Time is relative to pedal power. The start of our journey as we left Christiane's, packed with goodies after a very luxurious stay in her beautiful apartment, was easy. But we still had yet to get on a bike!
And it was as we readied ourselves at Benjamin's to finally get on our way that the sun did its age-old thing of getting higher and hotter in the sky. There were a few fiascos with missing bike lock keys as well as last-minute luggage alterations, but finally, we were ready to take the group photo before we start the madness photo.
How far is 85km? I mean, how far is it when the method of propulsion is not a petrol engine or electric but the conversion of food into motion in a human body? Let the experiment begin.
The first 10km whizzed by as Benjamin, and I chatted about Joomla things and put the world to right and started forward planning on a documentation sprint.
I discovered that in theory, I know which way to look at a junction but in practice, I was doing it after the time had passed for that check over the shoulder to be meaningful!
Soon we were out into the countryside, and what a countryside. Germany is such a rural county. So close to the cities agriculture begins.
Lots of wheat, hop fields and coniferous woodlands for us to travel along, often with a river to cycle past.
We stopped at a lake which was so blue, the water clear and the fish large enough to satisfy any angler.
Cycleways in Germany are extensive and on the whole great. They are in good repair and wide. I was surprised at the extent and the interconnection of all the cycle ways. They were everywhere in all directions. As impressive was the attitude to the cyclists from the drivers. We were stopped for and smiled at, made to feel a part of the road and not an inconvenience to be steered at.
There were a few near misses, my persistent assistance of looking the wrong way did cause me to learn evasive manoeuvres that had I good the hang of where they were incoming, I would not have had to become a student of.
Benjamin was nearly a goner when a car decided to shoot out in a town from a concealed entrance just as we passed. But brakes were tested and all was good. Then there was the need to shout at a chap on an electric scooter who was more engrossed with his phone than the users of the cycle way and very nearly ploughed into us both as he finished what he was reading before looking up.
The word of the day was smiling Schmetterling. German for butterfly, of which there were many and numerous, but also the sound of us crashing into electric scooters had they not finally looked up.
And now to time, after the first 50 km, the last 35 seemed to be well in grasp, but as we continued, time slowed, distance lengthened and for me dehydration set in. I was out of water and the sun was still adding to the heat of the day.
I kept telling myself not long now but the phone app we were following was having none of it. Over heating at one point we had to rely on google maps on Benjamins phone, once cooled and charged the app seemed to suggest the last hour's cycling was backwards and that there was still plenty more to do. Then we finally got within 9km of out destination on the outskirts of Ingolstat, and as if caught at the edge of a black hole, Ingolstadt ate the efforts of our legs and gave nothing back.
The last 9km was brutal, through a more built-up scenery and with energy reserves at zero I was ragged and benjamins back was hurting. When we finally found our destination and saw Samantha coming to great us I was so relieved.
We still had unpacking and food to prepare, much still to do before e a sit-down, but at least it was not on a bike!
