Mari Travels with Tango

Camping in Alexandra's parents' garden. Yesterday was for me the most difficult day of the whole journey, although in term of terrain, distance and moods everything should have been going smoothly. However, in my years of travelling I have come to see that every trip needs to have one such day when things really go wrong, nothing seems to work and I feel I am being somehow tested. As a matter of fact, just a short while ago I had found mylsef wondering whether this trip would not present such a test at all as so far there had not been any major problems. It started auspiciously enough, as after a meal and a long sleep in Alexandra's garden in Klein Köris I had breakfast with her grandparents as the rest of the family was still asleep. In the house, there were 4 generations of the family present, the youngest one being the 4-month old son of Alexandra's brother. It was a lovely morning, the sun still gentle at 9 am, the birds chirping in the surrounding garden, a blue...

Had a wonderful day cycling mostly through landscapes devoid of car, cyclists or indeed any other people. As a result of a slight misjudgement in the morning, I ended up on a more Northerly route that I had intended. This meant crossing former mining areas, full of man-made land formations, artificial lakes and riding along old mining roads for most of the day. Despite the lovely peace and quiet, I could not helping sensing the desperation that the rapid closing down of mines had brought to this area and its inhabitants. Indeed, chatting to a fellow customer in a cafe in Großräschen, a sleepy little town in the heart of the mining district, my hunch was confirmed. According to this very outspoken lady, the abrupt closure of the mines had left almost everybody unemployed, bitter and hopeless, as prospects of finding any kind of a job are so poor. There must be tens of thousands in the same situation, with very few hopes of ever getting employed again. Even the pensioners are having a ...

My departure from Dresden was an unhurried one, not the least because I had come to like the city so much after my two night stay. It just seems to have all the right elements: beautiful buildings and impressive scenery, a lively, youthful atmosphere and a manageable size. As a matter of fact, the only negative thing about it I discovered were the many cobbled streets that make cycling, especially on a fully laden touring bike, a nerve-racking experience! As always, finding my way out of the city was far from easy. One would think that following a signposted bike route (in this case the Elberadweg) is a foolproof exercise, but I managed to lose the track several times before even getting out of the suburbs. However, I am getting so used to it that it does not worry me too much. I know that at some point I will always find it again, even if by accident! Is it any wonder if I sometimes miss the route signs, when they are camouflaged like this one? My route today took me across mostly...

Bicycle tourers on the way from Prague. After the less than ideal experiences in Czech Republik, I had a very nice comeback to Germany. The final day of approaching Dresden was passed in lovely scenery, on the banks of the river Elbe, that despite the strong headwind and meandering route made the kilometres just flow by. I was once again in good moods, and knowing that there would be a milonga on Wed night in Dresden helped me push those extra kms to get there. Following the river Elbe towards the German border. Arrived in Dresden at around 7 pm, traversing the green, lush parks and shaded alleys before getting to the city centre and over one of the many bridges to the Northern side of the river. The hostel at Louisenstrasse was nice, clean, new and friendly, and I had just enough time for a shower, a quick meal before getting back ont he bike (!) to ride to the milonga. Getting to the place involved such a long ride though, that I was beginning to wonder if thismade any sense. I ...

Just out of Prague, the bike road still all smooth and pretty. As much as I would have wanted to wake up feeling full of positive energy and eagerness to be getting on the road once again, the reality of today was not quite as rosy. After 4 nights in one place, one seems to have already grown some sort of roots in the local soil, and tearing them loose, distaching oneself from whatever has been the most powerful tie, in order to travel again, is always hard. So, although my time in Prague had been marked by mixed feelings, loneliness and lack of self-confidence, I was leaving the city with more than a little reluctance. On the other hand, I could clearly see that there was no reason for me to stay either, so off I went, after packing everything up, once again. My dark moods had not disappeared either, and for a large part of today I was literally oozing negative energy, getting irritated by the slightest mishaps and problems. This kind of mood does not happen to me often, but when...

