Les said, the better II

Last night, it rained. After hundreds of kilometers of no camping and false threats, it fiinally came. Some minor modifications in tent usage left us dry.

In the toilets this morning, between soft rock hits of the late 80’s, i thought i heard a predication of scattered showers in the morning with sun later on.

After breakfast, we went to see the viking long houses. The areanear our camp ground had been one of the largest and most important viking settlements. They ancient town had been excavated and a sunken viking ship in the harbor had been salvaged. We skipped the museum, but went to see the reconstructed dwellings. There was a tie up post outside for dogs, so we left xena there.

I think the non-stop barking gave the reconstruction some added authenticity.

They had 5 viking buildings, a viking sidewalk connecting them, viking cattle grazing nearby and a vikng dock going to a viking ship. All of it, we were assured, made as faithfully as possible. Those vikings had some mad skills. They had thatching and adobe and a dock not too much different than a modern one. The booklet pointed out how the village was  a lot like a medieval city. Nicole observed that it greatly resembled a contem’orary dutch village with the tiny thatched houses packed close together with cows adjacent.

After the long houses and some food, we started onward and the promised shower materialized. And then turned into a gusty downpour and then hail blowing right against us! Agh. I was soaked to my skin. Nicole’s feet didn’t dry out all day.

Our route took us up several saand paths. Uphill on wet sand. Towing a dog. Wih wind. Today was a heck of a workout. At least it actually did get sunny.

Still, the scenery just gets more and more incredible as we pass rolling meadows, corn fields, cows grazing, forests, etc.

Tonight, we are camping again in a tiny little campground. Charming.

I haven’t, but I’ve biked one.

Oh my gods, so cold. So wet so raining.

Yesterday, we got to flensburg, which, although in germany, is a fjord. I didn’t know it at the time. The rain was unrelenting, so we sat at a cafe for a loooong time. I sewed velcro to my bag. And we sat some more.

Then we biked to denmark. Oh my goodness, so exciting.  The landscape difference between northern germany and denmark is striking. Different trees, different land shapes wow. That bjork film ‘dancer in the dark’ was filmed in denmark, i think. It was reminding me of that with grey skies. Kind of put a bit of a downer on my i-can’t-believe-how-far-i’ve-biked high.

And then our route went directly through the best preserved nazi concentration camp. All the buildings and gaurd towers are still standing.  Happy blahblahblahing went to silence and trying npt to cry. We went to the amnesty international exhibit. This shit isn’t over. People are still being killed for their religion, their political beliefs, their gender, their gender expression, being queer, etc etc. As we left it started to rain again.

Our royte npw takes down a lot of dirt roads. Denmark has a whole heck of a lot of them. Uphill in wet sand is teh suck.  Harder packed sand is ok. I didn’t know i would need mountain bile tires for this trip. I keep getting stuck and having to push my way free.

So far, the dirt roads have talen us over two out of three famous stone bridges. They’re old. At least one of them has no cement at all.

Last night, we went to stay in a kro. This is some sort of danish hostel. Alas, the kro on our route closed years ago. At 7:00, the former kro owner directed us to a bed and breakfast some 3km east. It staryed pouring down rain on the way. While the sun brightly shown. It was practically tropical. The double rainbow made a complete circle, ending at my bike tire (alas, no pot of gold). It was amazing. The fields were SO golden. The rain felt warm from the effort of pedalling uphill. It was amazing.

When i got to the b&b, i was cmpletely soaked, down to my skin. They wouldn’t take dogs.  We rode a few k south, looking for a campground on the map. Spent an hour going up a loose wet sand road. No camping. Got out my car map. Went 7k east looking for a marked hotel. No hotel.  It was then 22:00. Dark. Cold.

We went to a farmers field and pitched a tent there. In the dark. It was so cold. We were still wet. Xena was shivering. She insisted on sleeping in our sleeping bag with us.  She was wet and dirty, but it was so cold out, that we let her, just so she could help keep us warm.

We woke up realy eary this morning and paked up. It would suck to get run over by a corn tractor thing, although not too much danger of that, really.

