May 20, 2014
Day 21: Sommerach to Sand am Main
On a previous trip that started out in Spring in England, and then included summer in France and Germany, we felt like England was full of birds and the continent was not. That of course was a false logic, because the season had changed by the time we got over here. Now that we are in Germany in Spring, we see (hear) that it too is full of birds. In fact they woke us up well before the alarm this morning.
One bird that we actually have not heard before is the cuckoo. It's call, of course, is much different from the usual run of chirps and twitters, and it gives a sort of haunting feel to the forest.
Using Google to investigate the cuckoo in Germany naturally turns up mainly stories about clocks. However in one by der Spiegel, the bird and the clock are brought together, with the expression of fear that declining numbers of the bird will leave the clock kind of orphaned:
"The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is under threat in Germany. Explaining the existence of cuckoo clocks is already difficult enough. But what if there were no longer any cuckoo birds left in the country that invented the cuckoo clock?
To make sure that this never happens -- and that the common cuckoo doen't get less common -- a German environmental protection agency has joined forces with the German Clock Museum by organizing a "Cuckoo and the Cuckoo Clock" exhibition.
"If the birds die out, they'll become just part of folktales or fairy tales," Eva Renz, the museum's media representative, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It would be something like the dragon stories once told.""
We have never actually seen a live cuckoo, but from the number of times we hear them during the day, we can hope that actually the population is reasonably healthy. Since the cuckoo depends on other birds to raise their young, the tremendous amount of bird song we hear is also a good sign.
By the way, the German name for cuckoo is "Kuckuck".
Riding today was a little less exciting that in past days. To be sure, the towns were handsome, but they lacked that tourist zip that we seem to like best. Again, the cycle route was good quality and scenic, but the signage was weak in places, there were a number of confusing detours, and we got put on roads quite a lot.
The first really large town on our way was Schweinfurt. As we approached, we came to a series of large fields, all totally empty except for grass. Around the fields were seven panels, explaining various aspects of a forced labour camp that was located here. The inmates were men, women, and children, transported from Ukraine. Since the panels were all in German, it was hard for us to glean a lot from them. We did understand that the place was bombed, adding to the trauma of the people imprisoned here. There were also some photos of survivors, come back to the scene presumably for some ceremonial reason. However, as far as we could see the panels were all that remained here to commemorate.
This introduction to Schweinfurt did not cast it in a good light for us, and since we had a long way to go, we did not take the sharp left necessary to enter the town. From what we could see, it was mostly a newish city scape, though none of the places we have visited, aside from Frankfurt, actually have tall or even large buildings.
Next up was Hassfurt. Smaller than Schweinfurt, it had a very active main shopping street that looked quite attractive. This, however, was not the narrow pedestrian affair that we favour most, but a normal width street with sort of normal car traffic. The cars were not zooming, or anything, but there were enough of them to get in our way. In fact, the drivers were quite aggressive, in a slow speed sort of way.
We had talked about how if we ran ran into an Eiscafe sometime in the afternoon, we would go for it. Eiscafe (ice cream parlor) here is a big thing, with elaborate sundaes so big and fancy that "sundae" does not really describe it. And in Austria, eiscafe is bigger and fancier than even here!
So when we got to Hassfurt, tired and hot, we were ideal customers. On our side of the street was one place labelled "Eis". But though they could give you ice cream in a dish, with sauce, they did not meet the standardfor an "eiscafe". There were a couple of places on the other side of the street, but by then we had realized that the ambiance of the town was not very restful, so we just made tracks.
Speaking of not restful, the other side of Hassfurt featured something that looked like America. There was Obi (Home Depot clone) and a real McDonalds and a Burger King. In this part of town we also got to dodge fast moving traffic - just like in the "old" country.
Along with the slight deterioration of the radweg experience on today's stretch came a relative lack of camping. We pushed on a little further than we would have liked, to Sand. We assume that would be pronounced tzand over here. Actually we (especially Dodie) are getting quite good at communication, however broken.So when we know what to expect, we can do well. Dodie totally arranged our campsite here in Sand with the completely no English speaking lady.
I am writing this from the Spulraum, the room with sinks for washing your dishes. It has a counter and plugs and is working fine. Only thing, the lady yelled at me for not understanding the keep off the grass sign on the way over here. You win some, you lose some!
More to come...
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Postscript: I didn't mind much being yelled at about the grass. But at 8 oçlock a rather gruff man came around locking all the doors (like the dryer room - in case criminals tried to dry their clothes in the night). With respect to the Spulraum, he gave me a whistle, an arm gesture, and the command "Raus!". Now that does not fly. I called his attention just as gruffly to the sign indicating that the lock up time is 22:00, and with the addendum: Bitte um Beachtung - please comply. He harrumphed off. So there!
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 1,298 km (806 miles)
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