Meeting Max, a fellow bitcoiner in Stuttgart who invited me for dinner.

Summary of day 8 of Tour de Satoshi: Bitcoin payments accepted! And picked up by the police!

Yesterday’s travels from Riedlingen to Stuttgart brought with it very similar weather conditions as the day before, a lot of snow, ice and cold winds. However, the bright side was that the streets bore less snow and ice and the snowstorms didn’t show up to the ravage the skies, allowing me to keep some more energy for peddling. So, even though my feet were again cold the entire day, they were only frozen and numb for the last two hours. Yeay, I guess!

Just to give you an idea of how cycling looks like in these conditions.

Snow flakes and ice chips clung to my clothes and covered my entire outfit so much so that the overshoes were frozen blocks of stiffness. I remember when I was packing these multiple layers of thick overshoes back home, I thought to myself how well prepared I was to keep my feet warm and cozy. Now, having no sense in my toes the whole day, I laugh at that thought!

Apart from the monotonous and rhythmic peddling, the little highlight during the journey today was catching a short ride in the back of a police van to help me through a tunnel where bicycles weren’t allowed. To avoid the icy cycling routes, I had requested Google Maps to take me through normal streets so it wasn’t an accident when I arrived at a tunnel meant only for cars. I just simply had not noticed that it was not for bikes. I was picked up by two kind policemen who politely helped me go through the tunnel in the back of their van. Thanks for the ride guys!

Picture from the back of the police van.

After 5 hours and 95 km of biking, I arrived in Stuttgart. As I arrived, I received a message from a fellow bitcoiner, Max, who had found out of my tour and wanted to help me find a place. He suggested checking out a&o hostel as they already accept bitcoin as payment. As I dialed their number and waited for the receptionist to pick up, I was delighted that for a change, tonight there would be a place where instead of me having to convince the owners to accept bitcoin, I could select a place that is already modern enough to accept it in the first place. When the headquarters answered and confirmed this truth, I immediately booked online. However, after arriving at the hostel, I found out that the booking process had not finished properly even though my bitcoin payment (0.185 btc) had already gone through. So after talking to the receptionist as well as the headquarters and quite some waiting in the lobby, I finally had to book again with Euros. However, they promised to pay back the Euro payment which I consider enough for another win for bitcoin! This brings the total score to a resounding 6:2 for bitcoin!

Waiting in the lobby with frozen feet and a cold beer in the hopes for the booking with bitcoin to go through which did not happen.

Considering there are only two days and one more night to go until my arrival in Frankfurt at the ECB, I have to admit that I am surprised how little the major influencers in the bitcoin community have picked up the Tour de Satoshi. Knowing how bitcoin needs the positive PR and publicity to gain mainstream attraction and adoption, it is a bit sad that the reach and spread of such initiatives still only remains in smaller communities. The bitcoiners who I personally know, love, share and support me daily. However, the wider spread and support is still weak. I trust larger support will come over time.

The bitcoin count on my wallets is still not enough to reach Frankfurt so if you are a proud bitcoin owner and like to support the Tour de Satoshi, feel free to donate at:

my btc (segwit) wallet address:

bc1q87jy2c28snel5tj3c5q94fdfuy9xwhl0ljlysn

Or my btc (legacy) wallet address:

1P3UwoDLhqJZbkYiZuKQZrmZvbB2GssLB

Only two cycling days to go!!

Peace.

Vitus