Today has been cold and raining. I bought a fleece b;anket for xena so she will stop shivering. We went all on dirt roads today, until we got to aabenraa, another fjord.

I am wearing leg warmers, arm warmers, the liner from my rain jacket and the jacket over my bike shorts and slightly thicker jersey.  I am so cold. I am not leaving this cafe ever. It’s warmish in here. I hardly notice how wet my feet are.

Xena is shivering. This is august! I feel like mark twain in san francisco. I heard it’s supposed to be better tomorrow.  I hope. I hope. Brrr.

Last night, it rained. After hundreds of kilometers of no camping and false threats, it fiinally came. Some minor modifications in tent usage left us dry.

In the toilets this morning, between soft rock hits of the late 80’s, i thought i heard a predication of scattered showers in the morning with sun later on.

After breakfast, we went to see the viking long houses. The areanear our camp ground had been one of the largest and most important viking settlements. They ancient town had been excavated and a sunken viking ship in the harbor had been salvaged. We skipped the museum, but went to see the reconstructed dwellings. There was a tie up post outside for dogs, so we left xena there.

I think the non-stop barking gave the reconstruction some added authenticity.

They had 5 viking buildings, a viking sidewalk connecting them, viking cattle grazing nearby and a vikng dock going to a viking ship. All of it, we were assured, made as faithfully as possible. Those vikings had some mad skills. They had thatching and adobe and a dock not too much different than a modern one. The booklet pointed out how the village was  a lot like a medieval city. Nicole observed that it greatly resembled a contem’orary dutch village with the tiny thatched houses packed close together with cows adjacent.

After the long houses and some food, we started onward and the promised shower materialized. And then turned into a gusty downpour and then hail blowing right against us! Agh. I was soaked to my skin. Nicole’s feet didn’t dry out all day.

Our route took us up several saand paths. Uphill on wet sand. Towing a dog. Wih wind. Today was a heck of a workout. At least it actually did get sunny.

Still, the scenery just gets more and more incredible as we pass rolling meadows, corn fields, cows grazing, forests, etc.

Tonight, we are camping again in a tiny little campground. Charming.

When we took the ferry across the elbe a few days ago, the toll collector took a look at us, the bikes, xena and just spoke dutch to us. I laughed all the way across the river.

Yesterday, we encountered a family also on a bike trip. They were: two adults, four kids and two dogs. One of the dogs much bigger than xena, the other much smaller. And i thought WE were crazy.

Today is our easy day. We went to a viking museum. I bought a viking shield and hung it from the side of the dog trailer. I want to hang an axe from the other side, but nicole says this would be overdoing it. Maybe a carved dragon thing for my handlebars.

We also went to the huge cathedral in schlesswig. I don’t know if i spelled that right. I might fix it later or not. We had more plans for today but got side tracked by spacing out. I think i read that the gold miners who didn’t keep the sabbath died from exhaustion. This is my viking sabath. Appropriately enough, we are camping in odin’s campground. Keep His day holy. There’s also an odin biergarten. I love germans. I hope they have honey beer.

My pledge to never eat cheese isn’t going so well. Not for lacking of wanting. The spirit and flesh are strong, but the food selection is week. It’s eat cheese or don’t eat. Meh.

Happy to be camping again. Happy to be slacking. My morale is high in general. Nicole’s too, i think. I don’t know about xena. She is always inscrutable. Today, she got to run along side some and play with another dog and eat a bunch of stale bread left for birds and then vomit that same bread. Eww. I don’t know how dogs feel about barfing. I hate it, but it doesn’t seem to bother xena as much.

As for my spacing, well, i think it’s sometimes the case that white anglophones get more upset about hearing about racism than by racism itself. They’re sorta fine with it as long as they don’t have to hear about it. I was thinking about some old flamewars and it seems to explain them. I dunno. Maybe this is way obvious, but, you know, i don’t HAVE to think about racism if i don’t feel like it, which can make me slow on the uptake. Also, that’s privilege. Not having to worry about things.

