Day 19: Greek Breakfast and Afro Caribbean Dinner July 19

Hof to Bayreuth - 43 miles

Started today off with a good greek/german breakfast. Following the Salle Radweg. Almost got caught in the rain storm but we hid under some pine trees on the side of a wheat field with the bikes, took out the chairs, and had a yogurt while the storm passed. Pine trees make a pretty good umbrella! Who knew? After the rain, the weather held out and we dried out. That was good but we had a lot of hills (our final hills) as we make it out of the hills and onto the river valleys. On top of that, we had a head wind of up to 25 mph all day.... That can slow you down terrifically and really drain your energy. After climbing and climbing we hit a HUGE, fast, steep, descent into Bad Bernack with a closed hotel at the bottom called Hotel Bube. So strange!

We had another big downhill a few miles later, looking down onto the auto bahn (German Highway!!!) Andrea thought that Bruce was taking her on the highway again like in Turkey. There was some serious swearing that no one could hear going on down that down hill... As we came into the city of Bayreuth, we tried a couple of hotels (one being a Best Western) and finally got a room at the Hotel Golden Hirsh (a bit pricey since it is festival season but a very nice room with a real bed!!) After showers, we went out to explore the city and found an Afro - Caribbean festival going on with live music, ticky tacky tourist shopping and food and drink stands. We got rackets at the beer stand and Samosas at another. We listened to the music while walking down the street drinking beer in real glass beer steins feeling totally bad ass. We had dinner at a cafe near one of the performances. After a Bounty Bar ice cream Sunday (think Almond Joy for my Americans) we headed back to the hotel for laundry and sleep. Another hard day but totally worth it!

The World is Ours!

Day 18: Tri Border Point July 18

Joditz to Hof - 33 miles

It rained overnight... We heard thunder and rain hitting the tent but tent was dry in the morning. Score! As we ate breakfast and made coffee, we chatted again with the old german touring cyclist who was solo touring. He used to be a merchant seaman in the Americas and knew Caldera (where Andrea lived in Chile). Right as we left the campground we hit some hills again. After a few miles we got to Modlareuth, which was a divided village also called " little Berlin" because it had a wall right down the middle of the village of 50 residents. It had a very good museum with film showing in English! They also had a vehicle display as well as reconstructed wall were very good, although there were hoards of tourists. We left after getting to climb up into a watch tower. We hit some more hills to Grobau and then along the former border. After even more hills... And cows... And geese... we finally reached the old Tri Border Point where East and West Germany met Czechoslovakia. Now it is where Bavaria, Saxony and the Czech Republic meet. We had the area all to ourselves. It was actually a bit eerie being at a point where three different armies would have made sure we wouldn't have been there. Walked around and took photos. As we left we had a dew idiom to make, go further into the Czech Republic or head back into Germany? Due to terrain and weather concerns we stayed in Germany rather than going in Czech Republic where we didn't know what we would find. We cycled with a headwind for about 10 miles to get to Hof. Once inside the city limits, we found a guesthouse above a Greek Taverna. We had an excellent dinner right outside the window of our hotel room on the second floor terrace of the restaurant. We had dinner with salad and pita which is a big change from schnitzel mit pommes. We had a couple of ouzo shots with the proprietor and headed to bed to get ready for the morning.

The World is Ours!

Day 17: Thoughts While Cycling (TWC)

Ludwigsstadt to Joditz 33 miles

Cycle touring is hard. There are some things though, that can really make a tough day better.

Shiny little red tear-drops of alpine strawberries arching up from their leaves almost like they are asking to be picked from the side of the path was so steep you could not push one pedal further... When you find yourself on a single track mountain forest track so bumpy with roots that you have to walk the bike and almost completely covered in low thick bushes that your panniers can badly fit and then you find hidden blueberries, deep navy blue and ripe in those bushes hiding under the leaves waiting for you to find them. A sweet long slow downhill, where you pick up enough speed to cool you down but not so much to make you need to pay attention.   It is even better when you find your partner waiting for you at the bottom, excited to see you excited too, cheering you on and looking out for you from the bottom. Feeling yourself getting stronger, more able to do things that two weeks ago you would not have been able to do. Eating a steep little hill for lunch (Meaning cranking up a tough little up hill and reaching the top in one push... Only wanting to die after you reach the top!)

