Riding: Tuesday 2 April

90km, Ingoldstadt to Regensburg

It started as a cloudy and windy day, but it wasn’t raining.  We rode many kilometers along the dikes of the Danube.

Around mid-day the sun came out, just as we were riding though hop fields.

At the cloister of Weltenburg (oldest cloister brewery, dating to 1050), the Danube cuts though a rocky gorge, and the bike path is forced to go over a mountain.

I decided to ride over, while Betsy took the ferry.  On the other side, in the town of Kellheim, we found a Schneider-Weisse owned restaurant, and they had our favorite German beer:  Hopfenweisse, which is a cross between a wheat beer and an IPA.  We each had one, and that was the highlight of the day.

Hofenweisse; "tap 5" from Schneider-Weisse

 After a beer, Betsy though it best to take the train to Regensburg and look for a place to stay, as I made the journey by bicycle.

Regensburg

Wedding locks on a pedestrian bridge over the Danube in Regensburg

One thing I noticed is that the Danube becomes navigable below Kellheim, and regular ship traffic was a common sight the rest of the journey.

Riding: Monday 1 April, Easter Monday

78km, Höchstädt to Ingoldstadt

We were the only people staying at the hotel.  And our breakfast set the norm for the rest of the trip:  bread rolls, sliced cheeses & meats, jellies, and a soft-boiled egg, …and two cups of coffee for Betsy.  The night was clear and cold, but we were delighted to start the day in sun, despite the sub-freezing temperatures.

During our ride we reconfirmed our suspicion that Bavaria is the Texas of Germany –the big, loud & proud state in the south; lederhosen and dirndls are to Bavaria, what belt buckles, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats are to Texas.

We also noticed that there were farms more reminiscent of the US, where the farm house is surrounded by the farm, and not farmland surrounding the village.

Even though it was sunny, it was still cold, so around noon, we stopped into one of the few cafés which were open for warm drinks.  And during our stop another pattern emerged.  The weather changes around mid-day:  wind picks-up, clouds move-in, or clouds lift.  On this day the clouds moved in for the 2^nd half of our day.

We rode on for another few hours, and in the mid-afternoon it was time for traditional coffee & cake.  Because Easter Monday is a holiday, there were a lot of people having enjoying this tradition.  I had to order quickly to get a slice of an apple torte, which was the closest to apple pie I have found in Germany.

After our afternoon snack, Betsy thought it would be good to take the train the last 20km, because her knee was beginning to hurt.  We got to the train station, and made a plan to meet at the other end, because I was going to ride the distance.  It turns out on a reduced holiday schedule, biking is sometimes faster.

We found a hotel, after an hour of searching, and it was next to a very Gemütlich (cozy, welcoming) restaurant.  After dinner Betsy & I played cards, in the restaurant, for about an hour.

Riding: Sunday 31 March, Easter

66km, Ulm to Höchstädt
We had to wake up early to get Ted & Emily off to Frankfurt for their morning flight back to America.  With daylight savings time also starting that morning, it made for even less sleep.

Betsy & I took the train to Ulm to start our ride down the Danube.

Riding on Trains with Bikes

 For the second year in a row our Easter brought snow, and we rode our bikes through it.  And with the snow came mud.  And contrary to the expected prevailing wind, we were riding into the wind.

Lunch at a mosque, one of the few places to eat on Easter.  In full rain gear, with muddy bikes

But we are excited to be actually making this trip we have been thinking about for a year.
We came across a reconstructed Roman Temple site, and while we were exploring it, the sun came out for the first time that day.

Roman Temple Ruins in Faimingen

As we approached our hotel for the night, we used some snow to clean off the muddiest parts of our bikes.  At the hotel, we spotted a hose then really rinsed off our bikes and each other.

Then we had a well-deserved sleep after our early morning and long, cold, wet ride.

Busy Spring

Betsy & I have had a busy 3 weeks.

I finished a month of exams at the University of Stuttgart on 14^th of March.  However before I was finished with Stuttgart, I got a job offer at the University of Tuebingen!  So I informed NREL & Windward that I would be quitting, which was overdue, as work had been irregular and increasingly sparse.  I will start working next week or the 1^st of May, depending on how fast my foreigner’s work permit can be processed.

As for Betsy, in the last 3 weeks, the student she was supervising went back to China, and she visited the University of Marie & Pierre Currie in Paris to give a talk and prepare future collaborations.

We also hosted Ted & Emily, friends from Boulder, for a few days leading up to Easter.  We visited castles, cloisters, breweries, and museums –in general, the quintessential southern Germany experience.

But the really blog worthy event is our bike ride to Vienna.  It took 8 days and we covered around 700km (440miles).  We are currently in Vienna until the Saturday the 13^th of April, while Betsy is attending the European Geoscience Union conference.   …so I will blog about each day of our ride over the next week.

Springtime in Germany

We haven't made any posts since Fasnet and now it is almost Easter! I must have unwittingly given up blogging for Lent.

We have been enjoying the lengthening of the days. Joe tells me that the day length changes the most around the equinox and the least at the solstice. It's been noticeable, and such a great reward for our patience with German winters.

When we moved to Poltringen (almost a year ago!) I rode my bike to and from work every day. Then in November I had to start taking the train when the snow came. It has been a very snowy winter here. I wouldn't say our accumulation is significant, but we've just had a lot of snowy days this year. Generally I am okay with this. However, I stopped buying a monthly train ticket in March, planning to ride my bike every day again to train for our Big Bike Trip (details shortly). But continued snow into March snowy days have interfered with that plan, and I've hopped the train several days this month.

