Day 35 – Ruhpolding Rain Day

Daily Distance – 0km
Daily Ascent – 0m
Daily Descent – 0m
Total Distance – 559km
Distance Remaining – 458km

The good, if a little frustrating, news is that the rain, floods and hail of toads today didn’t transpire. In what is becoming a theme for whenever I take a day off to avoid rain, the forecast changes at the last minute and the day is merely wet, rather than monsoon. Light to moderate rain has been falling pretty much all day though, so hiking today would still have been a slog. Not too bad on a short section, but tomorrow’s stage will be one of the longest of the entire trip, made even slower if the trail conditions are wet and slippery. Given the uncertain weather conditions I have booked a hotel for tomorrow evening, rather than trying to wild camp somewhere. Gale force winds are a possibility and fortunately a cancellation has opened up a reasonably priced (for Marquartstein anyway) room.

As my previous rest day was only a few days ago, I had very few errands to run today. Also, after a large slice of Black Forest Gateaux yesterday, I am feeling a little over caked, which significantly eroded my entertainment options today. Fortunately, one receives a discount token for staying in the town’s hotels, so I was able to go swimming in a leisure centre and use a pleasantly quiet sauna to sweat out some of my cake weight. As my first German sauna, it was informative to observe the cultural norms. While everybody is without clothes, it seems to be frowned upon, or at least unnecessary to greet people when entering or exiting the sauna. Also, in the land of rules, there is a sign expressly forbidding clothing in the sauna, because establishment mandated nudity is apparently a thing here. It was certainly an interesting experience, even featuring a brass bowl of ice shavings in the shower area to rub on oneself as part of a cool-down regime. Unfortunately, discretion being the better part of valour, I decided taking photos to document the experience may be open to some degree of misinterpretation.

Other than that, I have aimlessly wandered around town to see the sights, changed hotel as I had only booked for one night and drank coffee. Yesterday I was early enough into town that I was able to pop into a hairdresser, so I am looking almost civilised again. The poor lady looked positively terrified at the prospect of cutting the hair of a non-native speaker and when I mentioned a bear trim. Fortunately, when it became clear that I was happier speaking German than English and had come pre-prepared with pictures from my last barber appointment things proceeded smoothly. While I lack the vocabulary to discuss barbering terms eloquently, I wasn’t that prepared, we nevertheless muddled through. So in the space of two days I have ticked off a first German haircut, first German swim and first German sauna. Ruhpolding, it’s a hell of a town. The Las Vegas of small town Bavaria.