You think a lot on the bike. About yourself, about important people in your life, about stupid little things and big huge meaningful things. Today was one of those days. Cycling makes you face fears (like heights) and push through physical exertion, exhaustion, and discomfort. But it is so much like life. When you reach a hill, you can only see so much of it even if you know it is big and you really don't know how long it is going to take you to get up it. There may be steep bits, it might be hard but eventually you make it up and over. You take breaks, drink some water, set short reachable goals, pump yourself up with a song or idea that motivates you, and you make it up the hill. It hurts, you're tired, there are times when you just want to sit down and just stop but you don't. You know you need to get where you are going and you do it. You just do it! Then you get a downhill. Should be easy right? But you don't know how steep it will be or how much traffic might be coming your way or even if it will be long enough to make up for all the work you did getting up there. But sometimes, you can see just far enough to know you are clear. Then you take your hands off the brakes and laugh as you fly downhill, not caring how much more you need to do. Just loving how good it feels to fly.

Today was a really hard day with a lot if climbs. We started in Ludwigsstadt and the road pretty much just kept going up... and up... You get the picture...Stopped at the Netto for provisions. They have the best prices and our favorite yogurt drinks. We hit a really steep hill up to Lauenhain where Bruce found his rear wheel was loose. We had to do a quick fix at the top of a hill. After the quick fix we pushed up past the wind turbines which Andrea hates. One should never cycle where there are wind turbines or ski resorts. These are rules to live by. Up into the woods along the border between Bavaria and Thuringia where ancient border stones from centuries past are all along the Rennsteig trail. We got lost a little lost following the East German convoy road but found our way back on route after coming down some steep hills that made the 18% from yesterday look like Kansas... Holy Moly! We were way out in the woods at this point so we got to see how nature reclaims an area after 50 or more years of little to no human activity. We saw a horde of teeny tiny frogs no bigger than your pinky nail cover the path. They are tricky to avoid! We also saw deer and hares ( which are like bunnies on steroids... Ever their ears are jacked!). In a few of the towns, all the houses are entirely covered in slate, from top to bottom. This is the slate mining capital of the region, so much so that they have a slate museum. We kept getting these annoying downs and then the same amount of up again on the other side. Finally we took the down into Blankenstein where the Rennsteig starts. It is also where a whole bunch of hiking trails start in the area( Hannah check this place out!). We made lunch of wieners wrapped in ham near the cool sculpture with hiking boots. From there the road was nice along the river for a while then more hills... We had a serious up to Eisenbühl then serious down and corner in Rudolphstein. It was really hard to keep momentum. We finally got a nicer stretch down into Hirschberg where we saw a peloton of struggling cyclists going the other way. We cheered them on knowing how hard they were working for that one hill. We stopped in town to geolocate and map check when a very nice older couple came over to help us out. They had traveled in the USA ten years ago and were very excited to meet us. They recommended a campground about 5km out of town. So we took their advice and tried to get there... 3 more hills to the campground in Joditz... But once we got there we had a place to stay, a nice dinner, clean clothes and a lovely Danish couple who wanted to be our friends. They invited us to their table for dinner and we chatted until we all needed to go to bed.

So thinking about today. How hard it was. How many hills we pushed up and over. How hot and exhausted we felt. Without these trials, strawberries don't taste as sweet. When we get home, stuff will still be hard. We will be tired and cranky. Life will still go on. But we know how to overcome really hard days together. We know what will help each other make it up and over even the toughest hills. Most importantly we trust each other with our weaknesses because we saw them and still pushed up those hills together.

The World is Ours!

