The first leg of the day threw us off quite a bit as I received a phone call from Emmanuelle who was stuck a couple of kms out of our last stop. The train was hit violently by a man taking his life. A suicide by train.

It is tough to see that there is so much pain in the world that someone feels that ending their life is the only way out. Truly when one is so deep in situation or has reduced their life to one moment in time, it seems like the less painful way to end it. I have never weighed the option before but I can associate to this desperate feeling. It really hurt me to know that Emmanuelle was there at the scene of the accident.

When I arrived at the station where the train was delayed there was an ominous air as the people just sat there waiting in anger for the next train. You could see it all over their faces that the only thing that mattered at that time was the fact that they were late for the rest of their lives.

There was, in fact, one girl who had red eyes from crying. She was sitting off by herself in the corner away from the mass of people who seemed to overpower her. She was quietly sitting rubbing her hands together nervously and only lifted her head 2 or 3 times, only to take a sigh but you could see how much this suicide had touched her. I wondered to myself if this was a familiar scene for her or if it was just a simple reaction to the situation. Nevertheless her display of emotion for a man who she never knew, gives me hope for the human race.

Emmanuelle seemed a little touched by the situation but she decided to accompany me to Ulm which was 30 km away. By about 2 pm it was unbearably hot and I could hardly stand it but Emmanuelle still pushed on regardless of the sun. We ended up in Ulm when I found that our site was offline and our link to the world had been cut. What a shock. Just a note: if you are actually reading this then I got it solved somehow but you will have to read that in tomorrow’s log.

Aside from all he troubles of the day, I was delighted to find that Germany is really flat and doesn’t have as many hills as Switzerland. Every once in a while I ask someone where Zurich is, just to see if they have heard of it. They each give detailed directions.

When I woke up this morning, the sun was shining through the windows brightening up the pink room where we were staying. I felt rested for the first time since the trip began. After a delightful breakfast, it was time to say goodbye to Chris again but not for long because we had planned to meet a couple of hours later in Ulm for lunch. With the help of a few locals, I got my train ticket and one for my bike.

Then the unimaginable happened. The train stopped. In my broken German, I asked an old lady what was going on. There was an accident she said. We can't go any further. So we were asked to wait patiently. More information was revealed. It turned out that the accident was caused by a man who purposefully threw himself at the train coming from the opposite direction. What a shock. Images of a dead body on the rail flooded my mind for a while. Questions arose: Why? But life goes on, other lives continue their everyday, a little bit angry and impatient, bored that because of this man they were going to miss their appointments.

I didn’t care if I missed mine, I had lots of time but I called Chris to let him know. Luckily, he was not too far. He joined me a little bit later in Laupheim. Together we biked to Ulm, I had no choice but to ride the 30 km . I didn’t mind. The road was pretty flat by the Donau and so nice!!! What a treat!