After a series of small tasks I managed to set out by midday. 10 minutes later I was hit by a sudden rain shower and was cursing myself for not having read the weather report prior to leaving. It was already cold, about 15 C before it started raining and then wet. I admit that I was rather miserable. Hiding under a cluster of trees I cursed the life north of the Alps and questioning how anyone could live there – a question that I could have asked myself since I also lived there many years. Managed to pull the rain gear out and, wet and annoyed, continued in light drizzle toward the Swiss-German border. Within an hour the sun appeared in full force, warming me, lifting my spirits enormously and slowly drying my gear. Anyone who has not spent time traveling in a means that is truly exposed to the weather does not know that overwhelming feeling of joy and welcome that the sun grants when it finally shines down through a cloudy sky. The contrast in the feeling between “what the fuck am I doing out here?” and “is there any better place in the world to be?” is just a matter of small change in conditions. I felt this in the old days when doing long motorbike adventures, on the Camino de Santiago and now again on the bicycle.
In Schaffhausen I found a wonderful wooden bench, near a well with drinking water, in the town square. Changed from wet clothes to dry, hung the wet ones over the bike to dry and sat down to a lunch of sandwich and vegetables. Then I sent the bike against the open side of the bench and stretched out on the bench between the bike and the back rest. It was like a small berth in a boat and I had a wonderful sleep. Woke after an hour, filled my water bottles and continued north through Canton Schaffhausen. During the last few days I had become quite obsessed with reducing the weight of my gear. I tend to pack lightly but early in the week I still had too much with me. Much was left behind with a friend to be collected upon my return. Now with the minimum on clothing and cooking equipment, I thought I could get rid of my last Swiss Franc coins. Two months I will be away and why carry the coins with me? At the last petrol station in Switzerland I checked how much I had, 2.40 CHF, just enough to buy one bar of Swiss chocolate. At the checkout the girl told me that the chocolate was free because today is 1 July and the expiry date on the chocolate was the day before. Nice surprise. She must have seen how much I enjoyed the chocolate (I had indeed been pushing myself quite hard against headwinds and the sugar was a very pleasant boost) because she gathered all the chocolate that had expired the day before and gave it to me. 30 bars, or 3 kilos of Lindt chocolate. It was a sweet gesture. It would still be edible for a while. in the end I went into the store in order to unload 20 grams of coins and walked out with 3 kilos of chocolate.
Shortly thereafter I arrived at the first real climb of the journey, an 18% incline, which even on a racing bike would be a challenge. I pushed my 40 kilos of bike, gear and chocolate a very long time to reach the top of that hill. The crest of the hill is the cross into Germany, the second of about 9 countries I will visit on this tour. (Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine). I managed to go quite far into Germany, about 25 kilometres, before begin a search for quarters. 
In the early evening I stopped at a shooting club (Schutzenverein) in the woods and asked if I could set my tent on the grass. The people were very welcoming and offered me the use of a stable-like structure that they use for their dramas. Turns out they are part of a western club and regularly dress as Indians and cowboys of the old west. Perhaps a bit odd for adults, but why not? I set the bike in the stable and Sasha, the 8-year old son of one of the persons in the club, came running over and began bombarding me with questions: where are you going? How fast can you go? What is all this stuff on the bike? Then he ran to get me a beer, a plate for my dinner and pretzels. Thereafter he proceeded to push the hay bales together into a bed for me. Nice kid. Later in the evening I sat with the club members in the corral, drank some local schnapps and then sat by the fire for a while. It was a nice first evening on the road. The night was bloody cold, probably 10 C and I should have slept in the tent, but it was ok and I managed to sleep relatively well considering the cold
No comments:
Post a Comment