Our plan was to unload the cart at the metro elevator, then Rick would return the cart to the store while I watched the boxes. As we were pushing our cart toward the metro, a little man with a foot-long white beard passed coming toward us and pointed at the cart loaded with boxes and said something sharply in German. We kept walking and unloaded the cart at the metro elevator as planned. Just as Rick was pulling the last bag out of the basket on the cart, the little man reappeared and took the cart! We weren’t sure if he was a store employee or a homeless guy, but…
We’re heading to the flughafen (airport) now! Next hurdle: will they decide we need to open the boxes for any reason? (e.g., We didn’t have a method to weigh them, so we’re not sure if they are under the 50 pound limit.) But I have tape in my backpack. And honestly, if I saved myself carrying a load by hand as far as the airport, I’ll be OK with carrying it the rest of the way. In the airport, they asked Rick about the weight of his box and he said “under 50 pounds” and they didn’t weigh it or ask me. So no unpacking of boxes required! All set!
The rest of the trip was all smooth. Back in Durham, Rick found a taxi with enough space to carry both us and the boxes with the bikes in them. So now we are back at Rick’s place! At what would be 2:00 am Munich time. Long day! Great trip! But also glad to be back.
Sunday morning Linda and I rode a train into Munich. We arrived before we could check in, so left our panniers at the hostel before riding deeper into Munich. We ate a late breakfast after riding through the Munich equivalent of Central Park. Rain started to fall, so we headed back to the hostel to check in. Linda, exhausted after several days at the water park, took a long nap while I wandered about Munich. Sunday night we picked up food from some nearby takeaway restaurants.
Monday morning we left the hostel headed for the second-nearest bicycle store, as the closest wouldn’t open until 2 pm. On the way, we purchased tape. We also visited several stores looking for something creative to create skid plates on the bottom of the boxes to facilitate dragging. We came up with a number of solutions, but we eventually settled on plastic garden edging.
From there we headed to the bike store, picked up a couple of boxes, and carried / dragged them back to the hostel. One box was the perfect size to pack wind as bicycle. The other one was substantially larger, well beyond the limits of what the airline would permit. My boxed up Linda’s bike, and got partway through disassembling mine. By then it was 2:00 p.m., and we went to the other bike store. The manager of the store, an American from Kansas, dug around and found us a box, with the offer of more if we needed them.
That box fit my bicycle much better, and we mostly finished packing up by mid-afternoon. We purchased Metro tickets, and wandered about Munich. Visited a few churches.
Linda found the big farmers market. Unfortunately we missed the Rathaus clock display by 20 minutes.
Wandering back towards the Metro we found the local surfing scene.
We cooked dinner back at the hostel kitchen.
Tuesday, Linda felt under the weather, and we spent most today just hanging out at the hostel. We did ride the large Ferris wheel just outside the hostel before grabbing food nearby.
When walking back to the hostel Monday evening, we had noticed a large platform cart left by the curb outside a shopping mart close to the hostel, perfect for, say, hauling two bicycles to the train station. I eventually moved that cart closer to the hostel, on the hopes that we’d be able to use it later. Tuesday morning that cart was gone, but we saw another of the same carts on the other side of the building close to the train station. And that cart was gone when we came back Tuesday afternoon. But by that point, I had a plan. I grabbed another cart and dragged it around the corner to a small out-of-the-way garden area.
We went to bed early on Tuesday, because Wednesday would start early. I work Wednesday morning at 4:30 a.m., took a shower, and headed out to check on ” my ” cart. It was still there! I happily wield the cart over to the hostel. We dragged the bikes down to the elevator, and onto ” our ” cart.
From there it was a trivial matter to wheel the bicycles to the train station, load them onto the elevator, and drag them a short distance through the train station to another elevator, and then onto the platform for the train to the airport. I had already purchased the tickets Tuesday night.
We had gone through meticulous packing for the bikes before we left home for making sure that the boxes were the right size, and the right way, both a half a pound below the limit set by the airline. Not having the same resources at the hostel, we loaded them up and guessed. My experience has been that generally the airlines on the European side care a great deal less than those on the American side about shipping bicycles. Only after I had turned my bicycle over to the oversized luggage desk did the attendant ask how much the bicycle weighed. I answered, “under 50 pounds” which she accepted without question. They never asked Linda. The airline also neglected to charge us for the bicycles headed homeward. We breezed through Munich security, even with Linda bringing peanut butter. We even rolled through US customs, with no one even bothering to check the bicycle boxes.
