cycle distances Germany
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... Entonces que hermano ?! / wassup brother/ ?!. 31.500 kms, actually no chicken feed!. But how is it in Deutschland and where are you now?.
From Budapest I have cycled 16 days non-stop[1400 km] and the River Rhine has led me to the city of Cologne, with its huge cathedral. I'm in Albergue Bartels, cinco estrellas! [Chris, a friend of mine].
What itinerary did you actually take?. Did you take the shortest route, avoiding the mountains ... Cuentame mas! /tell me more!/
Since Budapest I followed the river Danube to Vienna which was about two stages north of Budapest, and then I went roughly to the left, in Austria to Passau, a Roman fortress from the times of the Roman Empire, because the Danube (together with the River Rhine) was the border of the Roman Empire that the civilized roman separated from the Germanic barbarians!.
... table of distances of the Main- Danube water way
... along the mittel-, niederrhein to Holland!
... the statue of roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, danube river, before Passau
... life is short!. [the] only fruit[s] of life are: sincere dedication [ethos] and non-profit efforts. Marc Aurel, reflexions, VI 30
I passed a huge Marcus Aurelius statue staring over the Danube into the barbarian hinterland [the same emperor as from the movie Gladiator!].
After Regensburg, I followed the Main-Danube canal connecting both the rivers Danube with the Main.The Main river on its turn led me to the Rhine that then will lead me straight to home insj-allah!.
It is not a very direct way but I had not a good map and I also thought that following a river is not too difficult. And that was true although it is occasionally quite annoying following a river because a river twists and occasionally gives you the idea that you hardly make any progress.
... rendez vous with an old friend: a fishersman`s boat from St. Louis, Senegal, brougth from the canary islands to Austria to be rebuild again as a piece of art, Vienna- Passau
... deceased immigrants trying to get into Europe with such a boat
You're almost "home" [what a relative term that is. What is "home" anyway?] were you satisfied with the chosen itinerary [since Budapest]?.
I think so yes. The Danube through Vienna-Passau is very touristy. People drive there just to cycle with their bicycles which gives it a nice atmosphere. That track is loaded with with Bier Garten`s [beer gardens] and campsites and is pretty busy. But I was also very often on a special road just for cyclists, actually the first and only time I felt myself of being in the middle of nature with a bicycle.
... the track through wineries, Vienna- Passau, Austria
But everything here is very bourgueois too. Very civilized compared to Africa ... on this 'road' it is very easy to cycle.
What exactly do you mean?.
Well almost every ten kilometre there is a an Aldi supermarket (easy to buy food quite a difference compared to let's say Mauritania where you had to plan carefully the amount of food, water to pack on your bicycle). I've even seen a device from which one can pull out a Schwalbe tube by throwing in six euros, insane!
... a machine for inner tubes, insane!
... a decent winery cabin, just before Passau, Austria
But a nice route though, very picturesque, although of course it is never the same from what you see in pictures or tourist advertisements.
How do you feel now that the trip is almost over?. A feeling of regret [because you are finishing the trip instead of continuing to India]?. Didn't you want to keep on travelling or is it ok for now?
No sense of regret. When I think about it it has been actually quite a weird life I've led for the past three years. You adapt yourself and in the beginning the feeling of freedom is unprecedented but a multitude of impressions every day and for three years in a row works exhaustively at a certain time.
Since Budapest I have passed places like Vienna [the imperial capital of the former Habsburg Empire], Passau, Regensburg, Hartheim [the birthplace of Hohmann, the inventor of the so-called Hohmann orbit to travel from planet to planet], Frankfurt, Koblenz [a 2000 year old city], Bonn [the former capital of West Germany] and Cologne but what have I seen?. I cycled through or around such places, under the shade of a huge burg [castle], cathedral or city wall ...
... Passau, the border between Austria and Germany.
I actually could not motivate myself anymore to visit such kind of places and I think when you reach a certain point it is maybe time to quit [the travelling].
... das Glockenhaus /house of the clocks/, Koblenz.
Only in Vienna I was a little longer because I had a flat tire. Next to a huge Soviet monument covered with texts in the cyrillic alphabet with on top a petrified Iwan with a machine gun around his neck, in his left hand a spear [?] and in his right hand a golden shield [??].
With so much human absurdity [as in that mini mosque in Nigeria next to a gas station where devout Muslims could do their prayers] I had to laugh, moreover because Austria was in 1938 more then happy to join Hitler's Reich. Wouldn`t there be many individuals irritated by this monstrous monument or has "it" happened just too long ago [Austria got its independence from the allies again in 1955]?.
... the river Rhine, Koblenz - Bonn
And yet although your spirit is saturated with so many impressions your mind sometimes takes you away ... In my thoughts I find myself cycling through the Llanos [Venezuela], or from Medellin to Caracas [because in this way it is one big descend on the foothills of the Cordillera de los Andes :)] ...
Did you have any interesting confrontations with locals ?.
Mm... except for the shopping at Aldi, and that I had to speak to people myself before getting any attention. Of course on the Danube tourist route I looked like a bit weird with all that bagage so some people asked me if I was on long journey. Granny asked me if I came from Africa, that was special.
... pfff, que calor! /pff, what a heat!/
A peculiarity of Germans and dependent [german speaking] peoples [Switzerland, Austria] is that they want to erradicate coincidence. Imagine an overwhelming amount of information about the area where you are at the moment, information about a local frog or information at an intersection just to avoid getting lost [allthough that can also be fun right?!].
... Dios mio! wohin soll ich doch geh"n? /oh my gawd! where the hell am I supposed to go?!/
Germans are also proud of Germany and the annoying thing is that they are often right. As Helmut said about a Schwalbe tire: "Ja Klar ist das der beste auf der Welt, es is Deutsch" /offcourse is this the best in the world, it is german/.
I then get a little itchy and it is on my tongue to say things like: " Wann fangst du an ... Deutschland Deutschland über alles zu singen?" /when will you start singing ... Germany, Germany above everything/, or "Aber wir haben Sylvi [fan der Faart]" /but we have Sylvi van der Vaart/ or "Wir haben vla und euch nicht, hamdoelilah" /we have vla - a typical dutch pudding, only to be found in the Netherlands- and you don't, thank God/.
Anyway, I swallow away my objections since it is not very productive to ventilate the comments above.
Schwanzli loosens and replaces my retro-shift Schalter [the switch was jammed so I had to cycle all the time in the toughest gear]. He also replaces the rear break with a new one. Besides the new brake and new retro shift clutch he charges me twenty euros for his hard twenty minutes work. I have to swallow, in Uganda the mechanic was busy all day for five euros...
Perhaps the profession of bicycle maker [in Germany] is better paid than that of doctor or engineer!.
At the Turk I eat a döner kebab and start talking with an Eritrean living in Germany for almost thirty years now. We are talking mainly about South Sudan, Ethiopia, the Sudan, Mali. It is very nice to talk about those things with him. But here you are anonymous, that is Europe, and that is currently actually fine to me.
Proximo estacion /next station/?.
Düsseldorf, Arnheim, Apeldoorn, Epe / Heerde, Curazao insj-allah ...
listo pues! até logo!.
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