Denmark ahoy!

We start the day at 6am, and this comes as a shock to everyone. As planned, we meet up with Lasse at the ferry terminal and the gang is united once again.

Lasse looking somewhat bemused on the bridge

 The guys have arranged that the ferry tickets are free. What makes the ferry extra special is the guided tour given to us by some of the crew. Firstly of the catering areas and more excitingly, the engine room and finally the bridge.
It proves challenging to face the Danish headwind, even if our journey is only 25km today. We cycle on to Idastrup where we overnight with, yes, yet again, on church grounds. Having full kitchen facilities tonight we dine on potatoes (a step up in my mind from pasta), Quark (soft cheese), Sauerkraut (pickled cabbage).

Paul taking a siesta while Flynn organises accommodation

She even made us breakfast to get us on our way

Rostock, last stop in Germany

Another day, another bike malfunction - Paul in action.

The fantastic weather breaks just as we enter Rostock, with tropical storm rain lasting over an hour. We stay with a priest once again, and are glad that we can take a shower after being soaked through.
Once again pasta for dinner. The lack of fresh vegetables is getting to me and the guys agree to salad and lentil soup as a change from the very pasta and dairy orientated diet thus far.
An early morning start next morning, means that we visit our beds a little earlier than usual tonight.

Güstrow, a chance to meet the locals

Our first puncture of the journey befalls us as we exit the campsite. Despite my boastful assurances that my tyres yield seldom to such inconveniences, I am the victim of poetic irony. Thankfully today's stretch is all of 21km, with good cycle paths speeding our journey to arrive in Güstrow before lunchtime.

What an amazing backdrop

Friday night is JuGu (church group) night

Yet again we will be hosted by an evangelical church. This time a more impressive and striking building in the centre of the city. Emma shows us around the grounds and invites us to join her in a youth church meeting that is held every Friday evening. The promise of food and games makes an easy decision.
The meeting is hosted by the parish deacon and consists of a meal, singing practice and an interesting psychological discussion on how people best demonstrate and receive affection for each other. There are broadly speaking five "languages" or ways that people do this, and the language you best express your affection is not necessarily how you best receive it. The interactive discussion does provoke some interesting questions among the primarily teenage group. The only criticism I can level is the religious context, but maybe that's just me. The sing-along Christian rock songs and prayers do seem disconsonnent in this otherwise informative and lively Friday event.  It all strikes me as being a hip new way to ingratiate floundering religious ideas into the next generation. In defense of this event and the teenage-focussed religious teachings, I can offer no alternative situation where teenagers can openly pose the more existential and psychological questions they may have as they approach adulthood. The central tenant that God "has your back" during these troubling and confusing times, is less convincing.
Lasse is collected by his father in order to attend his confirmation at the weekend. The group looses a member for the next two days until we meet up for the ferry in Rostock.
We decide to spend another day here on church grounds as Rostock is only 45km away and we have plenty of time to get to our ferry. After a lazy morning, we take in some culture at the castle. There we have been invited by some of the teenagers, we meet last night, to spectate at a classical music recital. Although it costs us 5€ per person, we decide that it is something worthwhile. The recital room is unusually decorated, at least to my eyes; sculpted deer, with real antlers, provide the ceiling boarder - imagine an ornate hunting lodge.
The recital has some highlights, with young people of all ages, playing a myriad of classical instruments and dancing ballet.
After playing some boardgames (El Grande, in could play again) and supping on Greice (never a dinner in my opinion), we went to the nearby lake. There we meet with some of the girls from the previous night and had a swim as the sun was setting.Our first puncture of the journey befalls us as we exit the campsite. Despite my boastful assurances that my tyres yield seldom to such inconveniences, I am the victim of poetic irony. Thankfully today's stretch is all of 21km, with good cycle paths speeding our journey to arrive in Güstrow before lunchtime.
Yet again we will be hosted by an evangelical church. This time a more impressive and striking building in the centre of the city. Emma shows us around the grounds and invites us to join her in a youth church meeting that is held every Friday evening. The promise of food and games makes an easy decision.
The meeting is hosted by the parish deacon and consists of a meal, singing practice and an interesting psychological discussion on how people best demonstrate and receive affection for each other. There are broadly speaking five "languages" or ways that people do this, and the language you best express your affection is not necessarily how you best receive it. The interactive discussion does provoke some interesting questions among the primarily teenage group. The only criticism I can level is the religious context, but maybe that's just me. The sing-along Christian rock songs and prayers do seem disconsonnent in this otherwise informative and lively Friday event.  It all strikes me as being a hip new way to ingratiate floundering religious ideas into the next generation. In defense of this event and the teenage-focussed religious teachings, I can offer no alternative situation where teenagers can openly pose the more existential and psychological questions they may have as they approach adulthood. The central tenant that God "has your back" during these troubling and confusing times, is less convincing.
Lasse is collected by his father in order to attend his confirmation at the weekend. The group looses a member for the next two days until we meet up for the ferry in Rostock.
We decide to spend another day here on church grounds as Rostock is only 45km away and we have plenty of time to get to our ferry. After a lazy morning, we take in some culture at the castle. There we have been invited by some of the teenagers, we meet last night, to spectate at a classical music recital. Although it costs us 5€ per person, we decide that it is something worthwhile. The recital room is unusually decorated, at least to my eyes; sculpted deer, with real antlers, provide the ceiling boarder - imagine an ornate hunting lodge.
The recital has some highlights, with young people of all ages, playing a myriad of classical instruments and dancing ballet.
After playing some boardgames (El Grande, in could play again) and supping on Greice (never a dinner in my opinion), we went to the nearby lake. There we meet with some of the girls from the previous night and had a swim as the sun was setting.