Day 16: Bruce Learns Not to Listen To German Do Not Enter Signs July 16

Coburg to Ludwigsstadt 38miles

We started today in Coburg. We met the hotel owner whom we had only spoken to on the phone yesterday. We also got to walk through the center walkway down to the back garage where our bikes were. The building is from the early 1600s and still has pieces of the original architecture like this internal quadrangle in the middle of a huge city. Very cool. We had coffee and cake from the bakery downstairs at the fountain with the pigeons to start the day. This is after the espresso shots from the espresso machine we had complimentary in our room. Bruce made them, it was lovely. We successfully navigated out of town via the Netto market (supply stop) and followed a bike route to Neustadt and had another coffee. Sometimes you buy a damn coffee just to use the bathrooms... Not ashamed to admit it! After some planning in the shade, we crossed over the border (East/West German) into Sonneberg where there is now a McDonalds in the former death strip....doesn't seem right somehow... Or maybe it does...We easily made it to the center of Sonneberg and then the village of Steinbach, where we then started our first major hill of the day up to Jagdshof... Long and hard up... then down to Heinersdorf ... Not long enough and too fast down. Today was kind of a filler day with lots of ups and downs but no big awesome thing to talk about. We tackled a loooong slow climb from Heinersdorf to Tettau and then over the old border and along the Rennsteig - an old german post road. The road was closed road due to logging activities just after Heinersdorf. We saw the sign at the edge of the woods... But it was ONLY a warning not a DO NOT ENTER! Then about 2km into the woods we come across the DO NOT ENTER sign... But we were already so far in... So we lifted the sign and traveled on... What is the worst that could happen!?! Absolutely nothing! We heard some logging activities up on one of the hills WAY above us but were never in any danger... But if we had heeded the sign's advice we would still be cycling around the detour... Humph! Not to mention that those loggers just taught Brucie not to listen to German DO NOT ENTER signs... Not a good lesson to teach a rule bending Scotsman... Just saying... In all of this huffing and climbing, we made it up to the pines and spruces again... Not good... and alpine strawberries... Very good! We even pilfered some blue berries. The raspberries aren't quite ripe yet. We even saw highland cows (heilan' coos) the long haired shaggy ones. We traveled through gorgeous german villages that time forgot and even watched a farmer stack hay bales with his huge tractor with massive spikes. It is crazy how small a tractor and hay bales look without perspective. Taking about perspective, we saw a mountain biker with an e-bike (electric assisted bicycle). This seems like cheating... Like really cheating! As the day finished up, the first guesthouse in Lauenstein was closed for their day off. So we had an Eiscafe and cherry sundae in the restaurant next door before going downhill to the main road. This downhill had an 18% gradient down through this town... Which for those of you who don't know makes you feel like a house fly on a bedroom wall. 18% feels like skiing the Matterhorn after a long day in the saddle. At the bottom was the Post hotel but they were way too expensive. So we pedaled on. We cycled couple of miles down the road and got a guesthouse, dinner, and beer... Long day... Sleep now... The World is......:::snore::::::

Day 15: Push it Real Good! July 15

Fladungen to Coburg 54 miles

Love starting the day off with a good breakfast spread. Bruce had to leave the city walls to get internet to start the tracker but we packed up the bikes and were out by 9am. We stopped at the Rewe super market on the way out of town to stock up for the day; salami and cheese, an avocado, 3 bananas, 2 yogurt drinks, and a candy bar... Set for the day! Down the valley we rolled to Mellrichstadt , nice and easy. We saw our first field of sunflowers today, so exciting! We lost the Radweg at some point but we went on the main road instead, which was perfectly fine. We had an uphill out of Mellrichstadt to Sondheim which was piece by piece not that bad but it was an uphill, so... Yah... But we got to cross the autobahn where the last rest area in West Germany was before the push to Berlin. Cool. Lunch was lovely in Herbstadt. We set up our chairs in the shade; spread out the food, cut up the perfectly ripe avocado and went to town. Nothing tastes so good as lunch after a long up hill... Well maybe Eiscafe... But lunch comes in a close second. Frustratingly, the tracker was quirky in middle of day and stopped tracking our location but Bruce sent a quick email to tech support and even though we got no response the tracker app fixed itself half way out of town... Yay!!! We cycled out of Alsleben through rolling wheat fields... Like you do... It was getting hot and we were getting a bit cranky when we saw a little picnic table under a tree... These are very common in Germany along with benches... Everywhere!!! But we stopped to get a bit of rest and some shade. Right next to the table we saw this stone horseshoe filled with water. It turns out we had happened upon the source of the River Saale. This was the actual spring that feeds the whole river! The water was so cold and clear. We dipped our buffs in the water and rinsed our necks and foreheads in the freezing water. There was a little place where the water poured from the well area... So of course we tried to dam it with rocks... Unsuccessfully... We played in the cold water for a few more minutes, undid our dam and headed off much refreshed and ready to push on. We got a little turned around in Gompertshausen but found our way after chatting with a hilarious older couple that was sweeping their dirt driveway. We call them Oma and Opa. They gave us directions which we did our best to try and understand and took photos. They were awesome! We had a lovely cycle down the valley to Gellershausen. It is fun traveling with a human GPS, when the route map doesn't quite direct us on the shortest, flattest, most efficient route between two points...

