To Berlin

My phone was still giving me trouble, so on my last day in Hamburg I loaded a bike route to my handlebar GPS unit to get me to Berlin. The day started out OK. The GPS took me on a convoluted but admittedly direct route route out of the city, then abruptly quit after the first 15 miles or so. It was still able to tell me direction and distance to Berlin in absolute terms, and left me guessing on a turn by turn basis which way way to go. The remote country roads were really beautiful, but none stayed direct for long, and I spent many miles riding tangential to my destination. I stumbled across a campsite late afternoon, and decided to call it. I got a pizza from some real local shop where we probably exchanged no whole words in English, bit still got by alright. The sheep pasture next to the campsite was novel way to fall asleep.

I woke early the next morning to what can only be described as an Adirondack weather, cool, damp, and foggy. There are birds and other animal noised I still haven’t identified. I made a hot breakfast, then got rolling by 6:30. I didn't want to get water from the campsite bathroom, so I left with just one bottle of water. The forests in northern Germany are actually quite nice. They have a sweet smell to them that I can only describe closest to a rich pine scent you'd find in our upstate area; but this was sweeter, more like flowers. I wanted make good progress the second day, and was able to manage my map and road signs to a somewhat main road that lead directly into the city. For two days the wind and sun was in my favor, and a I could easily maintain speed which made it hard to stop for long. I was actually coming into the front side of wind turbines.

There were many small towns along the way, and most of the trip was characterized by farm, town, farm, town, and so on. Some towns were very cute, but others were not all that nice, and were run down or had what appeared to be soviet era construction in various states of collapse. At least one concrete building had lines of rusty barbed wire on top of the wall, and I can only ponder what the building was used for.

I had fruit bread and cookies left over that kept me powered, but water was running low, then eventually ran out. I stopped several places that could not, or would not fill my bottles though I had made small purchases.


Also worth noting is the riding surfaces. There is a lot of variation in pavement, brick, cobblestone, dirt, wood, and one sandy spot that was difficult to manage with a loaded bike at speed.

Once I got into the city is where things got a shaky. I did not expect to find a campsite, but the hostels are usually well marked. My phone did not work, so I punched in the GPS coordinates and started following the direction the best I could. This eventually lead me back into the woods, on a long road that ended at a cell phone tower. (later learned that the coordinates they provide are in a different format then what we use in the US, and I was chasing nothing). It was getting late at this point. I had logged over 100 miles (maybe closer to 120), and had little of substance to eat or drink throughout the day. I thought I'd buy my way out of this one, and after checking two hotels I learned there was an important “football” game in town and things would likely be widely booked. It was about 10:30 at night (remember I had started at 6:30am), dark, and starting to rain. I was pretty beat, thirsty, and running out of options. The feeling of not knowing what will happen next or where you'll end up was challenging. There was a mental weight of not knowing what to do, being alone, lost, with nowhere to sleep. This was the first time I really stared to think I've actually gotten myself in too deep.

I bought a liter of water from a gas station, and headed back into the woods, put my headlight on, and made camp 20-30 meters from the road. I was too tired to cook. I did not sleep well as rain continued to fall through the night. It did stop long enough for me to wake early, wrap things up, and roll out at dawn. The next day was more of the same. No practical navigation options; no maps, no electronics, and only marginal help from few people that spoke a little English. I had to remind myself that it was not their problem that they spoke little English, but my problem for not knowing more German. I did find a delightful pastry shop that offered hot coffee, bread, and a danish away from the rain that had started falling again. I also found a local map posted inside a bus shelter that helped me get going in the right direction. The biggest help was calling the hostel and following the recommended bus route that I did eventually find it, but it took until noon (about 5 hours) to make the last 4-6km to their doorstep. I checked in, took a long shower, a nap and did a load of laundry. I went out and ate two Italian dinners and a strawberry ice, and, could probably eat again now.

Mortal of the story? Don't wonder into big cities thinking they will be easy to navigate. This was on a Saturday night, which may have made finding lodging harder. I NEED to get a new phone plan as the international data coverage stopped working days ago. I will also explore newer GPS models that give turn by turn directions instead of of direction only. There is real dependency here as I could have easily avoided all of this with good data. In the future I'll try to stop outside the city, make a reservation and plan a route, rather then winging it or being naively optimistic.

Now that I'm here, I can relax a little and plan to spend 3-4 days. There is a lot to see, and, and I am planning on spending a bunch of time exploring the capital. Also, I am thinking of heading to Poland or the Czech republic, which will require a lot of research on my end a I know very little of these countries.