Meh
I woke up feeling…not great. A little empty, a little off. Don‘t know if it‘s because I didn‘t sleep well, or maybe because my bee sting yesterday had caused my finger to swell to 1.5x normal, or what. Regardless, I wasn‘t super enthused about the day ahead. I knew I‘d have days like this. Was curious how I‘d react.
Turns out, pretty well. It‘s hard to stay mad at…no one?…when you‘re surrounded by fantastic scenery, and there‘s really no reason to be in a bad mood anyway. So I got over it. It would not have mattered anyway, because about 20 km in, there was a climb with fairly long stretches over 10%. Not enough to kill me, but enough to distract me from whatever ridiculous malaise I was feeling.
Same could not be said about my legs though. They stayed grumpy the entire day. I tried pulling a Jens Voigt and saying “shut up legs“, but it didn‘t work. The fatigue was real.
Anyway, the ride was lovely. Only a few pictures, because if you‘ve seen one set of hills which is alive with the sound of music, you‘ve seen them all. Like churches. Kidding. Kinda. Anyway, as I said, when this is your first 30 minutes, that frown quickly turns upside-down.
And then a lovely reward for a solid amount of suffering…
And then quickly doing the laundry in the hotel before going for a dip in this lovely lake (Tegernsee)…
My life is hard, I tell you, pity me.
Meeting people
Today at dinner, because seating was limited (corona), I was put at a family table, kitty-corner from an older dude enjoying a beer. The conversation started awkwardly enough, as you may expect from two strangers who want to be polite but probably wouldn‘t mind just enjoying their food and drink in peace. But then, things got going. He was a talkative Bavarian chap, and spoke in his thick Bavarian accent for a few incomprehensible minutes while I did the classic nod, smile, “mmm yeah, right“ thing. You‘ve all been there.
Somehow, either my brain attuned to his accent, he picked up that I wasn‘t understanding anything and started speaking something closer to high-German, or beer helped us meet halfway, but we started a genuine conversation. Work, hobbies, philosophy, tips for my bike tour, debating whether the first hour of suffering that comes in hungover exercise is worth the pleasure of drinking that extra beer or two the night before, etc. We chatted for two hours then went our separate ways. Was lovely. I don‘t mind being alone – I assure you, I find myself more charming than any of you find me, it‘s a trait my brother and I share, haha – but human interaction is also, well, beautifully human.
We wished each other well, toasted to our last sips of beer, then went our separate ways. Mine led me along the lakefront, which is where I got this beautiful view:
Again…after a day like that, how could I be grumpy?! ;)
i look forward to your continued subtle digs at Toby throughout this blog