Taxman

By -

If you are thinking of starting a cycling trip from Zurich airport think again.  As best I can tell, ALL the roads leading from Terminal 2 arrivals are motorways.  I enjoyed a happy half hour circling round the airport looking for a way out without success.  Eventually, to break out of my little Groundhog day, I hoofed it across a grass bank and over a railway track and I was free.

The Danube actually starts in Donaueshingen (Donaue is kraut for Danube, though why they can't use the proper name is beyond me) so I had a pleasant (though rather uphill) 50 miles and an early night ready for my new adventure.

Today was billed as 78 miles but I have finished with 85 on the clock.  Lovely scenery, almost entirely on cycle paths, but a good deal lumpier than I was promised.  The river runs through a gorge at the start and the path often climbs the sides a bit (would never happen in a beautiful British gorge!).  I was all done by 3pm in Riedlingen so I have tracked down the tasty beverage shop and am now rehydrating.

A comment about buying beer in krautland that I have been meaning to make: All beer comes with a recycling fee - for cans it is a wopping 25 cents and for glass bottles either 8 or 15 (no idea - it just seems to vary).  I believe you can take back the empties and get this credited against your shop but this is seldom convenient for a touring cyclist.  Since a beer can be had for as little as 50 cents if you shop around it is a pretty punitive tax on thirsty cyclists!

Time to pay some more tax.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rage Hard

By -
Image
Leading a tour down the US West Coast isn't the worst way to spend 4 weeks and it has many compensations.  The weather is lovely, the scenery is off the scale and you get to drink magnificent craft beers and eat well.  Putting out the odd fire and springing pillocks from jail is all part of the sport. BUT, and it is a big but (you get a lot of big butts in Merica), the daily hotel check-in is absolutely the worst thing.  Regardless of how carefully you have checked the reservations there is a clenching of the buttocks as you approach reception.  Today the first contact was good....they had all 15 rooms and cats were allowed.....but they weren't ready.  No problem, I was 30 minutes early.  30 minutes later.....still no rooms.  Cyclists were arriving; hot, tired grumpy cyclists.  The receptionist had run out of fucks to give several years ago.  I asked to see the manager.  Out walked a thing that was once the manger but was now a barrel of lard with a head.  We exchan
Read more

Now That's What I Call Music Volme 4

By -
Image
Won't Stop Running/Golden Brown The 24-hour dysentery that has been working through the group has now reached me.  Bugger. Invisible  When making any on-line transaction in Merica is necessary to provide a telephone number and a valid zip code.  If paying by credit card this must match the zip code the card is registered to.  There is absolutely no provision for anyone without a US phone number and a card registered to a US address.  It's like non-Mericans don't exist or, maybe, just aren't worth bothering about. Some hotels and supermarkets have devices to scan photo-id. You've guessed it....these only recognise US driving licences.  For hotels you have to piss off and find your passport and in stores you have to wait while the manager is called to authorise the purchase.   We should retaliate and only serve Mericans in the UK if they can correctly pronounce Leicester Square. Wonderful Copenhagen Today we have ridden
Read more

Drinking in L.A

By -
Image
We are starting to entertain the very remote possibility that we will make it to the Mexican border! It continues to be an uphill struggle with mechanical and logistical challenges but we battle on. On Tuesday night our hotel was several miles from restaurants so we cleared a few seats in the van and sent out the simplest of instructions......form yourselves into a group of 6 and another of 7, decide whether you want to go to the harbour or downtown and pick a time.  What could possibly go wrong?  We had groups of 4, groups where most wanted the harbour but others wanted downtown, both groups wanting the same time...........I finally got off duty at 9pm, another 14 hour day! Yesterday we rode down through Malibu, Santa Monica and Venice Beach, the latter portion on a superb bike path through the beach.  Despite some heavy traffic in Malibu everyone enjoyed the day and we all arrived in Redondo Beach in high spirits.  Despite an already very high bar in terms of hotel in
Read more