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September 12 Tuesday sunny Bicycle touring Germany In the morning, Kay leaves to catch the bus to university. As he trots out the door, he grins, looks back at us and says, "Break a leg." Sharon and I eat breakfast with Anja. Bread-the dark rye kind-rye crackers, cheese (brie and some that is gouda-like), various jams, chocolate spread, and black tea. After a quick shower we're ready to hit the road. We're leaving without seeing Ralph, but with Kay and Anja not having a telephone, it makes it rather difficult to keep tabs on the whereabouts of someone travelling. Anja insists that we borrow Kay's German Cyclist Hospitality guide. It has 3000 hospitality addresses for touring cyclists. As we head out the door, I give Anja a stuffed elephant that I had found when we were cycle touring in Norway. Yep, it was just lying on the side of the road as I pedalled by. Who knew that in a month or so I would be staying at a place where the owner collected elephants? The cycling in this part of Germany is easy and the scenery along the river and valley is good. The only distraction is traffic; it is quite busy. We have been over these roads in the car with Kay. People we pass are friendly. They wave and say what sounds like, "Doc." For some reason, I always have the urge to answer, "What's up? I spot an old man beside his mailbox. He must be waiting for a delivery. Either that or he has a crush on the post woman. He is holding a bunch of multi-coloured gladiolas. They are beautiful and make a great contrast with the wrinkly old subject. I pull my touring bicycle to a stop and rush over to ask if I can take his picture. "Nein. Nein," he practically yells and tries to scurry back inside his house. I see that wet cobbles are extremely slippery! Poor old guy. I'd hate to be responsible for the old fella breaking a hip. I didn't mean to scare the old fella. Good thing I had that shower this morning and shaved, cause I'm usually a lot more scary looking on a long bike tour than I look this morning. After some more riding, we pull our touring bikes to a stop and eat the lunch Anja packed for us. She has kindly made us little meat sandwiches, two boiled eggs each, and an apple. We are in a small town with a rose garden. Benches face the street. We turn the bench around so we can watch the creek instead of traffic. At a Komm grocery store, I buy two bicycle horns. They're like the ones that Arran and Rebecca have with rubber bulbs on the end. Arran and Rebecca have been a bad influence on us. Anja told us that she couldn't go on a world
bike tour because she has to think of other responsibilities.
It's true that once one has children it makes it more difficult.
We cycle out of town until we see a forestry road. We follow the road to a tiny creek and set up our Kelty tent. Our review is that it makes a fine cycling tent for a long distance bike tour. Lightweight and durable with plenty of light, breathability, and headroom for two people. We have brought our dark blue one so that it blends in better with our surroundings rather than our bright yellow Taj Mahal Kelty. |
