Day 5 Munich - Tegersee 70 km

Now an addendum to yesterday evening, the overnight stay at my wife's was not planned, but it probably saved my life. She was on a business trip and not sure if I was allowed to stay at the hotel (statutes and all), sure we would have met for dinner, but after the Deutsche Bahn again creatively arranged their timetable, we had to change all plans. But then, after a cyclist was killed by a tree during a storm in Freising, she asked me to sleep at her place and not in the countryside. So there I was, just arrived, sweat marks on my black T-shirt, covered in dust and smeared with oil, on the floor, when my wife came up the stairs. I smiled, she walks past me without movement, a check-shirt-wearing parade of bean counters, her colleagues, in tow. She was probably ashamed of me and quickly scurried to her room, me following behind, I hadn't felt so humiliated in a long time. Well, she must have been embarrassed by my performance, I hope it doesn't cost her her next promotion :-C

This check shirt wearer.... I don't know their colleagues personally (and don't want to address any of them now) but normally they are academics (parents too, mostly) who were good at their studies, but rather poor at scientific performance, then move to the company and quickly become group laboratory department heads, earn 100k a year, have a house and wife and two children, and they get off on looking at their secretary's cleavage and always know better behind the scenes and can do lots of great, meaningless things with Excel. A creative process is mostly alien to them, if they are allowed to attend one, they normally give as much rubbishy input as possible so that they can say afterwards that I told them how to do it. The remaining 95% junk contributions... oh let's forget it. I just don't like this way of life, I hope I never degenerate into a check shirt wearer, eww. Then rather die poor, penniless and lonely on the side of the road.... Or cycling 150 km at 38°C, sudden cardiac death, bang away. Nice! Too bad, it didn't work out :D One of my favourite sayings: "If you're stupid or dead, it's really only bad for those around you, you don't notice it yourself." And if you don't have an environment, it's not bad for anyone else, it's that simple. But I digress...... has probably hit me deeply.

Today! I knew I wouldn't do many kilometres today, so.... My gears were once again not well adjusted (hence the oily hands)..... I set off at 9am to look for a bike shop. The first one turned me away, the second one was closed, BUT the third one welcomed me warmly, VELO WOLF in Munich! Great bikes, very good equipment, good knowledge and super friendly! That's how I like it! (Google review to follow) Gear change was top all day. Thank you David, thank you Wolf! For my new bike, I'm thinking of you guys (even though I already have my eye on the Breezer Radar), I like your stuff. So here goes. You quickly realise that there is a "war" between cars and bicycles in Munich. A situation, for example. 180 bend, car driver takes the middle of the oncoming lane and then honks at the oncoming cyclist. The cyclist understandably freaks out and insults the fat guy in the black SUV in the worst possible way. I know some people who would chase you down and shout into your car or even pull you out. Others would strictly report you, meanwhile many have a camara or 2 permanently installed and are just waiting to use "wegli", others just give you the finger. My fatso, you pollute the environment, you act as if you were in the right because you are the strongest. The truth? If you were more physically active you wouldn't be so fat and wouldn't be a burden on the health insurance funds later on. But you don't care about the environment or the common good, aren't you an egoist? And your ebike that you take out on the weekends isn't the exercise your doctor is talking about either, and no, you're not doing the environment any favours either...... Oh, I'm in great form today, but I think the best is yet to come! I met some cyclists on the way, nice small talk, I noticed that I was in a good mood today when I left a racing cyclist on a short, poisonous climb, he had switched gears, my chance. At the top he caught up with me again, I couldn't believe it with my luggage, we laughed so much. I've already noticed that I'm fit again (or is it the hydocortisone cream?), but I wanted to know, so to do a few extra kilometres today I went up to Ringberg Castle on the Tegernsee.For those who don't know, the castle halfway up the southern tip of Lake Tegernsee is the conference centre of the German research elite, Ringberg Castle. As a scientist in Germany, you're only something if you've been there. Well, I have been there 3 times (3 Thursday evenings!!!!). Coincidence? Still no check shirt, mostly they sit there and (in my case) argue and discuss for a week about whether material XY2Z is a d- or p-wave superconductor, instead of using their accumulated knowledge to create the room temperature superconductor, well, afterwards they all knew how to do it anyway, but trivialities? Nobody needs that..... (I don't know how it works either, maybe pressure, lots of hydrogen and one/two heavy atoms? My guess is P/S or La, mighty gm luck and jemsnd whose experiment went totally wrong, those should be the ingredients). In any case, 2 billion euros a year in the budget, you have to spend a few days in the castle (there are many research groups, so the thing is always full), today "Molecular Physiology" from Dortmund. On the way to the top, I met a few conference walkers (with beer bottles in their hands) and chatted. After the castle, there is another steep path and today I wanted to know what it was like, so I attacked. At 18% I'm still with you, at 23% I'm out, get off and make Willi. I could have turned around, but I wanted to go up (also as a test for the Alps, Mittenwald is not passable for me because of the G7 and so I have to take the steeper Eeg). For pushing, the cycling shoes are perhaps not quite optimal, but I got up, super full-body workout, the sweat flowed. There were beautiful photos at the top. I also have 2 stories about Ringberg, 1 funny one first: My friend George, Ali and I (was the Junor with us or not) had a very thirsty evening during a conference. We were staying in town and the hotel bar was closing, so we took a taxi to Rotach-Egern and looked for the Quantum bar, or not. Whether we were in it we don't know, maybe we were. One of the best evenings of my life, or not. I sent my friend George the Quantum picture today, and all I got back was: "I've got very sick after quantum!" Only those who were there, or not, know what a legendary evening it was, or not. The second story is more serious: sexual harassment is common in academia, unfortunately. According to hearsay, the 65-year-old director is banging his under-qualified doctoral student, the group leader is knocking naked on the door of his postdoc. I have heard/seen stories & emails, of course individual cases...... disgusting. It's especially bad in academia where people are so defenceless and vulnerable to blackmail. But the fact that those with nicknames like "Grabschenfluss", "Schweinchen Dingo" or "Dirnenwein" are at the same time the equal opportunities commissioners, then partly knocks the bottom out of the barrel. I'm making it up, of course! I hope I never degenerate into such a degenerate rag, I love dying lonely and poor on the side of the road. Middle and titleless. I'm thinking anyway whether the path I took in life was the right one, maybe I should do something "real", something "real". Actually, I'm just waiting for my radicalising key experience, there are enough of these fat SUV drivers, maybe someone will hit me soon, in my opinion I'm still exactly one accident away from becoming radical. Someone with my skills with my knowledge, that would be fun, so not for the check shirts. So! Hope I've created some traffic here now! In this sense good night! P.S.: the sunset won't be as phenomenal as I had hoped and I wish I had some biscuits with me to scalp (alexa), crappy diet. P.S.S.: It's ain't over until the fat lady has sung

Pictures...