A new kind of cycling experience .
Instead of maximising the kilometre and couchsurfers-met per day average, this time I am escorting a school group on their first international bike ride to Denmark.
How this came about was that I was informed about four teenagers lacking the necessary "Begleiter", chaperone or adult supervision, if you will, for their school trip to Copenhagen and back by bicycle. After meeting the four teenagers in question (Lasse, Paul, Linus & Flynn) back in March and a discussion with one of their parents, I organised the necessary paperwork and prepared myself for the trip.
Basically the school invites one grade to take the challenge (Herausforderung) to go into nature for three weeks during the school term, by bike, hiking or spending the time working on a farm. This involves them organising all the details of the trip, including packing lists, designating the route and organising all accomodation for the three weeks. All of this on the limited budget of 150€/person, so that they learn the value of asking people/ organisations for their assistance. This means that each person has on average 5€/day. Preparation for the trip therefore involved contacting campsites to ask for free use of their facilities and the ferry to get free tickets. The guys must organise everything, as I summarised "I will have for slaves for three weeks". A very worthy project indeed. I am only to step in if they run into a problem they cannot solve by themselves.
Instead of planning everything myself, I must lose this sense of control for this trip and rely on their organisational skills. Also a good exercise for me.
So I find myself in front of Lasse's apartment on this bright and sunny Monday, awaiting the final check of this group. As I have been informed by the school counsellor, the main purpose of this adventure is not to travel to Copenhagen as fast as possible, but instead to have time to enjoy the journey. It's more an excursion to let the guys find out about themselves, warts and all, rather than just an international bike ride. I whole-heartedly support this non-formal education part of their school year.
I no longer have to check the route on a map or GPS, just check that I come back with the same number of teenagers as I left with.
We definitely ride a lot more forest trails than I would usually take, but the plan is only to cover 50-60km per day, so there is no real time pressure.
On the first day we leave Berlin and enter Brandenburg, specifically Sommerfeld, where we stay the night on the grounds of a parish priest, next to the parish church. After eating, we visit the nearby lake and go a cool-down swim as the sun sets. It seems that the guys have everything meticulously planned - "alles ist im Griff" - even the weather is warm and sunny, without feeling uncomfortable.
A longer day planned on the saddle which proves to be harder on the bikes than the guys' legs. Flynn's baggage carrier pops loose, but cables ties are once again called to save the day.
