May 27th: "The hills are alive with the sound of groaning"
I sent Casey the message on Facebook. Two days later I still feel better. Honestly I miss girls. Didn't think the pickings would be so slim! Hopefully this will all greatly improve in Munich and Berlin. Seriously its like I'm in the movie "Children of Men". Everyones either old or they maybe have little kids. Its like there's no one between the ages of 12 and 30. We got lost for the first time today in the morning by apparently going too far south into Austria. I didn't think you could just accidentally slip into Austria and not know it but apparently you can. We realized we were in Austria when we wandered back up across the border past an EU sign that said Bundesrepublik Deutschland and Republik Osterreich on the other side. We're going along the Konigsee-Bodensee Radweg (Bike route) and the route is marked along roads, highways, country roads, neighborhoods, dirt paths, through forests over hills and on sidewalks. Little signs that say Konigsee-Bodensee Radweg have little arrows posted on signs that are about 4 inches by 4 inches. The arrows point left, right, straight, straight around to the left or right and sometimes in both directions. To say the least its been confusing. We found the trail after crossing back over the border only to lose it again. Another guy on a bike pointed us to a town 20 km ahead where we could link up with it again. When we found the trail we got on it only to follow it in the opposite direction. Sensing we were in the wrong direction I pulled over this old lady on a bike, told her we wanted to head east towards Fussen and she told us we were heading back to Bodensee. Since she was going the same way as us we turned around and began following her. We went back to the town and began moving in the right direction. The old lady left and went wherever she was going and thats when we starting climbing...At one point we pedaled (or mostly walked) up a 15% incline for up to 1 kilometer. We got to go back down a few times which was awesome but generally we had to keep climbing. Eventually we made our way to a valley that turned into a lake and we had flat roads and great views of the Alps. At Immenstadt we stopped for water and food and thought we would be able to follow the route through the city. Somewhere in the city we got lost onto another intersecting radweg and couldn't find ours. We literally rode in a big circle at one point and decided to head north in the general direction of the route. By now we had virtually given up on reaching Fussen and started to look for campgrounds. By around 7 we were in the town of Sulzberg, north of a lake that we could see just above the radweg on the map. (We could have had a better map too if you didn't get that by now).... Some people pointed us towards a town called Moosbach which was literally on the other side of this frickin hill. It was then we decided never to trust the signs for hikers on the roads... A small sign listed Moosbach as being within an hours distance by foot through a neighborhood and a dirt path that went along some farms. After following the dirt path we eventually found a barbwire fence blocking our path. A stool had been left next to the fence so one of us hopped over and the other lifted and passed the bikes over one at a time. We continued going up a dirt path up the hill in the woods. We reach a fork in the road and go one way only to reach a dead end. We go to the other way only to find ourselves deep in dense forest and on a muddy trail. We decide not to risk going further and ride back to pavement. WE follow the highway around to Moosbach and then get directions to the lake. by now its after 8:30 and the spot where I thought a campground would be turned out to be only a parking lot for RV's. Our last food was a handful of peanuts and a piece of bread each that we scooped nutella with and we were now out of water. With nothing in sight we began pedaling away from the lake at 9 as the sun started to set. It seemed likely that we would end up pitching the tent in an open field and going to sleep hungry and dehydrated. Just before it was dark we found a guest house that was advertising 5 euro plats of schnitzel and fries so with that on our minds we rang the door and walked in. The lady there immediately offered to show us up to a room and so we just brought our stuff up. We asked the other girl that worked there how much everything would be she said she didn't know and then said we'd talk about it at dinner. Considering we were hungry, thirsty, tired and it was dark outside we said ok. For dinner the guy brought us a salad, a big pork schnitzel with lemon, fries and chocolate moose. He gave us mineral water which everyone drinks here but isn't that great, but I downed it anyways. Afterwards he offered us some cokes, we all started started talking around a table outside and he brought out a bottle of pear (or birn) schnap. Apparently the guy had worked in Philadelphia for a few months back in 1980 and was a big fan of Elvis and the Rat Pack. None of the 3 of them could speak English very well so it was fun going back and forth with them in a mixture of German and English. I'd begin saying something in German and wouldn't know the word I needed so I'd describe it in German and/or English and they'd fill in the blanks for me. Likewise I did the same for their English sentences. The younger girl (about 30) was originally from Marseille, France and was talking to me about movies. The guys wife talked to me about the differences between our countries in terms of food and drinks and how fat Americans are (which was pretty funny at times). It was probably pretty safe to say she didn't like America too much but she seemed to like us just fine. Ironically during all of this we never exchanged names, not even for the room. We seemed to be one of only 2 groups staying there that night so they just kept on chatting with us. The next morning we were prepared to get a bill for at least 50 euro a person but surprisingly they only charged us 30 for everything. Its funny how just when we thought we were screwed we ended up finding a place and having one of the best experiences of our entire trip.