Sunday, May 28, 2006

Monday 22nd May - Back to Hamburg

(by Dgym)

Being back in Hamburg with enough time to sort out the bikes and get a bit of cycling in seemed like a good idea three weeks ago. When waking up at 4:30 a.m. to set off for the airport the problems with this idea really sunk in. Thanks dad for putting us up for our last night in England for quite some time, and for giving us a lift to the airport, sorry about the timing.

We took off into dark rain clouds and landed in dark rain clouds, but in between there was a clear spell during which I saw that we were approaching a coastline and I figured it would probably be the Netherlands and we had probably cycled it. The amazing number of wind turbines confirmed it was the Netherlands indeed, long rows and deep grids of them twinkling in the sun, far more than we had appreciated from the ground. And then I saw the dijke, a thin 20 mile line cutting across the sea, and we had cycled all of it. From there it was possible to make out the first town we came to on the other side (past the steeply angled cycle path through fields of sheep) and the next few big towns we had visited and even stayed at. It was really interesting to see it all again from this very different perspective, days worth of cycling covered in a few minutes, but alas no mexican food this time.

The bikes were safe and sound and still sleeping when we got to them, and we all set off again very soon. Dad had said that there was a nice restaurant area just south of the lake, but that was 35 years ago. We had a look around the area and there were still plenty of restaurants, and we had a very nice (and cheap) lunch there, so thanks for remembering that. The afternoon was spent being simultaniously glad to be back cycling and in a sleep deprivation induced bad mood.

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