Monday, April 27, 2009

SPEZI 2009 - the journey home: Day 5.. but it is really Day 2?

Greetings Programs!

Yes I have been lax in posting, but then again I'm having sooo much fun on this tour so far that I don't want to stop every day just to post something. So 'officially', this is the second day of the return trip from Mannheim to Copenhagen.

I arrived on Friday in Mannheim, and rode into Germersheim (and the SPEZI expo) on Saturday morning. All the usual suspects were there, as well as a few new things to see. Photos will be posted when I return to Copenhagen next week.

Sunday evening I headed out back to Mannheim, cruising at a comfortable 25kph. The roads were awesome, the weather nice, and the local culture friendly and curious about the recumbent trike I am riding.

In the evenings I stop at a park or camping place near the Rhein river, enjoying the view of the stars in a sleeping bag with an iso-mat underneath me. In the morning, I eat a bit of breakfast, drink some fruitjuice, and hit the road again!

Last night was a bit different: After a detour to follow the 'scenic route' through some small villages, I caught up with 65 year old Ulrich Papenfuss, riding a Scorpion fx trike. We chatted a bit in a mixture of German and English, then as the sun was setting he offered to put me up for the night. I was grateful for the chance to have a shower and sleep on the featherbed in his guest room. We enjoyed a fine soup in the evening while overlooking his small collection of ducks, chickens, and geese (one of which is a 'guard-goose' named Toni). We chatted about all sorts of things, and planned my attack of the cycle route for the next days over a decent German beer before heading to bed around midnight. It was a good idea to have shelter this time, as it turned out to be lightly raining at 6:00am the next day.

Ulrich kindly offered me his MacBook Pro so that I could shoot off a few emails and this blog entry, while he headed into town to attend to his Dentist practice. So now I am off again to pack, put on some rain clothes, and head out into the drizzling rain to follow the river northward towards my next stop: Köln!

If I can keep posting regularly, you should be able to follow my progress at http://www.gmap-track.com/user.php?user=digitalmouse

Vi ses! (See you later!)

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