Thursday, October 8

The alarm went off this morning at 6:00 AM. I didn't move or say anything, just laid there on the floor and feigned sleep. Matt reluctantly got up and took a shower. Once Matt was in the bathroom, I stood up and turned out the ceiling searchlight he'd left on, then pseudo slept for the duration of Matt's shower.

Once Matt had completed his shower, I got up, shaved, and showered. I marveled that a 300 DM hotel room would not have a shower curtain, but at least I was able to watch myself take a shower in the big mirror. I noticed that one point that I hadn't soaped my entire back. I also noticed that after one month on the bike I was fairly thin, but still had a bit of fat on my stomach.

We went downstairs to a mediocre breakfast with bad coffee. On our way out after breakfast, I spied a fellow sitting by himself at a small table, looking through a few book pamphlets. "Excuse me. Are you with the Buchmesse?" I asked the man in German.

"Ja," he said.

I had been curious about exactly what goes on at a "Buchmesse" ever since I first heard the term the previous day at the tourist information office. I knew Buchmesse meant "Book Convention," but I wasn't sure what went on at a Book Convention. I started asking the man a question in German, but he interrupted my German mid-sentence and told me his English was better. So I switched to English. "I was wondering who goes to a Buchmesse?" I asked.

"Mostly publishers," He said.

"And what do they do there?"

"They do a lot of selling of foreign rights and so on," the man answered. He invited Matt and I to sit down at his table, which we did. He was Magnus Bartlett from Hong Kong, publisher of the Odyssey travel guides. We talked for a while on various topics.

Checking the Boxes

After breakfast Matt and I packed our stuff and left. We took the S-Bahn to the airport. I headed for the American Airlines counter, until Matt reminded me we needed to retrieve our bike boxes from Left Luggage. We got the boxes and went to security.

The people at security told us to put to the boxes in their area and then go stand in "that line," which they indicated by pointing. Unfortunately, Matt and I misinterpreted the meaning of "that line," and stood for a while in the Luftansa check-in line. Eventually I got suspicious. I walked back to security and asked a lady where Matt and I were supposed to be.

"Here, "she said.

I collected Matt and we went to the proper place. The lady asked me where we'd been and was amused to learn we'd been standing at Luftansa.

A man at security asked me a lot of questions and then told me they'd have to open the boxes and scan the bags, because the boxes were too big to fit to the X-ray machine. So all of Matt's careful abundant taping had been for naught.

We opened the boxes, dragged out our panniers, and handed them to the security people. After the bags had been X-rayed, we returned them to the boxes sealed them back up. The security lady, who was Australian, helped me tape my box and talked with me in German. The security man who had asked me all the questions took down the URL of our web site. I wasn't at all bothered by this extra taping of the box, because I want a secure plane, and the security people were friendly, courteous, professional, and fun to talk to. It would've been nice for Matt if he had known yesterday that he would have to reopen his box today, so he could have avoided using so much tape the first time around.

Middle Eastern Cheech and Chong

After I checked in, I was waiting for Matt to check in and watching two guys load my bike and then Matt's bike onto a cart. These two guys giggled a lot and talked to each other a lot in a foriegn language I was unable to identify. They looked Middle Eastern, but reminded me of Cheech and Chong. I cringed as they loaded the boxes on the airport luggage cart vertically instead of horizontally, which is how Matt and I had loaded them when we moved them to and from Left Luggage. I became concerned that these guys would cart the boxes away without Matt's baggage claim sticker being attached. So I tried to communicate to them in German that Matt's box had not yet received its sticker. Eventually I became satisfied they were aware of the fact that although my bike box had been checked, Matt's was still in the process of being checked. One of them then continued the conversation.

"Will you give me the bikes as a present?" one of them asked.

"No," I said .

"Not even for Christmas?" the man insisted.

"It's too early for Christmas," I said. "Birthday perhaps?"

The man smiled and said, "Already passed".

"Too bad," I said.

As one of the guys started to move the cart (once Matt's box got its sticker) the other made a yelling sound just before Matt's bike box crashed to the ground, landing upside-down at Matt's and my feet. Matt looked at me and said, "That was my bike. "

I said to Matt, "Let's get out of here, because I don't want to know what else is going to happen to them."

Deadline on the Toilet

Matt and I had six minutes to get to our gate. When we arrived, I saw a line waiting to get into the waiting room. I walked up to a lady behind the counter and asked if she thought I had time to go to the bathroom. She said yes and pointed in the direction of the nearest bathroom.

"So what's my deadline?" I said.

"You mean on the toilet?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

She replied she didn't know, but that I should go ahead and go. So I scurried on up the hall, following signs the bathroom. Unfortunately, when I turned the last corner, I discovered a cleaner's cart blocking the entry to the men's room. A man was standing submissively outside.

"Is someone cleaning the bathroom?" I asked the man.

"Yes," he said "but I'm not sure if you have to wait."

I surveyed the situation a moment, then brazenly stepped around the cart and went inside. A lady was indeed cleaning the bathroom.

"Do I have to wait outside?" I asked the lady in German.

"Yes," she said.

"But I have a flight to catch," I said. The cleaning lady told me to go ahead. I went into a stall and she worked around me. I had to lift my feet at one point to avoid her mop, which was being inserted under the door of my stall. I successfully completed my business in the bathroom, and I made it to the flight in time.