European Tour – July 7, 2009 (Written by David and Chris)
Written by David July 7 – A Quick Missive From Goslar
My arms are trembling a little from lack of calories and hoofing it up and down hills for 120km today, but I will do my best to describe some things before the internet timer dings and I have to return to home base here in Goslar. The last few days have been an endless procession of fun and people, nearly too much to process.
Saturday in Münster, I met a half-Greek half-German fellow named Konstantin, who directed me to the laundromat in the morning and stopped for a chat on the roadside. I ran into him again later in the evening, and this time he took me for a wander around town, featuring such highlights as: beers on a cobblestone patio, insights into German history (including his conclusion that Germans suffer from a deeply ingrained inferiority complex, and are forever trying to copy the French and the English), and a lesson in fencing culture.
Konstantin belongs to a German fraternity, which allegedly bears little resemblance to North American fraternities, though I suspect there may be more similarities than he would care to admit. The main difference is that the German frats date back to the 13th or 14th century, and seem to revolve around settling disputes through swordplay. If a member of another fraternity offends you, simply hand him your card, demand satisfaction, and then do your darndest to cut his face. Konstantin assures me that this is a very civilized way of resolving disputes, and that once the fight is over and the blood has dried, everyone goes back to being friends.
Speaking of friends, me and some folks that I’ve been biking around Europe with had a leisurely ride the following day over to Gütersloh. I was riding ’sweep’ with Shawn, which means staying behind the last group and helping any stragglers along the way. I like to think of sweep as something of a sheep dog, nipping at the heels of the slower sheep and trying to motivate them to make the long journey back to the pen, where food and comfort await. The slower pace was a welcome change for a day, and allowed us more time to work on our German. The day’s highlight would have to be a reinterpretation of a Gwen Stefani lyric: ‘Ich bin nicht ein ‘hollerback’ fraulein!’ I think maybe you had to be there.
After riding shady paths through little tucked away villages, where the older generation followed the sound of bells to the local ancient cathedral (a conspicuous lack of devout Catholics under the age of 65 in these parts), we eventually arrived in Gütersloh, where we expected to be staying in an empty farm field of some sort. Instead, we stumbled into a large festival where we were the guests of honor. Free beer, fruit, and BBQ were the order of the day, and everyone wanted to talk to us about our magical mystery tour across the continent. An excellent band called Chupa Cabres laid down a thick groove, with an energetic horn section and a couple of multilingual emcees who played a great show to a crowd of sedentary Germans, who appreciated the music mildly from their bench seats. We agents managed to change all that and kicked up the dust with some fierce dancing, and eventually we had the whole place shaking their hips. It was a sight to behold.
The next day was the first of three 100+ km days, and an aura of excitement hung heavy in the camp in the morning as people got pumped up for a good challenge. Navigation ended up being a major concern, and the pod I was with managed to spend the entire day wheeling around from town to town, asking directions and finding out later that they were wrong, misreading maps, reading them correctly but taking wrong turns, and generally riding around in a fog of confusion. We eventually rolled into Höxter around 9:30pm, exhausted and hungry. Thankfully the speedier and savvier folk had arrived long before, and there was dinner ready for us at the church where we stayed.
Today’s ride offered a glimpse of what we can expect as we head further southeast. For the first time we had mean hills all day, which was something of a psychological barrier after so many days of flat, smooth sailing. Our pod was feeling full of beans though, and we put our heads down and cranked out the kilometers, hills or no. We rode for 100km with a short lunch break, and just as we were considering taking another pause we saw the sign for Goslar, today’s destination: 23km away. Despite creeping hunger and fatigue we decided to go for it, which led to an hour of danger and delirium. We took a highway with no shoulder to speak of, so we got to enjoy the sweet music of honking trucks and cars screaming past as we rode. I could feel my last energy reserves draining out of my body as we hit a mean headwind coming up at us on a nice downhill stretch; despite the grade, I had to pedal hard to go anywhere down the slope. Only the promise of a hot shower kept me going–well, that and some emergency chocolate. And now here we are, and the internet timer is up…No time for pictures today!
_________________________________________
Written by Chris July 7 – The Physics Just Don’t Feel Right
I swear the gravity works differently in Germany. There have been large stretches of road that appear to be downhill and yet we almost seem to be moving backwards. Conversely there have been stretches that seem to be up hill and we’ve gotten over 40km/hr so it’s clear the universe doesn’t hate us yet. Actually that should be very clear from the fact we all keep managing to find our end destinations and the fact there haven’t been any major injuries.
For those keeping track at home I am currently writing this from the city of Goslar in Germany. Today’s ride was supposed to be our first 100km day and as per usual our mapping was off by at least 10-20km. My pod, pod rocket ship, only had to do 120km and we arrived here in about 6 hours. As I am currently writing this at 6pm we haven’t seen another pod yet and it’s been 3 hours.
Once again I have nothing but amazing things to say about the hosts we have had. They really are making our trip so much more special and incredible. Last night we got to head down to the fire hall in Hoxter and try on fire gear and play around on the trucks. I think it is safe to say that no one in our group has any trouble accessing their inner child!
We also had a wonderful experience in Gutersloh the night before. We were staying with a family who had what can best be described as an amazingly cool campground. It backed onto a river, had beach volleyball courts, and even a band playing when we all rolled in. Keeping with one of our values of inclusivity we very quickly managed to coax some somewhat shy Germans off their blankets and up to their feet to make a rocking dance party. We also learned the German version of the game 31 which they call Kanuck. I thought it was rather appropriate as it was Canada Day that the Canadians won, so score one for our country.
Of course no story is all rainbows and candy and we are no exception. The last couple days have been hard on some of our group with riders arriving quite late into the evening. Luckily those of us that have been there for longer welcome them with lots of hugs, smiles, and food and we’ve been able to cheer everyone up in seconds.
I also had a rather unfortunate experience the other night. I really have no one to blame but myself but I was running on 2 hours of sleep so I didn’t properly put up the fly on my tent. Mother Nature then took it upon herself to flood my tent at 3am and I had to do some very quick thinking to save my stuff from getting totally soaked. The net result was that I wound up sleeping the rest of the night with my rain pants on inside of my sleeping bag and wearing a hoody for upper body warmth. It clearly wasn’t the ideal situation but it was totally my fault.
We have another 100(ish) km to ride tomorrow so it will likely be an another attempted early night and 6:30am wakeup call. After that we get a day off though so our bodies can rest up for the rest of Germany.