 

Delightful student production

Yes, real antlers, creepy.

That cathedral from another angle

To wild camp or not to wild camp? That is the question.

Flynn is looking for a way out of this cycling routine

That decision not to wild camp - not bad after all

Waking up to a gaggle of girls surprised to find us camping out in their normal changing room, we shortly departed the football grounds bound for Krakow am See. Tackling the sunny midday sun for the past few days has given nor than one of the crew sunburn, despite frequent and liberal use of sunscreen.

20C+, baloney!

The big decision on the day is whether we "camp wild" or camp in a prearranged camping site. Going wild means saving the group an estimated 6,50€ (a significantly reduced nightly rate) and some communal time with nature, whilst keeping it tame means showers and an abundance of drinking water to make dinner. In the end the campsite manager decides to reduce the fee even further to a meagre 1,50€ and the guys are even more satisfied with their decision to save the wilderness for a future date. A dip in the allegedly 20C+ water, has us ready for dinner - rice and butter vegetables.

The guys get a growth spurt en route

Asleep on the side lines.

A fantastically delicious breakfast of museli, French toast, freshly picked cherries, chai tea and coffee, will hopefully give us the stamina for today's ride.

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.
Otherwise uneventful riding on some more traffic-prone roads, but we make the 65km in good time.

Welcome to Mirow Football Club, where we will be spending the night in possibly the most unusual place I have ever slept, the changing rooms. Lasse, who has been responsible for organising all the accommodation in advance, really thought out of the box for this one. Full marks for variety too: so far he has organised camping on church grounds, Linus's summer home and now a football club on a zero budget. Can't wait to see what he has planned for the next two weeks.

We finally get to prove our cooking skills using the stoves we have brought along. As I usually don't use a stove, I get a crash course on how to use my new Trangia and it's a relatively simple pasta with pesto that fills our bellies this sunny eve on the sidelines of one of the football pitches.

Real luxury touring

Waking up at 8am, after the first night under canvas, we delay breakfast until we reach our destination. Luckily for us, nature has provided a light snack before we leave in the form of ripe cherries and "Johannesbeeren".
Another few hours struggling through sandy forest tracks before we reach Linus's parents' summer home in Lindow. This means no need to unpack the tents tonight and full access to a kitchen, topped off by a private sauna and a panorama overlooking a lake.
French toast for dinner, why not? And then relaxing in a wood-stoved sauna, just metres from a clean lake. Sauna-lake-sauna-lake - repeat until thoroughly won over by the stillness within and the raw beauty without.

A different type of bike tour

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.