Nurnberg - Heilbronn, 25 miles

Happy Halloween!!!

Today we did laundry and then had the best falafel in the world.  Seriously, if you are in Nurnberg go to the "falafel house."  it will change your life.  Had an awful ride out of the city today, and got all mixed up with our roads.  Some kids on an overwalk above the highway were cheering for us for riding on such a dangerous road!

We road through the night.  Tried to find a movie theatre that was playing something with subtitles.  All of the films are dubbed in german (kind of annoying).  

We passed through this one town that was playing church bells.  They were ringing crazily as if to ward of the evil spirits of Halloween.  We rode into the woods for our Halloween night.  Made some makeshift costumes and then ran through the woods laughing like creepy children to try to creep each other out.  what's scarier then a little girl skipping and laughing through the woods at night on halloween!!??  yeah, that's what i thought.

Christopher was a ninja, and i was the tic.  Before going to sleep we listened to and sang the nightmare before christmas.  Oh, i love halloween!

Etzenricht - Nurnberg, 70 miles

Absolutely freezing!  Found out today that Switzerland reached their record snowfall for October.  haha, lucky us!  London and Germany were snowed on too, but we didn't get it.

Last night we had our first chocolate and peanut butter sandwiches.  In the morning we road into town and actually had to go into a small butcher shop, which was the only thing open, just to warm up.  we got two apples and took our socks off and everything.  It was a small place so pretty weird of us.  We had spent the night up in the woods off the main road.

We just kept riding and it helped us warm up.  The road branched into a wonderful bike trail for getting us into the city, so the ride into downtown Nurnberg was actually very pleasant.

Made it into Nurnberg by 4:30 and found our new couchsurfing host.  His name is Thomas, he's something of a hippy, but brought us out for an awesome night.  First he rode us on bikes to the castle.  Haha, he's so nuts and free.  He wants to go live inside of a tree on an island off the coast of greece and backpack across india with literally nothing but his clothes.

He helped us steal apples from the castle, then showed us the Albrecht Durer house.  We went to two bars with him, the second one was especially nice.  It was kind of a go-go bar with 50's music.  The people inside looked the part too!  Greasers!  with the jackets and hair and everything.  They were really nice to us.  Loved the tiger print velvet wallpaper!

Nurnberg is very beautiful by night.  Great for night bike rides.

Wardhaus - Etzenricht, 30 miles

Rainy, still so very, very rainy.  Basically just spent the day trying not to freeze.  

Oh, I had my first big pretzel today!  ever!

Haha, that's basically it.  Going to Nurnberg tomorrow, and hoping it won't rain AGAIN!

Pilsen - Wardhaus (Germany), 50 miles

Rain, rain go away!  Had to wake up very early for Pavel who needed to head out with his friends for a little road trip today.

Suddenly today I got a craving to see "K-19, the Widow-Maker" starring Harrison Ford.  Probably won't get a chance to see it until a lot longer.

It's looking like it'll be another 5 days or so until we get to Stuttgart.  We're still not sure which route we'll take to get there.  One way or the other we're probably going to have to go over some big "hills."  Funny, going up hills seems so much different now that we have to carry 50-something-lbs of gear on our backs!

We're camping tonight!

Praha - Pilsen, 65 miles

Yes, we call Prague "Praha" now.  that's how cultured we are becoming.  We won't even be able to talk to anyone.  Well, we made it to Pilsen at just the time we expected to.  

A thing about Pilsen.  It is the beer capital of the Czech Republic, and The Czech Republic drink more beer per capita than any other country.  In other words, we are spending the night in the beer capital of the world!

These people are huge america fans.  Upon arrival in Pilsen we went to Pavel's house, our couchsurfing host for the night.  Apparently he called up his brother and friends so they could all spend the evening with a couple americans.  They even have a monument a street to commemorate our nations glory!

Pavel does something with nuclear energy.  His brother is a pilot, and his father does similar Nuclear work.  Pavel says his family likes jobs that put them in positions that could potentially "hurt lots of people."

Day in Prague

The highlight of the day was going to a torture museum... YUCK!  In all seriousness people are really, really sick.  I don't know what possesses us.  People sawed in half while upside-down? People forced to sit on spikes so long they come out their mouths?  And don't even get me started on "the pear"...

