#4 Recreation and continue towards the Alps

In the morning in the village Sigisweiler I could see from my bed that the tent was not wet outside. Wow! When I wanted to get up, it started to rain. In the rain I packed up the tent and drove off trembling with cold.

I was just cold. Washing hair with cold water in such weather is really shit, so I did without it. Later, rain and wind were added to the cold.
I had 4 empty water bottles to give away, and I also needed food. So we went to the next Aldi with a hat (which once wasn’t folded enough, I looked like a garden gnome), with dirt and mud covered pants and the four empty bottles. I wonder what people were thinking. D It took me a little effort, but anyway, I can’t write my story on my forehead.
I drove from village to village, from town to town without looking around. When I had enough, I just wanted to stand somewhere under, rest and dry a little. But no stop, nothing, no canopy was visible. Then when I found one, it stopped raining for a moment. Unfortunately, the wind was cold and I was trembling all over my body. Two sweaters, a T-shirt and my jacket didn’t help much. After some time I had to drive on so that the body did not completely cool down.

When I had enough, I asked a farmer for a piece of meadow. I just wanted to lie down and warm up in my sleeping bag. She said there was a lake up there. Off to the lake. There were unfortunately prohibition signs everywhere. Besides, there was no good place to camp wild. Two villages further on, I found a camping site. What I was glad to have found something. The rain had also stopped in the meantime, but it was only cold.
After a short conversation a woman offered me to do some shopping for me, as she would go to Aldi anyway. Money given, tent erected, hot showered and laundry washed. When she came back, she gave me the food and the money back. But only if I did something good for someone else, too. I don’t know what to say. The food (rolls etc.) was sooooooo good, I ate 2 of 3 without really enjoying them. Later I eat in peace the 3rd and drink the donated beer, I said to myself. If everyday things are no longer commonplace, then you will learn to appreciate them.
My fingers were very cold when I was sitting outside at the WLAN network (yes, in Germany there was WLAN for free once), so that I could hardly type on my laptop. So I had to stop typing after a short time.
After a short conversation a woman offered me to do some shopping for me, as she would go to Aldi anyway. Money given, tent erected, hot showered and laundry washed. When she came back, she gave me the food and the money back. But only if I did something good for someone else, too. I don’t know what to say. The food (rolls etc.) was sooooooo tasty, I ate 2 of 3 without really enjoying them. Later I eat in peace the 3rd and drink the donated beer, I said to myself. If everyday things are no longer commonplace, then you will learn to appreciate them.
My fingers were very cold when I was sitting outside at the WLAN network (yes, in Germany there was WLAN for free once), so that I could hardly type on my laptop. So I had to stop typing after a short time.

Before the tent I made myself some tea, ate the last roll and drank the beer afterwards. Knowing I’d have to get up at night.
The night was cold, really cold. I guess it’s humid 5 degrees, but I don’t know because I forgot my thermometer. I added my inlet and it got cuddly warm. I didn’t feel bad, somehow I was happy. I was just fine. When it’s dark in the tent, still early, there’s a lot to think about. Thoughts keep coming back: Health insurance done right? What about my apartment? Permanent damage to the knees? Despite the thoughts, I felt a sense of satisfaction.
In the morning the tent was a little covered with morning dew. But I noticed the sun slowly warming the tent. I got up comfortably, checked my laundry (which was exactly the same or even wetter than in the evening), then distributed it partly on stone benches and slowly packed everything together. With showers and breakfasts, drying the tent and turning the laundry over and over again I was ready after about 2 hours and could drive.
The sun popped into my face and with music and joy I drove along the quite flat track.

Unfortunately, my left knee still hurt. After some time or 30 km and hardly any experiences on the way I noticed that it was still about 40 km to my friend. A short phone call with him, looked at the clock (4 pm around) and decided to drive the remaining 40 – 50 km. There weren’t exactly many people coming towards me. But the time flew by quite fast and around 7:30 pm I reached my destination. Still a little confused by the trip, not yet there, we sat for another hour and talked. I went to take a shower and we went on to a party where I ate three plates of food. I was hungry, I could also sit at the table and eat something, which happens rarely.
Unfortunately, the party ended with a very unfortunate announcement, but I don’t want to go into that. Now life is just like that, you can’t always choose everything you want. Everywhere there are everyday experiences, where I can be part of them as a guest. Whether negative or positive, everything is part of life. Just like everyone carries a story with them, which I let them tell me. Both negative and positive. I also come with my story, which is of interest to many people.
I decided to relax for 1 day and could recharge my batteries. Unfortunately I had a guilty conscience about my knee and told myself that I would stay one more day. At the same time, I was able to get my bike back up to some extent (the rear bicycle support was bent, mirrors were fitted). Thanks to the neighbourhood of Stopsel!

