Chapter 14: Flotsam and Jetsam & Other Odds and Ends

In this last and final blog post about our Danube cycling adventure I am going to talk about German bathroom culture, storks, cigarettes, and blankets served with your morning cup of tea.

Our second day cycling the Danube happened to be a Saturday so it wasn't surprising to see large and small groups of cyclists out and about. Some time in the morning we passed a cluster of men, about eight of them, in their fifties and sixties, all wearing yellow cycling jerseys, sitting outside in a beer garden. I assumed they were drinking beer. Why not? It was mid-morning at least. I thought about stopping, too, but we were in a rhythm that didn't call out for taking a break just then. 

A short time later the group shot past us. They weren't carrying any gear so their trajectory was faster than ours. I didn't give them any more thought until later in the afternoon when they passed us again. Before I had a chance to say to Rob, "They must have stopped for another beer," we caught up to them, a row of yellow shirts, lined up almost elbow to elbow one alongside the other standing on the edge of the bike trail facing the woods.  They didn't even bother to step into the woods. I thought, "Wow, this is a free culture."

But it wasn't all that free. A few days later when I tried to get into a public restroom I was stopped at the gate. I needed money to get in. I didn't have any on me. I snuck through the gate when someone came out. 

In Australia every town has a free public restroom. In Germany you must pony up to pee.

Barricades come in many styles.

When my children were younger than they are now I read aloud to them a book called The Wheel on the School, the story of a group of children in Holland who set out to find a wheel to put on the roof of their school so that a stork will build a nest on it and bring luck to their village. When they found a large wooden wheel it began raining and school was closed while all the children stayed home waiting for the rain to stop. When I got to this part in the book, our town was flooding and Kylee and Tim were home from school waiting for the rain to stop. Maybe it was that coincidence that made the book leave a distinct impression on me. Or maybe it was just a darn good story.

I had never realized that storks were such a big deal in other parts of Europe. We found many in Germany. Following are pictures of storks, real and imagined.

This one welcomed us to the small city of Riedlingen.

See the nest up top?

Still Riedlingen. There were too many storks to take a picture of every one.

Nope, not a stork. I found it disturbing that we passed cigarette machines in all sorts of random places, alongside the road in small towns. 

I guess things balance out. You have to pay to go to the bathroom, but in other ways the German culture felt very welcoming.

We enjoyed tea at this outdoor cafe in Ulm where, not for the first time, we found fleece blankets on every chair.

Benches along the side of the bike trails invited us to get off our bikes and rest and relax.

The historic cities and towns all had cafes and restaurants sprinkled throughout their downtown plazas, places to linger over a cup of tea or a beer. We lingered long and often.

We arrived in Pasau on our eleventh day, with an afternoon to spend exploring the city's nooks and crannies before taking the train back to Munich the next day. Thankfully the train back was direct with no transfers, no opportunity for Rob to get off without me.

Neatly packed up, on the train back to Munich.