The Week in Review Part 1

Kind of slacked off the last week in writing. Not that I had nothing going on up in the idea machine. It was more I was just unmotivated to write. Returning back to the US in 3 weeks is both exciting and a bit stressful. Most of my internet time has been dedicated to finding a place to live and finding a way to support the man, me and supporting The Man. Hopefully less of the latter. But I have had some exciting experiences: bäckerei touring, Tour de Ländle riding, a little racing, and some Eis essen.

On to the first topic...Mildenberger Bäckerei. This is the local bäckerei here in Backnang. It started in the 1950s out of a little shop nearby but has sense grown into many locations throughout the northern suburbs of Stuttgart. It routinely ranks among the tops in bread tasting and pastry making. Heinz set up the visit for me as he will tell you that I only think about food, probably true =) I rolled up to the central office and "factory" which is 300m from the front door, pretty sweet. The cafe attendents were extremely pleasant when I told them I was there for the tour. I had to wait a little bit because I was part of a larger tour group, a young school kid group. After I introduced myself to the kids in my best Deutsch possible, the teacher asked if they understood me. They nodded in unison. So I guess I have made some progress in my learning. They were very excited to learn that I was an American and was going to go on the tour with them. After donning our bakers caps we set off for the kitchen and some proper handwashing. First on the agenda was some brezel making(pretzel making) and derivatives of the brezel. The masterbacker(master baker) was the tour guide and a very engaging man that truly understood how to make the experience great for the kids, and the big kids like me. We each were given a roll of dough which we had to make a brezel. There is some technique if you weren't aware. After the first one we made different designs which have different names based upon how they are rolled. See the pictures below. The 4th and last one was baker's choice. I tried to be creative as possible and I definitely got some questions about my design. Next it was on to the konditorei(pastry) backer. The frauen(woman) gave us each rolls of marzipan which she demonstrated to us on how to make a marzipan mouse. My pastry rolling technique needs some work. I decided to create a mouse with flowing long hair with the dark marizpan she gave us also. I ate the little mouse the next day and it was good. After the konditorei, we went on a tour of the whole facility and the kids got to taste different stuff. It was foodie nirvana you could say. After we had scoped the facility, we all sat down on some bread crates and the masterbacker gave us brezels and getränke(drinks). Food and drink in any tour are awesome but fresh brezels are even better! Lastly we each got a back to take home our freshly baked goods. When the kids left, I was taken on a super-secret tour of the Mildenberger factory. Got to see some Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory-like secrets. I even scored a fresh roll of schwartzbrot(dark pumpernickle). Very delicious. Now I need to learn some basic bread baking techniques, and perhaps opening up a German bäckerei or bread distribution in Boulder might be up my ally along with granola and müsli. Stay tuned...



Thursday was Tour de Ländle day here in Ba-Wü. It's a 10-day bicycle tourer trip. We did the 9th stage from Großaspach to Bretten, 70km. Over 2800 hobby riders and the two strong horses, Heinz and myself. If you can imagine 2800 hobby cyclists then you can understand complete chaos and danger. Heinz and I got a perfect starting position, not that it was a race or anything. I think some thought it was because they tried to circumvent the starter's loud yelling and ride ahead of the start. It was quite comical to watch this early 30s man in full red riding kit using his bike as a barricade to prevent the old people from going in front of him. The arguments that ensued provided many laughs while we sat comfortably in our 2nd row starting position. Finally the gun was off and we were rolling. The danger would continue until we got on board the train in Bretten back to Backnang. I say dangerous because most of these riders were all over the place on the road and the red jesery'd "polizei" were too busy making sure no one crossed the line. I got yelled at a few times. Below are some statistics from the ride. After starting out we road 11km and we met our first pause of the day, an hour long pause with refueling for the people. I was dumbstrucked that we were stopping but I failed to remember that this is a hobby tour. I had the impression that it would be similar to US century rides were you can stop if you want. Nope, everyone had to stop b/c the police escort said you must. So I rolled over to the village square to see what was going on. Lots of free water and apfelschörle along with nourishing fruits and vegetables: cucumbers, carrots, apples, bananas, and tomatoes. Cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots offer almost nothing in terms of energy. It was also quite funny to see such thing offered. But when stuff is free, you know the people will stuff their mouths and pockets, and that they did. Looking back I should have taken a cucumber because when the heat set in later in the day, and warm, mushy jersey-stored cucumber would have been perfect. The next pause was at km 33, this was our mittagpause, 2hrs. Heinz and I had a nice sandwich at the bäckerei and scored some great seats in the shade. I dozed off a little. I said I was recharging my system for the push ahead. The start after lunch was pretty busy. At the start line I noticed a woman having problems with her v-brakes. Being the mechanic and nice guy that I am, I asked what was wrong then told her I was a "mechaniker." I broke out my multi-tool and fixed the problem in about 60seconds. She was very excited and appreciative. After about 2miles out of town, we had our first casualty, a young guy tried to be cool and took a corner too hot on his hybrid. Result, lacerations on the face and a very confused look. The guy had no helmet. Pretty stupid given the crowd one is riding with and his own experience level. The last pause was after another 15km. At this stop, they had alcohol-free beer, mineral water, and apfelschörle. It was 34C at this point and no clouds in the sky, so pretty hot. There was a pretty steep climb too which probably put most in the hurt locker because half were walking. The last section of the ride covered many farm roads and included many stops because of the "hills" that put everyone into the hurt locker. There was a woman from the die Schweiz with a tri-wheeler and so much shˆt in her baskets. Some guy had to push her up the hill. Keep in mind this is a two bike wide road so go figure what happened to the rest of the people. Finally, we arrived in Bretten. Heinz asked if I wanted a würst. I said I'd prefer Eis(ice cream.) So I put my Eis radar on and we found our Eis local with great seats in the shade very quickly. The Stadt(city) of Bretten is very nice. Lastly we boarded a special DB train direct from Bretten to Backnang. Just as I was getting on the train, danger struck or rather stung. I got stung by a bee in my right ring finger. No it wasn't just a sting, the whole damn stinger and flesh were embedded in my finger. After initially feeling the pain I looked down and was quite curious to see it. Of course this only led to more pain and a wound that has yet to heal. But the bee had it's last day so I got that going for me.

Stats:
Distance: 70km
Ride Time: 4hr30min
Avg Power: 74watts
Total KJs of Work(~calories burned) 1158
Total Time(start-finish): 8hr10min
Tough day at the office you could say =)

chow,
Bearclaw