What Wikipedia has to say about Heidelberg.

(You can almost see Nee’s house in this shot!)

I still have a headache :S It’s cool though coz I can just flake out at Nee’s when I feel crook.

She left this morning for Italy – it’s Loris’s birthday. Happy birthday dude!

This means she will miss the big fireworks display which I lucked into. Three times a year they light up the castle and the Alte Brucke (old bridge) and it’s happening tomorrow night!

It’s called Schlossbeleuchtung (castle lighting):

“The show starts with the Heidelberg castle being lit up as though it is on fire. This is to remember the times in 1689, 1693 and 1764, when the castle went up in flames! After a few minutes of the castle ‘burning’, the fireworks begin. The fireworks are launched from the old bridge (which is obviously closed at this time) and last for about 15 minutes. The fireworks exploding over the old bridge with the castle looming in the background is really something to see.“

I did the walking tour of Heidelberg this morning. I take back what I said about walking sucking. I do like it. I just don’t like walking to the shops or something when I can ride, but walking to explore new places is cool. I get angry when I touch the bike now. I took the bike to a shop to try and get the back wheel fixed. The two guys don’t speak english so they basically ignored me. I left. Fsck them.

So now I’m searching the ‘net trying to find a bike shop. Enough of that. Bikes suck. My right knee is still stuffed. I gotta mess with the cleats or something. I noticed the saddle is bent to one side (I think from the SS Worlds in 03!) so this could be lowering my right-hand-side and causing the knee issues only on that side? That’s a vague guess. Could also be a twisted cleat position, but I haven’t adjusted these cleats for 5 years and they’ve never given me trouble before!? Stupid fscking bikes! I like watching other people ride bikes, especially all the Heidelberg hotties, but they are giving me the sh1ts!

Back to walking.. the tour this morning was pretty cool, not as good as the Berlin one but still had some interesting stuff pointed out to me that I’d walked past about 20 times!

Yesterday afternoon I walked up a hill, a BIG hill! The first part of the walk was pretty steep, up to Philosophenweg and I kept going to the top where I found an ampitheatre (built by the Nazis in 1935 using forced labor) and a monastery which was abandoned in 1500! There is a tombstone there with “1070” written on it! Apparently there is an annual “peace” party up here. Significant ground methinks, given the multitude of religions represented up here and the presence of the Nazi’s building..

Yeah, so that was 4hrs of hilly walking that my legs really thanked me for. I will go back up there tomorrow night in the hope of getting a good view of the castle lighting. Then all I have to do is make it back down in the dark without breaking my neck! That’s hard enough when I’m sober and in daylight! 😉

Vetter Brauhaus received my custom last night for dinner. Yes, after one day I have broken my beer ban.. well they do make the Strongest Beer in the World! “Vetter 33“:

“The Brauhaus Vetter brewpub in Heidelberg produces Vetter 33 (it’s original gravity is 33 Plato), a cloudy amber beer with a concentrated malt nose, huge and very rich clean malt flavor, high alcohol (11 percent by volume) and a very long sweet malt aftertaste. It is available on at the brewpub.“

from: www.allaboutbeer.com

also: http://www.xs4all.nl/~patto1ro/hessbrew.htm

But more often, it’s just stupid people like me doing them!

Along with crappy signage, Germany doesn’t have street lighting between towns.

It seems they also lucked out when it came to moonlight or starlight – a stark contrast to Mildura’s wonderfully bright night skies.

What does this mean?

It means that I was riding from Mannheim back to Heidelberg last night in pitch darkness!

In actual fact, my healthy dose of paranoia had led me to pack my lights, but due to the handle bar bag, the S-SUN’s mounting position meant it was only useful for being seen (maybe) and not for seeing with.

I stuck to the roads, mostly, because I could at least steer along the white lines!

Some bikepath descents were “interesting”:

“Is that path or is that a gully?”

“Is that path or is that a shrub?”

“Where’d the path go?!”

“Is this a smooth edge or a wheel-wrecking gutter?”

I made it home alive, but not before riding past a downed cyclist surrounded by cars, people and flashing lights. Thanks for rubbing it in! He was alive, btw.

I was supposed to go to Cologne today with Renee but I woke up this morning with a killer headache! I drank more water than usual yesterday (it’s been over 30degC for the last few days!) but I guess it wasn’t enough? It could also be a lack of salts or, more likely, the fact I gave up caffeine yesterday – not a single coffee, iced coffee, chocolate.. nothing! Not even a beer! What a sad life.. 😛

After dropping Loris off at Frankfurt Hahn airport, Renee and I noted that we were very close to the world famous Waldgeist-Hofheim schnitzel restaurant.

You may have seen this place and its killer meals in a email forward at some stage. It’s all true!!!

