Gaby Book 27 Smell of the Crowd by Maddy Bell Copyright© 2022 Madeline Bell Life has some certainties, birth and death of course, but the rest is a mix of Minestrone and Spaghetti, some of which we have no direct influence over. We can however decide whether we want Parmesan or other seasoning, we can give Gnochi a try, doesn't mean we'll like it but at least we'll know. Gaby has reached just such a point in her life, she knows she likes Pizza, she's not averse to Spaghetti or Lasagne but is Gnochi for her? The Gnochi in this case is doing the singing with BlauHase on a more serious level, as a 'hobby' its fine but could this be a change of career? Well you don't find out without trying so that's just what our heroine is about to find out in this, the 27th book of the Gaby saga.

 
It wasn’t the first time that I’ve shared a bed, a couple of times me and Mand have had to double up when we’ve gone to races. It was however the first time I’ve woken up with a face full of orange hair and gripped in an embrace that any python would be proud of. Yeah I know there was that time with Sophia who, just for the record doesn’t have orange hair, this however was on a different level.

"Mist,” I hissed.
"Hmmm,” rather than freeing me her grip got tighter!
"Mist!,” I insisted, "I need the loo.”

It wasn’t a lie, the need to empty my bladder was what had woken me after all.

"Mmm,” was all I got back so I started to peel myself of her embrace. I’d just about freed myself of one arm when, still asleep, I was released as she turned over. I made good my escape but of course, having to leave the room to use the facilities meant finding footwear and something to put on over my PJ’s. By the time I reached the toilet I was nearly wetting myself.

When I got back to the room I checked the time, it was fairly light outside but at six twenty it was far too early to be up, on the other hand I probably won’t get any more sleep. What to do, what to do? Shower, I didn’t have one last night, it had been makeup off, a quick wipe around with a flannel then bed. Yep a shower would kill two birds with one stone, fill a bit of time and wake me up plus I wasn’t sure how I felt about returning to the embrace of the octopus in the bed.

I gathered my wash kit and headed back to the shared bathroom.
 

"Wos the time?”
"Er,” I found my watch on the desk cum dresser, "A bit after seven.”
"Why’re you up so early?”
"Needed a wee and then I got first dibs on the shower.”
"I should probably get one,” she allowed.
"Think you’ll have to wait, I think whoever is next door beat you to it.”
"Urgh, just my luck.”
"Early bird and all that.”

Okay I know I’m not a morning person by nature but that doesn’t mean I can’t roll out the platitudes.

"You going for a ride today?”
"Dunno, hadn’t given it much thought.”
"Well you’re always going on about how good riding is for keeping your head straight.”
"I didn’t know it wasn’t.”
"You’ve got something on your mind.”

Have I? And since when did Mist become the expert on what’s firing my two brain cells?

"Suppose I could,” I allowed, well its a good excuse to excuse myself from all the loading and stuff, "I can probably stretch it to a decent ride quite easily.”
"Without getting lost?”

That ride to Bad Nauheim will haunt me forever!

"I was not lost, I just missed one turn.”
"If you say so.”
"If I’m gonna ride down to Darmstadt I suppose I’d best get my bags packed now seeing as I’m up.”
"Urgh!”
"What’s up now?”
"One of the balls got caught behind my teeth.”
"How the hell did you manage that? No on second thoughts, I don’t want to know.”
"It hurt,” she complained.
"You were the one who had them done,” I pointed out.
"Rub it in why don’t you.”
"I was just saying, you got a bag for washing?”
 

Being a Hotel Garni, the Max Planck is a cross between a b&b like we stayed in at Nauheim and a full on hotel like the B&B Hotel in Fulda. We touched on what names apply to what accommodation when we were looking at hotel administration before Weihnachts, some differences are quite vague but essentially a Garni is a hotel without a bar or restaurant but with a breakfast room which is where I headed a little before eight, Mist having headed off to get her shower.

There were a couple of other guests in various stages of breaking fast, I took a two seat table by the windows, I like to have a bit of a view with my coffee. To be honest, I wasn’t that hungry, we ate quite well yesterday after all but with the prospect of a ride, after my fruit and yoghurt I loaded my plate with scrambled eggs, red salmon, sliced tomato and a couple of brötchen. Ham and cheese is okay but the fish and egg is better fuel for riding, I can always stop to get something en route.

With the food consumed I got myself another coffee, they had a machine similar to what we have at the Kabin, then opened my road atlas. In a straight line I estimated it was all of twenty five K from Hanau to Darmstadt, probably about forty by the time you add in the wrinkles of the road system. Not much of a ride to be honest, a decent training ride should be about twice that and the terrain appeared to be quite flat too, no there must be an alternative.

"Riding down to Darmstadt?” Big Jo queried having come into the breakfast room without me seeing.”
"Oh er hi, yeah but it looks a bit boring.”
"Can I?” he indicated the other seat.
"Sure,” I agreed.
"I’ll just get some coffee.”
 

