September 25, 2011
In a little modern town on the Inn: We have done more than 3000km
It was a day of contrasts today - it suprises me that so many completely different things happen in one day and most of them are unexpected.
We started by going out the town gates to have a look at the house that Hitler was born in. There is a big stone outside with some writing on it, but of course we couldn't understand it. The house itself is empty, I don't imagine that many people would want to live in Hitler's house, it gave me the creeps. Then over the bridge from Austria to Germany, we were riding in the fog which seems to be pretty standard in the morning. I rather like it as it gives everything a mystical quality. Today it was very late clearing and didn't clear until about 10am by which time we were in Markt drinking an excellent cup of coffee (2 .80Euros). it was while drinking this that we found out that the present Pope was born in this village a fact they are very proud of -we were shown the house by the waitress and it certainly looked more inviting than Hitler's. As we were drinking our coffee the church emptied out from its Sunday morning's service and there certainly was a huge congregation maybe influenced by the fact that it is ' the Pope's Baptismal Church'
It intrigues me that so many men spend so much time fishing, and never a woman. Ken has a theory that there is a 'hunting' gene in men that is not in women and this is what makes them sit for hours watching their rods, rather like our cat does by a rabbit hole waiting for a baby rabbit. We must have seen many thousands of fishermen as we have ridden a long but had not seen a single one catch a fish. Today was different. We were riding quietly along a riverside track when suddenly all hell broke out in front of us. A grandfather and his two little grandsons rushed to a rod and the fun began. Granddad yelled out instructions and the older of the two boys was allowed to play the fish and granddad went down to the bank with his enormous net. It wasn't an easy task (we were afraid the fish would get off and we would be blamed ). There were many instructions and granddad had to return to the rod. After about ten minutes of tension the poor fish was safely in the net and everyone was jubilant. I felt sorry for the beautiful creature. It was a Karpfen a really big fish which was proudly measured and will I am sure give the family a celebratory meal tonight and much to talk about.
Where to stay was a bit of a problem as everything was either too soon or far too far away. Accommodation is always a bit of a problem on a Sunday. We came to the largish town of Waldkraiburg. It is a modern town with not much charm so instead of lots of zimmers it only had one hotel, surprisingly this was full apart from the 'suite'. I managed to talk the price down a bit so here we are in our highly unsuitable accommodation with 2 showers, 2 toilets, a huge TV, a sitting room and various other luxuries. We are taking advantage of the lot and have Wifi and a free bottle of water.
Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 3,035 km (1,885 miles)
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