On The Road... Again

And so it begins... again.

On the 17th of March, 2010, after 6 months and a handfull of days (and a smashing going away party) we rolled out of Circus Mignon and towards the first of a few ‘already on the move’ farewells. The Breckwoldt family’s fish shop was the first port of call, where we were given lots of hugs and promises of visits to Australia. As we headed outside to our bikes getting ready to leave again Achim and Kristin followed us out for a photo. One of the other staff came to take the photo and with us standing between them, they unfurled a banner saying goodbye to us from Hamburg, pure words of love. What a great send-off! We had a picnic lunch put into our pockets and then it was on the road again.
From the fish shop we rolled down the hill to the northern bank of the Elbe River, where we were able to follow some nice paths all the way into the city. It was a nice sunny Wednesday and there were lots of people along the river walking, running and lunching. The snow had fallen as recently as 2 weeks before, and the ‘permafrost’ ice covering the footpaths had only fully melted away a few days ago, so all the Hamburgers were out and enjoying the early springtime sun, as weak as it was. We stopped at one stage when Nadia was having some packing issues, and were instantly caught in conversation with a happy looking fella who had been confused by the stickers of the country flags we have plastered to our frames. After confirming we aren’t from Norway and that we are from Australia, but we haven’t ridden all the way from Australia, he then told us about his bestselling book from many a year ago about his journey by bike around Germany, showing Germans that they don’t actually have to go on an expensive holiday to have a good holiday, and that their own country is pretty bloody good. He was now married and stuck in a job and didn’t like it, so hopefully seeing us out and doing it brought some joy to his day.

We had planned our 1st day well, with the destination being the old apple farm, which meant a short day of only 47 km. To leave Hamburg behind for good we chose to exit through the Old Elbe Tunnel, which is open for cars, but also used by pedestrians and cyclists. After taking the elevator down to the tunnel level we strolled along underneath the Elbe River, took the next elevator up and came out onto the southern side of Hamburg. All we had to do now was to weave our way through the industrial part of this dock city before emerging into the fruit farm district of Altes Land (the old land).
We had been warned by some locals that it was easy to get lost on this part of the ride, and get lost we did, but only once, and it only added an extra 2km to our day. And taking the wrong road in this part of Germany isn’t as taxing as taking the wrong road in Norway, as here when you realise you have made a mistake, you don’t then have to push the bike back up a 3,000mtr mountain.
So with the docks behind us we started to see the acres upon acres of fruit tree farms, all looking half dead without their leaves, but the foliage free trees did make it easy to see several deer grazing and birds of prey checking for movements in the grass. Through this area we were travelling along the earthen wall of a dyke, and for the second time, we got ourselves into a friendly conversation. This time it was an old fella on his bike who had stopped to talk to his even older nextdoor neighbour who was also out on his bike. He happily chatted away for a while, and we learnt that he has never been to Australia, but he has been taught how to make and play a didgeridoo from bamboo, naturally. His older neighbour very proudly told us that he was 72 years old and rode his bike 40km every day.

Since leaving the circus in the morning with all our panniers loaded up to the max, people’s attitudes towards us were markedly brighter and friendlier. I noticed many drivers and walkers smiling as we rode past, we had people stopping to talk to us, we even scored a thumbs up from one old dude, and old dudes don’t just give away thumbs up willy-nilly. There were questions of where we were from and where we were going. During the winter we didn’t ride our bikes much (Nadia’s bike was actually frozen to the ground), but when we did we didn’t get much of a reaction out of anybody we passed. I put this down to the lack of panniers. Without the panniers we looked just like normal everyday cyclists, we might even have been locals for all anybody knew, and hence the lack of interest from passersby. But now that we were looking like full on, crazy tourists that were from somewhere else and were right at this very moment going somewhere else, and the fact that we believed that their city of Hamburg was a destination not to be missed, then we were interesting and must be nice people to be engaged in conversation at any opportunity, and failing this, then a friendly wave would suffice. Or maybe everyone was on a natural high because it was the end of a bloody long and cold winter.
Once through the town of Neuenfelde we were back on ‘home turf’ and cruised along familiar roads. We saw one of the hundreds of little apple tractors chugging towards us on the road, carting the usual 5 apple bins behind, and low and behold, it was Ralf, our old boss, doing his thing. He saw us and grinned and waved, then kept on his way. A few minutes later we arrived at the farm and found that Marion was also out, but she soon drove in with young 3 year old Jan riding shotgun and ready to tell us all about his day’s adventures. We moved back into our old room for the night, and then joined the family for dinner and drinks, after which we very much enjoyed looking at all Ralf’s photos from his January trip to Australia.

