Day 2 - Keeping the Shiny Side Up in Europe
Munich – Rothenburg, Germany – 296.7km

Today was our first day of real riding. Most of the people elected to go off in smaller groups of two or three bikes. Since I was riding for my first time in Europe, and on an unfamiliar bike, I elected to go with the “group.”

That turned out to be good and bad. Good from the perspective that I didn’t really have to worry about reading directions and it allowed me to concentrate more on learning the road signs and driving habits of European drivers. BTW – they are much better drivers than we are!!!

Bad because there were some people in the group that, in my opinion, should not have been here. Not so much from an inexperienced perspective, but because…well….let’s face it, they suck as riders. The tour guides asked me to hang in back to keep an eye on everyone and it wasn’t necessarily pretty.

At least one other person and I got left behind on two different occasions and had to try to find the group again. Fortunately, the tour guide was also back-tracking trying to find us so it worked out in the end. But it was REAL slow going. For those of you who ride bikes you will know what I mean when I mention folks that slow down for every corner or cross the center stripe because they can’t keep their bike in their own lane. It also rained on us. For a small period of time it poured down rain and even hailed on us some. We were able to get the rain gear on so that we weren’t totally soaked, but it sucked for a while nonetheless.

Now, that’s not to say all is bad! I had an awesome time viewing the countryside!!! Germany is very green and for all the people that live here, they seem to be concentrated in the larger towns. Most of Germany is wide open with lots of forests or farm lands. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone riding on the back so I couldn’t get photos of the general landscape.

Speaking of people riding on the back, there are a few (very few) people who I really wish were here with me having a good time. The company would have been well received. I am sure we would be having a blast together, but perhaps there will be another trip.

All of the German people I have ran into so far have been very friendly and kind. Most of them speak English to some degree so the language barrier is not as much of an issue as I originally thought it might be. It’s very warm here this time of year, though, and there is no A.C. to be found. I take a shower to get the old sweat off so the new sweat has a place to stick.

The towns are absolutely beautiful and I find the architecture to be very simplistically European in nature. It’s interesting, though, that you can have a barn / farm right in the middle of town with cows and John Dere tractors running around. Almost as if the towns were built around them. Again, no photos and my apologies.

Speaking of cows, let’s talk about chickens and cows. This morning we had breakfast (awesome I might add) and I noticed that the eggs were somewhat orange (post-cooking). Another guy had a poached egg and it was orange as well. Then the cows we smelled coming through town didn’t smell like normal cows. I spent plenty of time in the country and I know what cow shit smells like. This was German cow shit. It just didn’t smell right somehow. I am not sure what is going on with the livestock over here, but it’s definitely slightly different than what we have back home.

And how about this - automatic toilet seats that clean themselves? One of the coolest things. You push a button and this little motorized whizmo (technical term) pops out of the tank with a sponge and some sanitation fluid. The seat then spins around to wipe itself off. I found this highly entertaining, of course.

On a break in some small town near Rothenburg we were shooting photos and having coffee when the Germans won their third match in the World Cup. The whole town erupted and for hours there were people singing in the streets and having spontaneous parades with cars whizzing by that had people hanging out of them with German flags. How is it our folks burn the town down, loot and riot when their team wins and the Germans seem to know how to have a good time without hurting anyone or vandalizing anything?

We had to eat fast to catch the “night watchman” tour of the town. It was very informative with regards to the history, but there were so many people we ended up splitting off and shooting photos and trying various beers. Grasshopper – if you are reading this we toasted you in a beer garden this evening. Nobody gave us overtly funny looks even though I yelled “Grashopper.” I guess the Germans expect a certain amount of weirdness from tourists.

My body clock is still messed up, so even though it’s almost 1:00am here, my body is not quite ready for sleep. Still I will try….because tomorrow we have a long day ahead of us. I won’t be in the main pack anymore because I would have to beat my head against a wall to suffer through it. A few of us will be taking off to hit the more sporty routes.

Until tomorrow….