Just Another Bavarian Bike Ride

Sometimes wrong or random turns result in finding the place you really wanted to be. That last sentence sounds a bit like Confucius, and while I could go on and on about the Great Masters teachings, I am just writing about a bike ride.

I thought this twin track farm road would be adventerous. It led me to a great view above the town of Tiefenellern, but the gravel was so loose, and me being on a road bike, I had to ride on the median vegetation for traction. Riding to and from this little town is about a 30 km ride, perfect for after work. Since you ride up a valley the whole way, the ride back is almost entirely downhill.

Speaking of worng turns, on this ride I decided to see how lost I could get on back roads through ag and forest lands. Fate led me to this family's farm, which I had to bike across (road ended, I rode a little foot path bordering their land) to get to the road seen in photo. The family was probably just going to church, or grandmas house. I've never seen a horse-drawn carriage before; at least not a non city/tourist one. They found it odd that I found them photo-worthy. I found it beautiful that they rode a carriage.

I took the train to Bayrueth, home town of Richard Wagner. Wagner is best known for composing the helicopter attack scene in "Apocalypse Now", previously known as "Flight of the Valkaries". I wanted to ride up to the Fichtelgibirge. On the map, the Fichtelgebirge are the most promising mountains close to Bamberg. I had hopes of finding cliffs, gondolas, alpenhorns, braided blondes, and Ricola headquarters. I found a bike-friendly, gradual ride up to off-season ski towns, and an excellent 20 km downhill ride after the summit. But no alpenhorns.

Germans love flower boxed windows. There are so many flowered windows that you start to wonder whether their is some funny business going on. Like there's an unspoken rule about windows and flowers and the dutch flower mafia muscle enforcement makes sure you buy this years colors and plant on time...

Near the end of the ride, I tried taking shots I could sell to Starbucks or Microsoft.