Munich 1 Stu 0

Ouch.

That's how my head is feeling right now after one too many beers last night! Wandered into some random bar last night in Munich to watch the Netherlands - France game and ended up hanging out with a nice chap called Patrick and his pals...until 2am. Which has kinda lost me some sightseeing time today but never mind, it was a fun night!

So it's been a busy time since the last post Euro Bike Tour fans! After Milan I headed up north to Zurich and managed to get a bed in a hostel there just off the main "football street" where they were showing the games on a series of large screens down the street leading to the Euro2008 Fanzone. Unfortunately I didn't get to the fan zone in time before it was full but the atmosphere was great anyway. I was lucky in that Switzerland were playing on Wednesday night so I managed to see that there! They lost unfortunately but that didn't stop me from drinking until the wee small hours with a group of Canadian lads and a chap from Leicester (a Leicester City fan unfortunately ;-). Zurich did seem like quite a picturesque place, just on the river...I didn't get to see much of it though due to football and drink!

Next stop was supposed to be Munich but as I was passing past Innsbruck anyway I decided to see if I could get a room there for the night. Luckily I did get one football-inflated priced room for the night. But I have to say I was blown away by the background scenery there. It was truly amazing - I thought Snowdonia was great but this was something else...and most of the peaks were covered in cloud so I didn't get the full effect. The old town here was really beautiful too - full of old narrow streets and character. I decided on this occasion to get to the Fanzone here early - what I didn't realise was that this would entail a 40 minute walk from the old town up the hill to the ski jump stadium! Coincidentally this time Austria were playing in the evening so I got to hang out with all the home fans. I wasn't sure about the setup here for the matches - it seemed a lot quieter and more organised - I kinda preferred the semi-chaos of the setup in Zurich! But it was great to be there all the same...

So finally I set off for a leisurely lunchtime ride up through the mountains from Innsbruck to here in Munich. Again the roads were great - lovely and twisty although quite busy on this stretch - quite a lot of bikers around too! I did have one "moment" on the way here when a MPV nearly turned left across me but luckily he saw me in time and stopped! Apart from that it's been a great journey so far and I've felt safer on the roads over here than back home strangely!

The bike has been performing brilliantly - think I might have to adjust the chain again before setting off tomorrow though. Oh and I did manage to snap the offside mirror off when I was taking the bike off the centre stand - it leaned away from me and I couldn't save it. In my defence it was fully laden though...

Anyway enough of this - I've got a city to explore!