Oktoberfest in Munich

Hello from Augsburg, Germany. We have had a wonderful couple of weeks with mostly nice weather and great friends! After leaving Andermatt we cycled back down the Rhein almost to Chur and then headed to Thusis on our way to St. Moritz. We caught a train from Thusis to St. Moritz and spent the evening at a campground on the lake. From St. Moritz we cycled down the Inn River to Sur-En where one of my professors at the UW has a home that they venture to in the summer. It was a great place really close to the Inn River in a town with about 8 other houses. We spent a few days there and I finally got to have a summer BBQ with friends! It was wonderful.

We left Sur-En on Monday the 5th and headed down river to Austria and camped in the town of Imst at the bottom of Fernpass. Tuesday we cycled over the pass following the old Roman road through the Alps called the Claudia Augusta. We did a lot of elevation that day and barely made it into camp in Reutte. We spent two nights in Reutte using it as a base camp for exploring the castles of Hoeschwangau and Neuschwanstein. What crazy fairytale castles! When we have more time I will put up photos. Basically though this (some say crazy) king of Bavaria, Ludwig II, bankrupted the countrys coffers in the 1880's by building a bunch of fairytale castles around the area. Disney even got their inspiration for their castle from Neuschwanstein. In the end the parliment declared him insane and two days later him and his psychiatrist were found dead on a nearby lake. It took the Bavarian royal family 50 years to repay his debts. Crazy.

From there we headed north to a small campground near Fussen and had a wonderful evening swimming in a lake. The next day it rained so hard and there we no campgrounds anywhere so we ended up staying in a B&B north of Kempten. Why are we heading north? To see Larry and Liz in Oberkochen (just east of Stuttgart) at Liz's family's home. I work with Larry at the UW. On Monday we took a side trip via car to Rothenburg and Dinkelsbuhl to see some of the highlights on Germany's Romantic Road. It was great. Liz's mother made us some great food and we had a nice time drinking schnapps till late.

Tuesday we headed back south again and camped in some closed group camp in Tefflen. Last night we stayed just north of Augsburg on our way to Munich. Oktoberfest starts Saturday which should be interesting. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to handle 50,000 drunk, singing, dancing Germans! From there we head South as quickly as possible. It is starting to get really cold and wet here and is supposed to freeze tonight.

Right now we have to go and look for a new rim for my back wheel. Somehow I bent the crap out of it and it can't be fixed! It's still rideable but wobbles a lot and the brakes don't work. Oh well. Will post pictures sometime soon I hope. Bye for now.