Weihnachtsmarkt and the never-ending winter.
It was the middle of November when we got a lucky break thanks to Ana Breckwoldt. We had been looking for jobs and getting nowhere until Ana made a few calls for us and found a possible job working for a Circus during the central Christmas markets in Hamburg. We trekked into town to meet our prospective boss and were extremely delighted to find Mischa, a man who seemed to want to help us out as much as he could. There was space for us to stay at their property where they operate a circus school, so we nervously, but excitedly packed half our things on the bikes (sent the rest home with Ana one day after work) and made our way into Iserbrook, just one suburb away from the Breckwoldt parents.
We moved in on a Friday and Mark started work on Monday. His first assignment was to help erect the huts and tents for the markets that would run for 30 days between late November and Christmas. The weather was already quite cold and rainy by mid November and I was quite happy to not be working outside. Mark’s first week was in central Hamburg and the second week was in a town called Lubeck, about 1 hours’ drive from Hamburg. The markets officially began on 23rd November and were open every day until 23rd December. In Hamburg the market was set up directly in front of the town hall in the middle of the city and that’s where we spent 12 hours, at least, per day for the entire market. Mark was working in the kitchen of the Circus’ restaurant while I worked for a biscuit stall selling traditional German biscuits. The month consisted of sleeping, travelling to work, working and then travelling home again. We ate all our meals at the market and didn’t even enter the kitchen/living room at home between Nov 23 and Dec 23.
The market had a great atmosphere and was a fun workplace for us. We met some really great people and it came to an end more quickly than I had anticipated. After the final day of work the circus crew all went and ate a meal together before visiting a few bars later in the evening. At the end of the night we rode home in a taxi unaware that was the last time we would see many of those people during our stay in Hamburg.
The next day, 24th December, seemed to be when most of the Christmas celebrations are carried out in Germany. We got in on the action, opening our presents a day before normal and were even invited to dinner at the circus directors’ house. Martin cooked up a goose and we ate traditional German style food including red cabbage and knoedel (potatoes, eggs, and some sort of powder all mixed together and boiled in water). We contributed a packet of Tim Tams to the evening and they were devoured with many oooh’s and ahhh’s.
There was no rest on the 25th as we were invited to eat a meal with Ralf, Marion and Jan out at the apple farm in Jork. We travelled by train and had a beautiful afternoon at the Schliecker household eating more traditional German food of green cabbage, sausages and potatoes. Jan (3 years old) wanted to tell us stories, show us all of his new toys as well as watch his new movie all at the same time! We left in the evening feeling very full after a delicious meal and very tired after a whole month of work and festive celebrations.
Over the following days until New Years Eve we caught up on a lot of sleep. To bring in the new year we had been invited to attend a party at the Blankanese Sailing Club down by the river. The night was cold, with snow and ice all around. During the market there had been a few days of snow, and consistent temperatures just below zero, so it was a different new years eve to that which we’re used to, not only because of the cold temperatures, but because everyone is allowed to buy fireworks in Germany and at midnight there were explosions all along the river banks in both directions! To begin with I was pretty excited about the amount of fireworks I was going to be able to enjoy as the clock ticked over into 2010, but at times people lit them right next to me and I didn’t know how big the blast was going to be, or in what fashion it would explode; whether it would fizzle around on the ground, shoot out flare type sparks or just make a series of sparks and bangs. Overall it was great fun, even if nerve-racking at times. We partied until 5am and caught the first train home where we fell into bed and possibly didn’t really move until 3 days later.
When Monday 4th came around we headed to the city to check out a German language course. It proved expensive and time consuming, and considering our stay was dependent upon the weather we decided against it. We might not have learnt much German as a result, but it gave us the free time to travel and see a bit more of Germany, which otherwise we would not have seen.
Wally travelled to Munich to catch up with Jon Cope at the end of January. I had fallen on the ice and hurt my leg a few days prior to that trip and decided against the chance of worsening my injury while walking around Munich as a tourist. I think it was a nice chance for the guys to catch up without me, and a welcome bit of solo time for me as well. After Mark’s days in Munich he said they walked a lot and drank a lot (of beer). So I think I made the right decision, and at the end I still got to eat a pretzel as big as my head (a most awesome present from Wally), so everyone was a winner!
