Day 81: Sometimes its not about you.

Bremen, distance covered 38km.

Woke to the rain again but stayed in the tent till it stopped, a bit earlier this time at 10am. Packed up my stuff and used the leftover alcahol in the stove to cook a little more quinoa for breakfast. As I was packing up I had my usual cocktail of a liter of water with an effercent vitamin c, a flaxseed oil capsule and a multivitamin which I usualy have after breakfast as an insurance against my terrible road diet. This time I had it before breakfast and started feeling nausious almost imeadiatly after taking them. Having had just quinoa the night before it wasn’t looking all that apetising anyway and now I was trying to force what I could down on top of an upset stomach, I hope I havent put myself off it for good as it packs light and has a good protien/carb ratio.

I manged to recover enough to get on the bike and was out of there by about midday. The ride into town did me good and I felt fine by the time I arrived and very keen to do a show. I had previosly identified the harbor area as a prime site and when I got there it was hoaching with tourists, perfect! I didn’t even have to pitch on top of anyone and so I set up, started the music and off we went.

It should have been easy, infact it was impossble. One of the worst shows Ive had since thoes days getting nobody in Copenhagen. Only two families stayed the whole way throught, the rest of the crowd recycled at quite a rate and I hatted it at the hat trick without getting to the grand finale, something else I havent done in some time.

I sat there afterward and wondered what went wrong, maybe this section is too narrow? Maybe there are too many people and the flow is disrupting the show… I didn’t think so as daytime shows in Copenhagen have even more people going past and I managed there ok. My thinking is that you should never blame the public, its not their fault if you have a bad show, its yours. However there are always exceptions to prove the rule and this was one of them. I was leaning against the railings pondering what to do next when I turned round to look out over the water, and had to shade my eyes just to veiw the other side f the estuary, then it clicked. I took a few steps back and looked at the pitch from the auidences point of view and realised it was far to bright to look in that direction, the sun being directly infront of me.

I swiched sides so the the sun was in my face and at the audience’s backs and bingo! The show worked. I made two in quick sucession and would have made a third but for the fact I hadnt eaten and had run out of parrafin. It was probibly a good thing as I had a heavy hat already and needed to get out of Hamburg.

I looked for somewher to have lunch but couldnt really find anywhere with an outdor table in the shade that I liked. The only posabilities where an Italian restraunt I had tried before and found wanting or a selection of Portugease restraunts. Portugease cusine doesnt really deserve the name, the only spice they know is salt. I settled instead for a large latte and it being quite late in the day I decided I would take one more train to Bremen.

Yes, I should have learned my lesson. I got to the platform ok after bumping the rig down the stars but I failed to notice a platform alteration and got on another train instead, I was sitting there quite happily for 10 minutes before it twigged, ‘Excuse me is this the train to Bremen?’
‘No, this train is for Uelzen.’
‘Shit! Not again!’

The train was due to leave in two mins and I had a desperate scramble to get everything off again. My bike was the first in and so I had to extract it from all the others plus the trailer. I was terrified I would get one off and leave the other on the train but some local lads helped me. Fortunatly the next train to Bremen was going from the same platform so I just had to wait half an hour where I was.

I was getting to rush hour by now and the platform was getting seriously busy. When the Bremen train did arrive I let everyone get one first and then shoo’d them out of the bike carrage while I got my monster onboard. I sat on my case and tried to ignore the football supporters. No fights this time at least, tho they tried their best, singing ‘Alles Bremen Schtinkers’ as we pulled into the station.

At Bremen I hightailed it to the campsite but failed to get there before the reception shut, I found out later the lady saw me arrive just as she was driving off. No shower for me but I had more pressing problems, I had only had a few spoonfulls of quinoa and a large latte so far that day so I pitched camp quickly qnd headed for the outdoor bar I enjoyed so much last time. There I had two bratwurst and a pint of hefwisen and felt much better. I decided I would take a look at saturday night in Bremen and wandered into town. All my erlier suspisions of the place really being a bit boring were confirmed even tho I did find a few more bars this time it was all very tame compared with Berlin or the Reaperbahn. Things got a little better by 1am but by that time I was ready for bed and was in no state to go dancing having done three fireshows and had no shower. I even had black marks on my face no-one pointed out to me. Ahh well, dont wanna be part of yer boring nightlife anyway. As I got back to the tent it started to rain. Good timing.