It’s just wonderful to see a new year begin and everything blossom so slowly.

Now I went on to Dachau, where I found a Warmshowers-overnight stay. The track itself was quite flat, so I can’t tell you much about it. On the way I stopped and talked to several people. They noticed my fully packed donkey (should I call my bike donkey?).

Shortly before Dachau I ate another doner kebab, because I needed energy and one should allow oneself something like that. That day I made 102 km. Could be my pers. record.
We had a nice, but unfortunately much too short evening. They had to sleep and I was totally whacked. I got up around 7 o’clock in the morning, we had breakfast together and both had to go again. Thanks again for the overnight stay!
Afterwards I went on to my last destination in Germany, the village of Sankt Wolfgang, before I dared to go to the Alps.

The Isar

My new bathroom

My Polish-brown skin is slowly turning brown. It’s a good thing, because I still have to get used to the sun. Fortunately, I’ll have more than enough of that later. But it’s better to adjust the skin.

There was nothing unusual about the route, at the end it just became quite exhausting, as it went up steeply in parts. But everything stayed within reason.
Here I was now since Wednesday afternoon and gave my knees a little recovery. A trip to the Chiemsee on Friday brought me a tingling sensation in my stomach, I would have loved to walk right up there. I decided not to stay here too long. I just have to get out of there! So it should start again on Sunday.

The rest did me a lot of good, I was full of energy. I noticed that the hills were not as hard to drive on as before. The sun was shining, I could hardly escape it. But I was glad, I like the sun.
As always from village to village, the Alps slowly became clearer on the horizon.

After I was supposed to take a gravel road with thicker stones, it happened: My first flat trip ever! I lose about 40 minutes before I could drive on.
The dust was also relatively unpleasant, but still bearable.
I didn’t know where to spend the night at all and was just hoping for a perfect place. Driving along the Inn is pretty dusty that day, though. Everything was white. In addition, my GPS stopped again and again (probably because of the Komoot app). The current’s pretty strong on the river, my goodness.

An elderly man told me that a few thousand years ago the Inn was the border between an axe and short-sword fighters. The Inn was very difficult to cross because of the flow. I hope I remember this well. We talked about European history for about 20 – 30 minutes.

When I was slowly broken and my knee was already slowly reporting again, I started looking for a farm. Now I slowly noticed that I was already in Austria. No sign came, nothing. I was disappointed, no German stuff.
Asked at a horse stable and I was allowed to camp at the straw bale on the large meadow. Quite open terrain and many could see me. But I didn’t care, I wanted to sleep…

The night was all right. Shortly after waking up (around half past six) children were plucking at the tent.
Later I crawled out of the tent and saw that the tent was covered with pollen. I shook the yellow dust off the tent, packed up the slightly damp tent and drove off without washing. Through or along the Kufstein I found a nice place with a coot.

There I had breakfast, drank my cocoa, which I got on the way and washed myself. Shortly after, another swan came along.
My destination was Lens near Innsbruck, where I was expected by a Warmshowers host. There is not much to tell about the route, only a short distance from Lens I should drive a steep country road. It was not far any more, only there were still many height meters to survive. Then I came up with an ingenious idea: I have a second navigation app that I have switched to “Bike”. So I followed this one into the forest. By ways, which were rather not for cyclists, I was allowed to carry up my luggage and bicycle individually. So run up 3 times each. Arrived totally finished at the top, I could slowly reach Lens and then jumped directly into the shower.

In the morning it went on, it should go over the Brenner to Italy. The track was really beautiful at the beginning, despite the pushing sometimes. The views were just great.

Beautiful villages

When I was going on a country road according to my route, I wanted to be smarter and followed the “Brenner” cycle path. It took me along gravel roads with lots of ups and downs. No one came to meet me. From above, the road looked very flat. Still, I wasn’t angry, annoyed or anything like that. I took it and grinned. Just had to drink a lot, as it was just under 30 degrees. My knee hardly caused me any problems, as if it was slowly recovering or getting used to (or had to get used to!).

Finally I arrived at a country road, I slowly drove higher and higher, later I pushed again and again. Had to take breaks often, but gave everything. Unfortunately it got pretty steep again at the end.

I was the only one who knew there were only a few more kilometres to the 1380 m altitude difference. Finally we reached the top, it was a strange feeling, a different language, many different than before (at least I thought). I took another photo, took a little snow in my hand at almost 30 degrees and went on in Italy.