Berlin BBQ

Germans - just so damn tall!

Shortly after arriving back in Berlin, the parents of the guys held a barbecue in my honour. It is great to see the guys again and have a chance to talk to the parents about the trip.

Rostock and Gustrow revisited

Rostock

 

This time we receive no guided tour on the ferry to Rostock.

On the way to Gustrow, we take Google Maps advice which leads through a field of hundreds of sheep. No matter how often Google leads us down uncrossable paths, the guys blindly follow Google's shortest route suggestion. The sheep turn out to be the highlight of the road to Gustrow.

That field of sheep

Again Gustrow provides us with some culture. This time in the form of two school plays. The guys have become minor celebrities and a breath of fresh air among the teenagers in Gustrow.

As we are running out of time and, I feel, motivation to cycle further, we stay in Gustrow for an extra day. The guys decide to take a train the rest of the way to Berlin. As they are in charge, we spend the last day of the trip onboard a train.

Introduction to cathedral organ playing

The guys are proud to announce that they have spent a total of ~360€ for the 19 days for all five of us (per person we spent on average 3.80€/day). This means that they get to split the remaining ~240€ among the four of them. I just hope that they realise that this was only possible due to the very generous people who let us stay with them and provided us with food during our journey.

The theatre crowd

Heading south

To make our life easier, the guys decide to retrace our route back to Rostock, staying in the same places as on our way here.

The route south proves hard-going with a reasonably strong head wind every day, especially on the stretch to Idestrup. Everyone is going to bed early in Koge and Praesto, due to lack of mobile phone battery life. All rejoice therefore when we find electric sockets and a kitchen in Idestrup. The guys stay up late until after midnight, barely talking to each other, each engrossed in their mobile games. Next time I will insist on a mobile phone ban: no GPS, no phone, no games, no social networking... I think this would be even more of a challenge for teenagers, as simply cycling and camping for three weeks.

Danish hospitality

Beach, just outside Copenhagen

Seems like having no further destination has left us all a little aimless, as we tour about the city. We avoid the major tourist attractions and spend most of the afternoon cycling about and grocery shopping. Shopping with the guys proves extra taxing in Denmark. Everything must be cheap, regardless of how low quality the food is.

On arriving back to base, we find that there is a large school class staying in our shelter. Luckily for us, they have extra food and give us enough food for the next day too. We enjoy food that is beyond out budget; namely cheese, pastries and juices.

Copenhagen, we reach our destination.

The guys dig into some lentils.

Lasse has a very hard day today due to developing a cold in the night, but battles through it. What helps us is having a tailwind blowing us to our destination, Copenhagen.
There are free shelters located on the outskirts of the city and we are most impressed by the cityscape before us and the facilities to hand, especially the opportunity to build a fire and use the massive inbuilt grill.





On the first night we cook lentil soup. Again the guys have accepted that they would be open to new culinary ideas from me, even if it costs a little more. We also use the fire to cook popcorn (the guys are immediate fans) and tea (quite sophisticated). We have such fun, we opt   to spend a second day at this location.

Recharging a phone in the wild.

Køge, on holy ground (nearly)

Where did we leave Linus?

We arrive in Køge and ask at a church to sleep somewhere in their wonderfully landscaped gardens/ cemetery. Not sure if the minister knew we were coming, but he finds a spot for us on the perimeter of the church grounds. I get the feeling that he feels that God is really testing him by sending this motley crew to his doorstep and this the very evening when whe is expecting guests.
Again, I get to choose what I would like to eat and we have white rice with roasted vegetables in a coconut sauce. The guys are skeptical at first, but enjoy the meal.

Præstøv by the sea

 The cloudy sky and lower temperatures mean that the gang is not struggling with dehydration on the daily rides and sleeping better at night.
Denmark has proven more difficult to find free accommodation, but there they guys tell me that it is allowed to camp for one night on public land in an emergency. Our emergency is to save the cash we need to feed ourselves for the next week and a half. There are even designated areas with tables, fireplace and regular rubbish collection and it is to such a place near Præstøv we steer our trusty steeds. The small site neighbours the sea and provides our first opportunity to build a fire, something that really gets the guys excited.
I get to prepare a salad and feel reinvigorated, after so long eating somewhat foreign, to my body, beige foods, such as pasta, white rice and cheap white bread.

Toasted trousers and shoes a la Flynn