We ended up paying the most for a meal we have since this trip started.  Like 20 something for french fries.  We were both really hungry and saw this platter that looked like onion rings and french fries.  Hey, who's going to argue with that?  Well they were squid.  Plus they skimped us on the french fries.  Whatever... I stole a salt shaker from them.  Haha, who was cheated now!  

On to Pilsen tomorrow, watch out!

Utsi n laben - Prague, 70 miles

Woke up in the COLD!!  hehe, it's strange now how much we look forward to the occasional gas station for heat, and amenities.  Except I found a used syringe in the bathroom.  Maybe that's just because I used it after Christopher.  

Had lunch in a small town and Chris got us some directions from a French speaking couple. the guy practiced his English skills with me.  Said he was a pretty big deal and was friends with Keith Richards or something like that.  

I rode past a gargoyle dog today.  Yeah, It's still pretty creepy here.

We rode into Prague at night and found a hostel to stay at since our couchsurfing luck ran out this time.  Christopher went on a date with the receptionist at our hostel and I went to a 5-story dance club.  Going to spend an extra day in this city.  Nice to stay up a little later and not worry about riding in the morning.

Dresden - Utsi n laben, 55 miles

In the morning we had some coffee and toast with Brittany before taking off.  We got to take a bike trail along the river on our way out of the city.  Before heading to the hills we stopped to fuel up on some falafel, and had to reorder because they put yogurt on them.  It was like an hour long falafel stop.  Haha, we make good time.  Whoa, did we hit some hills on our way in the Czech Republic!  Lots of apple trees.  It's hard to resist stopping for them.  At the border we exchanged some cash, but didn't have to worry about our passports.  

Our ride in the Czech was spooky!!!  Once we passed the border it instantly god foggy and cold.  and i mean instantly.  as though that weren't weird enough, the people didn't seem to come out of their homes so there was a feeling of desolation everywhere.  I remember the ominous presence of a windmill obscured by a cloud in the distance.  Even its warning light was obscured by the thickness of the fog.  When we finally passed our highest point for the day we went down  a hill that frankly reminded me of what i imagine would make a good level for a video game for something like resident evil.  We made it into Utsi n laben and road just out of the city and stopped at this man's house to ask him if it would be alright if we set up our tent in his lawn.  He smiled at us, without understanding quite what we had asked, but getting the gist, and then lowered his rifle.  (just kidding).

Hertsberg - Dresden, 60 miles

Here comes the sun!!  Though we awoke in a beautiful cropland to a bright sun and blue sky, the extreme wetness from our aquatic adventure the previous night prevented me from having a dry ride.  We made it into a small town to catch internet to see if We would have a place to stay in dresden.  We got tea in a weird icecream shop.  Christopher suspected that they belonged to some kind of strange cult.  Perhaps one that focuses in child elimination.  So we got a place to stay through couchsurfing!  Our first yet, and guess what?  She's vegan!!!

Got into Dresden before the sun set and met Brittany at the train station.  We thought for a while that she had already come by but had run away after seeing how crazy/stinky Chris and I were.  But she did eventually appear, and after a lovely shower we got to go out for vegan burgers.  Then I had my first cappuccino at a really nice cafe in downtown Dresden.

So it's official, couchsurfing is the most amazing thing ever.  Going to have a good nights sleep and then hit the roads again, on our way to the Czech Republic.

Glienick - Hertsberg, 55 miles

It pretty much rained all day on us.  I guess all in all we haven't had much rain so i think maybe we have a debt to pay.  We were sustained by delicious apples midway through the day.  I behaved like a brat, picking up apples, taking a single bite and deciding they weren't good enough for me.  So i would toss them away in a most wasteful manner (keep in mind there were hundreds of apples on the ground, so i wasn't REALLY wasting anything).  In the morning we stopped at a bakery to pee, couldn't speak german to the owner but described our journey to him through pictures.  He gave us two donuts.  we gave the donuts to a stranger further down the road.  everyone wins (except the original owners of the animal ingredients, i.e. the animals themselves). 

We biked into the night and set our tent up under a tree, in a most uncomfortable position on the roots.  We did this for two reasons.  1. it was dark and we couldn't see what we were doing and 2. it was raining and we wanted to be under the tree!