From July 22, 2007:
Hi friends,
We are currently in Copenhagen hanging out for a few days with our friend Tim
Staton (from Madison). We have been on the road for the last 8 days traveling from
Berlin to Copenhagen. It was an interesting trip through both West and East Germany. We
noticed how suppressed the East had been. It is quite gray and they are just starting
to get color into their lives. They don't have alot of industry and we were told that
because of this many of the younger people have moved west. We didn't find many people out on
the roads in the smaller communities. Speaking of the roads...they use alot of
cobblestone or just plain stone for their side roads. It was very rough on our bikes as well
as our backs, arms and wrists. We ended up cracking both of our rear rims in more than one
spot. Thank god Ward knows now to relace a wheel!
Berlin was very neat. It had such history and grandness that it was quite an experience. It
also had trinkhalles which are little stands on the side of the road that specialize in
sausages and of course beer. Mainly locals hang out there so it is a great
place to go to find out the local perspective on things. So, we had to visit them when we came
across them...I mean, getting to know the culture of the people is one of our goals you know.
We did have a language barrier in East Germany. Many of them don't speak
English and so we had to use our picture book (compliments of Jen Baskfield) and played
charades. Its easy to agree with people when they talk to you and you don't know what they say
but it almost got us into trouble once when a girl came to our campsite and after
talking to us for awhile and Ward agreeing with her she tried to come into our tent when we
tried to go to bed. She was quite adamant about sleeping with us but we were able to keep
her out. Now we make sure people know that we don't understand.
We had some challenges with the train stations and subways with our bikes. They
are packed to the gills and way heavier than what we had at our going away party or
on the GRAB. Well, we were at the train station and had to take the bikes on the
escalator up and down numerous times because we couldn't get our location right. Visualize
trying to hold a 100#+ bike back from rolling down the escalator steps. Everyone was afraid to
stand by me when I would go on it and I don't blame them. Then when we tried to get on
the subway with the bikes the doors closed on the rear half of my bike and wouldn't
open up. It took 3 of us to tug and pull to finally get the bike and bags inside.
We took the ferry from Puttgarden Germany to Denmark and then headed to Copenhagen.
The city is great with the grand tall strong buildings and the history but very expensive.
Please see the blog from today to see the comparison in prices. Tomorrow we will take
the ferry to Oslo Norway and we'll see the fjords. We will then head to Lillhammer.
Weather: it started out rainy and then got really hot. High temps hit 106
degrees F. I thought we were baking on the road. We went through 6 liters of water that day.
Then the weather cooled off but got windy (headwind of course). Then it sayed in the
70-80s and we came into Copenhagen with a tailwind (finally). Our mileage has been
between 50-80 miles a day. It is highly dependent on the weather, terrain and how
Jacky's legs feel.
We had one mishap. Ward left his credit cards in the phone booth and they were stolen.
Oops.
We are having a great time and wish you were all here with us. Please check out
our photo gallery and blog. If you would like to comment on anything you can do so
through the blog. Pictures should be up by Monday.
Hope e-group next week. We aren't seeing the internet cafes like we thought we
would.
Love to all.
Jacky and Ward