MUNICH, GERMANY -- Here are just a couple profiles of people I've met on in Germany so far.
Reinhard Peter, 58, sat next to me during our eight-hour flight from Dulles Airport to Munich. "Ooh ja, you'll have a great time in Munich," said Reinhard, with a thick German accent.
Reinhard was a bigger, teddy bear of a man with a salt and pepper mustache and thin rectangle glasses that clung to the end of his nose. "You go to the Alps, ja," he said enthusiastically grabbing my map.
We talked a good hour into the flight about how the weather would be comfortable, most Germans spoke English, and about my bike.
"You have cheap gears?" asked Reinhard. I told him was still using my bike from high school but I upgraded the parts and now had 21 gears. "You have 21 cheap gears?" he said. After the second time around I figured he wasn't saying cheap gears he was saying G-P-S.
My bad.
I had a similar experience at baggage claim. I was assembling my bicycle and the maintenance man came over to clear away my bike box. "Toogen engen" is what he smiled and said. My challenged German brain picked that up as two engines, as he referenced the wheels.
I smiled, nodded and did some lame reenactment of a train conductor pulling on the cord of the train whistle and I let out a toot toot, for lack of anything better to say.
The round faced happy man just nodded, grinned and probably thought I was drunk.
I met Frank and Annette while biking around Munich this evening. I stopped to take pictures of this German quartet with really long horns. They were playing for the Siemens group, a company gathering held that night in Munich.
As I stopped to take pictures, I threw a question at Frank and Annette and the next thing I knew I was talking with them at their table. "Wisconsin? Isn't that Green Bay Packers," asked Frank, spot on with the No. 1 reference to the dairy state.
I asked their opinion on American politics. Frank thought the election system was absurd and didn't talk about Hillary or Obama as much as he did the process.
They agreed, Munich and Germany overall was bicycle-friendly. Although it had been for years, the $8.25 for a gallon of regular has helped the cause.
After the Park-Cafe I got lost in Munich. Asking directions led me to Joe and teenage homies who were downing their share of Augustinerbrau Munchen beer with a bottle of Jagermeister as a chaser. Matter of fact, the blue-haired girl who had a lot of piercings in her lip and looked like she fell face first into her jewelry box, dropped one of the eight bottles she was trying to carry.
The bottle cap cracked open and beer started spraying the group until the purple mohawk teen picked it up and ripped off the cap with his teeth.
Judy is a Milwaukee native who is ever exploring the country. Her favorite mode of travel is her 21-speed, blue Centurion bicycle, which she bought after high school. Judy has worked in the local media for the past 20 years. "I need to do something to support my biking habit."
Judy has an extensive history in radio news, having worked at WISN, WUWM, WTMJ, WKTY in La Crosse and WBKV in West Bend. A strong interest in sports also had Judy reporting for ESPN Radio covering the Packers, Buck, Brewers and Badgers. "One of my first Brewer games at County Stadium the security guy yelled as I walked into the locker room LADY IN THE LOCKER ROOM. Now its so commonplace. But that story makes me sound really old."
Judy is currently working at WISN-TV in Milwaukee. She is a freelance writer and her pieces have been seen in The Small Business Times and The Business Journal. Her travel journal has appeared in Minnesota Trails Magazine, The Statesman and the West Bend Daily News, to name a few.
Aside from biking, running and being active in her community, Judy is known as someone who is "very, very thrifty." "I get candles for Christmas. My friends call them my space heaters because I normally keep the heat in my house at 40 degrees during the winter. Its not that I cant afford to turn up the thermostat, I just hate paying for heat."
Judy said her "conservative attitude" plays a part in her bike tours ... not needing to pay for gas and frequently spending nights camping inside churches. "First of all, it makes me feel safe since Im traveling alone and second all youre doing is sleeping, so why pay for that. Its no wonder I cant ever get someone to travel with me."
Judy grew up in Whitefish Bay and graduated from Dominican High School and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Judy is the second oldest among seven siblings and spends a lot of her time working as a "park tester" along with her eight nieces and nephews.
