Today involves our first real casualty of the two weeks ride, a spectacular full face plant into the road, very honest Germans, appreciated, and our grand entry into the capital, a place I the Brit have been to before, but it's the Germans first time!
So last night at Juterbog we stayed at a hotel with a bar. It had a lovely outside area by the road, and there may have been food ordered and mayo consumed; I think that's already been covered. While in the garden, the drink was drunk and code written. I have a metal laptop, and my watch is a titanium Garmen; I chose titanium due to my habit of bashing parts of me on things. It's not so much that I am clumsy its more I don't have the usual side effects, if not so gentle, so I tend to use my limbs as if they were made of metal. Watches suffer, and so a very robust watch was required, and it's been brilliant; it has coped with so much. But when coding, I take it off as the metal on metal of the keyboard tends to scratch the laptop. And it then got dark. I packed up my things and went to bed. Sun rises, staff clear up, and the roadside table that we sat at is occupied. We go for breakfast, but I am sans watch. As we get into the reception, both my eyes and my phone connect with the watch.
The German for "ahh, you're the idiot that left your watch by a roadside table all night" is complex verbally but easily communicated via facial gestures.
Breakfast is entertaining as I ask for mayo to go with my muesli "really? I'm confused. " comes the response from Benjamin, "of course not, that would be totally wrong and disgusting", I exclaim, while contemplating if I could get away with it. I decide not to.
We set off to the station, a simple 2.5 Km ride which would have been simple if it had not been down the weirdest dirt track by steps approach. Once at the station, we wait with tannoy announcements explaining that there is an issue, but it's short-lived, and we are soon on our way.
We arrive at Trebbin, a station so small that the sign is pained on the station's wall rather than having a proper sign. We set off to Berlin, but within minutes we are thwarted by the building of a wall, well, perhaps I exaggerate, a fence, but our passage was blocked by the 'Berlin fence.'
Journey recalculated and our route retraced and amended, we head off, only to be halted again by Benjamin's stomach. A quick stop for a drink and perhaps food, I never paid attention, and off again. This time progress is good, the weather peachy, and we are soon reminiscing on how quickly the holiday has flown by and plans for the future. There has been a lot of joomla planning and discussion, ideas, soul searching, and solutions. It's been an eye-opener for me as to the people and structure of another country. So many similarities and yet so many differences; some things I prefer the British way, and many I envy that the Germans have taken the plunge and done it properly. Cycleways and the 9 Euro ticket are amazing. The roads when no tin the cities are so quiet, and there is a definite lack of coffee shops and pubs!
As we ponder the different places and ways of life, we come up behind some dads with some very young children all on bikes. The rear child is oblivious of our approach and as Benjamin, in the lead, rings his bell, the child continues to wobble all over the cycle path, which curves around the inside curve of a road with a metal barrier to the right.
The dad looks back and then signals, panics and overreacts as he gathers the child against the barrier to allow our transit. The further advanced dad and child are more to the right, riding in a much straighter line and are no problem to pass, that is until we passed. As Benjamin passes, the dad and child behind turn to their left and see him shoot by and me approaching, and then it happens. No, I did not kick the child, as Benjamin so gleefully told Samantha later. I merely shot past, and his pointless manoeuvring to avoid a collision that was not going to happen tipped the young child's bike into the barrier. He then did a spectacular face plant on the asphalt surface and let out a real cry of shock and pain as I whizzed off. I was past the dad who had stopped and turned back to assist his now path-bouncing child.
Benjamin did, after a while, suggest we offered our first aid kit showing empathy and his love of mankind; I pressed on with the journey suggesting that we may still require the kit as Berlin was a while away.
Parks came and went, and many equestrian centres were passed, tennis courts and other sports facilities. Soon a river and pleasure craft, a veritable flotilla of boats of all shapes and sizes and with a multitude of different propulsion systems. Pedalo, punting and powered motor, rowing, just sail, and steamboat and nuclear were missing as petrol and diesel craft motored by. The cycleway hugged the river as much as it could with some suspect underpass ways that pitched cyclist against cyclist with no way of avoiding a head-on apart from quick reactions and luck.
And then the final countdown, under 10km, under 9...5, 4, 3 the density increased, the realisation that two weeks of cycling that started with a simple question and answer exchange, "Fancy a tour of Germany after covid?", "Sure." That's all it took to start this journey.
My advice to anyone chatting with Benjamin is to think very hard about your answers; it may seem like a madcap idea that's just a throw-away comment, but thats not what he is thinking, and if it's not "NO", then he will take it as a maybe, verging on yes.
The last few hundred metres find us at the Rui Hotel, our home for the next two days while we recover and sightsee around Berlin.
We locate a bike rack outside the hotel and then in full cycle gear, and with Samantha joining us from the hotel foyer, we leave for food and drink while we wait for the hotel to allow us to check in and find a very pleasant cafe which becomes our refuge for the next hour.
Our bike tour over, our on-foot tour about to start, there is much to chat over, ponder and remember with affection.
So until the last blog, our conclusions on the trip and lessons learnt its thank you to you, dear reader, for joining us on our travels.
It's been fun.