I get really random thoughts while biking, when i have enough spare braincells to think and especially when i can think but not talk. The rythm of the spinning wheels repeats over and over again with my slightly uneven pedalling. It says “stop typing on that thing and eat so we can go get beer already.”  Oh, no, that’s nicole.

First: I’m tired. Not sleep in late tomorrow tired, but need 2 weeks at a hot spring tired. We’ve reached the dreaded hilly stage. Actually, we dreaded mountains, but after a year in the netherlands, any incline seems mountainious.

I’ve quit doing kilometer counts. I’m too tired for math. We’re inching forwards uphill and i’m happy with the pace. It’s not like we could be going faster, so it’s all good.

When i last typed, we were in a hotel in gluckstadt. Which is a charming little town. It was teeming with touring bikes the next morning. Several folks had questions about the doggy ride. One woman was especially interested. Her husband looked pained and alarmed.

We got out of town and went only 5k or so until we encountered a village having a festival celebrating its 700th anniversary. Traditional arts galore! We got honey meade there. Can’t be on a viking route without meade. It was cool.

Then we continued on to take a detour to izethoe, because it looked big and interesting. But, as it was sunday, there was nothing open but ice cream shops. Why are they all named after venice? I’ve been to venice twice or so and the ice cream has never been especially memorable. I’m pretty sure i’ve had some there.

This town was not on our itinerary, probably because it’s on top of a big hill. We huffed and puffed over it. The weather was fantastic. I have specifically avoided doing distance calculations for yesterday.

We made another detour at the end of the day to go to a town which looked big-ish on the map. We hoped to find lodging. And we did. I want to know if germans camp? Almost all of the marked campsites are near a border.

We stayed in an overpriced hotel. I sat down on the bed at 7ish and woke up there at 8am. Zzzzzz.

Today, the weather was less great, but i think we got farther. Not calculating, so don’t know how far. My gps can give a 3d fix, includibg altitude. It said we were at -12 meters. Lies! I think we went uphill all day. So pretty, but phew!

In other news, i am never eating cheese again. Not just because we’ve been biking past daries and the smell is hideous. Not just because a truck full of cow shit was sloshing everywhere on the road today. Not just because i saw a bunch of unhappy lookibg cows jammed into a barn today. Not just because a recent encounter with hearing a pig scream in agony for several minutes made me unhappy with factory farming. No, i’m quitting it because i’ve had enoigh of it in my time in germany now. Eough to last the rest of my life. Every single meal! I’m done.

The bread is really good though.

Tonight we’re staying in the wikingerhof: the viking hall! They don’t serve meade in the restaurant. What kind of vikings forego meade and have pastel paintings up of little girls in white dresses wading in the tide at sunset? Is  thomas kinkade a viking now?  Fortunately, we have our own meade, which i am drinking right now. It calms the stomach after you subject it to the vegetarian meal here. I would be silly to complain about veggie food in this paragraph. (Viking style tofu?) but, um , what was my point? Something about how baked camembert is actually fried and is not camembert. also, why do they fry the parsley? and all the whipped cream? did they just think to put all their dairy products together on one plate?

August 11

I know why ancient people had wind gods. The peoples along the north sea and the rivers feeding it must have had several. The elbe must have a powerful god all it’s own.

I made a wrong turn today and had to power up a steep hill, while the wind was momentarily still. It was surprisibgly easy. This wind is like biking the alps. I don’t knpw how hard it is for nicole, but xena’s trailer has unfortunate sail-like properties. I spent almost all of today in first gear and my knees are tired regardless. I feel badly about about how kendra’s departure played out, but there’s no way her ankle would have survived today, alas.

We started around 11:30 in Bremervörde and rode about 29k to Hemmoor, where we detoured in a very roundabout manner looking for a pet store and lunch. We found a feed store which carried xena’s kind of dogfood, but closed on weekends.

In Hemmoor, we were re-united with the viking route, which we will follow more or less faithfully into Denmark. We followed it for around 23 more k, bringing the daily total to about 52. We reached Glückstadt around 8:30, after taking a ferry across the elbe. My kilometer totals don’t include accidental or intentional detours. Man, we rode for a long time and what felt like a longer distance as the temperature dropped, the wind blew and the sky grew menacing.