We take the "Brucie Radweg"( the Bruce bike path). This Brucie Radweg was excellent. We pushed up into Heldberg where we got an ice cream cone and decided to push onto Coburg, a big city for these parts and way farther than we thought we would get to today. Down to Lindenau and then up and over to Ummerstadt which was the smallest city in the GDR. Then uphill again and finally down into the outer areas of Coburg. We were beat but we knew we just had a little further to go, so Andrea got a Coke to perk her up for the final few miles... Oh yeah one whole liter of caffeine and sugar at 5pm!!! Woo Hoo!!

Signage and directions are a little confusing getting into Coburg although at one point where we stopped to look at the map, a motorist stopped to assist us... Literally stopped right in the middle of the road.... You just don't do that in Germany! And then he was joined by another local resident who spoke more fluent English. In tandem they directed us into Coburg. Little did we know we had to coast down a very steep hill signposted at 18% to get there but we did it! We found our way to the marktplatz after going down some narrow alleys, zig zagging between very old, very beautiful buildings. We got a hotel room on the main sq (in the hotel called The Square) after calling the owner as no-one was in the hotel. This s another strange thing for us... No one at the reception of a hotel, just a phone number stuck to the door. The owner spoke English which is always helpful and gave us the codes to get keys out of this little dispenser box behind a door. We ended up getting a lovely modern room with views of the square and the bikes had a whole garage to themselves. So we brought up only what we needed, changed, and went out for dinner and a walk. Dinner was in a brauhaus (pub)with a two person speciality which included pork steaks, chicken, beef, two types of cabbages, and polenta all washed down with their local brews. Our waitresses were Bavarian beer wenches... In Bavaria! We saw one pick up 6 beer steins in one hand! We cleaned the plate but could barely walk out of the restaurant we were so full! Now off to bed... In an actual double bed rather than two twins pushed together! We are so tired but we cranked out 54 miles! Longest day yet.

The World is Ours!

Day 14: Rain Day Rest Day July 14

Slept really well and really late. We went down for breakfast 15min late! But it was still there and we seem to be the only ones staying here. We decided to take a rest day today since our things were still drying and it was still quite overcast and showery, so we paid for another night and went on a walk to see the town. First we tried tourist information, the. We took a walk around the city walls which were built in the 1300s. We managed to find a little Internet outside o the city to check email and post a blog. We went to the local outdoor museum where all these traditional buildings from the Rhön area have been relocated. It was very well done showing all the construction and restoration as well as keeping all of the buildings open and functional. The brewery still makes a batch of beer every year for a festival and the oil mill still produces rapeseed oil on occasion. We had lunch in the restored Inn on site. Andrea accidentally ordered a local delicacy, pork and veggies in aspic (meat jelly). It wasn't as bad as it sounds and the bratkartoffelen (friend potatoes) were really good. Always try something new. Sometimes it will surprise you. After napping we worked on the bikes a bit and starting packing up all the bags again which were strewn about our small hotel room. At dinner downstairs a he hotel, we saw the darnedest thing. We noticed that last night it was ladies night. Two tables were completely full of ladies laughing and drinking beer. Tonight we had a group of about 10 70-80 year olds wearing Orange neckerchiefs with a logo that matched the candle on their table and an all men's table that seemed to be the rowdy old man's cloud that kept trying to out-chuckle the Orange neckerchiefs. Today was a nice restful rest day. The weather should be nice tomorrow, so off we go through Bavaria!