Well. It was supposed to happen at some point of this trip, as it always does. One morning, I just wake up and realise that the honeymoon is over, that travelling with all its associated hassles is starting to get on my nerves. That despite the sense of immediate purpose that sorting out those ever-present issues of food, lodging, route, companionship etc gives me, in the end, the big questions remain. What am I doing here? What is my role in the society? Where do I belong? On all of my journeys, this point has been reached, but perhaps this time, with tango to keep me motivated, I had assumed I could avoid it. As it turns out, even tango isn't a strong enough deterrent for the bite of reality. This time around, I think what did the trick for me was the 7-day long approach to Prague, the exhausting days of pedalling from dawn till dusk, and lastly, the frights I had in traffic on that final day. All of a sudden, my moods changed and I am having to fight for a positive outlook on...

Despite the funny smell and the flimsy doors of the pension, I slept like a log, and was still feeling pretty exhausted by the time the alarm went off at 8.30. One reason for my reluctance to get up was the sound of rain that I had somehow made out even through my sleep. The thought of a day of cycling in pouring rain did not seem very tempting, but what could I do? Prague was calling me, and there were milongas to go to. In the end, the rain was the least of my worries, as it only really poured down on a couple of occasions, while mostly it was quite a good cycling temperature with a tail wind and overcast but rainless skies. However, in terms of terrain things were not half as rosy, as the road towards Plzen seemed to be crossing every single hillside in this corner of the country (and there were many!). I had been expecting this though, so although the slow going was frustrating, it did not start to bug me until much later in the day. The scenery can be described with just one w...

The lovely campsite in Lichtenfels, just on the banks of the river Main. I still don't know how I did it, but somehow I did manage to get to this side of the Czech border...although only just. Am now in the town of Cheb (Eger in German), barely 10 km into this land that I have never visited before. It was another day of amazing physical achievements, breathtaking (both literally and figuratively speaking!) scenery and good moods. In the morning, waking up at the lovely, tree/shaded campsite by the peacefully flowing Main river, I felt more than a little bit reluctant to pack up and head out into another day of endless cycling. The wind, that seemed to have picked up velocity and fierceness, remained from the East, that is, exactly from where I was going. It did not bother me too much in terms of irritation (to be fair, I have had very good luck with wind until now!), but it did slow down the progress considerably. This was most evident on the flat, open stretches (that there wer...

The campsite in Bischofsheim. Almost as a reward for yesterday's hard work, I had a wonderfully easy-going day of long downhill rides, undulating vistas and very little traffic. Even the hundreds of other bicycle tourers that had been keeping me company during the days in the river valleys had disappeared, and for much of the way I had only the strong headwind, and my own meandering thoughts to entertain me.  Most of the day I was traversing countryside like this. Here, the headwind really catches you! After reading a newspaper story during lunch today, I found myself thinking about borders and divisions between people. The article was about the growing disparity between the well-off and the rest of the German population, but really, it could have been from anywhere in the world. The fact is, the rich are getting richer while the others are...well, at least in terms of purchase power, getting poorer. This, combined with the fact that about 30% of the young people in this count...

Considering the flatness of the Main floodplains I was crossing only yesterday, it seems incredible that all of a sudden all around me there are steep hills, deep forests and lush mountain meadows. I had anticipated some uphills based on the markings on my cycling map, but the total change in scenery really took me by surprise. Planning the route to Prague took some creativity, as it stretched across three maps. I was using pebbles as pointers of where I was heading. As a result of some teenagers partying until wee hours at my last night's campsite, plus a search and resque helicopter hovering right above from 6 am, I woke up feeling slightly cranky from the interrupted sleep and, for the first time on this trip, lonely. Perhaps it was also due to having spent my birthday on Monday alone, as usual, but today I really had to fight for a positive attitude. Fortunately, when the mountains started (highest ones around me reaching up to 1 km which I think qualifies as a mountain, espe...

The campsite in Koblenz, right at the riverfront.  Out of some crazy notion that one can just cycle indefinitely and still not get tired, yesterday I decided to ride all the way from Koblenz to Frankfurt. Now, on the map it does not look like such a long way, although the bike route following the Rhein and later the Main rivers is certainly a lot more winding than if one was just traversing the country as bird flies. However, the formidable hills that flank the Rhein on this stretch quickly made me abandon any idea of a shortcut, and I was ever so glad for this decision the further the day progressed. In the morning, the route followed a part of the Rhein valley that has been granted a UNESCO World Heritage status, which normally means an area of extraordinary natural beauty as well as marked influence of local culture in the form of architecture and landscapes being moulded by for example agriculture. To be honest, at first I could not really see what the point was here; the...