There was rain forecast and we felt a few drops and saw the steely gray color of the sky and so opted again for a hotel. This one without internet and correspondingly cheaper. Of course, it’s not actually raining. Meh.

It is cold though. The wheat is almost all harvested. We pass hay lofts full of bales and busy tractors. Roadside stands are selling apples and pumpkins. Dry leaves crunch beneath our wheels and today i saw ducks migrating. Wasn’t it summer just a few days ago?

We are really quite far north. I guess autumn comes early here. Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny, so we’ll see. The dark grey skies over the impossibly green wind-blown fields is worth worse weather, imo.

So calculations show that on day 9, we went about 40k and day 10, about 60.

As you recall , when you last heard, we had lost a member. That night, i went to bed very early, even before the sun set. Woke up feeling much better. We had a lot of late nights since coming to germany, something that certainly harmed our social dynamic. A lot of this trip seems to be abput stuff my mom told me as a little kid. Eat your breakfast. Get plenty of sleep.

Our route started going north along the wesser river. The terrain was flat, but ooh, the wind! The river is dotred with charming towns and touristy stuff.

We briefly reunited with the viking route to take a ferry east. Then we parted again to follow a somewhat more roundabout marked route. I had anticipated more charming towns and cute bike paths. Alas, this has not been the case, but our route has taken us past larger towns and things like camping and hotels, something the viking route lacks for this stretch. Vikings, of course, wouldn’t stay in hotels.

Going away from the river has cut down the wind, but added a lot of uphill, which for me is easier.

Around 4:00, we were really close to the only campground when it started to rain. Our sleeping bags still have not dried from the last rain, so we consulted our list of bed and bike hotels and called one of them. We rode a couple hours farther and got a warm dry room. And internet. Everyone is pleased. Except for xena.

August 9

The hotel was a 3 star. I couldn’t figure out how it was different than a 2 star until breakfast, which was really nice. Also, sleeping in a bed was quite great. The hotel was part of the ‘bed and bike’ network in germany, which is a very nice system. The hotel had protected bike parking and caters to bicyclists. They packed us a lunch!


After breakfast, we biked to the center to look around and get photos in better light. There was a market so we stocked up a bit on edibles. They had the most beautiful blackberries that i’ve ever seen. Tasty, too.

We were far from the viking route, so we started up the hunte route, which follows the hunte river. It’s sponsored by the government, so it has much better signage. Also, a lot of places along it cater to bike tourists. And it has some of the most beautiful countryside that i’ve seen in germany.

However, the wind was against us and strong. Despite her new clips, kendra was having some troubles wither her heel. She was basically pedalling with one leg. Then, to make maters worse, she hit a pothole right before lunch and bent a rim.

The major downside of our route today was a lack of toilets. After lunch, i ended up sprinting for a bit and then finally turned off the route to go to a truck stop. I felt obligated to purchase something, so i got some ice cream. I came out eating it and found nicole standing at an intersection. She explained that she knew kendra had seen our route until that point. We wondered if her bent  rim had caused a flat, so nicole rode back to find her. She was missing.

Just as i started to compose an sms, i receoved one from her. She was at the tourist office. I reasoned that she must have gone ahead there to find information about repairing her rim, and smsed back to say i was heading over. Nicole paused to make use of the truck stop and emerged with a bunch of fries.

It tok me a while to find the tourist info, and when i got there, kendra was looking displeased. She handed me back my route map and announced that she was going home. I expressed concern for her tendon, but she explained hat she was angry that i had sprinted to the truck stop and that nicole had waited so long to find her. She had reasoned that we would backtrack and we would therefore encounter her. I had assumed she would catch up and we would go forward through our detour.

She was extremely upset. She could have been hit by a car or something and we had ditched her.  I don’t know how long she waited, but we did come back to look for her. I can understand why she felt so frustrated though, with her ankle problems and broken bike and, alas, things were still a bit tense after our crit theory argument. I tried to talk less about feminism and theory issues and stick more to life experiences, but there’s a weird vibe when you’re specifically NOT talking about things that are important to you. So i can understand why she felt so unhappy.  I hope her joints feel better after a few days rest.