Only a week after Mark’s Munich getaway, we were off to a small town near Kassel, in central Germany, to visit Brendan Hanley and his girlfriend Britta. While searching the mobile I found Brendan’s number and thought I’d search for him in facebook. I found him, sent him a message and was amazed to find out he was also in Germany. So, with the use of Mitfahrgelegenheit (an online car-pooling website) we were off to Kassel for €15 each, a bargain compared to the train or bus. The last time I saw Brendan was for 5 minutes, almost 4 years ago, in Melbourne one day as he rode past me on his bike; prior to that I hadn’t seen him since high school. Mark had known Brendan when we were all part of the surf lifesaving club, but they hadn’t seen each other for maybe 6 or 7 years either. So it’s fair to say there was a lot of talking and excitement during our 3 day visit to Britta’s place in the small town of Braach, which lies in a beautiful valley with the river Fulda winding its way along the valley floor.
Not so long after our return from Braach, we were off to Berlin (again with Mitfahrgelegenheit) to visit Marie Breckwoldt, who had moved to the capital in December with her boyfriend Stefan. We spent one week in Berlin and had almost perfect weather the entire time. When we arrived there was still snow and ice, mostly ice, covering the footpaths and roadsides, but when we left it had all melted and everything looked very different! We spent our days walking around the city from Marie and Stefan’s centrally located apartment. We visited all the big sites including The Brandenburg Gate, The Reichtstag (parliament building), Checkpoint Charlie, the remains of the Berlin Wall, as well as numerous other places old, rebuilt and new. We had a look through the DDR museum to learn a little about what life was like in the former German Democratic Republic (or eastern Germany) and treated ourselves to The Blue Man Group. It was an hilarious evening with 3 very entertaining fellows creating weird and wonderful sounds and scenes, all without muttering a word. They were covered in blue paint and maintained a very unemotional expression on their face the entire performance. At times there were crowd members pulled from their seats to take part in the activities, but everyone in the crowd was involved in the show as well. And it didn’t matter what language you spoke because they never talked, and often when there was something to read (in German or English) it ended up being something that added to the experience, but wasn’t a vital part of it. The grand finale had everyone laughing and cheering, and I think everyone would have sat there all night watching these 3 crazy guys jump around the stage. Everyone that is, except the teenage girl sitting next to me, who took no part in any of the fun during the whole night. If she can’t enjoy an evening at The Blue Man Group, I don’t think she enjoys very much at all.
We said goodbye to Marie a day before we left Berlin, as we were off to stay in a crazy hotel for one night. It was called Propeller Island City Lodge. Every room in the place is designed uniquely and our room had white walls, white bed, white sheets, a white door that covered the window, but 3 different coloured lights so you could transform the entire room to be red, green, blue or a mixture of all 3! It was so much fun. Other rooms included one that was completely covered in mirrors, one where the bed was IN the floor, another where the bed was floating and some had themes such as ‘the barn’. Each room also had its own music system installed, our room was called ‘therapy’ and our music was composed accordingly with forest, beach and other soothing recordings.
The next morning we casually rolled out of bed and headed for our meeting point to catch our lift back to Hamburg. We arrived in Hamburg and delightedly walked back to the circus without stepping on one piece of ice of snow – the first time in over 2 months. Quite a different reality compared to the story of ‘here in Hamburg we only have about 2 days of snow each year, and it turns to slush about as quickly as it falls...’
With the drier conditions we were out to chip a 2-inch thick, 50 metre long strip of ice off the footpath bordering the circus property. It took 5 of us about 2.5 hours to clear the way with shovels. The next day we were feeling very tender in our muscles that worked to chip that ice, and for me, that was basically my whole upper body! The day after that... it snowed again. And not just snowed for 20 minutes, but for the whole night and we awoke to find snow piled up as high as the middle of my shin! It’s fair to say that we were not impressed. Even less impressed when the path we shovelled to our front door was flattened and recovered with snow thanks to the bob-cat attempting to clear a path for us.