For the vast majority of my trips, I’ve flown into RDU, reassembled the bicycle, and ridden home. Or even, when I rode to Buffalo, deciding it was just easier to ride home than take a bus or train. Wednesday, between Linda’s preference, and the time it would take to assemble not one but two bicycles for our evening arrival, we opted to take a taxi home. That lead to some excited cab drivers at the airport who couldn’t _quite_ figure out how to load two bicycles in boxes. They eventually gave up and shooed us away. We called for a taxi, and received a vehicle capable of carrying both bicycles. A taxi that included a driver who liked asking trivia questions the entire ride home.
Now to catch up the rest of life, which has kept moving all the time we were gone!
This morning, I woke up with a sore throat and generally feeling under the weather, so I laid low. Our main activity today was riding the Ferris wheel.
Note all the green rooftops!
This one even has sheep!
Then we grabbed dinner nearby and noticed some guys engaged in sword play.
Now the boxes are all packed. The flight leaves at 9:35 am. We need to get there 3 hours early, so we will be getting up at 5 am! 😱 And dragging our boxes about 3 blocks to the metro station. Unless we get lucky and find a handy cart from the nearby big box store. Rick will see if he can get one, but we don’t know.
It was weird when I suddenly realized that we couldn’t hop on our bikes and go riding anymore because they were all packed up. Trip coming to an end.
Sunday morning, we left Erding and are now in Munich. I was still exhausted from several days of playing at the water park, so I took a long nap after we checked into the hostel. It’s warm, so we have the windows open. There is a big concert going on with a K-pop band (Korean boy band) called OnlyOneof, on their dOpamine tour. Lots of girls with dyed hair attended.
Today, Monday, we started the day with breakfast at the hostel, then off to find bike boxes and something we could use make skids for the boxes, as we have to drag them around, each weighing 40-50 lbs, in addition to carrying bags we’ll take on the plane. We were successful at finding boxes in a couple of bike shops, so Rick took various parts off the bikes (e.g., front wheels, pannier racks, pedals), lowered the seats and put each bike in a box. Worked really well! The bikes fit great, and the boxes didn’t need any modifications to meets the airline’s size limits.
Since we made good progress, we decided to wander around Munich.
Don’t blink! (Dr. Who reference, for the non-Dr. Who folks.)
There is a canal that is fed by strong water, which attracts surfers!
Our hostel is named Wombat. You can see the building beside our neighboring Ferris wheel.
There is a deck out back of the hostel and it’s next to a huge climbing wall, which provided entertainment (watching not doing). Count 7 climbers!
Ok, last time I updated folks, I was waiting for a train to Salzburg. That all went well. I met Rick at a hostel there and we went to the big fortress on the hill.
Here are a few photos from within.
And views looking out FROM the castle.
We went to the chapel in the cliff side and Sound of Music Cemetery.
And this sign just calling out for someone to do it anyway.
The hostel shows The Sound of Music every night, so we watched and sang along, while drinking free shots of some concoction they were handing out.
From Salzburg, Rick wanted to keep biking, so he headed off in the direction of Munich, while I took a train to Munich, then another train to a town outside of Munich called Erding, home of Therme Erding, a big water park and spa.
They were giving out facial treatments.
Oh, and I got a massage. I don’t know if it’s Germany or that the massage lady was from Thailand, but it was a different experience. In the US, the masseuse will typically explain to take off your clothes, get under the sheet face down (or up), and then they duck out of the room while you prepare. In this case she started by saying, “Take off your clothes” and I said “Yes.” And waited for further instructions. And she repeated, “Take off your clothes.” And again, I said “Yes…” And one more time she said, “Take off your clothes.” And I realized she meant right then and there! I said “Wow! That’s not how we do it in the US” and I proceeded to strip off my bathing suit, and she told me to lie face down. Then she put a towel over my lower half and then pulled it down, so it just covered my legs. I don’t know, to keep me warm??? So, it was different!
So anyway, on Thursday I got here to Therme Erding, the largest thermal bath complex in Europe. I played while Rick biked. Friday, Rick arrived in Therme Erding around noon, dropped his bike and gear off with me and took the train into Munich to begin the search for bike boxes to pack the bikes for the trip home. He spent all day and went to 13 bike shops and by the end of the day felt that there were several good options, so he came back to Erding and we played at the water park until about 9:30 pm. And got up this morning and played at the water park all day.
