Eleven cars, and thirteen hours. A baker, a development-aid worker, a flower-man, a sales-manager, a hunter (!), an IT-manager, and six more random people. They all gave me a ride yesterday, some only for a short distance, others for like 150 km.

At least on the map Munich seemed not too far from Bern, 430 kilometers my online route-calculator told me. I did foresee some difficulties as the roads before and after the border were pretty bad but as long as you’re in a car going a long distance, who cares about that. So in fact what happened on this day, I dared not to expect.

By chance I went on a 13 hour long touristic tour along small villages in the South of Germany. I was encountered with local police, foolish people beeping horns and hundreds of families coming back from a day-trip on the German side of the Boden See, and too conservative to pick up someone nice and smiling, while the sun was almost going down for a a long-night rest…

For the first time I allowed a bit of frustration to enter, but I perfectly understood that not all days can be perfect hitchhiking-days and I kept believing in it. “Everything is gonna be alright”, I kept singing while waiting on a spot where no car arrived.

Until now I had traveled between 50 and 80 km per hour but now it was around 30. I never had to wait that long at most places, but once I had to walk even three times from place to place before I got at a location where cars were passing by and also stopping.

Earlier that day I had already been in the middle of nowhere, close to the border on a B-road, or maybe even a C-road with no cars either. Thankfully I was given a map by the driver who stopped me there…

But then suddenly someone pulled over and gave me a good ride to a petrol-station along a small highway, where I was first told to go back and opt for my initial route, and then I was told to go forward.

I was all whatever. I now had a map, and at that moment still enough time left. Let’s first get out of this country and get back to Germany. I immediately convinced a business man to take me with him in his big BMW, who asked me why I had taken the longer route.

Anyway, the day was nice. I saw a beautiful countryside, very nice towns, and I got a fantastic view on this huge lake with Germany on my side and Switzerland on the other. I even got a ride in a 46-year old sports-car convertible, and just before the sun went down – I saw it literally going down the horizon – someone picked me up and brought me into Munich, meanwhile telling me about his amazing hitchhiking stories in the US fifteen years ago, and how never to give up. At was at this stage I had fully come to realize it had all gone according to the random rules of that day.

Next time you may hear from me, will be Monday or Tuesday next week when I am in Salzburg. Now I will have a small break as I will be taking a long weekend break enjoying sun, love and green.