“...so you could go down to say here then follow the Four Two Six most of the way to Darmstadt, then if you take the Four Four Nine that takes you almost to the Centralstation.”
"How do you know all this?”
He gave a shrug, "Came down to see Zipfer play there last year and the river trail, summer holiday with the folks when I was in Hochschule, we rode from Mainz to Würzburg then got the bahn back.”
"Sounds like something my ‘rents would come up with.”
"My parents are keen Trekkers, they have a club following the different bike paths, I think they are going around Bodensee this summer.”

Who’d a thunk. Of course we get a good number of trekkers at the Kabin each summer but most of those are Dutch and you get whole fleets of them along the Rhein hopping from hotel to hotel, they can take a day to ride what I do in an hour!

"I can always call if I get lost,” I joked.
"I’m sure you can find the way.”

I thought that the other day and look what happened.
 

By the time the others had surfaced, agreement on me riding, sorting my bike out and so on it was gone nine thirty. Of course, today if something went awry Big Jo at least knew the route I was planning on taking.

"I’ll see you all later then,” I stated as I clicked my cleat into the pedal with a loud clunk!
"Ring if you look like being later than four,” Stefan instructed.
"Should be there way earlier than that.”
"Erd?” he appealed.
"Okay, I’ll call.”
"Take care,” Mist called as I headed out onto the street, I put an arm up to indicate I’d heard.

Of course the first issue was to actually find my way onto the river path, I vaguely recalled seeing some sort of path between the Biergarten and the river yesterday so headed out that direction. Germany is well served with cycle and walking paths, they are mostly well signed and well maintained which means that I didn’t expect any issues following the Main Radweg even on my skinny road bike tyres. I nearly went wrong when I got to the river, I’d gone about twenty metres downstream before it clicked that I actually wanted to go the other way.

I was soon whizzing along the nicely tarmaced path, past the Schloss then alongside the road for a bit before a sign indicated a turn to the right. Through a few bits of lane then the riverside path was back but only for half a kilometre, where it went under a railway bridge before taking a ramp up onto a road bridge across the river. Back onto terra firma and a couple more turns had me following the opposite bank of the river.

Things were more straightforward now, apart from the odd dog walker, and I was soon whizzing along at a good rate of knots. I’d probably been going for about six K when I came across something of an enigma, a huge flock of sheep complete with shepherd and a couple of dogs. How strange, you don’t see many sheep in Germany, to find what looked like a hundred or more was peculiar to say the least.

I was still thinking about Shawn and his friends when I reached the ferry at Seligenstadt, Big Jo had suggested I cross here as I’d be better served on the Bavarian side down past Aschaffenburg. Apparently there’s a lot of industry on the west side and the path can be difficult to follow, well I don’t want to get lost so I joined the small gathering of bikes and walkers waiting for the ferry to return to our bank.

The river isn’t that wide just here, not even a hundred metres but it flows quickly, the ferry is likewise quite small, you might get a dozen cars on. I took a swig from my bidon while we waited to cross, this is a bit nicer than the bits of Rhein and Mosel radwegs I’ve been along. The ferry arrived, passengers were exchanged, I’d barely got my wallet back in my pocket after paying my euro to cross when we docked in Bavaria.

Until now I’d seen very few other bikes on the path but now, it wasn’t a traffic jam or anything but there were a fair number of people awheel, mostly older people on city bikes but a few younger on mountain bikes or dropped bar machines of a more utilitarian nature than my Pinarello. You couldn’t always see the river then there’d be a gap in the trees and there it was, I nearly rode off the path at one point as a pretty big barge similarly appeared.
 

I suppose I’d been riding for about forty minutes after crossing the ferry when a sign directed you off up a steep bluff to reach Aschaffenburg, which if I recall the map right, is about halfway down the river bit of my ride. It had taken me just over an hour and a half so far, the sun was high overhead shining away in a mostly blue sky. So same again along the river, say two o’clock, another hour to Darmstadt, bags of time.

Of course its Sods Law that a combination of a short diversion, lots of users and less wonderful surface slowed my progress past the city. Once beyond the marinas and docks things returned to the emptiness I’d enjoyed above Seligenstadt and I was soon merrily singing away to my self.

‘Zip a dee do dah,
zip a dee aye,
wonderful feeling,
wonderful day,
theres’s a bluebird on my shoulder…’

Well you get the idea, it just felt good to be out here on a bike, zipping along without seeing as much as a car or even a mofa, yep a grand day indeed.
 

Whilst the river valley was of course flat, the land beyond was now showing signs of having a few hills. From what Big Jo said earlier, from where the river turns eastwards near Miltenburg the hills come right down to the river as it flows through a twisty, narrow valley only opening out above Würzburg. I seem to recall racing somewhere along that bit last year but I’m not going that way today, no I leave the river well before that.

