-------
Stardate 1.06 THE REST DAY - oh frabjous day callooo callay! A rest day has been granted! My brother is the wizard bearing fireworks!Wheelchair access everywhere is necessary as I am unable to ambulate more than to the toilet from the bed. Like a rickety pensioner, I hobble to breakfast whereupon pork and fruit are masticated. My feet though balloon-like upon going to bed, have decreased to merely a US size 14 (UK 13) ie. 2 sizes overswollen. We have come to rest in the most gorgeous town of Oberammagau, a unique yet classic bavarian town. Our hotel neatly situated in the center affords minimal excursion distances for the wounded. I have a few tasks. To cleanse clothes, to translate for Sally's purchasing adventures, and to frequent an internet cafe to post some blogs into the whirling electron storm of the website. These things done, I embark upon an anesthetic quest on the good ship Radler! Known throughout the world for it's healing benefits, it's wonderful flavors, and it's ref
reshing liquidyness, the Radler is known by other names: Shandy, Alsterwasser, Panache; however, you might never have tasted this half-half mixture of lemonade and beer, as the lemonade used in Europe is not available in the US (if you are reading this as an Amerikanos) -not really lemonade, more like Sprite but less sweet and less limey, it creates a beery drink that can be quaffed in nanoseconds. I have graduated from drinking in half liter quantities to the full adult portion of the MassKrug, one intense full liter. Seconds later one orders a second. To order liquids in this quantity generates a knowing grin from waitstaff personnel. They know you are very thirsty, they suspect you might have an ethanol habit, and they are aware that the toilets will soon be vigorously a-flushing. After hiking for days and miles, even on a rest day the body is in water defecit. T'would be intelligent to drink pure water, replenishing the body and mind, achieving once again a healthy balance for
the trials to come. Less than bright is to consume vast quantities of Radler-juice. This fools the body into thinking it has a revitalizing positive fluid balance, whereas really you're just feeding the liver empty ethanol carbs, drinking lots of sugary lemonade, and achieving a negative fluid balance as the beer acts as a diuretic, not offset by the lemonade component. Drunkenly dehydrated, you pruneishly order too much pork for dinner in the form of a pig knuckle or a schweinebraten, and the next day's grumpiness is guaranteed. I look at my companions and realize I am the only one consuming alcohol. I worry for them as don't they know misery loves company? I hope that tomorrow's hike is without distance or grade.
STARDATES 1.07-1.09 Gollum once again reporting. These days see me moving at an ever slower pace. I have found that to offset injury, one can learn much from the snail. The slower you move, the less likely you are to run into anything. Everything can be reasonably evaluated over time, and avoided if problems might arise therefrom. Each day's hike sees successively increasing distances, and as such, my dismay and pain grows commensurately. I like days of perhaps one or two hours hiking, interspersed with numerous rest stops, a couple of second breakfasts, some more breaks,
a lunch, and then the intermittent mountain-top restaurant with panoramic views and liters of radler-juice. How one is to get to the mountain top with such little hiking is a time-space dilemma I cannot delve into here. We H2H through-hikers have agreed to the tenet of utilizing no mechanical transportation en route. I begin to regret this foolhardy agreement, as I find that each mountain-top restaurant is serviced by a reliable, rapid, vista-exposing, yet sadly mechanical, gondola. Perhaps I would have been better served with a less absolute approach towards modes of transportation. The feet are a sore substitute for the wheel. Heck, a ride down from the top in a two man paraglider wouldn't be cheating would it? Sadly, the answer is yes, and my quadriceps feel as heavy and as leaden as a snail's shell as I descend the endless millions of meters on day 9 down into the crazy Ludwig II town of HohenSchwangau. www.photocase.com/de/photodetail.asp?i=68578 or google under pictures for
Neuschwanzstein. If you are ever here, you will find my snail sweat trail embedded into the path down to and beyond the castle into town.
There will be a rest day tomorrow; therefore, no murder has to occur tonight. As the weakest member of the hiking team, I must always consider taking myself out of the equation as this incessant slowing of the pace of others' will way heavily upon them over time.
