Travelogue: Bavaria (1)

Time to continue, here's a summary of the first week in Bavaria. I was mostly passing rural areas and there were quite a few local traditions and quirks I probably would have missed if not for this slow-paced way of traveling.

Day 8 - Thursday, 14th August 2014 (Part 2)
After crossing the border from Czechia around noon I proceed to stroll around Furth im Wald for a little while. It's the timeframe of the town's dragon slaying festival, which includes a renaissance fair and a popular theater with a giant robot dragon. Here's the details:
Blog entry: Killing Dragons Bavarian Style

I already got a ticket for the theater play so I'm looking for a lodging house, because I don't want to leave bicycle and baggage unattended. (Looking back, this most likely wouldn't have been necessary...) Problem once again: Every place is fully booked. After a while I come across a hotel that wants three times more for one night than what I spent in Czechia the whole past week. I already turned around to go when lady offers to use a double room for €10 less instead. Grinding my teeth I accept the deal... Right now at this moment I'm still too used to the luxuries of bed and bathroom with sockets and internet. Okay then, a larger room for less money. But this will be the last time on this journey that I'm paying for a night...
I accompany the dragon on its way to the arena and back and also visit the renaissance fair at day and night. Finally I plan on staying awake a little longer today in order to settle some things on the internet.

Day 9 - Friday, 15th August 2014
Somehow I fell asleep way earlier than I wanted last night... Well, having breakfast for now so I can evacuate the room right in time later. Those self-service buffets are a brilliant invention, aren't they? I'm taking a little of everything and pack some as provisions for later. As I want to pay for the night afterwards the lady (another one) wants €8 less than what was agreed upon yesterday. Why? I have no clue, but I certainly won't complain.
Well then: Taking a shower, clearing the room (didn't touch that candybar for €2 of course) and leeching off the WiFi for a few hors in the hotel's hallway while it's raining outside. Got official permission for that. When the 24-hour-ticket is used up I'm rising from my armchair in order to make a few more kilometers during some better weather. With good Upper Palatian music accompanying me.

As it gets dark and it starts drizzling again I stop at a hiker's shelter and proceed to sleep on a bench there.

Day 10 - Saturday, 16th August 2014
At 1 a.m. some animal starts rustling in the nearby bushes and wakes me up. Since I'm not able to fall asleep again right away I decide it's a good opportunity to move on. Really a good time of day to make some progress, no traffic at all... And the cycling roads around here are very well-signposted. Wonderful. There's just one spot with a mere slip of paper indicating a detour. Well, fine. Or not. Because three-quarters of an hour later I arrive at a fork in the path that looks awfully familiar... Cyled in a circle without noticing all the time. The detour isn't just some dumb prank though, I only missed another slip of paper in the dark that's hanging in a very weird place around the corner.

 Here in Bavaria there's always a saint around somewhere.

Not long after sunrise it starts raining again. The weather keeps changing like this all day, but there's always a shelter or an activity for the rainy segments. Returning a deposit bottle, picking blackberries...
People are always greeting me with a warm Servus! or Grüß Gott (literally translated: [may] God greet [you]). I start to follow suit, intensifies the "Bavaria-feeling".

In the afternoon some banterers near Regensburg are setting up a maypole. Wait, what? It's August, guys! I go and ask if the previous one fell over before its time. At least I already know that the tradition of knocking down the maypole after only a few weeks is just a local one. In large parts of Bavaria the trunk will stay standing for most of the year. A burly lady tells me this is actually another kind of pole which is part of their parish fair. Okay, so something like that exists as well... And of course there's a huge marquee with lots of cake and beer right beside it.
Later in Regensburg it's not raining. There, of all places! (Regen is the local river's name, but it's also the German word for rain.) Well, I use the opportunity to walk about its historic center for a while...

No pictures of the dome, you can ask google for those.