Nevertheless, we are on track to leave for our Big Bike Trip on Easter morning. We'll ride for 9 days, about 80 km a day, from Ulm to Vienna. We are riding along the Danube River. Downhill and with the wind! It is a well-trodden German bike touring route, but we are a bit outside of peak season. This is why the snow is so troubling. I hope Old Man Winter get's it out of his system before we depart!

Giant flakes fall in March 23. View from our balcony.

European Travels

(Joe wrote this post a few months ago, but for some reason never posted it. Enjoy!)

Lyon

Nate Hook in Lyon, France

In June Betsy had a conference in Lyon, France.  And I came by train half way though the conference.  It was a chance to meet up with some friends from Boulder.

Rhône and Saône rivers converge in Lyon, and that was a reason why the Romans made it the capital of Gaul.  Therefore Lyon has a lot of Roman ruins to see.  And there are also a lot of Catholic churches we visited.

Barcelona

Sailing in the Mediterranean

Betsy & I bought “blind booking” tickets from the discount airline German Wings.  These cheap tickets are ideal for weekend get-a-ways, because you can choose a few options of what type of place to visit (beach, culture, party, etc.), but the actual destination is not known until you pay for the ticket.  We ended up going to Barcelona, which turned out to be very fun.  Everyday we went swimming in either the Mediterranean or in the outdoor pool used in the 1992 Summer Olympics.  We toured the city by bicycle and public transport.  We also sailed into the Mediterranean for 2 hours.  The food was very good too, and we learned a lot about the Catalan and Spanish culture.

Oktoberfest & Bavaria

Paulaner tent at Oktoberfest

Andy (Betsy’s brother) & his new wife Amanda came to Europe for their honeymoon.  We took them to Munich’s Oktoberfest, known locally as "die Wiesn".  Wow!  Oktoberfest was good to experience, but I don’t have any desire to go back.  It is just like a US state fair, but all about beer – high alcohol content (~6%) - and served by the liter.  We had to go in the morning because we didn’t have a table reservation, which is required for an afternoon or evening.  Oktoberfest has well over 6 million visitors during 2 weeks, and on average each person drinks well more than a Liter of beer.

Venus Grotto at Linderhof Palace

After Oktoberfest we visited Schloss Linderhof which is one of the castles commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria (Herrenchiemsee and the famous Schloß Neuschwanstein are the others). It was very luxurious.  I think the room of mirrors was one of the more spectacular things to see.  Betsy really enjoyed seeing the Venus Grotto, which is an artificial cave/grotto and stage for a Richard Wagnerian opera.

Stuttgart

Last weekend we spent a day in Stuttgart. Because we had not visited anything in Stuttgart (besides the airport and train station), we figured we should spend some time investigating Stuttgart.  We went to the Stuttgart Volksfest, which is the world's second largest beer festival (Munich’s is the largest).

Poltringer Fasnet

It started less then a week after Christmas. We noticed the young men of town out stringing flags over all the main streets. They look like Nepalese prayer flags, but faded by many seasons of use. Then we got a booklet in the mail describing the events for the upcoming Fasnet season. OK, at least we knew a bit of what we were in for, since we'd gone to a Fasnet parade in the nearby town of Rottenberg last year.

Fasnet flags guide the way to the Rathaus.

I still wasn't quite prepared last Sunday, jetlagged after returning from the states the day before, when we started hearing music and Schwäbisch dialogue booming from a sound system as our town prepared for the the Umzug (parade). Just before 1pm we bundled up and turned right from our front door and into prime parade grounds. Traffic was being diverted around the entire town.

The "Bockmoster" from Poltringen

We were surprised by the lineup of 60 "Fasnetsclubs" from neighboring villages that proceeded to march past us. The parade in Rottenberg last year was huge, but it seems that even our little village of just a few thousand could put on a good show. The parade lasted two hours! And each Catholic village near us has put on an equivalent parade in the past few weeks. These fools and witches have been busy!

A kind fool from Bondorf hands out treats.

Tübingen is not a Catholic town, so there is something special to be experienced by living in a village such as Poltringen. Last Thursday (Schmotzinger Donnerstag) we went to the Rathaussturm (Storming of the Town Hall). I enjoyed a Rote Wurst (local sausage variety) and beer as we again watched one of the Fasnet rituals just steps from our house. Under moonlight the children and witches paraded past the Rathaus and finally we saw each of the Poltringer Fasnetsclub groups perform. It was quite eery to watch the masked witches dance with traditional brooms around a burning cauldron. I cannot quite accept this as a Catholic ritual, and indeed my Schwäbisch colleague Karin confirmed that Fasnet is a tradition in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria that pre-dates Christianity. It was the people's attempt to scare away winter with these strange spirits!

Fasnet is wrapping up this week. Last Thursday during the Rathaussturm the mayor symbolically gave the key to the town hall to the Narren (fools). But on Tuesday they have to give it back. No more fun, as we go into the Lenten season. Joe and I will head to the Poltringer Fasnetsclub Halle (yes, they have a headquarters) for the Fasnetsverbrennung (Fasnet burning). We're still not really sure what a Fasnet actually is, but this somehow involves burning a witch. By Joe's estimation, witch burning is an adequate representation of Catholic history in Europe.