That was about the 5th March. We’d started to get excited about our departure when the snow disappeared in Berlin. But after the 5th March I was pretty wary about getting my hopes too high again. The snow did, however, quickly disappear after that surprise dump and we were organising packages to send home and farewell drinks within ten days. It was a festive time to leave Hamburg, with school holidays the circus school was buzzing and there were many people to celebrate with us on our final evening. I painted a picture telling the story of our journey to the circus and then gave it to them as we said our goodbyes. I don’t know if the style was easy for them to understand, but I hope they come to appreciate it as time goes by.
The night of the 16th was our final night in the cosy home provided to us by Circus Mignon. We will always remember the generosity and hospitality of the crew we met there. The night was spent with delicious food, fun conversation and many brain teaser games to finish it off. I hope we see our German friends in Australia one day so we can show them a good time in our homeland as well. We went to bed both excited and sad; sad to be leaving the place we have been calling home for the last 7 months, but excited to get back on the bikes and continue the journey section of this adventure we are calling The Slow Way Home.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Some Apple Picking
Two Aussies, 38 Polish and 1 German (the boss)
Living at the apple farm we didn’t initially realise how outnumbered we were, not only on our farm but seemingly in the entire region. We were introduced on the first day of work as ‘international guests’. We were placed in a group with what seemed to be the lazier ones of the workforce, but never working with any of the other groups we never discovered the work ethics of anyone else.
In the beginning there were a few women in our group, but after a few days, or maybe a week, all the days fused as one very quickly, the ladies were all bunched to form a separate group that worked in the packing shed, or on their own area of the orchard with Sebastian (the guy with the best English) as their driver.
We started at the south end of the farm picking ElStar – a smooth skinned pinkish coloured apple to which we became very attached, picking them for what felt like nearly our entire apple picking career.
Each day brought new instructions on what IS red and what IS NOT. Sometimes it became easier to differentiate the shades, and for a while I used the technique of watching what others were picking, but that quickly became troublesome because for some reason when we picked a vividly red apple, it in fact was NOT red, according to the Polish leader of our group who couldn’t really explain what colour red we actually needed to pick.
During the day our group of 10 was split into two smaller groups. Luckily for us, the people we found most offensive were in the other half of our group. One guy could actually make a whole sentence from 1 swear word, amazing. And even more astonishing was that the other members of our group looked up to him.
After a while we decided that there seemed to be little pattern in how / which apples were picked, so we just waited for the instructions and did what we were told. I didn’t realise it beforehand, but there is actually quite a lot of technique required to pick apples. There was a minimum size, you had to check for blemishes, make sure it was the correct shade of red and pick 2 or 3 in each hand, then place the good ones in the big crates; blemished ones in the smaller boxes. And all of that happened every few seconds for 10 working hours every day. There was an extra challenge for shorter workers, in that the crates for the apples were tall enough that, depending on the position of the tractor, we had to lean quite awkwardly in order to place our apples safely in the bottom of the crate.
We worked for around 40 days in Jork. The days started as long and sunny, but by mid October had turned quite cold and grey. Some mornings we were reaching through branches that still had ice on them. It was like picking ice blocks off the trees. Miraculously, the cold didn’t affect the Polish too much, not that we could understand what they were yelling at each other, but us Aussies were wondering whether our limbs were going to drop off! I suppose it might have something to do with the fact that they’ve grown up with snow and ice in their backyards every year.
We finished the season at the start of November and at times we wondered if we would make it to the end. We probably learnt more Polish than German, and I’m very happy that I completed my time there without developing asthma. After all, I think there were some workers I barely saw without a cigarette hanging from their mouth. Sometimes I was completely surrounded by smoke and had to evacuate to the end of the tractor in order to breathe some fresh air.
The night before our last working day, the boss provided some tasty food and drinks for the whole crew to sit and enjoy together. It was the first time I’d seen some of the people without hats or beanies and found it quite tricky to identify a few of them.
The last day of work was complete at midday and it culminated with everyone converging on the same group of trees to be picked of their last apples. With everything picked, the crew of 38 Polish and 2 Aussies rode on the tractor trailers back to the shed one last time. We bumped and bounced along the track together, as we had done every morning, lunch time and evening during the last one and a half months.
The following day many of the Polish had returned to their homeland and the busy atmosphere that had surrounded the farm the previous day all of a sudden become much more relaxed. We spent the next 2 weeks unwinding, searching for a new job and contemplating how we would move to a new place after somehow acquiring a few extra belongings since settling in a couple of months ago.
