Diary written by: Bernt Pölling-Vocke ( bernty@gmx.com )

After a really good breakfast-buffet at the hotel´s restaurant (we didn´t have to eat at the staff-cafeteria which wouldn´t have been a suprise at all to me) we started out under a cloudy sky towards today´s destination, the city of Karlsruhe. I tried my best to convince the hotel´s dog to cycle for me today but I guess the dog isn´t that dumb.

The first 30 kilometers were by far the ugliest of the tour so far even though they were kind of funny. Especially the city of Ludwigshafen was just great: even before we passed the city limits we already past lots of stinking industrial sites, some guy who was limping very bad (birth defects?) and a boxing club. While we passed through the town the eye enjoyed junkies under bridges, some rather unemployed looking women who were taking their rather big dogs outside (at least with a muzzle) and the constant presence of industrial crap. It also stank pretty well at times and when we left the town and passed some allotments I counted a "beware of the dog" sign at 5 of 7 entrances. Ludwigshafen is just a great city and everywhere in town there are at least as many signs leading you to BASF and other big companies as to other points of interest such as the inner city or some stadium. George Bush would love it!

After Shittown we aimed at our lunch-destination Speyer. At least Speyer isn´t known for big industrial companies but more as a rather nice city with a high living-standard and quiet some tourism so it was definetly a good change of scenery. At an intersection "close" to Speyer we found a sign that read the following distances: Waldsee 7 kilometers, Speyer 13 kilometers. When we got to Waldsee it said at the city-limits that it were 8 kilometers to Speyer, in the inner-city it said 6 kilometers and at the end of the town there was a sign telling us that Speyer is 8 kilometers again. When you´re on a bike and hungry you don´t think this is funny any more...

All our plans of a nice italian restaurant got abandoned as well when we had to find out that basically all restaurants are closed after 2 pm and so we ended up right close to the famous cathedral of Speyer at the local McDonalds restaurant. Suprisingly there seemed to be some kind of Speyer-surcharge at McDonalds, all prices appeared to be well over 20% higher than in Cologne or Osnabrueck but we didn´t mind that much at the moment. We also got made fun of pretty good by McDonalds when my Quarterpounders came in Summermac-packages on which lots of suns were printed over a clear sky, something we didn´t enjoy all day and alomst all tour so far (even though it is summer...). At least it didn´t rain so far and I am only getting a bit wet of some water from the fountain behind me and the wind around everything while I am sitting here and writing this diary.

Frank already compared me and my writing-fever with Goethe on his Italy-journey. I think Goethe travelled more comfortable though. He also didn´t have to pass through Ludwigshafen and by a nuclear energy experimentation site further down the road. It´s a great stage, first you get poisoned in Ludwigshafen, then McDonalds makes fun of you and in the end comes a dose of nuclear rays at you.

2nd entry of the day:

Well, here we are at the hotel in Karlsruhe at about 7 pm. Nobody died so far even though the stage was once again further than we had planned and once again we cycled more than 100 kilometers. My hope for some cheaper accomodations also didn´t come true but after I blamed Frank for the 98 marks we had to spend last night I am the one who has to take the blame today. I was the one who walked into the first hotel, thought that it looked nice and somehow didn´t mind the 98 marks again. If I had known in advance that the breakfast-buffet is closed at 9:30 am I would have made a different decision, at least I told the people at the reception later on that I considered 9:30 an affront but that´s just my opinion I guess. I don´t think you can claim any damages due to the 6:30 - 9:30 time-frame.

The last kilometers to Karlsruhe were really a joy to ride as we cycled 15 kilometers on an absolutly straight and even road through a forest were speeds of more than 25 on the average weren´t a problem at all and one could also ride perfectly in each other´s wind-shade. I once ran into Frank´s bike at a speed of 30 but made only slight contact. The road led directly to the castle of Karlsruhe and the public park surrounding it. People were walking all over the park, others were playing soccer and it was really a nice place to be, especially with the bit of sunshine that had appeared throughout the afternoon.

While I took my shower at the hotel Frank also got started on his calculations concering our route again. He planned all stages in advance and calculated all distances but somehow we have cycled 356.6 kilometers so far while his plans only account for 303 until Karlsruhe. I don´t want to be too pessimistic but when this error quotient continues the tour might become damn long and the 1600 kilometers can turn into 2000 which would be very tough to cope with. At least the "Franksche Fehlerquotient" is born by now (Fehlerquotient = error quotient) and stands at 17.68 percent.

3rd entry of the day:

During the evening we wanted to walk to the castle again but the weather didn´t cooperate too much and we ended up in Jurassic Park 3. An abandoned island, dinosaurs, the same as usual. Good special effects, a sorry plot and poor acting combine for a really boring movie-experience but I guess it was better than walking through the rain. At least we didn´t have to cycle through it so far (no real rain). I am not really that excited about Jurassic Park 4 by the way but as usual not all animals were dead in the end and when the movie earns enough money to earn a profit there will definetly be a fourth part.

After the visit to the movie-theatre the rain was gone again and I started looking for some turkish fast-food restaurant, dragging Frank along who wasn´t really that excited about walking miles just for some food (maybe he just wasn´t that hungry but there was no chain attached to me so he could have just returend to the hotel, too). I asked a guy at a Pizza Hut restaurant wether he knew the nearest Turk around and have to admit that I didn´t understand a single word of his reply. I thought the language-problems would start in France but the accent in Karlsruhe and especially of this pal was, well, tough to say the least.

The quotation of the day comes from the newest edition of the Time Magazine which lay around at our hotel. It doesn´t have anything to do with cycling or our tour but it´s just right on the mark: "If you would Bush´s brain into a duck it would fly north for winter".

Chess statistics:        Bernt vs Frank         0:3