That was the end of the first day back on the road. It was great to be moving again after what felt like such a stagnant winter, even though we did some bike-free travelling. We had an awesome time in Hamburg and made many very good friends. The send off we received the night before we left and again on the day was memorable and touching. One incredible gesture from our good friend Anne was her gifting us with a small lizard pendant that had kept her company for many years of her life, and it was given to us with the wish that the lizard would bring us many years of luck too. How special is that! So with memories that will hopefully last a lifetime, and be built upon with future visits to Australia, we had left Hamburg, but this night was with the old boss, and the next day 1 final goodbye would be the last of our Hamburg farewells.

The next morning we wanted to get up and at'em early. We knew we had a massive day considering it was only day 2 on the bikes, and it was all starting just across the road. First it was a nice brekky with the Schlieckers, after which Jan had politely asked his Mum if we would ride our bikes with him. So we headed out onto the concrete out the front of the house and straddled our bikes while Jan starting cutting laps around the concrete. We joined in and after countless laps we rested while Jan chucked a few more blockies, before deciding it was now time for me to push him on the swing. We had a fun half hour before we finally had to pull the pin and make a move. Ralf loaded us up with apples and a photo stick of the morning’s fun and then it was goodbye to the farm.
1km down the road we were off the bikes again, this time for our final goodbye from Hamburg. This time it was Ana Breckwoldt, who works at the Jork Tourism Centre. She arrived just after we did and surprised us with a journalist. As she works in the tourism centre she does a lot with the local newspapers and a few days prior she had been contacted by a local reporter who was trying to chase down a story of the oncoming spring, Ana had mentioned our situation and the reporter decided that we were a great story to show that spring was finally arriving. So after an interview and a few photos she left happily and we were left to our goodbyes with Ana. They were short as she was actually at work, but they were sweet, and I’m positive that Ana (and the rest of her family) will visit us in Australia.

Once we left Jork we were into unexplored territories and would be for many thousand kilometres more. But this day was going to be a very long one, as we had accommodation waiting for us in Bremen, about 90km to the sou-southwest. There were suggested paths from other riders who had ridden between Hamburg and Bremen, but that they wound around on nice quiet roads, and were also about 30km longer, so we gave them a miss and just followed the most direct route. Even though following the more major roads we still had nice and wide sealed bikepaths all the way.

Now that we were moving towards central Germany we were entering a very populated area considering what we had found in Scandinavia, but still it was farmland with heaps of tiny towns’ inbetween. As soon as we saw the ‘thanks for visiting’ sign from the town we were leaving, we could also see a sign proclaiming that the next town was only 2km away (sometimes as close as 1km, sometimes a massive 3). So for the day we passed through 24 towns, and stopped at 2 of them. The day gave us beautiful weather with the lightest of headwinds, and lunch was had at Zeven, which was a bit over the halfway mark for the day. Once again we only took 1 wrong road for the day; at Lilienthal a bridge under repair had us pretty confused, and we ended up turning to the right instead of the left. This took us on a likely looking path that just didn’t do what it promised, and after 2 kilometres we decided to turn back as by this stage we should have been in the suburbs of Bremen. After this we negotiated the city like pro’s and got to the front door of our host right on 7pm. And that was the cycling done for now; after 2 days in the saddle we now had 2 rest days in Bremen.

Our nights in Bremen, and all the way for the next week of riding, were accommodated thanks to a nice little website called Couchsurfing. Jonny Cope got us onto this site, where after entering our details, we are now free to find other members in the area we are travelling through and send them a message to ask to sleep at their house, either on their couch or spare bedroom, and for free! Of course the idea is that when you are home you also offer the same free accommodation. It’s a great idea, and for anyone with a spare room or a sofabed, then I reckon it’s a pretty nice way to meet some (possibly) cool people from all over the world. We were loving the couchsurfing as we weren’t wanting to bust out the tent yet with the nights still dipping down to zero, and every German had told us we were crazy to be cycle touring at this time of year. Most Germans happily told us that we could expect some snow in April and here we were riding in March. But our first 2 days of riding for 2010 had been dry and geez it felt great to be on the move again and riding through country areas after such a long stint in big cities.

Our 2 rest days in Bremen weren’t as nice; it rained on both days and the temperature dropped a fair bit. We had a nice time wandering the streets of Bremen and found it to be a beautiful little town. The market area in the middle of town was cool, with the Rathaus (town hall), the Dom (cathedral) and crazy old buildings surrounding statues of Roland and the Bremen Town Musicians. Some of you might know of the Bremen Town Musicians from story times long ago (4 animals; donkey, dog, cat and rooster who wanted to be musicians and scared some bandits out of a house). We wandered the old town walls that have been turned into nice gardens and saw the Becks (proudly brewed in Bremen) Brewery across the river. Some pleasant days indeed.

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