tuesday, 15th of july - 59 km by car - 60 km by bike 

from carla to karla.

carla, ralph and leo (their son) made my day before it really started. breakfast, help with checking bike route, all my clothes washed  and so on and so forth. carla even took me to a town called cham with a cycle path. to make sure that nothing goes wrong that day she packed lunch for me and gave me 30 euros for emergencies. i think she would have taken me to london if i would have asked.

all of that took some time, so i started my ride in cham at one pm. the bike path was very nice, often not on tarmac and through beautiful landscapes. only problem, i got lost several times.

there was one junction that  i missed four times, which took about six kilometers. 

so not to get discouraged by that, i had a wonderful meal with banana and bread, and, just for fun, a fruit bar (my mother gave it to me when i left), in front of a sunny evening lake.

i had eaten my meal at the righttime, for the cycle path got very challenging- it was for mountain bikes. impossible for me to ride there. i had to push the bike for about two kilometers. 

no wonder i arrived rather late at neunburg vorm wald, where i started to look for a place to stay. 

i inquired at the monastery of 'schulschwestern'. the nun i asked was very nice and helpful and called the matron, who couldn't make a decision either. she had to ask the collegium. as a matter of fact the schulschwestern are not allowed to have men in the monastery over night, and the collegium was quite upset by this thought. the matron was so sorry for that and deeply apologised several times, but gave me 10 euros instead - i'm a rich man today! when i left the monastery, the nun, who had opened the door earlier, told me, that she couldn't understand the collegiums decision. i was deeply moved.

the catholic priest just said 'no' when i asked for shelter. but for christ's sake, there are protestants in germany, too! 

i rang the bell of the flat of the protestant reverend and told him my story, he took action at once!  as he had no space in his flat he started to phone his parish. so, mrs. karla heintz then agreed ready to give me shelter. the rev. drove me to her place - we had a nice evening (the rev. stayed for a while as well) with supper and a glass of wine. what a lucky catholic i am!