A 46 k ride to Wasserburg

A decent night's sleep last night - softest beds yet - but the flies were something else! It was in the farming village of Nussdorf, where they use cow manure for fertilizer, and the flies that go along with the manure buzzed around the room all night, landing on us and waking us up.

The ride today was 46 kilometers, to Wasserburg. It was either that or Rosenheim, which was only 16 kilometers away. We handled the distance pretty well - especially because the heat has diminished. But there were a few heartbreaker hills that we had to push the bikes up. Note to self - be more careful when deciding whether to bike on the west or east side of the river. I decided on a whim to bike on the east side, because it looked more interesting, but it turned out hilly - plus the GPX file (the set of lat/longs for the trail) must have some old data, because we went up a long hill, then down another - which ended at a dead end! It seemed like the path had gone through an area previously, but now it has been locked off. So - we had to backtrack, pushing the bikes up a steep hill we had just coasted down. And then we had to find an alternate route, past a section of road where there was a ton of traffic, and about a 2 inch shoulder.

Lunch was at a little "Imbiss" (snack stand) at a lake right off the bike path. The main attraction was that it was (as the sign from the trail promised) 150 meters from the trail. Which was all I wanted to go out of my way.

A interesting wire-frame house sculpture, in the river park in Rosenheim

Reproduction of an old boat, which carried cement. Apparently they were cheaply made, one time use boats, later sold for timber or firewood.

Another piece of playground equipment you'd never see in the US. Peter is at the top left.

A hunting blind along the trail

One of the many sewage treatment plants we've seen along the way

YAD (yet another damn)

Everything worked out fine in the end. though, we got to Wasserburg, which is a charming tiny city on the Inn, with a ton of character. It's just the right size, you can walk around the whole thing very quickly, but it has everything, including lots of restaurants.

We went to a Penny grocery store here, and saw an interesting sight. A couple with a baby, who were obviously very recent immigrants from Africa, had two huge grocery carts full of goods.The lady had previously walked up to me in the store (I think she heard me speaking English with Peter) and asked me if a bottle of shampoo was soap. I told her, in English, what it was.

They were paying for them partly with some kind of welfare slip, and partly with cash. There were multiple problems with the payments, including their ID, and they just had too much stuff, and ended up leaving most of it. The cashier was getting extremely frustrated. Then a second cashier came and opened a checkout line, and asked the first cashier why she hadn't asked for help (by now there was a huge line of customers). The first cashier blew her top, and said she'd been too busy with the immigrant couple.

It was interesting. There's obviously been some very noticable changes in society because of the wave of African and Middle Eastern immigrants.