I met Gary (from Wellington, NZ) in Nuremberg’s “Lette’em Sleep” hostel and I stole a section of his latest report because it applies to me also (if you mind dude, let me know):

Since the last report, I’ve done a day trip to a little place called Bamberg. Claim to fame is that it’s one of the most beautiful towns in Germany and that it also has about 200 different beers! As it happens, when I was there they were setting up for a big beer festival. No, I didn’t go back for it before anyone asks 🙂

While I was in N?rnberg I visited the museum about the rise and fall of the nazis. Very interesting museum. Thought they might have been kind to them selves on the subject but they told the whole story. They pulled no punches. Parts of it were quite graphic. It’s in one of the buildings that was used by the nazis as well. Worth a visit.

Ja, so that’s what I did also. The museum was the Reichstagsomethingsomethingsomethingdokumentationzentrum..

Prior to that we had some adventures with Jayne “the dodgy saffa girl who lost her wallet in Nuremburg” (her own words), who actually lives quite close to where I’m staying in London – you up for some more beers?, Vince from Bendigo, who is going to do well in the Commonwealth Games trials for Decathlon, so long as he doesn’t try to match Gary or I when out drinking, and Carly from Sydney who will be doing some speech pathology, also in London.

We went to “Landbierparadies” (It WAS a beer paradise!) far too often, because I wanted to make my way down the entire list of microbrew beers and the food was traditional, good and cheap. Very cool place but please.. CAN I HAVE A NIGHT OFF! 😛

Also went to the watch museum with Gary (who happens to be a watch repairer). The watch was invented here in Nuremberg. Bet you didn’t know that!

On the first day I did the LPG walking tour (basically) and saw all the sights. Toured the dungeons under the Rathaus (town hall). I’d much rather be incarcerated nowadays thankyou very much!! (Probably will too..)

Met an Italian guy who plays a Scacciapensieri (funky sounding plucked mouth instrument) and a Spanish guy who travels with the “Go” board game. I want to learn how to play these two things.. after the bongos that is.

It’s amazing how peaceful the town becomes after 5pm when the tour buses clear out, taking the hordes with them. I recall having a “moment” on one of the bridges with the water falling nearby. A really beautiful town, Nuremburg.

We did a road trip to Switzerland!!!

After catching a train from Nuremburg to Heidelberg, I met Loris, a cool guy from Venice, Italy. He has worked with Renee and had been given the task of getting me to her apartment and showing me around town. For those not in the “Inner Circle”, Renee is a good friend of mine from uni daze, who has been working in Germany for a year or so. I was on a mission to visit her before she leaves for the Middle East in two weeks and returns home to Oz soon after.

Anyway.. the plan was a road trip to Switzerland, via the impressive “Disney” castle a.k.a Schloss Neuschwanstein. We also happened to go through Austria and Lichtenstein, all in the one day!

I got to drive at 200kph on the autobahns, legally!

The castles were very impressive. The mountains were “rather large” and for me, mind-blowing! The scenery in this part of the world is stunning! We saw more wonderful mountains and fabulous blue-water lakes in Switzerland (our b&b was on a lake edge, surrounded by mountains!).

We also saw massive amounts of flood damage – sections of mountain side missing due to mudslides, huge boulders just rolled down from above now lying in drains and canals or next to houses and roads. Previously grassy fields were now covered with mud. Shops were filled with dirt and water and sandbags lined the streets. Pumps were operating to remove excess water. Army personal were blocking roads and directing traffic. Helicopters were continually flying people and food around. Train lines were torn apart and service crews worked hard to repair them. Entire bridges had been swept away and roads torn apart. This flood had some power! The water levels were still high and the rivers were flowing very rapidly.

I’ve never been so close to a natural disaster – it was crazy!

We still did the tourist thing and checked out the awesome Trummelbache Falls in Lauterbrunnen Valley, ate Rosti and ice-cream outside a cafe, looking up at snow-capped Jungfrau (the highest mountain in Europe, I think). It’s a great place to visit, flood damage or not, so I reckon anyone thinking about it should inject some cash into the restaurants and tourist ventures here. I loved it and I’m coming back to Switzerland for sure!

I might get some pics up soon. Then again, I might not 😛

Oh, thanks to Vodaphone Germany, my phone was out of action for a while but it works again now (and I didn’t even need to “get medieval” on their asses!).

Too much beer in Nuremberg and Bamberg.. body shutting down..

But, good news! I will leave tomorrow for Heidelberg and my good friend Renee has been very generous and offered to host this tourist bum! Potential also for a road trip to Switzerland and maybe visit to Italy (this girl gets around!), although with the floods there I’m not sure how that will work out?!

Anyway, had a ball here.. will do a proper reporting job later.. perhaps.

