothes go down for dinner… it’s all in German of course and about all meat, but they had some salads and a veg page of 3 items spatzle and something else.. and grilled vegetables and roast potato wedges, which i got and it was great, one of the best meals I’ve had all these 7 weeks of travel. 

So now it’s bedtime tomorrow being Sarurday breakfast isn’t til 800 so i can sleep in til 730 still get out by 930 and ride like hell cuz it’s supposed to rain again Sunday…. Song One more night goes thru my head, I’ve already booked my 3 nights in Munich, so one more night tomorrow is the end of the adventure… Munich i go cheap have holiday inn express points and cash out in the suburbs (Olching) everything in Munich is high price cuz Oktoberfest is on. It’s OK i have just to rest and pack my bike one trip into town for the bags maybe one trip to a beerhall to see what it’s like.