Auf Wiedersehen: MovINN on

November 24, 2013

So after two weeks in Munich it was time to finally move on and begin the long journey east. I said my goodbyes to my friends Julian and Daniel, in whose apartment I had been staying in for the second week. For those of you who have been following my blogs with stalker-like interest, this is the apartment where Steffen (now of Mainz) used to live and originally hosted me last summer. I also cycled over to say goodbye to Rufina, in whose apartment I had been staying the first week, and in which apartment I myself used to live for two months last summer. If you find all this confusing and difficult to follow, don't worry, all that really matters is that I said goodbye and left.

Myself, Julian and Daniel. Me and Daniel were preparing to go outside, Julian was just cold

Leaving Munich, the English Gardens were cold and empty

It was kind of miserable weather, drizzly rain and overcast skies, a biting cold. I suppose most of you will be shaking your heads and saying "well what do you expect, it is late November you moron" which would be fair enough. It is difficult to explain exactly how after more than four months I found myself only 687 kilometres from Paris as the crow flies, giving me a steady rate of progress at about six kilometres per day or one kilometre every four hours, or 0.25 kilometres per hour. This is, according to google, approximately half the speed of your average garden snail.

Cold and wet, Germany in November, what do you expect?

So even if the weather was crap it felt good to be finally moving definitely once and for all east. Of course at this stage of the year south would be a much more sensible direction to be taking, but then how would I ever be able to tick Ukraine and Moldova off my list of visited countries? And anyway, winter touring really isn't that bad. For one thing, there are no insects, and insects are really a pain in the ass. And the days are much shorter, which means more time for sleeping, and sleeping is awesome. (This is putting a very positive spin on things, because the first night out of Munich it rained so much that the noise on my tent kept me awake most of the night.)

On the second morning, another grey one, I reached the Inn river at Wasserburg. I had hoped that following the river would mean it would be flat, but as it turned out the banks of the river were very hilly and steep and so the cycling was quite up and down and difficult. This had the consolation of being very scenic and after climbing up out of Wasserburg I had some very nice views back down over the town and the river.

The rain wasn't so bad and at some point beyond Wasserburg the Inn cycle route dove down into the valley again and ran right alongside the river. The roads were above the valley so I was the only one down there when I reached the river and for a moment I felt like I was in America, I had a sense of tremendous vastness, as if I was back in that huge empty land. This may have been a trick of the season - the bare trees and chilly air reminding me of two winters ago cycling in upstate New York, the green river like the Hudson. But it was an illusion, Germany could never be the same and one kilometre later I cycled past a soccer pitch and I was back in civilization.

The Inn pretending to be in a vast empty land

That evening I found a place to camp in the woods. It was getting dark at four in the afternoon and that really is rather early to be going to bed. So I decided to go for a run and actually had the idea to spend my evenings training perhaps for a marathon. I could maybe run a marathon on every continent during this trip. Europe will have to wait until I get back, but I could surely start training for one in Asia now. There was a trail by the Inn canal that I ran on and running in the dark isn't nearly so dangerous as cycling in the dark. It made me feel really good. Until this point I had been struck by a lingering hangover from Munich that had lasted five days. I decided at this point that I should probably also quit drinking. Not because I don't like drinking, but because these days I get really the most awful hangovers, roughly corresponding to one day of pain for every one drink consumed. I blame my misspent younger days. So now I had decided to quit drinking and begin training for a marathon and I was feeling very good and very healthy.

So now I don't smoke, don't drink, don't eat meat, don't drink coffee, don't use cars. Pure as the driven snow me. It's a damn good job I'm still cycling around the world, otherwise I would be one hell of a boring guy to be around at a party.

The next day there were blue skies but freezing temperatures as I continued to follow the Inn river. A puncture in the morning slowed me down but it was my first real one of the whole trip so I can't complain too much. As the day drew towards its close I crossed the Inn river into Austria. I was happy to be going - to be honest Germany was getting a little boring and I was glad to see the end of it (and going into such an exotic and un-German-like country as Austria!)

And a most appropriate end to Germany - a man riding a giant fish

23/11/13 - 43km

24/11/13 - 80km

25/11/13 - 71km (66 km in Germany)

Today's ride: 189 km (117 miles)
Total: 9,826 km (6,102 miles)

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