Also, you might notice that the last couple of blogs have been lacking in photos. This is due to a technical issue of a buggered camera card, and will hopefully be fixed when we get home. Sorry about that.
Living at the apple farm we didn’t initially realise how outnumbered we were, not only on our farm but seemingly in the entire region. We were introduced on the first day of work as ‘international guests’. We were placed in a group with what seemed to be the lazier ones of the workforce, but never working with any of the other groups we never discovered the work ethics of anyone else.
In the beginning there were a few women in our group, but after a few days, or maybe a week, all the days fused as one very quickly, the ladies were all bunched to form a separate group that worked in the packing shed, or on their own area of the orchard with Sebastian (the guy with the best English) as their driver.
We started at the south end of the farm picking ElStar – a smooth skinned pinkish coloured apple to which we became very attached, picking them for what felt like nearly our entire apple picking career.
Each day brought new instructions on what IS red and what IS NOT. Sometimes it became easier to differentiate the shades, and for a while I used the technique of watching what others were picking, but that quickly became troublesome because for some reason when we picked a vividly red apple, it in fact was NOT red, according to the Polish leader of our group who couldn’t really explain what colour red we actually needed to pick.
During the day our group of 10 was split into two smaller groups. Luckily for us, the people we found most offensive were in the other half of our group. One guy could actually make a whole sentence from 1 swear word, amazing. And even more astonishing was that the other members of our group looked up to him.
After a while we decided that there seemed to be little pattern in how / which apples were picked, so we just waited for the instructions and did what we were told. I didn’t realise it beforehand, but there is actually quite a lot of technique required to pick apples. There was a minimum size, you had to check for blemishes, make sure it was the correct shade of red and pick 2 or 3 in each hand, then place the good ones in the big crates; blemished ones in the smaller boxes. And all of that happened every few seconds for 10 working hours every day. There was an extra challenge for shorter workers, in that the crates for the apples were tall enough that, depending on the position of the tractor, we had to lean quite awkwardly in order to place our apples safely in the bottom of the crate.
We worked for around 40 days in Jork. The days started as long and sunny, but by mid October had turned quite cold and grey. Some mornings we were reaching through branches that still had ice on them. It was like picking ice blocks off the trees. Miraculously, the cold didn’t affect the Polish too much, not that we could understand what they were yelling at each other, but us Aussies were wondering whether our limbs were going to drop off! I suppose it might have something to do with the fact that they’ve grown up with snow and ice in their backyards every year.
We finished the season at the start of November and at times we wondered if we would make it to the end. We probably learnt more Polish than German, and I’m very happy that I completed my time there without developing asthma. After all, I think there were some workers I barely saw without a cigarette hanging from their mouth. Sometimes I was completely surrounded by smoke and had to evacuate to the end of the tractor in order to breathe some fresh air.
The night before our last working day, the boss provided some tasty food and drinks for the whole crew to sit and enjoy together. It was the first time I’d seen some of the people without hats or beanies and found it quite tricky to identify a few of them.
The last day of work was complete at midday and it culminated with everyone converging on the same group of trees to be picked of their last apples. With everything picked, the crew of 38 Polish and 2 Aussies rode on the tractor trailers back to the shed one last time. We bumped and bounced along the track together, as we had done every morning, lunch time and evening during the last one and a half months.
The following day many of the Polish had returned to their homeland and the busy atmosphere that had surrounded the farm the previous day all of a sudden become much more relaxed. We spent the next 2 weeks unwinding, searching for a new job and contemplating how we would move to a new place after somehow acquiring a few extra belongings since settling in a couple of months ago.
Also, you might notice that the last couple of blogs have been lacking in photos. This is due to a technical issue of a buggered camera card, and will hopefully be fixed when we get home. Sorry about that.
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Deutschland
Day 1 in Germany and it didn't rain! Even with predicted thunder storms for the day, it was warm and mostly sunny. Maybe now that we are out of the Viking lands the weather will improve instantly and we will be able to enjoy some late summer sun.
