Day 29: Short but fast

Bremen distance covered 80km (52 fully loaded)

Slow start today, went back to bed several times and it was 1pm by the time I really got going, there seems to be a local holiday (again) so everything in Kuirkhatten was closed including the tourist info but I had myself a little look at the map and was reasonably confident and got on with it.

There is a really good list of instructions for audax riders that apply to tourers very well for the main part, the one I was thinking of today was ‘cycle within your limits for the first hour’. In fact I spent the whole day consciously not putting too much effort in and yet the speed was incredible, rarely dropping below 20kph (about the speed of an unladen Dutch grandmother) without any apparent effort or tailwind. I think the endurance training is paying off, I measured my resting heart rate the other morning, 64bpm, WIN!

So the first leg to Delmanhorst was pretty painless and very quick and as I got there they were obviously setting up for a local festa with three stages and a million stalls and hot-dog stands. I was tempted to stay for the evening and work but I had only been on the road a couple of hours and as it was an organised local doo I could probably expect grief from the cops if I wasn’t careful. I had a bratwurst and carried on, Getting out of the town was a nightmare and I had to rely on the sun several times, just keep going east and this industrial estate will finish, honest! As I mentioned yesterday there is no inter-city cycle network and you have to guess the way from one small area to another. All the roads point to the motorway.

As I got into Bremen I decided to follow the cycle signs again and although they led me down some gravel paths (euugh) it was a very pleasant car free route into the centre of town. The cycling in general has been much more interesting since I left the Netherlands, There has been more natural woodland, more corners, the odd (slight) gradient and what’s more I think I’m above sea level which is reassuring. Haven’t seen a duck in days. I am not however fond of this stopping every 10km to navigate. I think I’m gonna get one of those spherical compasses like you get in 4×4’s and put it on the tiller.

Having arrived in Bremen before 6pm I was actually able to talk to tourist information and find the camp-site which is on the edge of a swimming lake to the north of the city. Its facilities are truly amazing (to the long term traveller, normal people would not walk into a room and say ‘Oh wow look, six hobs and somewhere to sit, and a table!) if a little pricey and I booked two nights so I can work tomorrow, rest then do the leap to Hamburg in one go (prolly about 150km, I think I’m ready). The only downside is that being by a lake it is somewhat prone to mosquitoes and I was bitten within minutes of getting there. I also so a tiger mosquito which are no fun, they bite more, carry worse diseases and unlike normal ones don’t make any sound when they fly. This was the main reason having set up my tent I decided to go straight back to town and take a look at the evening foot traffic and explore a little. As long as I came back after nightfall it should be OK.

And so I did. The town was boring as all hell (Germans don’t stay up late as a rule) but on my way back I stopped at a woodland bar I had spotted on my way to the camping, it was empty when I saw it but it looked nice and the second time I went past there were about a million bicycles parked outside and a real buzz coming from the beer garden. Woo! I parked up, got my first weisbeer of the trip and got talking to the locals. What I hadn’t seen from the path was that this beer garden also had a stage in it and soon enough a bossa-nova band started up. Now I wasn’t all that taken with the band, the drummer didn’t really know anything about bossa-nova and they did ‘Mas Que Nada’ as an encore but to be sitting in a park garden full of people drinking excellent beer and shooting the shit with the locals was an excellent way to finish a relaxed day on tour. I came home and used one of the six hobs to cook wurst. Tip of the day: ‘feuerwurst’ means with chilli, not smoke flavour.

Tomorrow will be a work/rest day. I’m looking forward to it.

P.s. There is the smallest caterpillar I have ever seen (less than a cm long) crawling across the counter, it reminds me of the frog I saw earlier about the size of a fingernail. Watching this tiny animal try to find somewhere to be across the vastness of the barren counter makes me feel a bit better about my own idiotic mission.