The World is Ours!

Day 13: Did you know it rains in clouds? July 13

Philippsthal to Fladungen 38 miles

After a pretty sparse breakfast, we followed an older couple also staying at our hotel towards Fladungen.We followed alongside railway lines past industrial plant (nice and flat). We found our way into horse country at Pferdsdorf (pferd means horse in German). There were lots of little picnic tables along the Ulster river as we followed the Ulstertal Radweg for a while I nto Geisa and a Netto market stop. Somehow we missed the turn for Point Alpha as distance suddenly increased when we got into town. Because we missed the turn off, we hard to walk up a massive hill up to Point Alpha where U.S. Troops faced off against GDR forces at the westernmost point of the Warsaw Pact. We toured the excellent museum on the Thuringian (East) side but they make you pay again on the Hesse (West) to see the US army base and observation tower... So we didn't go to the American side... Although there was more English being spoken over there which was so weird to hear after most two weeks of Herman all the time. We flew downhill back down from where we had just pushed up an hour ago back into Geisa. We had intended going up into the old center of town but we just couldn't handle another UP after Point Alpha... We then set out along the Ulster river through Schleid, Motzlar, Gunthers and into Tann. As the clouds started to drizzle we stopped at a cafe which turned out to be both a coffee shop and a handicapped art gallery. We had a nice conversation with the owner/artist/therapist and then off we went hoping the rain would hold off for another couple of hours. On towards Hillers where we stopped at a grocery store and second cafe for the day due to rain for an hour or so. Bruce got a wonderful treat from Andrea of Himbeer cake and coffee. We waited until the band of rain passed. As the final drizzles dried we headed out to get up the last hill of the day...

Here is where the rest of the day happens...

We hit a Massive great hill out of Hillers to the border on the ridge line. This hill just KEPT GOING UP! So much so that we actually cycled up into the clouds. This should be romantic right? Cycling into the clouds together... Well... We thought it had stopped raining... But did you know it rains in clouds? So, yeah, it started raining again. Even though the hill was very long and arduous it WAS better than the prescribed bike route that went up the same elevation in about half the distance and a muddy gravel path. Cycling in the mist and fog can be dangerous so we put in our tail lights, we put on our head lights and Andrea even put on her head torch to make us visible. We pushed and pedaled up that damn hill about 100 meters at a time until we reached the top and the boarder again. It was hard but we did it! We did it together! So it was kinda romantic ... In a way... We had a slight downhill into Frankenheim and we thought we might stop there if we could find a place to stay. Even though there were signs for a hotel and people gave us directions we failed to find it. We were soaked, it was still raining, and we just said screw it... We can push on to Fladungen where we knew there would be a hotel. Onto Fladungen, which was a massive drop in elevation through the villages of Leubach and Oberfladungen. Holy Moly! If you think pushing up a hill in the rain is hard, whizzing downhill in the rain is terrifying and exhilarating! Wow! It was insane! You just hold on, laugh histerically, and hope you can keep you balance and your breaks the whole way down. We found a guest house right off the bat in the centre of Fladungen and quickly started drying everything. I mean EVERYTHING! All of our panniers were perfectly dry except one of Bruce's which leaked a little due to a small wear hole :(. After HOT showers, we went downstairs into the Gaststatte which is the pub type area of the establishment. We had a hearty dinner of Schnitzel and beer and goulash soup. There is no internet at all in this town which will make posting this tricky. We think we need to take a rest day tomorrow to dry off and it is supposed to rain tomorrow again.

We worked so hard today. We earned every mile. The World is Ours!