4 June 2009 30 miles west of Nurnberg Germany

4 June 2009

I found why the campground, the latrines and showers are so clean. People wipe the sinks dry after they use them and mop the floor if the spill any water on the floor. In all my years in and out of campgrounds I have never seen that. Today will be spent getting from point A to point B. I left the campground near Munster, Germany and drove to the nearest Autobahn and started driving east and south. I drove south to Unna, east to Kassel, south to Fulda and Wurzburg, and south and east to Nurnberg. I’m about 30 miles west of Nurnberg tonight in a family home where a husband and wife rented me a room with breakfast. It might be a bed and breakfast but the husband never called it that. I was at the gas station filling up with gas and paid for it. I pushed my bike away from the gas pump and was just about to take a bite out of my candy bar when this red car pulls up alongside me. The guy starts talking to me in German and I told him I only speak English. I thought for sure I was being hit on by a gay guy. He then switched to English talking a mile a minute. He basically said, he had a room to rent for 40 Euro in a new home, with a patio, shower and garage to put my motorcycle for the night. He also mentioned he had a wife and children otherwise I may have passed and took my chances finding a campground. I drove right in the garage and shut my bike off. He asked if I was from Sweden or Norway and I told him I was an American. He couldn’t believe he snared an American with a motorcycle in his house. I met his wife and kids and everybody seemed pretty nice. I haven’t seen him or his wife since. This house is very nice. I don’t think it’s over two years old. The garage has a tiled floor. The tiles are gray and about 12 inch square. The walls are finished off and painted white as is the ceiling. The stairways have granite steps and everything seems energy efficient. All lights automatically shut off when you leave the room etc. etc. I called Mary at work today just to see if I could reach her with my cell phone. It’s about the second time I’ve ever been successful in reaching her since I’ve been on this trip. We had a nice talk. My plans for tomorrow are to be in the Czech Republic. Where, I’m not sure.