European Tour – July 8 (Written by Chris and Jenika)
Written by Chris July 8 – The Reality Check
I’m am currently sitting in my tent Stassfurt Germany after riding another 100km day and I have to say this last day was my favorite day of the tour. I had fun start to finish riding today and my body felt great despite putting it through all the the rigors of the ‘pod rocketship’ yesterday.
An interesting thing occurred today, we crossed into Eastern Germany. Now to me this means very little, as I was very little when the Berlin wall came down so I didn’t even think there would be a difference, we are after all in the country. The difference however very much exists. The buildings are different, more humble, and most have had some renovations done to them in the last 20 years. The age demographic is different as well, apparently a lot of the youth have left for the west and it has left a strange void in the population.
Today when we arrived in the town we were asked to speak at a town meeting of sorts on our cause and the organization. About 12 of us and 12 German’s attempted to communicate through broken English and German as we both tried to teach each other about our world views. Once again I was struck by just how kind and caring everyone was and how they too were very concerned about the state of the world. Continually running into motivated people really does keep us going through some of the tough stretches.
I was also struck by the fact that the unemployment rate here is about 20% and that many don’t have enough money for electricity or extra water. It makes me appreciate our hosts and their generosity even more and I feel like that feeling will only continue to grow throughout the trip. This experience really has left me a bit shocked though because there is a very real possibility that some of the money we have raised for microcredit could be used by people right here. I understand that there are poor people back home that could use it as well but for some reason because it is Germany in my mind I just wasn’t expecting it. I never expected to be experience the anthropological ‘other’ syndrome here. It makes me feel very spoiled getting to ride through their country on a new bike with 20 other new friends for two months.
In many ways this experience makes me think that the honeymoon period of our trip is over. Our bodies finally seem to be getting used to the grind we are putting them through and now it is time to start getting around to some of our lofty goals that we started out this trip with. We needed time to goof around and learn about each other as a team but now it is time to focus back down to the task at had. I am certainly not saying we aren’t still going to have fun, but I feel like our fun will have greater social implications now. Luckily I feel like others are picking up on the same vibe as well as we had a vibrant 4 hour discussion on the death of protests and green-washing. Many of us were so absorbed in the conversation that we actually had to be told twice that dinner was ready!
So our first 8 days were fun, but now it’s time for some serious fun.
Written by Jenika July 8th
Stassfurt – Last night, we rolled into what seemed to be a Nineteenth century movie set, complete with winding cobblestone streets and a market square with old buildings. We later learned that Goslar is actually an UNESCO World Heritage Site, not a Hollywood Site. We were so enchanted that we held a vote on whether we should take an early day off and spend the next day here instead of riding. The difficult decision to keep going was made, and we went to bed. For those who wanted to see more of Goslar though, they got a bit of closure this morning when our host, Andreas, brought us to the top of a Church tower overlooking the town. All of our hosts have been amazing thus far, and Andreas is no exception. He then guided us out of town onto the Old B6, setting us on the right path for our 100km ride to Stassfurt. Thanks for hosting us, Andreas!
I rode “sweep” with Robbie. As Dave mentioned, our role is like being sheep dogs. As responsible sweepers, we felt obligated to give everyone a proper head start, so we stopped at a bakery after 10km of riding. Eventually the last pod caught up with us, and we were officially off.
The ride into Stassfurt was fairly tame. No endless carpets of rolling hills or attack of vertical mountains. The weather was also co-operating, and we were accompanied by a tailwind for the majority of the way. Not everything was peachy though, as Shani got her first flat tire and Robbie fell while trying to multitask going over a curb and unclipping. We watched his long legs flip graciously in the air as he landed unscathed, thanks to years of tumble training in sports. We got rained on during the final 15km into town, so we were happy to see our teammates at our accommodation spot, where we are spending the day off. It is now morning and the smell of scrambled eggs beckon, which Nigel prepared for everyone. So that’s all for now! Peace and bicycle grease from Germany.