About 2km north of camp was the town of Aventoft, where we both made an early morning dash to the toilet. After packing camp we then headed back through Aventoft which annoyed Nadia that she had ridden 4km for nothing. So the morning session was spent riding along very quietly. Picking up the North Sea Cycle Route again (the 4th country) we skipped Niebull, making our first stop the town of Dagebull, back on the coast again, and following the same dyke from Denmark.
Riding along the dyke we had to constantly stop to open gates, as the whole dyke in this area doubled as sheep paddocks. Going through 1 of these gates I dropped my bike, which darkened the mood. To top it off I soon after realised that the lens of my camera was buggered, with something in the movement mechanism broken after the camera took a short fall the day before. There was amusement during the ride as we came across people enclosures - small paddocks for people within the sheep paddocks. These people paddocks were so that holiday makers could relax on a patch of sheep shit free grass. And popular they were, with many people in each paddock. It was also refreshing to see that Germany is a country that is not shy of the human body, with many of the paddock users opting to swim and sunbake without the hindrance of clothing.
Onwards, and the dyke brought us onto Nordstrand; a sizable peninsular with roads all over it, but only 1 road onto it. We were looking for fuel for the stove but found no servo. So then we were looking for a supermarket; we found 1 but it was closed. With the day going from strength to strength we took the easy option and hit a restaurant for dinner. Nadia opted for an authentic schnitzel, while I chose blindly and ended up with some cold pork with 2cm of cold fat attached, the whole lot having been marinated in vinegar and tasting pretty foul. Luckily there was lots of spuds aswell.
The night was spent beside the road, under the cover of an info shelter telling tourists about Nordstrand. For desert I drank from the $10 bottle of apple schnapps that we had bought earlier in the day and mulled on some contemplation whilst watching the setting sun light the clouds over Nordstrand.
Our second full day in Germany again gave us a rain free day. After waking for the sunrise I dozed until 7.00. We were on the road by 8.25 and arrived in Husem right on 9.00. In Husem we found nothing open, with the 'Sunday rest day' attitude extending from Scandinavia into Germany. So we kept on moving, with nothing to keep us in town. Right on 11.00 we came into the outskirts of Tonning and to our excitement we found the ALDI supermarket was just opening for its limited Sunday trading hours. We happily stocked up on lollies, muesli bars, fruit and flavoured milk, and the whole lot only cost €8 – an absolute bargain compared to Scandinavia. The 500ml of chocky milk was only €0.35, which is like getting a BIG M for $0.70!
It took us a while to find our way out of Tonning and somehow we ended up on a 'Hauptverbindungsstrasse' which translates into 'important main road'. On these important main roads there is lots of traffic moving at high velocity, and bugger all room for 2 confused cyclists. We had no option but to ride hard and get off at the next exit. Once down the exit ramp and onto a normal street again we found a fella waving us down. Apparently he had seen us riding on the road, so had made a u-turn, came back, found that we had already made it to the exit, so u-turned again and found us at the bottom of the exit. He had done all of this just to tell us that bicycles weren't allowed on the Hauptverbindungsstrasse, which we had figured out also. He told us that it was very dangerous and cyclists had been killed on that stretch of road in the past. After this he introduced himself and gave us his business card. He was local, so gave us some good directions, and disappointedly told us that he would like to make dinner for us, but his girlfriend's father was visiting. He told us to call him if we needed anything and sent us on our way.
Our new path was much more relaxed, and on this path we cruised into the town of Heide for some lunch on a shaded park bench. From a servo we bought a road map and struck out for the town of Albersdorf which was surrounded by forest on our map. In Albersdorf we made a phonecall to Winfred, one of the German fellas we met in Denmark, and the giver of the 3kg mapbook. I organised for us to stay with him the following night, and then we went to find ourselves a campsite for the night.
Technically it's illegal to 'wildcamp' in Germany, as we had done the previous 2 nights and were planning to do again this night. We found some walking tracks through the forest just out of town and set up the tent off to the side of the path. Shortly after that the heat died down and we found the path to be well used by locals and their dogs. Two ladies came by and stopped to say 'hallo'. They were happy to find out we were Australian, and even happier to find out we only planned to camp there for 1 night. Satisfied we weren't bums, they happily went on their way. Shortly after this another lady stopped when she spotted us to say hallo. She informed us that it was illegal to camp in the woods and that maybe someone would get angry. We told her we already knew this, but we were only here for 1 night and we would risk being told to move on if any angry German found us. She gave us directions to her house and said that if anybody told us to move on we could go and camp in her front yard, then gave us a friendly wave and went on her way.
