|
October 12 Thursday overcast Bicycle touring Germany I showed Martin how to change the generic icons on his Mac computer to custom icons, so we left him happy. "Next time you can stay longer and show me some more tricks," he said enthusiastically. We'd love to, of course. Mac computers are a passion of mine. There was a brand new smooth blacktop bike path to Dachau. It was great to be cycling away from the traffic and to be able to look around at the scenery without worrying about being run down or having to steer my loaded touring bicycle into a bone-crunching pothole. The Dachau museum displayed many pictures with captions of the concentration camp. There is a film that is very powerful. We saw more than one person leaving the theatre in tears. There is a school group of teenage Jewish kids touring the facility. There was not one dry eye between them. The film said the prisoners were herded into the gas chambers that were setup to look like showers, there was a sign reading, "Wash your hands." The gas chamber at Dachau wasn't hooked up. But that wasn't for any humanitarian reasons - they just hadn't got around to it because of the gas shortage. Outside the Dachau museum is a grisly statue depicting cremated people in agonizingly grotesque deathly positions. An oldster group of four stares out at the eerily serene courtyard. "The day we arrived here," one elderly gentleman said, "there was a clothesline strung through here, hung with male genitalia." Happy to leave Dachau, we followed a bike path into Munich. It is wonderfully easy to get around the city with all the bike paths. Too bad more North American cities haven't followed the European example. Maybe when gas prices hit $100 a barrel? Ah, I doubt it. After all, isn't it every North American's inalienable God-given birthright as a winner of the lucky sperm contest to use as much oil and gas as he or she pleases? We headed for Franz and Louise's, our next bicycle touring host family. They have two cats, Mira and Iggy. Mira is always hiding. Franz says it only comes around when he has to work on the computer. Then it climbs right up on the keyboard. He says it is jealous of him touching the keyboard. I think it's because of the mouse. The other cat, Iggy, likes to jump off high places in the apartment. They have netted off their balcony in case it decides to take flying lessons. There's flying squirrels; why not flying cats? Franz and Louise made spaghetti for supper. They buy their red wine in case lot quantity from a local supplier, so we drank a couple of very tasty bottles of the "house" wine. |