My Main Radweg guru thought it wisest to recross the river at the next bridge which turned out to be a posh new affair called Roland Schwing although it clearly doesn’t! Have I really done over twelve K from Aschaffenburg already, well I guess the sign posters must know. Once over the water I resumed a higher pace and my singing, I must look like a deranged wheel riding Valkyrie!

I was starting to feel a bit hungry, of course following the river bank means that whilst you pass various towns and villages you don’t actually go through them, hence you don’t get to see any likely food halts. Oh there had been occasional signs directing you away from the river to various establishments but I don’t really want to deviate from my route if I can help it. I was so intent on following the river that I nearly missed the sign directing me under the dual carriageway I’d been tracking for a couple of kilometres, to what turned out to be Fahrrad Mertens, a combination of bike shop and coffee shop, that’ll do nicely.
 

"Coffee and is that chocolate Streusel?”
"Sure is,” the young chap manning the coffee shop agreed.
"Can I have one of those to take away and a strudel to eat here please.”
"Coming right up, so you come far?”
"Er Hanau, I’m on my way to Darmstadt?”
"Decent ride, bit of a long way around.”

The Segafredo made some loud noises which precluded an immediate response.

"I’m supposed to be training,” I admitted.
"You race?”
"Uh huh.”
"There you go, crème and sugar on the tables, I’ll bring the strudel over, that’s seven fifty please.”

Once I got to a table I pulled my mitts off, the helmet followed suit, after I’d rescued my glasses, I broke a pair last season doing the same thing. I undid my hair and shook it out, nothing worse than helmet hair and it would have a chance to get some air to my scalp too.
 
"So which way do you go from here?” ‘my’ barista asked as he delivered a decent slice of Strudel with a big gobbet of cream on top.
"Down to Obern something there’s a road which goes across towards Darmstadt according to the map.”
"Obernburg, that’s where we are, well strictly speaking you’ve already come past the Altstadt.”
"So I need to go back?”
"Neh, the junction here is for the Darmstadt road.”
"Phew, do you know the road, what’s it like?”
"Quite busy up to Höchst, there’s a big tyre factory but it gets quieter after that.”
"Cool, sorry for the twenty questions, so where are you from, thats not a Frankfurt accent.”
"Just south of Bonn,” well he doesn’t need to know my life story and I’ve been in Dernau for a big chunk of my life now.
"I have friends at the university, nice place.”
"Okay I guess,” I allowed between bites of Strudel and sips of coffee.
"So if you race up there do you know that girl, the double Weltmeisterin?”

I’m not sure if it was my blush or him finally putting all the clues together, you know, Apollinaris jersey, Weltmeisterin stripes, pink hair.

"Oh mein Gott, you’re her!”
"Erm guilty as charged, Gaby Bond,” I offered a hand to shake.
"Er Merten, Arni, this is my Opa’s place, my god, he’ll be bummed to have missed you, him and dad go riding on Tuesdays, its usually quiet so me and Jakob hold the fort, we’ve got your poster on the wall and everything.”
"Fame at last,” I grinned.
"Seriously, we are all fans, even my sister and she doesn’t even ride.”
"Er thanks, I think.”
"They’ll never believe me, the world champion, here in our shop.”
"Poster?”
"Volker, from the Trinkcenter, he got it from the Apollinaris rep for us, I think its from that TV advert?”
"Don’t think I’ve ever seen any posters, I’ll have to have words with the boss when I get home.”
"You want to see it?”

Well I was intrigued now.

"Er sure.”
"Its in the workshop, come on, Jakob, visitor.”

And so I got to meet Jakob, chief spanner turner at Mertens who was equally as effusive as his younger colleague and of course I got to see the poster. Yep it was me and yep it was from that first photo shoot after Canada, you remember, the body paint? Yep I was blushing anew, I mean it looks as it should but its too perfect if you know what I mean, an actual skinsuit would look, well different.

"So you guys got a marker pen?”
"What for?” Jakob asked.
"You want proof I’ve been here?”
"I’ve got a camera on my Handy,” Arni opined.
"Something more tangible?”
Jakob fell in first, "You want to sign the poster.”
"If you want me to?”
"There’s some in the büro,” Jakob stated scuttling off to the office.
 

By the time I’d done the deed, drunk a fresh coffee, the first having gone cold, posed for a couple of pictures, used the facilities, well it was hard on fifteen o’clock. Well you know what they say about best laid plans and all that.

"So when you get to the T turn right over the river, it goes straight up through the town, saves about three kilometres,” Jakob advised.
"Thanks.”
"Safe riding,” Arni offered as I set off to continue my journey, it’ll be tight getting there for four, tight but not impossible.
 
Maddy Bell © 04.03.2022