Hey someone I met finally sent me a picture!

Have fun in Krakow Jamie!!!

The girls and I in Dresden:

Doing nothing much today except sitting around waiting for a train to Nuremburg. Oh, I did post back the swiped beer mug and some unused clothes. I leave at 13:47 and arrive around 18:30 tonight. Bamberg is about 65k away from Nuremburg and brews 200+ beers locally – can anyone guess where I’ll be riding in the next few daze? 😛

Yeah, slow day..

Checked out town briefly but spent most of it sitting around here. I think this is why I actually did some blogging.

My current thinking, other than “why the hell did I order those shots?!” is something along the lines of:

I’m pretty keen to wrap this trip up and get a job back in the UK. I figure I will hit Nuremburg and Bamberg (LPG and Nikolaus both suggest visiting here). Then shoot west to Heidelberg, visiting Renee before she heads back to Oz, checking out the Black Forest area or the Rhine or whatever the hell is over that direction. I was going to visit Munich again but I did it last year and I’ve still got to work out how to get back to London, hopefully with some cash left, so I might skip Munchen. Might also pass on my re-visit to Cologne. I think it is possible to train from Germany to England with a bike but it might be easier going from Brussels? 300UKP or something though!! Shiiiite!!!

In other news: Simon T, another mate from Oz, is also moving his arse to the UK!

Is anyone left downunder?! 😛

In other, other news: I think I would like to work in a youth hostel. Don’t laugh! I can be nice.. sometimes.. Just a thought, but it could be more fun than working in a pub..?

These were the modified Greenday lyrics I was singing out loud while riding to Colditz. Not in the kinda sad way they sing it, more a celebratory version. I’m totally loving this!!

The ride to Colditz turned out to be a piece of piss! Less than an hour! That 15% climb was ‘it’ – after that it was rolling hills and seemed to be more down than up. Beautiful weather again. Very much one of those “I’m the king of the world” moments, much as I hate to bring Leo into my blog..

I asked a local where I would find the Colditz Escape Museum and he told me to follow him. He drove in front of me right up to the castle! Much easier than maps and signs, thanks dude!

I explored the castle grounds and a tour guide even let me sneak into the escape museum without paying because the next tour wasn’t for over an hour – thanks love!

Leipzig is 46k away (I’m going here now and not Weimar) and riding is much nicer now. I’ve cracked the code for cycling Germany: don’t use cycle paths, use a map (I bought the South Germany boxed set in Dresden) and a compass rather than signs. Wunderbar! 🙂

I have also worked out the “Pfand” system. I thought it was a tax added at the till, but it is actually a bottle refund scheme. Buy a bottle of water, beer, coke, etc. and if it has “pfand” added, take the empty bottle back to the “getrankmarkte” or supermarket and they’ll give you the pfand amount back! Nice!

Leipzig is a construction site! They are installing a new tram line or something. Detours everywhere! I made it to Hostel Sleepy Lion and the somewhat rude chick said “everything is full”. I went to the tourist info office opposite the MASSIVE Hauptbahnhof and, after some laughter when she mentioned 89euro rooms, she called a hostel. Sleepy Lion’s sister hostel “Central Globetrotter” had a bed free. I should hurry over there. I hauled ass over there! Lucky too, because a minute after I’d got the bed, other people were turned away! The guy working here was MUCH nicer, even giving me a free city map and free towel when I asked!

Turns out there is a massive computer game conference on this weekend, hence the severe bed shortage.

I bought some things from Aldi for lunch. I have overcome my bakery obsession.

While making a tuna sandwich I thought about what I should use to stop the tuna falling out given that I don’t butter my bread. I spread it with Nutella. Nutella and Tuna sandwich – is this a sign that I have been travelling too long, or perhaps not long enough? Wonder what sort of things I’d concoct if I spent a whole year touring..

Met one of the game-dudes Nikolaus. We (Nikolaus, Martin, Karim, Constantine and I) had a few Staropramen (Czech) beers in the hostel and then caught a taxi-van to “Schnitzel Fabrik”, in town, for dinner (6.90 for a “Dijoner Art” schnitzel).. and more beers (of course).

Then we hit the Kakadu Karaoke bar where a bunch of EA Games people were meeting the guys. Beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, bber, berb, brrr, Jagermiester, beeeeerrrrr.. and so the night went on. Spent most of it chatting to Karim, one of the other good english speakers and a fellow technohead (well, d&b, but that passes! :))

Staggered back to the hostel around 4am, with a last-minute Bockwurst to soak up some of the beer.. and after all that, we didn’t even get to sing MJ’s “Beat It”! Damn! 😛

Leisnig to Leipzig Stats:

71.5k, 3h 40m, 19.6kph