After some harrowing weeks of using my legs to walk everywhere, I finally got back to moving them in circles to get from point A to point B.
The winter finally went away while I was gone and the trees have fully regrown their leaves and everything is starting to flower. Countdown to pollination release in which spores will cause my eyes to seal shut.
But until then.....party!
My parents are visiting me in Berlin so I took them on an organized bike tour of Berlin. We went around and saw the highlights of Mitte including several remnants of the wall and some older historical sites, churches, and parks all of which have been rebuilt. This was fun to do, but didn't really fit into my training plan, so I still had to work out afterwards :)
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| The line of Fat Tire Bikes under the TV Tower in Berlin. Comfy beach cruisers. No relation to the New Belgium Brewery though |
On the weekend I had a little time to do a short trip. It ended up being longer than usual but I should have expected that. I started by heading west with Mylene, my trusty biking (amonst other things) partner. I just got back from the US where I snagged a new Surly Long Haul Trucker for her off of Craigslist. I dragged it across mid-town Manhattan all the way to our apartment in Berlin while it was still in the bulky box form and not in the convenient, easy-to-ride two-wheel form. A side note: Surly bike boxes suck! This one only had 2 handles as compared to 6 on normal bike boxes. This meant that I had no possibility of switching hands while carrying it down the street. Plus I had loaded it down which a bunch of other stuff I didn't want to take on the plane, it was unwieldy and uncomfortable but the end result was worth it.
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| The least practical way to travel by bike |
After assembling the bike, she was eager to try it out, so we rode out to the west of Berlin with no specific goal in mind. But we spent a little too much time on one of the main streets so when we had the opportunity, we turned onto the Mauerweg - the bike path that follows the entire 160km length of the Berlin wall. I've done most of this path before and it's really interesting to see the full extent of the wall, not just the most commonly seen checkpoints that are found inside the center of Berlin.
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| Mylene and her brand new bike about to go romping |
Today, instead of an ugly concrete barrier, the path wends its way along the Nieder-Neuendorfer See (a lake) and through some very lush, green forests.
At one point we were also treated to the yellow blanket that is a flowering rapeseed crop.
But all too abruptly I had to head back home to pursue my alternate life as a band leader and musician.
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| Great day riding along the Mauerweg. This path used to be a foreboding wall of separation. Now it's a bike path through a forest. An interesting twist in changing times. The yellow field in the background is a rapeseed crop. |
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| Mylene was so excited she rode onto the beach at Nieder Neuendorfer See. Can't wait till it's warm enough to go swimming! |
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