Tag 4 (Bad Tolz, DE; 176 km; 9:07; odometer = 672.3) -- I slept pretty well
in the table room and got up nice and early. After an obviously easy take
down, I was away a bit after 7:00. It wasn't raining or even too cloudy,
but I felt COLD. I wore rain pants and jacket just for cold's sake. It
turns out that I wore the jacket almost the entire day (exceptions being
some climbing) The road I was on paralleled the autobahn! In some places,
it was quite busy. In others, it was totally empty -- never just normal. I
noticed that on the other side of the river was a bike path. It was gravel
-- I'd wished I'd stayed on the quiet secondary road. I took one rest break
all morning. I rode pretty much straight through. At about 11:00, I got to
Innsbruck. That was a circus. The bike lanes run all over the place causing
me much confusion. I rode around a bit just to see the place. On my way out
of town, I spotted an Imbiss wagon. Cool. I ordered a cheeseburger. No CBs.
Hmm ... it's on the menu. OK. Fine. I'll have the "best thing." The guy
then made me a thing called a "Bosna," which was a thin hot dog in a bun
that was about 2 feet long -- no kidding! Amazingly, I thought it was
pretty good. Onward. After a bit more confusion and silliness with finding
the bike path, I was on it again. I drafted some guy for quite a ways. Then
later, back on the road, I drafted a sawdust tractor for a really long way.
That was good and bad. Oops. Order's wrong. Tractor draft, then bike path,
then draft cyclist to Jenbach. This was the town I was hoping to leave the
Inn River Valley and escape to Germany. I felt pretty good on the climb. It
was a pretty nice climb, like a few climbs from Ruswil to Staublig. Once at
the top, I was at a very nice Alpine Lake where lots of people come for
vacation when it's warmer. I was getting hungry again and looking for a
store. I found a combo deli/cafe. I tried the same trick, "What's good
today?" She made me a sandwich for only 12 money units that was really
good. That's less than 1 US $, I think! I felt better and continued on. The
climb was definitely a climb, but the descent stretched out over a long way
(40 km of very gradual slope). I made it to the ??? border checkpoint --
all closed up -- this is the E.U.! Hmm. There was a sign at the border the
Austrian direction -- not German. Oddly, there was nothing but nature on
the German side -- no towns, no houses, nothing. Hmm. I was cranking to
lose altitude and hoping I'd be able to catch a bank open. The traffic on
the road I was on picked up dramatically at some point. That was annoying,
especially since the bike paths weren't paved and never lasted for more
than a km or 2. I should have (hindsight!) taken the road that eventually
paralleled mine, but I took that annoying one all the way to Bad Tolz. I
searched for a bank here -- none, none, none -- a town without a bank!!
Finally, I found one and my credit card gave me some local cash. Whew! OK,
part 2 -- camping. What? No campsites? Geez ... what a place! I was riding
aimlessly when I talked to another cyclist who was carrying a better map
(that was lucky since he was in a racing get up). He found a campsite on
the map and pointed me in the right direction. So some kms later, I found
it. The showers took a special coin and didn't seem worth it to me, but it
did the job. I set up camp and walked down the road to the cafe/restaurant.
Closed -- it's Wednesday! Of course, it's closed. Duh! OK. I walked back.
After the last of my Swiss food (except my kg of chocolate, of course).
Now, I'm in the bag and ready to sleep good! By the way, real Germans are
MUCH easier to understand than Austrians or Swiss. One woman even
complimented my good German (for no reason -- go figure).
![[Bike]](./only2500b.gif)