Just before sunset we were just finishing cleaning our dinner dishes when a young lass came towards us from the direction of town. She came to us and said that her mother had talked to us earlier, and that she had been sent to bring us a bag of goodies, which included some juice, some chocky bikkies and some sparkling (bubbly) water which the Germans love.
So on our second day in Germany we had already met several very friendly people who did, or were prepared to go out of their way to help us complete strangers, and this impressed me a lot. The general view of Australians is that we are very friendly people that are happy to help, but I can't imagine too many Australians prepared to double back in their car to help a cyclist, or even many who would be very happy to find someone camping in their woods.
On the 24th of August we were the furthest inland we had been, probably since Scotland. Even being this far inland we were still blessed with a headwind, which was rather disappointing. We came across some hills that were the biggest since the start of Sweden, but still nothing compared to Norway. The sunny day certainly made up for any wind and hills though, with t-shirts the optimal wear for the day.
All day we were heading in a roughly southeast direction, with rolling visits to Hademarschen, Schenefeld and Itzehoe. The day was so nice that on the way out of Itzehoe we even stopped for an icecream. We skirted the town of Elmshorn and then came into the outer suburbs of Hamburg, Germany's second biggest city. We found our way to Rellingen and to the house of Winfred and Monica. We stopped to buy a bottle of wine and still arrived half an hour earlier than we had organised, so the only person home was Monica's brother. He was struggling with small talk, and with most other things linked with his mental faculty, so it was a very quiet and strange half hour before our hosts arrived home.
The evening was spent freshening up and relaxing, with a tasty bbq dinner on the back deck. We met the daughter and her boyfriend, then chatted until bedtime. Our bed was the motorhome out in the drive, which was spot on. We were invited to stay for a week and promised a tour of Hamburg the following day, so we that night we slept in comfort, knowing that we wouldn't be needing the tent again for a while.
.
About 2km north of camp was the town of Aventoft, where we both made an early morning dash to the toilet. After packing camp we then headed back through Aventoft which annoyed Nadia that she had ridden 4km for nothing. So the morning session was spent riding along very quietly. Picking up the North Sea Cycle Route again (the 4th country) we skipped Niebull, making our first stop the town of Dagebull, back on the coast again, and following the same dyke from Denmark.
Riding along the dyke we had to constantly stop to open gates, as the whole dyke in this area doubled as sheep paddocks. Going through 1 of these gates I dropped my bike, which darkened the mood. To top it off I soon after realised that the lens of my camera was buggered, with something in the movement mechanism broken after the camera took a short fall the day before. There was amusement during the ride as we came across people enclosures - small paddocks for people within the sheep paddocks. These people paddocks were so that holiday makers could relax on a patch of sheep shit free grass. And popular they were, with many people in each paddock. It was also refreshing to see that Germany is a country that is not shy of the human body, with many of the paddock users opting to swim and sunbake without the hindrance of clothing.
Onwards, and the dyke brought us onto Nordstrand; a sizable peninsular with roads all over it, but only 1 road onto it. We were looking for fuel for the stove but found no servo. So then we were looking for a supermarket; we found 1 but it was closed. With the day going from strength to strength we took the easy option and hit a restaurant for dinner. Nadia opted for an authentic schnitzel, while I chose blindly and ended up with some cold pork with 2cm of cold fat attached, the whole lot having been marinated in vinegar and tasting pretty foul. Luckily there was lots of spuds aswell.
The night was spent beside the road, under the cover of an info shelter telling tourists about Nordstrand. For desert I drank from the $10 bottle of apple schnapps that we had bought earlier in the day and mulled on some contemplation whilst watching the setting sun light the clouds over Nordstrand.
Our second full day in Germany again gave us a rain free day. After waking for the sunrise I dozed until 7.00. We were on the road by 8.25 and arrived in Husem right on 9.00. In Husem we found nothing open, with the 'Sunday rest day' attitude extending from Scandinavia into Germany. So we kept on moving, with nothing to keep us in town. Right on 11.00 we came into the outskirts of Tonning and to our excitement we found the ALDI supermarket was just opening for its limited Sunday trading hours. We happily stocked up on lollies, muesli bars, fruit and flavoured milk, and the whole lot only cost €8 – an absolute bargain compared to Scandinavia. The 500ml of chocky milk was only €0.35, which is like getting a BIG M for $0.70!