Some highlights included one where you enter a metal tube sitting on a rubber tube with water shooting you along, then you DROP into a huge half cone and shoot up one side, down the up the other, back and forth as you’re being funneled toward the next segment of metal tube. My first time doing this, I went back and forth and wound up aimed backward and went down the rest of the ride not knowing what was coming next! Here is a picture of this ride from the internet.
There was a similar water slide I only did once. In this one, you don’t ride a rubber tube; you just lie on your back and slide. This one spits you into a downward oriented funnel and you spiral down, like being flushed down a toilet. I asked Rick (who had tried it once) whether he thought I might wind up heading down this one backwards. He didn’t think so. But when I spiraled into the middle, I hit it butt first, like a breach birth! Fortunately, I wriggled myself around and managed to go into hole feet first. Here is an internet picture. (They call it the Space Bowl, not the toilet bowl.) The opening where I breached is on the other side of the knob in the middle.
There was also a really fun ride that was set up like a race, with 6 lanes. Each person got a mat, like a thick yoga mat with handles on it. You lie on the mat, head forward, gripping the handles, and off you go, first spiraling, then going down the straightaway, but with drops as you go. I think I caught some air during that ride!
Oh, and there was one with virtual reality headsets. I went down this one a couple times without the VR headset to get a feel for the course, which was a twisty metal tube. Then I tried the VR. You could pick different scenarios: a forest theme, a space theme, or a sky theme. My favorite was the space theme. And you just see planets and stuff and you’re flying between them while in reality you’re going down this water slide. It was pretty crazy. And again, one time I managed part way down to get turned around backwards! Although I generally got better at orienting myself as the day went on.
So tomorrow, Sunday, we’ll take the bikes with us on the train back to Munich. We’ll do sightseeing and stay in a hostel. On Monday, we get boxes and pack up the bikes. Tuesday is hopefully more sightseeing, but if we have any glitches in finding boxes, we have Tuesday to work that out. Our flight home is Wednesday morning.
Since I’d arrived at the campground on Thursday after Reception closed, I left shortly after 9:00 a.m. Friday since I had to wait until Reception opened in order to pay for my site, such as it was. Found a tick crawling on me, but at least this time I didn’t have to deal with tick removal.
Having traveled much further north, I had only rolling hills all the way to Erding and Linda. I arrived by noon. We registered me at the hotel and spa/waterpark Therme Erding / Galaxy Erding.
Priority one for me was addressing the issue of bicycle boxes. Leaving Linda at the spa, I took a train into Munich with the plan of finding a place to stay for the night, while also making reservations somewhere for Monday and Tuesday night, and leaving the boxes there. Boxes which I still needed to acquire. On the train ride in to Munich I emailed a number of bicycle stores.
The first bicycle store I visited, near the train station, said they would have two boxes at 5:00 p.m. I walked to the nearby hostel to confirm I’d have a place to put them. They did not. Revising my plan, I walked back to the bicycle store. They agreed to make the boxes available on Monday. You might think I’d be done there, but you’d be wrong. I look back at my trip to Rome with Rob, where Rob had called a bicycle shop in advance and arranged boxes. And when we arrived in Rome, the process did not go as smoothly as we would have preferred. Given that packing the bicycles in boxes is a core component of getting home, I prefer a wide margin for safety. All in all I visited 13 bicycle shops Friday. By the time I finished, I had two bicycle shops agreeing to provide boxes on Monday. Another m said I could check back with them on Monday and they might have boxes (that being what has to be one of the largest bicycle stores in the world – the store took up as much space as half a Walmart). During my various visits, I received email from one of the previously corresponded stores, to say they sold boxes; I could pick up two boxes on Monday for 30 euro. The last shop I visited on the way back to the train station suggested I could get a box directly from the airport. I called airport information and learned that they sold boxes for 30 euro. I made reservations at the hostel near two of the bike shops with boxes and the train to the airport. I hopes that works out to be enough margin. I took a train back to Linda in Erding.
We spent Friday evening descending from great heights at great speeds, with the occasional crazy river or thermal bath thrown in. Saturday was more of the same, although the park had longer lines than the day before.
And one more exciting activity. Late Friday I received multiple emails from Lowe’s regarding my recent purchases in Kernersville and High Point – somewhat surprising since I’m roughly 7268 km from there. A case of identity theft, someone conpromised one of my accounts. Someone placed an order for pickup in High Point and picked up on Thursday. The second order in Kernersville had not yet been picked up.
