Berlin to Helsinki Day 1: Schwedt
Ah, finally back out for regular riding! Today we left Berlin after months of preparation (psychological, physical, and material). We also rode about 105km on Sunday - an uneventful ride but just to make sure that we still knew how to ride bikes.
But today, the moment of truth came after squirreling away our provisions, tools and clothes into two sacks each. The lighter pack weight feels nicer while riding since I was used to 4 panniers before. Although I had a little trouble finding my balance at first since, needless to say, the bike is very back heavy. But once it's going, that Long Haul Trucker is as solid as ever - also thanks to some new parts I had put on. The winter had taken a toll on a bunch of components including my shifting cables which snapped during a test, my cassette and back dérailleur which would not hold the gears without slipping, jumped around without warning and made horrible sounds while riding. But with many many thanks to a friend if mine who used his expertise to replace these parts in his apartment-turned-bike-studio, I've was able to keep a comfortable speed and cadence the whole way without feeling like I was straining myself.
We had a slight delay in starting and I can say now from experience that if you want to go to Russia, even for a day, make your visa arrangement as far in advance as possible. I now understand why Edward Snowden is perpetually stranded in the Moscow airport - it's because he didn't fill in the correct visa form for the application and forgot to get an official invitation! And yes, those are real things you need, even if you are biking innocuously for a couple days across a tiny sliver of the Russian Federation (side note: Dear NSA, I will not transport him from there to South America on the back of my bike).
Apparently they don't like special characters and the fact that Mylène's invitation had a grave (è) in it, caused a bureaucratic meltdown. Which is crazy because they already use Cyrillic, why not the full gamut of Latin letters? This resulted in us going to the consulate with fully loaded down bikes at noon today (yes, the day of departure) to pick up the last piece we needed to complete our trip.
Our pre-determined route from google maps led us astray (not the first time that's happened). For the record, we did have a map, but we had traced out the route the night before to make sure we had it. However, it took us through some kind if logging area with only thick layers of dirt with deep tractor treads. This pretty much acted like quicksand for our back heavy bikes and multiple times we found ourselves stuck in a self-made rut trying to push the bike forward while mosquitos took advantage of the fact that we were no longer a moving target.
But aside from that, the forest was very much enchanted and certainly the type of place I would imagine the Keebler Elves have vacation homes, until they are cut down and sold as paper.
But overall, we couldn't have asked for a better day; warm, party cloudy, wind at our backs and a lovely couchsurfer to greet us upon our arrival in Schwedt.
Will add maps later.
Mylène out in the fields.
A very cool "Schiffshebewerk" which lifts ships from the Oder canal up to the Havel river. A massive installment of 18,000 tons of concrete and 740,000 square meters of steel to lift boats up 36 meters to the canal at the top of a hill
Our couchsurfer, Nadine, explains the history of Schwedt's only Alsacian looking building (answer: Hugonauts were there)
Mylène wends her way through the forest.
But today, the moment of truth came after squirreling away our provisions, tools and clothes into two sacks each. The lighter pack weight feels nicer while riding since I was used to 4 panniers before. Although I had a little trouble finding my balance at first since, needless to say, the bike is very back heavy. But once it's going, that Long Haul Trucker is as solid as ever - also thanks to some new parts I had put on. The winter had taken a toll on a bunch of components including my shifting cables which snapped during a test, my cassette and back dérailleur which would not hold the gears without slipping, jumped around without warning and made horrible sounds while riding. But with many many thanks to a friend if mine who used his expertise to replace these parts in his apartment-turned-bike-studio, I've was able to keep a comfortable speed and cadence the whole way without feeling like I was straining myself.
We had a slight delay in starting and I can say now from experience that if you want to go to Russia, even for a day, make your visa arrangement as far in advance as possible. I now understand why Edward Snowden is perpetually stranded in the Moscow airport - it's because he didn't fill in the correct visa form for the application and forgot to get an official invitation! And yes, those are real things you need, even if you are biking innocuously for a couple days across a tiny sliver of the Russian Federation (side note: Dear NSA, I will not transport him from there to South America on the back of my bike).
Apparently they don't like special characters and the fact that Mylène's invitation had a grave (è) in it, caused a bureaucratic meltdown. Which is crazy because they already use Cyrillic, why not the full gamut of Latin letters? This resulted in us going to the consulate with fully loaded down bikes at noon today (yes, the day of departure) to pick up the last piece we needed to complete our trip.
Our pre-determined route from google maps led us astray (not the first time that's happened). For the record, we did have a map, but we had traced out the route the night before to make sure we had it. However, it took us through some kind if logging area with only thick layers of dirt with deep tractor treads. This pretty much acted like quicksand for our back heavy bikes and multiple times we found ourselves stuck in a self-made rut trying to push the bike forward while mosquitos took advantage of the fact that we were no longer a moving target.
But aside from that, the forest was very much enchanted and certainly the type of place I would imagine the Keebler Elves have vacation homes, until they are cut down and sold as paper.
But overall, we couldn't have asked for a better day; warm, party cloudy, wind at our backs and a lovely couchsurfer to greet us upon our arrival in Schwedt.
Will add maps later.
Mylène out in the fields.
A very cool "Schiffshebewerk" which lifts ships from the Oder canal up to the Havel river. A massive installment of 18,000 tons of concrete and 740,000 square meters of steel to lift boats up 36 meters to the canal at the top of a hill
Our couchsurfer, Nadine, explains the history of Schwedt's only Alsacian looking building (answer: Hugonauts were there)
Mylène wends her way through the forest.
Position:Bollwerk,Schwedt/Oder,Deutschland
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