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.