Cycling tour to Lindau
It was a beautiful morning and midday today, so I got on my bike and cycled to Lindau (in Germany), also hoping to be able to call up the "Mitfahrzentrale", a website that acts as a platfrom to connect people who want and people who offer a ride from place to place B. You need to call one of those premium rate numbers to obtain the number of the guy or girl who is offering the lift, and dialing that number alone is worth 10% of the trip you intend to make. Unfortunately the number neither worked from my Austrian phone nor the public phone booth I tried in Lindau:-(((
But at least I moved my butt and legs a bit; it took me two hours to get to Lindau, at a relatively (considering this was me) fast pace; and I wore shorts and a relatively (considering this was me) skimpy top with a leopard scheme. I'm usually not too keen on flashing my fish-belly white skin, and of course I put on sun-screen. Still, it looks, now that I am writing this, as though I got myself a bit of a sun tan. The ride was very nice, temperature not too cold, not too hot, just fine, and I only hit two dead-ends on the whole trip. The cyle track wasn't clearly sign-posted and great stretches of it went cross country (or what would appear to be cross-country to a city dweller; most of ot were dirt roads really) along the shores of the Lake Constance - through my especially tinted super hero sunglasses, the meadows seemed to be even more luscious and the dandelions shone even brighter:-)))
10 minutes after I had arrived in Lindau it started raining heavily, and brisk wind came up. So I put on the black T-shirt that I had squeezed into my miniature bag in a bright moment before leaving home and zipped on the middle part of the triple lengths hiking pants... (quite happy to conceal me and my leopard scheme in amid the passers-by anyway)... but still froze terribly. Stopped by in a cafè for rhubarb cake and coffee; wanted to proofread CVs written by my students, but the place were terribly crowded and smokey from the other tourists and day hikers seeking refuge from the rain. And as usually, the single person with tourette syndrome in this café sat next to me on the the bar of the café, mumbling irritatlingly (and thank God incomprehensibly) away.
So I left as soon as I had finished the coffee; strolled through the pedestrian zone, determined to buy any cheap jersey or jumper that would cross my path, but no luck in the cheap department in Lindau. Finally, I found a kiosk selling coat-like pastic bags for 3.50 Euros; mine was yellow and looked a bit like one of those recycling bags, but did a fairly good job protecting me against the wind and cold.
As a pastime, I took pictures of my reflection as THE YELLOW GHOST in the windows of the meanwhile deserted shops.
Then I began cycling back home , but by that time the weather had become so cold and squally that I got of the path near the Bregenz station and bought a ticket home to dusty old Dornbirn... still without a ride to Andus's wedding, but rewarding symptoms of reasonably sore calves and thighs:-)
Happy soliloquizing Saturday, everyone:-)
posted by Jana @ 6:49 PM
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