Drew being Drew

Team Building Pope,Carol,Deborah,Drew

 

The Bike Trip Starts

The morning came quickly after a night of celebrating a Canadian victory abroad. It was agreed we would be on the road by 10 am, we were close. There were clearly after effects of the previous night impeding optimal efficiencies. The trip to Brussels airport was smooth, our plan to gas up was frustrated by minimal gas stations on the way, and for the 5 days we had use 3/8 of a tank of diesel. The car, a Volvo, had lots of spunk, a smooth ride and of course great fuel mileage.

The Pope continues to amaze me. He managed to pack without mishap, but left his doughnut (John Nugent called it his booster seat), in the car rental. He rationalized that it was worn out anyway!

Pope,Hugh,Carol,De

We checked in to find our clubs would cost an extra 60 euros! More than the cost across the Atlantic. A giant rip off! The plane left on time and we landed in Munich, except we deplaned in the suburbs! We of course took a bus from the tarmac and met up with Carol, Deborah and Drew Thompson. A major issue now solved, the bike team was together. The luggage took 50 minutes; we made our way to the bus for Freisling. Then a 40-minute wait for the 2-hour train ride to Passau.

The countryside pristine, one observation is the large number of solar panels, both in fields and on houses.

Our hotels were close to the station and a cab took our stuff as we walked to the hotels. By this time it was late in the day and picking up our bikes would have to wait until the morning.

We were given our instructions, bus tickets to the bike shop and then set out to find dinner. It was a festival night, a fundraiser for support regarding the flood damage. The city was teaming with people, the restaurants over subscribed. We eventually settled on Italian, and had a great dinner even if the waiter was acting like an Italian John Cleese.

Live music was everywhere and we soaked in the atmosphere. The recent additions to the group were fatigued and we retired early.

For the last 10 days the Pope has lent me his adapter, publishing these blogs is dependent on a reliable power supply and for this I have him to thank. Deborah brought over some adapters to aid the situation, however they seemed to be all UK. No problem, I went to the local electronics store only to find an absence of German to North American adapters. Unbelievable! We had to problem solve and in fact had to us the UK adapters plugged in to a German one.

Carol McGuire is a very kind lady who is cycling in spite of significant arthritis. It is kind of neat to see her discard her cane as she mounts her bike and pedals flawlessly with the group. She does not hide guilt easily. Our practice is to take extra food from breakfast to make our lunches. The look on her face this morning would have aroused many suspicions at even the most benign border crossings.

Our luggage needed to be in the lobby by 9 am for transport to our hotel. There was a slight delay. You guessed it, the Pope hade forgotten our priceless silver tray in the room!

We bussed to the bike depot and were treated very well by staff that insured the bikes were optimal for our individual use. Minor repairs involving seat adjustments etc occurred in the first 500 meters, thankfully nothing serious.

We were on our way to Slogen, Austria but only after a brief stop at St. Steven’s cathedral, known for having the largest organ in Europe. On arrival there we created an international incident. Firstly for some reason bikes were not welcome in the courtyard (no signs of course!), then an overbearing official rudely told us to leave. We did not of course until we had a quick peek inside. The Pope was accosted by a middle-aged lady admonishing for wearing a helmet, he had in fact removed it in church. She was dressed in exceedingly high heels, tight slacks and given her demeanor I hope she was on her way to confession. To me a stark reminder of the secularization of religion, neither of the 2 individuals was following the commandments.

The ride to Slogen was enjoyable, all in all we cycled about 40 K, all on the river, flat and slightly downhill.

We observed evidence of the floods with debris in trees and silt well over the banks. The amazing part is that the roadways were not washed away, a tribute to German engineering.

Other observations have been the large riverboats essentially empty as business was severely affected by flooding.

We had dinner on the deck of the hotel and watched as the sun set over the Danube and riverboats churned by.

Tomorrow on to Linz, another modest ride we will leave early to avoid the heat of the day.