My first call was to Kernersville PD. While I was told I would need to file a police report with Durham PD, they sent an officer to Lowes to investigate. My call to Durham PD was less successful. While I could call Durham PD, Google Voice would drop the incoming call from the investigating officer – a requirement to start the investigation. I asked about them calling my German phone number; they said they have not had a lot of success at calling out of country. I gave them the phone number anyway, and did not receive a call back, so that answers that until I get home.
While in my heart I knew what the outcome would be, I called my credit card company. They canceled my card. Linda and I left the US with five credit cards. Linda lost one of hers. She didn’t know the PIN for another one. The PIN on one of mine didn’t work. And now one of mine has been canceled. Five cards. Only one now able to withdraw cash. Good thing we both have some cash, and little time left in Europe. The time remaining we will spend in Munich, a large city.
I suspect I spent more hours planning the ride Thursday, than on the ride itself.
My route out of Salzburg passed the train station, so Linda and I rode to the train station together from the hostel on Thursday. Her on her way via train to a water park and spa in Erding, me riding towards Munich.
All that route planning paid off. The first 41 km took me up EV 7, on dedicated bicycle path continuing to follow the Salzach.
Reaching Tittmoning, I had the choice to either continue along EV7 farther to the north and east (away from Munich), or cut northwest away from the river, but much closer to Munich. That meant a 20% climb, although short. And once I walked up the 500 m (in heavy traffic), the road leveled out.
I spent much of the rest of my journey riding along the ridge. As part of my planning, I had identified a hostel and a campground at the 80 km mark. The next campground (at least, the one the least out of the way) rested 40 km ahead of me, with no other nearby options if my plan didn’t work out. I called ahead. While Reception would be closed, they said I could find a place to put my tent and pay them in the morning. I rode at least 7 km completely out of my way across two more significant climbs, but I settled in to the campground with no problem but an extended search for the shower. Storms and rain raged about me, but after I set up the tent. I was in easy range of reaching Erding or Munich Friday.
I needed to get to Munich by at least Saturday to find boxes to ship the bicycles. We fly out on Wednesday, and everything will be closed on Sunday. Once I acquire bicycle boxes, there is not much else to worry about. I can explore Munich, or join Linda at the water park.
I made a leisurely start at the hostel Wednesday morning. Linda arrived before noon. We got her checked in and settled in, and left the hostel to explore the castles of Salzburg. I’ve visited a lot of castles, and the fortress in Salzburg disappointed. The rooms were filled with a hodgepodge of random historical displays.
We also visited St. Peter’s Church
and the cemetery used in The Sound of Music, and the catacombs cut into the side of the mountain.
We ended our exploration with Palace Mirabelle and the associated gardens.
I spent a lot of the early evening with Linda wanting to know the next stages of the plan, while I was still busy trying to figure out the next stages of the plan.
For most of the trip, I’d followed water. But the route between Salzburg and Munich crosses water instead of following it. Attempts to determine a route kept showing elevation tracks with repeated long 20% climbs across the course of the day, Which didn’t sound fun. I eventually identified Via Julia, an old Roman road, that led to just south of Munich. However, I’ve followed old Roman roads before. The Romans tended to not care about things like elevation changes. I started to feel like there was no path to Munich. Every route just crossed too much of the foothills.
In the end I decided to try something different. Instead of crossing in the generally most straight of a line to Munich, I would head further north, farther away from the mountains before I turned west towards Munich. That looked to reduce the number of times I had radical shifts in elevation.
The hostel plays The Sound of Music (based, and mostly filmed in, Salzburg) every night, which Linda and I watched together. I’ve now watched The Sound of Music in Salzburg, Eurotrip in Bratislava, The Quiet Man in Cong, and The Lord of the Rings in New Zealand. Amuses me.
Ok, well yesterday (Monday) was a bad day. Super frustrating. But today was great.
So, the back story on yesterday was that early in this whole trip, I lost my main credit card. I think it fell out of my pocket while I was peeing in the woods. At any rate, I didn’t cancel it and have kept track and no bears have been charging anything on it, so all good. And I like having it alive so I can use it for stuff like Booking.com or Airbnb.
I had my backup card, my Amazon Prime Visa. Unfortunately, I don’t know its PIN and have never needed to use it. But here, if I need cash (which I rarely have needed since most places take cards), I need to do a cash advance on my credit card and the machines require the PIN.
When we split up, Rick had given me one of his credit cards to get cash.
