saturday nights away

 I do like to be somewhere of a reasonable size on a Saturday when away as this after all is my holiday I am too young to be on the seven day weekend like some of my friends! for now while i am still working I like to be where i can get out for a few beers it is the weekend after all, Sigmaringen was a big town and looked a great place to stay, I checked my App for places to stay? nothing within 9 miles of my present location (the train station) I asked the barflys and barmaid who phoned a local hotel it was fully booked, I read the guide book about the next two cycle sections they were poor track and unexciting I had to make a decision? i have no camping gear if i cycled on i would need to prebook! there was a hostel on the outskirt of town with a dorm bed? or i could get the train to ulm which is a big city with lots of hotels, I checked if this was possible by looking at the ticket machine at the station platform (there was no staff around), I ended up buying a ticket for the next train which was 12 euros at half past six,
        A part of me felt i was cheating by not cycling this section i now cannot claim to have cycled down the Danube as i took the train at a section but due to the length and my timescale, I would probably have had to do this later on in the trip anyway, the next sections looked like it was sandy tracks and meandering through small villages and now i was going to a city on a Saturday night so i dont regret the decision,
       it was dark when i arrived in ulm I have found over the years that arriving at big train stations at night time especially at the weekend can seem a bit dodgy lots of people in gangs and dodgy looking drunk tramps this city was no different not a place to linger or get a book out looking like your lost, i marched out the station pushing the laden bike up the main shopping area and quickly came to the main square in front of the cathedral, there was a small stage and a Bavarian band playing traditional music ( i was in Bavaria now Ulm is where the Bavarian beer law was first written)  after my success the previous evening i opted not to use my phone app and asked at a small independent hotel the first one was full the second one right next to the cathedral was 72 euros with breakfast 64 without breakfast. i took it i later found out i would have got bigger and cheaper if i had used my APP,

         I have got into a habit while travelling of visiting Irish bars I have formed this habit through years of travelling all over the world. I have had a pint of Guinness on nearly every continent! this habit sometimes makes me feel sad about my nature, because i like to think i travel to sample other cultures BUT the fact is for someone like myself that if I find an Irish bar in a place i am visiting I get a decent pint an English speaker air con in hot countries log fire in cold and usually an international decent bunch of patrons! Also like McDonald's there`s usually good toilets and a recognisable menu! I do also sample local bars and restaurants but generally find myself in an Irish bar when there`s one available

          nowadays its easy with Google to find A bar close to your location, in the days before mobile phones i would use guide books which would generally have a town map and i would seek out the area with all the bars and restaurants and have a walk around these days its different I opened my phone and put in a search for Irish bar 
        This Saturday night it was Kelly`s in Ulm I found first i walked up to the bar and ordered a Guinness the barman says i must take a seat as its all table service ,this is normal for this part of the world but i hate it and the place was mobbed with only two working the tables kitchen and bar! they just dont get the concept of bar flys like me who you should really be watching at the bar and pouring their next beer as the last one is nearly finished, I ordered dinner there also there was nothing for vegans I ordered fish and chips, once i had eaten i left for a stroll around town 
        the main square is close to the old town with lots of beautiful big traditional bars and restaurant beside the river with water wheels and little bridges very scenic, some of these bars were really busy with German people wearing traditional costumes singing along to the German tunes, I dont like lagers especially not pils so decide not top go in, because I felt I would have ended up with a wheat beer that was half a pint of foam and top dollar, I found another irish bar called Murphey`s law which had a gig on i had no ticket! so i went back to Kellys but went upstairs and before i knew it two AM came,