After that I'm following the Donau river's cycling path for a little while. Somewhere a man asks me where I'm headed to. He for one is an avid Alps cyclist and tells me that the route from Venice to Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, is supposed to be quite beautiful. Let's remember this for now. He also remarks that traveling by bike is absolutely wonderful but sadly an expensive matter as well... What? You seem to be doing it wrong, my friend.
While I continue following the river during sunset I keep hearing various folk festivals from afar. I also notice: Somehow Bavaria is full of single-family homes. Investigation reveals: Whopping two-thirds of Bavaria's residental buildings are like that, just mere 13% are normal apartment buildings consisting of more than two flats. And in front of the homestays there's basically always a large pile of wood for the winter. In no other German state they use to heat with wood as much as here, I still know that fact from studying forestry.
In a meadow in the small town of Regenstauf I finally set up my tent since it's too cold to sleep outside.

Day 11 - Sunday, 17th August 2014
Actually, camping is not even allowed in this place. That's what a sign is saying... but nobody seemed to care anyway. I chose a somewhat hidden place and I never leave any trash ore make fire as a matter of principle anyway.
For now I'm following the ancient Roman limes wall, or at least a route leading where it used to be. Of course there's not much left of all the wooden constructs after 1900 years' time. Just now and then there are some stony ruins or reconstructions of guard towers or fortresses. And some street names such as Limesweg ("Limes Path") or Römerstraße ("Roman's Street") remind travelers of the area's history as well.
The sky is shining in a wonderful pattern of blue and white... just like the Bavarian Flag, which is supposed to represent exactly that after all. My only problem is the fiercely blowing headwind.

I want to go there as well...

In a village I get talked to by an age-old grandpa, who I can barely understand thanks to his deeply Bavarian dialect. At least he barely understands anything as well because he's almost deaf. But he's happy anyway and sees me off with a heartfelt slap on the shoulder saying "Pfüeti", the typical Upper Bavarian way of saying good bye.
In the evening I end up in a dead end because there is a giant area of roadworks at a railway crossing. The alternative: A detour of more than 5 kilometers. Nope. Fortunately no one is around at this time on Sundays, so I just fight my way through the labyrinth of potholes and hoardings and somehow manage to arrive on the other side.

Finally I come across an actual maypole, equipped with three wreaths and a withered spruce on top. That thing just has to be a spring leftover.
But there's also a third kind of traditional pole in this area, I'd translate its name with marriage pole or baby tree. It's being set up at wedding and provided with a time limit for the newlyweds: If they don't have a baby until the limit's over, the pair has to prepare lunch and lots of beer for the other villagers! Well, see yourselves:

(Originally in rhymes:)

We wish you all the very best

for your wedding feast

This tree shall be a memorial,

until the first child is turning up

One year we give you time

till the baby's crying in its cradle

If the time hasn't come until then,

prepare a brown-bag lunch & 100 liters of beer

If you cut it down before

we'll fall about with laughter,

because it's agreed upon after all

that you will do twice the amount then!

Day 12 - Monday, 18th August 2014
It's clouded and the headwind blows even stronger than yesterday. When the way is leading northwards for a little while I barely make any progress even downhill. Air turbulences of a truck on the other side of the road bring me to a standstill at once. The other way around, trucks passing me from behind do bring a nice boost...
In the afternoon I'm in the Swabian part of Bavaria. Idiom is different and I don't see any Maypoles or Babypoles anymore. But there are hearts painted on the roads, containing the initials of newlyweds. I even know that tradition from home.

Originally in rhymes: "She's only using this road to drive to work anymore: Oh the horror!"

After an endless series of up and down I finally arrive in a plain in the evening: It's the Nördlinger Ries, a giant meteorite crater its edge I just passed. In a small village I finally meet up with my host Dani at whose place I'm allowed to stay for two days. Taking a stroll in the evening he shows me around.

Day 13 - Tuesday, 19th August 2014
Day off. Lying around and internet and stuff. From the room across the floor I hear a shout of joy or a burp from time to time, also lots of good music. Basically all's very relaxed over here. In the evening Dani is taking me to a friend and on another stroll I show the both of them what a geocache is.
The next morning Dani and me want to rise very early, he has to leave for business and my plan is to visit Nördlingen. It will be wunderbar!