Day 6 (Land Shut, DE; Friday, April 16, 1999; distance = 97.4; time = 5:27;
odometer = 872.2) -- Last night, I heard the gentle pattering of
precipitation. I was warm and dry, though, and slept pretty well. When I
looked out in the morning, I almost couldn't believe it -- snow! Lots of
wet, mushy snow. Great. I had a pretty good take down, despite the fact
that it was still cranking with snow. I was all rounded up and ready to
roll by about 9, which is pretty good considering I laid there for a while,
hoping it would stop. That would have been like hoping the world would stop
spinning. I didn't really have a plan for the day. I had seen signs for the
town of Dachau the day before, and I wanted to go through it, since it
sounded familiar. Once in the town, I passed a bookshop with a bunch of
travel books in the window -- one was a campground guide. Wow -- with me,
luck is all or nothing. So I went in and bought it. Then I went across the
street and further enjoyed the non-Swiss prices at a cafe. Omelette and 2
fancy cocoa drinks for about $6. Cool. Onward. After some confusing riding
-- street or bike path? street or bike path? that's the theme here -- I
just randomly came across it. Yup -- I thought so -- I knew the town of
Dachau, because it was the home of one of the most heinous concentration
camps. I rode around inside a bit -- weird!! And then I decided to press
on. It was snowing like crazy! I couldn't believe how seriously it was
cranking snow. I had originally planned (at the cafe with my book!) to get
to a stretch of campsites farther away, but I could feel the icy fingers of
moisture slowly soaking my shirt and toes and hands. Bad karma. I thought
"How long can it do this?" Ha! Ha! Dumb ass question -- until I give up or
die! So I found an off-course site and started aiming for it. I was trying
to parallel autobahns in the hope that most people who wanted that journey
would choose the autobahn. I don't know -- very hit and miss with the
traffic. Some places were almost empty and some had tons of traffic. AND
the Germans seem to all drive like Americans on U.S. 50 which isn't exactly
a treat. That bike-path thing was really annoying today, too. Grr. I
finally made it to the medium town before my target medium town. I went
into a supermarket called "Penny-Markt." Their logo featured U.S. wheat
pennies -- brilliant. I unloaded the bike into a cart and locked it -- a
pretty decent system. I really took my time shopping, since I was mainly
there to get dry/warm. At the checkout, the cashier (in) got suspicious
about my bags in the cart -- oh great. I thought she'd want to go through
them all, but no, just look under. Hmm. They're none too friendly here in
Bavaria ... so this store had a separate section with a bakery on one side
and a -- what else? -- sausage shop on the other side. I got a Brotli and I
called it a Brotli just to be Swiss and have fun. They're not fun people
here. Maybe it's got something to do with the world's worst tourist
attraction (POPULAR one!) down the road. Who knows? But I'd say that 90% of
the people I see look away from me, and if I can look at them long enough
to fire off a "Gruezi!" or "Sali!" or "Hi there!", they almost never
respond -- 1 in 10 do. Weird, eh? And it's not just the city either. In
Ruswil, I was constantly being gruezied. So I finally made it to the town
with my campsite (1 moped!). At one end of town, I found a restaurant that
advertised "Tex-Mex" and "American food." I checked their menu -- steaks
only, with American prices. Nice try. Then I came to a bike shop that
looked decent. They had Ortlieb and 2 bikes with disk brakes -- one was an
employee's who swore by his. But they knew of no map like "Veloland
Schweiz" that could help me not have such terrible traffic/bike path
problems. My campsite was at the other end of town. OK. No problem. Pretty
soon, I saw a camping sign. I followed even though it seemed quite wrong.
Then another directing a turn -- OK. Now I'm climbing ... and climbing and
climbing. What the fuck? This has to be a custom joke aimed at me. I wanted
to see what was at the top of this road that kept going left and up. Answer
-- nothing. Wow! How annoying! After asking directions, I was sent back
down the exact way I ascended -- duh! OK. On to where it should be. This
town has a river running through it and an island in the river. The
campground is at the end of the island. That's about as easy to find as it
gets. Not! This town was huge! It had to be « the size of Dayton, OH. I
rode forever on its twisty little streets, and often communities have maps
of the area on a big sign -- they're almost useless since they often don't
put "You are here." After checking in another bike shop for directions and
asking several unfriendly people, I found it. Now, I don't know if this is
the normal deal or not (maybe this woman was nice -- double incredible,
campsite owner and Bavarian), but she said it wouldn't cost extra if I
wanted to sleep in a Wohnwagon (RV -- tiny travel trailer, technically).
Damn right I do! Sure! So I locked my bike to it -- tossed my gear inside
(set some things up to dry, of course) and walked to the restaurant she
recommended. There I had a pizza and then I ordered a « pizza more -- I was
hungry! Back at the "camp" (ha -- this is like a luxury hotel for me,
considering my options on this dreadful day; by the way, this cost 15 marks
~ 8-9 U.S. $). I took an excellent shower and now I'm in my little wagon.
It's about 40 degrees F in here, and it's still pissing with rain outside.
Unbelievable persistence. Now it's time to get some sleep.
![[Bike]](./only2500b.gif)
