Took a day to check bikes and legs were working and so rode out to Potsdam and back – about 60´odd km along main roads, horse trails, cobbled streets and every other type of road in between. Berliners are so cycle friendly – separate lights for cyclists, paths, pedestrians do not walk on the bike paths either. There are literally thousands of bike riders at all times of the day – old, young, well dressed, and not, skirts flying – what a society that embraces cycling as a way of life!
Weather is holding – got over 30 degrees again today but not so windy. Forests were very peaceful to ride through though we are neverendingly reminded of the old
East and West – the horse trail we were riding crossed the E51 autobahn at one point. At this point was one of the main trunk routes between East and West in the bad old days. The checkpoint towers are still there as silent guards watching still!
Bikes are well, we are well – prepared the bikes for tomorrow´s leg to Lutherstadt (about 100km) – we say goodbye to a great stay in Berlin. Its a pity that it is a big non-stop building site at the moment – very loud, dry and dusty. But the food, the sites and the people were brilliant! The cycling is so flat and have I mentioned how good the pastries are?
Friday 30 May 2008
Wednesday 28 May 2008
Made it to the starting line
Well here we are in Berlin. We keep pinching ourselves that weŕe actually here. Bikes are still packed and we have been hitting the streets on foot. It is amazing to see how many bikeriders there are. I would be just one of the crowd here. All all manner of bikes, all ages, few wearing helmets. Berlin seems to ooze youth, opportunity and hope for the future. The whole city is a building site with demolition, rebuilding and renovation happening everywhere, and notonly in the old east section. But thankfully they are not tearingdown all of their history so there was still plenty to see to impress us. The Brandenburg Gate, the last remaining gate when Berlin was a walled city, Humboldt University, countless museumsand churches and the rathaus which is the city council chambers. And while tacky souvenir stalls and tourist buses swarmed over the site of Checkpoint Charlie and the last bit of the Wall, it was still a poignant, sobering spot, and to think people were still being arrested less than 20 years ago for attempting to escape to the west. The weather is fine and mild whichaugurs well for when we take off on Friday.
Pat here – just unpacking the bikes and theyseem to be OK. The boxes held up pretty well. We had to pay 40 euro each bike as excess baggage from Frankfurt to Berlin but we were just happy to get them back in one piece.
Visited Little John´s bike shop near AlexanderPlatz for a cable lock, spare tubes and a multi-tool – not many places take credit cards here and most like to have cash thanks very much!
Pat here – just unpacking the bikes and theyseem to be OK. The boxes held up pretty well. We had to pay 40 euro each bike as excess baggage from Frankfurt to Berlin but we were just happy to get them back in one piece.
Visited Little John´s bike shop near AlexanderPlatz for a cable lock, spare tubes and a multi-tool – not many places take credit cards here and most like to have cash thanks very much!
Sunday 18 May 2008
Details
I'm not sure if anyone's interested but I'll try to record some basic organisational details here about flights, bikes, pre-bookings, luggage, etc.
Flights:
We booked round-the-world (RTW) flights with "Flight Centre" in Springwood - Naomi was a great help BTW - in January 2008 and were lucky to get a reasonably good deal with "Star Alliance" partners of Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Air Canada. We joined the KrisFlyer frequent flyer program of Singapore Airlines so we could earn some flyer miles as we go. Unfortunately, the RTW ticket wouldn't fly us to Berlin from Frankfurt am Main, nor from Milan to Cluj Napoca (Romania) return so these were extra flights which we booked separately with Lufthansa (Frankfurt to Berlin ow) and Wizz Air (Milan-CLuj Napoca-Milan).
So the basic plan is to travel as follows:
SYD-SIN-FRA-TGL then cycle for 3 weeks to Milan
BGY-CLJ then drive to Tania's family village in northern Romania and return to Milan BGY.
Milan Malpensa-Zurich-Paris (CDG) stay in Paris for 7 nights
CDG-FRA-Vancouver - stay in Vancouver 2 nights (visit Norco factory)
Bus transfer to Whistler for 5 days of downhill riding
Bus transfer to Vancouver
Air Canada flight direct to Sydney.
All up we're away about 7 weeks.
