Our seventh day was our longest ride, 62 miles, and it was the most challenging for reasons other than the distance. It was our hottest day and a good part of the riding was on unpaved roads and trails, with either too much gravel or too much sand, with not a lot of views of the river. I fell once when I got caught in a pile of gravel as I was trying to stop. My foot stayed clipped in and my bicycle was on top of me. I wasn't hurt, but I couldn't get up until Rob came and rescued me.
After three straight hours of riding on dusty back roads we looked forward to visiting the small city of Ingolstadt. Our guide book assured us that it had something for every visitor and, "For hot and tired cyclists looking for refreshment, what could be more welcome than a stein of Bavarian beer? It was in Ingolstadt that the famous Bavarian 'Reinheitsgebot' or 'purity law' was first drafted in 1516 to assure the quality of beer."
Had we not been such hot and tired cyclists looking for refreshment we might have kept going when we saw the cranes and bulldozers and dug up streets and sidewalks as we arrived in the historic part of Ingolstadt. We dismounted and walked our bikes around chain link fences and over curbs and piles of dirt and gravel. Loud noise from drilling and heavy machinery came from a quaint street of shops and cafes, all dug up. Our search for a quiet resting place became a fool's errand. And then we found an oasis among the rubble.
I felt badly for the young proprietor of the outdoor cafe who was certainly losing business during this tourist season. We were his only customers. But he spoke fluent English. He was the first fluent English-speaking person we met who had the time to have a genuine conversation with us. As we enjoyed lemonade and cake, sitting outside next to a construction zone where the machines sat quietly, I asked him as many of the questions I could think of that had been brewing inside me all week.
He told us that in Germany each region has its own brewery so beer companies don't have to spend money on advertising and that there is a law keeping the price of beer low, lower than bottled water.
I asked him what regular Germans ate for breakfast. Whenever we stayed in a hotel, breakfast was included with the price of our room. It felt like lunch - a selection of cold cuts and cheeses, breads, hard-boiled eggs. I was really curious about what the average German ate.
"They might have oatmeal, or toast, or just about anything," he said.
Small talk done, I wanted to dig down and get an answer to what had been bothering me since our visit to the museum in Munich dedicated to the rise of Naziism. How did so many Germans who lived through the war justify it? He said, "They never thought it would be that bad."
I said, "It was disturbing to see that there were Nazis who held positions of power, spent only a few years in prison and then went back to their lives of great wealth."
He said that Germany has a real debt of gratitude to the United States for its role after the war in helping Germany become the democracy that it is today. We did a lot to bring about justice to the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
"But then the Cold War started and the United States lost its focus on Germany."
He also talked about the impact of the Trump presidency. He said that Europe looks to the U.S. president as a role model and he believes that the rise of hate and antisemitism in Germany is a direct result of Trump's hate speech. I wondered if anything like the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust could happen again in Germany. He said, "No. We're taught from when we start school to never let anything like that ever take place again."
As we talked it became clear that he knew a lot more about our history than many U.S. citizens, maybe more than Rob and me. And, even though he admitted to being a fan of John Oliver, I think he must have gotten most of his knowledge elsewhere; maybe he read books when he was in school.
I felt badly for the young proprietor of the outdoor cafe who was certainly losing business during this tourist season. We were his only customers. But he spoke fluent English. He was the first fluent English-speaking person we met who had the time to have a genuine conversation with us. As we enjoyed lemonade and cake, sitting outside next to a construction zone where the machines sat quietly, I asked him as many of the questions I could think of that had been brewing inside me all week.
He told us that in Germany each region has its own brewery so beer companies don't have to spend money on advertising and that there is a law keeping the price of beer low, lower than bottled water.
I asked him what regular Germans ate for breakfast. Whenever we stayed in a hotel, breakfast was included with the price of our room. It felt like lunch - a selection of cold cuts and cheeses, breads, hard-boiled eggs. I was really curious about what the average German ate.
"They might have oatmeal, or toast, or just about anything," he said.
Small talk done, I wanted to dig down and get an answer to what had been bothering me since our visit to the museum in Munich dedicated to the rise of Naziism. How did so many Germans who lived through the war justify it? He said, "They never thought it would be that bad."
I said, "It was disturbing to see that there were Nazis who held positions of power, spent only a few years in prison and then went back to their lives of great wealth."
He said that Germany has a real debt of gratitude to the United States for its role after the war in helping Germany become the democracy that it is today. We did a lot to bring about justice to the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
"But then the Cold War started and the United States lost its focus on Germany."
He also talked about the impact of the Trump presidency. He said that Europe looks to the U.S. president as a role model and he believes that the rise of hate and antisemitism in Germany is a direct result of Trump's hate speech. I wondered if anything like the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust could happen again in Germany. He said, "No. We're taught from when we start school to never let anything like that ever take place again."
As we talked it became clear that he knew a lot more about our history than many U.S. citizens, maybe more than Rob and me. And, even though he admitted to being a fan of John Oliver, I think he must have gotten most of his knowledge elsewhere; maybe he read books when he was in school.
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| After sharing lively conversation with us, the proprietor sent us off with a bottle of the local brew. You can't see all the construction in this picture. Believe me, it's there. |
The day turned out to be a double-header when we met another friendly fluent speaker of English that night. We had bicycled from our campground into the small town of Neustadt for dinner. Neustadt was a quiet town, so quiet that we were the only customers sitting at the tables set up outside the restaurant. The chef (and owner) came outside and pulled up a chair at our table as we were finishing our dinner. You know those people who can infect you with their happiness? He was one of those people, so content with his life he couldn't imagine doing anything else or living anywhere else.
"I live upstairs with my wife and boy," he said. Later, as we drank complementary schnapps with him, he pointed to a window and began waving. "That's my boy." And we saw a young boy, four years old, standing at the window wearing an undershirt and underpants, ready for bed.
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| After dinner we enjoyed a complementary glass of schnapps with the chef. |
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