Genderized parking stalls and more!

Germany has it all: scary castles, leiderhosen sold off-the-rack and genderized parking stalls!

It's Day 24 and we are at 1452km - well, those that ride everyday, are. We are just about to leave Germany, land of fantastic food and service and y,s, it's true. I went to park the support vehicle yesterday and to my surprise, the Frauen name was written on the wall. Guess that'd be me.....

Germany has been great! Aside from finding we were again faced with most towns and stores being closed and/or deserted (and no-one accepting the COFE's American Express card) we had great service from day one in most restaurants, stores and hotels. One hotel that stood out from the rest was Gasthof Gigl, a super friendly, family-run guesthouse in Neustadt. They were happy to go to extra means necessary to bring David his iced coffee with a twist. Although they had never heard of Kahlua, (the poor souls!), they did come up with a fine tasting whiskey. Another hotel in Worth, brought their own box of muesli from their house for me at breakfast because I'd mentioned liking it - what a bunch of brats we are!

Today we are having a fine rest day in Passau, right on the Germany/Austria border, where the Inns and Donau rivers meet. We enjoyed a breakfast buffet at our hotel and were especially entertained by a woman who got her toast stuck in the toaster. A chef came along and stuck a fork right in there and then the lights went out. The chef appeared to be fine. Can you have delayed-electric shock? Maybe someone should check on her....

I had a nice reunion with an old friend I did some climbing with in Wyoming. Mark drove out to our campsite at around 9pm a few nights ago and I took the next day off to reminisce with him. It's always a joy to see old travelling friends.

Our filmmaker had a revelation the other day. As you may know, Lucas has been juggling learning to ride a bike again and film. His learning curve is on a steep incline and he is doing great. So great that while experiencing a sudden burst of energy at one point and busting out into a 29km/hr gait, he suddenly yelled, "Hang on, what's making me wet?", to which Dr. David replied, "That's sweat, mate."

When we aren't riding or razzing Lucas, we makes bets, uh...mostly on Lucas. The other evening after we'd finished a day of riding, Lucas, having been Troy's co-pilot all day, asked if he could take a bike and a map and go back to where we had lunch, about 20km away, to visit a castle he'd spotted. Nothing has given us any indication that he wouldn't be fully capable of this, but we quickly placed bets: Would he return before dark or after? Would he have the map or have lost it? Would he call for a pick-up, or get lost or have found the castle closed...? The little things you do to amuse yourselves on an extended trip make all the difference!
By the way, Lucas returned smiling, with the map and the bike and having seen the castle. Just slightly after dusk... :)