Saturday night, when I made the reservation for this farm, I had assumed I could use a credit card (because it didn’t say cash only) but in emailing Maria, who runs it, she said cash. Grr. So, Sunday morning on the way to the train station, I tried getting cash with Rick’s card. Turns out the PIN he told me was wrong and his only other guess for a PIN didn’t work either. So, I took the train to Saalfelden and in the meantime Rick contacted Maria and got her ok that I’ll pay on Monday when the banks open. This is because when I checked with the Amazon prime card folks, they said I could walk into a bank with my card and passport, and they would give me money. (Note: they lied.)
So, Monday morning I leave the farm about 9:30 am, go to a bank, and am told NO they will not give me a cash advance. I can only get it from the machine that requires the PIN. I call USAA, my bank, holder of the lost credit card, and they help troops, so they know about international travel. Talk to a range of folks there for a couple hours or more. They say maybe they could send emergency cash, but there is some computer problem, and they can’t do (something?) and maybe they could wire money. But the Western Union guys don’t open until 7:30 am central time, which is 2:30 pm here. Oh yeah, and I hadn’t eaten since 4:30 the previous day. So, I stop to eat. That was nice.
Then I went in search of the Western Union. Looks sketchy to me. It’s a printer store with all these boxes of printer trash outside, and a sign (in German) that he is closed until 1 pm.
Oh, and Rick had gotten distracted by castles or something and had not been in contact, so I was beginning to think he was lying on the side of the road somewhere. Sometime after 1:00 pm, he finally texted me back and we started trying to figure out options. Worst case, he could take a train from Salzburg and bring me money.
So, I went back to the Western Union and the guy says he can’t give me cash from Western Union because he hasn’t had any cash come in. (Did not know that was a thing.) But if I use MoneyGram, he has cash. I had also wandered into a post office, and they said I could do money transfers under a system called Ria. So, Rick and I both started working to see if we could make either of these alternatives work. And the answer is no. After a lot of time trying. So, Rick hopped on a train from Salzburg, and I sat in the train station for a couple hours while it was raining like crazy.
Lesson for travelers, bring extra credit cards and know all the pins!
And then one additional hiccup. I had explained (apparently poorly) that while the ticket should be to Saalfeldon, he would not see Saalfeldon on the list of destinations on the signs for the platforms. He needed to look for Worgl. So, he bought a ticket to Worgl. I watched as folks got off the train from Salzburg and he didn’t get off. I texted him and he says “Wait what!” And hopped off at the next stop, 8 kms away and rode back to Saalfelden.
Things got better then. We went to an ATM, and he pulled cash out. We grabbed some food (it was now after 8 pm) and came back to the farm and paid Maria. (Side note: another couple staying here said they reserved this place on booking.com! So, in theory, I might have been able to do the whole thing on the credit card that way. Grr again.)
Rick took off this morning and biked back to Salzburg. I talked to the other couple here at the farm and they suggested I visit Zell am See, a cute town about 13 kms from here.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to go both ways, so Rick suggested (after studying the elevations) that I take the train there and ride back.
But before I left, I got to meet the pony, who was in his stall and one of the two mama cats with brand new batches of kittens. They had also let the cows out.
On the train to Zell am See, the nice conductor chatted with me. As we were pulling in, I noticed there was a bike path and he confirmed that the path went all around the lake! So that’s what I did. It was lovely!
I went counterclockwise, south around the lower end of the lake. There the path veered away from the lake. I think it might have been marshy between the lake and the bike path. And there were horses!
When I got to the far side of the lake, I could see Zell am See across the way.
When I got to the north end of the lake, there were lots of activities. The water temperature was around 60 F, but that won’t stop kids!
Then I saw a sight on the bike path.
A big ole swan! I nearly rode by, but then I spotted on the left side:
Mommy swan and her babies!
They then wandered across the path.
And one little guy decided he wanted a nap in the middle of the path!
The other ladies and I were alerting cyclists, but finally the little fella moved on, and so did I.
Completing the loop around the lake, I paused for ice cream and enjoyed the view.
Then I hit the road back to Saalfelden, back to the north side of the lake, from which I had just come.
Then lovely scenery on the way back, including curious cows.
The town of Saalfelden is at the bottom of the mountain in this last picture.
Stunning beauty! And the ride back was good. I even made it up the last climb to the farm without stopping on the way up the hill!
Tomorrow morning, I take the train back to Salzburg. We talked about me biking the way Rick did today. He would meet me halfway and ride back with me. But it’s 78 kms and the most I’ve done so far was 66. And while the first half is mostly down, there is some more challenging up as well. So, I decided to take the train (I also had pre-purchased the ticket.)