Bikes:
We both have Raceline mountainbikes - these are about 7-8 years old and the ride from Berlin to Milan will be their swansong. We will box them up to take with us but we will not bring them home - we will give them both to the Romanian cousins in Milan. We have fitted rear carriers with Summit Gear and Tioga panniers as well as a Tioga front bag on my bike for navigation maps. Both have a speedo but apart from that they are fairly standard. We will run Schwalbe Marathon tyres and a Shimano LX group set throughout. these are the same bikes we have ridden previously from Sydney to the Gold Coast and from Adelaide to Melbourne and found them to be solid, strong, comfortable and reliable.
Pre-bookings:
We haven't pre-booked any accommodation for the cycling leg but we have joined the Youth Hostel Association as well as the "Warm Showers" hospitality group. We have hosted some cyclists at home in the Blue Mountains and would like to meet and stay with some cyclists in Germany.
We have pre-booked and pre-paid for pretty much everything else after the cycling though - flights, accommodation in Paris, Vancouver and Whistler.
Flights:
We booked round-the-world (RTW) flights with "Flight Centre" in Springwood - Naomi was a great help BTW - in January 2008 and were lucky to get a reasonably good deal with "Star Alliance" partners of Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Air Canada. We joined the KrisFlyer frequent flyer program of Singapore Airlines so we could earn some flyer miles as we go. Unfortunately, the RTW ticket wouldn't fly us to Berlin from Frankfurt am Main, nor from Milan to Cluj Napoca (Romania) return so these were extra flights which we booked separately with Lufthansa (Frankfurt to Berlin ow) and Wizz Air (Milan-CLuj Napoca-Milan).
So the basic plan is to travel as follows:
SYD-SIN-FRA-TGL then cycle for 3 weeks to Milan
BGY-CLJ then drive to Tania's family village in northern Romania and return to Milan BGY.
Milan Malpensa-Zurich-Paris (CDG) stay in Paris for 7 nights
CDG-FRA-Vancouver - stay in Vancouver 2 nights (visit Norco factory)
Bus transfer to Whistler for 5 days of downhill riding
Bus transfer to Vancouver
Air Canada flight direct to Sydney.
All up we're away about 7 weeks.
Bikes:
We both have Raceline mountainbikes - these are about 7-8 years old and the ride from Berlin to Milan will be their swansong. We will box them up to take with us but we will not bring them home - we will give them both to the Romanian cousins in Milan. We have fitted rear carriers with Summit Gear and Tioga panniers as well as a Tioga front bag on my bike for navigation maps. Both have a speedo but apart from that they are fairly standard. We will run Schwalbe Marathon tyres and a Shimano LX group set throughout. these are the same bikes we have ridden previously from Sydney to the Gold Coast and from Adelaide to Melbourne and found them to be solid, strong, comfortable and reliable.
Pre-bookings:
We haven't pre-booked any accommodation for the cycling leg but we have joined the Youth Hostel Association as well as the "Warm Showers" hospitality group. We have hosted some cyclists at home in the Blue Mountains and would like to meet and stay with some cyclists in Germany.
We have pre-booked and pre-paid for pretty much everything else after the cycling though - flights, accommodation in Paris, Vancouver and Whistler.
Getting set up
We live in the Blue Mountains near Sydney Australia and both keen cyclists. We have done some long rides before (Sydney to the Gold Coast 1000km and Adelaide to Melbourne 1100km) and we were keen to go further afield. So with some long service leave and leave without pay we committed ourselves to a trip in May-July 2008 by booking airfares in January 2008.
At that stage we were thinking of taking our Raceline mountainbikes with us to Berlin (because we hadn't been there before) and riding to Milan over the Alps taking about 3 weeks. Tania has a Romanian heritage (mine's Latvian) with relatives in Milan who we would meet up with. Our son Ben and his grandma would meet us in Milan as well and fly with us to Romania to meet up with further relatives. We are going to leave our bikes with cousins in Milan.
After Romania, we fly on to Paris for 5 nights and then onto Vancouver and Whistler for a week of some serious downhilling which Ben in particular is really looking forward to.
At that stage we were thinking of taking our Raceline mountainbikes with us to Berlin (because we hadn't been there before) and riding to Milan over the Alps taking about 3 weeks. Tania has a Romanian heritage (mine's Latvian) with relatives in Milan who we would meet up with. Our son Ben and his grandma would meet us in Milan as well and fly with us to Romania to meet up with further relatives. We are going to leave our bikes with cousins in Milan.
After Romania, we fly on to Paris for 5 nights and then onto Vancouver and Whistler for a week of some serious downhilling which Ben in particular is really looking forward to.
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