This confrontation, which, alas lead to my tiny bbq getting trashed, took up a lot of energy, so nicole and i only went on a few k to camp. And kendra, hopefully, got home ok.  I kind of want to call and check, but she was so angry, i don’t want to make her more unhappy.


In other news, my bank in ca was trying to reach me because somebody had a fake id and was impersonating me, trying to withdraw money! They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but i’m not sure about this case. I really want to know if they tried to look like me or wore a disguise and generally what it would be like to pretent to be me, but i doubt they put so much thought into it. I’ll have to wait to ask george cluney when he plays me in the movie verson of this blog.

August 8

last night i learned that if you touch the side of a tent during a rain storm, you get wet. Ok, i actually already knew that, but was, alas, reminded.

Nicole woke up feeling really sick. I sent her to sit in a warm indoor space while i packed up both of our things, all of which were wet. Meanwhile, xena kept sneaking off someplace. Kendra followed her and discovered her chewibg on a really large bone. I hope it came from a deer or something.

I finally got everything packed while kendra went in search of informayion about a bike store. The day before, she announced that pain in her achilles tendon was so severe that she might have to go home.

After we finally assembled our selves, we went to a cafe for breakfast. We had a slow meal while nicole recovered her strength. The nearest bike shop was 3k south, so we went to that town. The bike shop didn’t havr clips- which kendra suspected would solver her wores, but one 4k further south might.

They didn’t have clips either, but they had rain gear, which nicole had never pyrchased for some reason and now sorely needed because of the continuing light rain. They also had helmets to replace the one she lost a few days ago. That shop called a shop another 6k south and determined that the larger more southerly town had clips.

So went further south to what is actually a city. By this, i mean that you don’t see tractors on the main street. The viking route takes us consistently to towns consisting of a church, a firestation, a cafe and a tractor mechanic. It’s a nice change to be in a real town.

Kendra purchased a lot of gear and had her bike repaired. We dallied and then got a hotel room. With internet. So, today we made negative progress. But i got to upload some stuff.

August 7

Day 7 got off to a tired start. We had an unexpected argument the night before about critical theory of all things. Kendra maintained that crit theory is an attempt to impose non-normative meanings upon pop culture where it does not belong as a part of an effort of elitism so that crit theorist types can asert their superiority pver other groups by inappropriately claiming oppression and tryibg to inspire guilt in folks who better conform to normative ideals. Specifically, she was annoyed about 3 separate conversations about comics. I can say that i never expected to be shouted at regarding whether or not tje x,men movie had gay subtext or whether superman had jewish subtext or, really to ever be yelled at about wonder woman. Doesn’t the wong say she heals the world with love? In her satin tights, fighting for our rights.

So we woke up early in the morning to have breakfast at the home of the wife of the guy who runs the campground. She made us scrambled eggs and gave us bread and whatnot. She’s from el paso and had travelled a lot  and wanted to pass forward tje kindness she had received.  We sat and talked for a long time.

This made for a late start. We were all pretty tired from the late night. But the weatjer was nice and cool. The sky was clouded over, which made for a nicer ride, but no solar charging. Actually, my little computer has a pretty long battery life, so a day of no charging was no big deal.

I have no idea what our millage was. We got to our campsite as it started to rain. Pitched tents and went into the town for dinner. The campsite had a certain creepiness. It was clearly repurposed from sonething else and was full of empty buildings. Also, it was largely empty. Many of the motor homes were mossy. There were slugs around, but none in the tiolet, so that was ok. Actually, the bathrooms and caretakers were really nice.

Around the border, there were alot of catholic religious shrines. A few were dedicated to the virgin, bur most were of the crucified christ. By afternoon, most of them were passed.

In other news, xena had started seeming very exhausted. Alas, she doesn’t sleep at all in the doggie ride, but rather worries the whole time, sometimes while pacing. The earlier camping seems to have helped. Also, it was good we got off the road before the rainstorm started.