It took us a while to find our way out of Tonning and somehow we ended up on a 'Hauptverbindungsstrasse' which translates into 'important main road'. On these important main roads there is lots of traffic moving at high velocity, and bugger all room for 2 confused cyclists. We had no option but to ride hard and get off at the next exit. Once down the exit ramp and onto a normal street again we found a fella waving us down. Apparently he had seen us riding on the road, so had made a u-turn, came back, found that we had already made it to the exit, so u-turned again and found us at the bottom of the exit. He had done all of this just to tell us that bicycles weren't allowed on the Hauptverbindungsstrasse, which we had figured out also. He told us that it was very dangerous and cyclists had been killed on that stretch of road in the past. After this he introduced himself and gave us his business card. He was local, so gave us some good directions, and disappointedly told us that he would like to make dinner for us, but his girlfriend's father was visiting. He told us to call him if we needed anything and sent us on our way.
Our new path was much more relaxed, and on this path we cruised into the town of Heide for some lunch on a shaded park bench. From a servo we bought a road map and struck out for the town of Albersdorf which was surrounded by forest on our map. In Albersdorf we made a phonecall to Winfred, one of the German fellas we met in Denmark, and the giver of the 3kg mapbook. I organised for us to stay with him the following night, and then we went to find ourselves a campsite for the night.
Technically it's illegal to 'wildcamp' in Germany, as we had done the previous 2 nights and were planning to do again this night. We found some walking tracks through the forest just out of town and set up the tent off to the side of the path. Shortly after that the heat died down and we found the path to be well used by locals and their dogs. Two ladies came by and stopped to say 'hallo'. They were happy to find out we were Australian, and even happier to find out we only planned to camp there for 1 night. Satisfied we weren't bums, they happily went on their way. Shortly after this another lady stopped when she spotted us to say hallo. She informed us that it was illegal to camp in the woods and that maybe someone would get angry. We told her we already knew this, but we were only here for 1 night and we would risk being told to move on if any angry German found us. She gave us directions to her house and said that if anybody told us to move on we could go and camp in her front yard, then gave us a friendly wave and went on her way.
Just before sunset we were just finishing cleaning our dinner dishes when a young lass came towards us from the direction of town. She came to us and said that her mother had talked to us earlier, and that she had been sent to bring us a bag of goodies, which included some juice, some chocky bikkies and some sparkling (bubbly) water which the Germans love.
So on our second day in Germany we had already met several very friendly people who did, or were prepared to go out of their way to help us complete strangers, and this impressed me a lot. The general view of Australians is that we are very friendly people that are happy to help, but I can't imagine too many Australians prepared to double back in their car to help a cyclist, or even many who would be very happy to find someone camping in their woods.
On the 24th of August we were the furthest inland we had been, probably since Scotland. Even being this far inland we were still blessed with a headwind, which was rather disappointing. We came across some hills that were the biggest since the start of Sweden, but still nothing compared to Norway. The sunny day certainly made up for any wind and hills though, with t-shirts the optimal wear for the day.
All day we were heading in a roughly southeast direction, with rolling visits to Hademarschen, Schenefeld and Itzehoe. The day was so nice that on the way out of Itzehoe we even stopped for an icecream. We skirted the town of Elmshorn and then came into the outer suburbs of Hamburg, Germany's second biggest city. We found our way to Rellingen and to the house of Winfred and Monica. We stopped to buy a bottle of wine and still arrived half an hour earlier than we had organised, so the only person home was Monica's brother. He was struggling with small talk, and with most other things linked with his mental faculty, so it was a very quiet and strange half hour before our hosts arrived home.
The evening was spent freshening up and relaxing, with a tasty bbq dinner on the back deck. We met the daughter and her boyfriend, then chatted until bedtime. Our bed was the motorhome out in the drive, which was spot on. We were invited to stay for a week and promised a tour of Hamburg the following day, so we that night we slept in comfort, knowing that we wouldn't be needing the tent again for a while.
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