TWO CRAZY GERMANS CYCLING AROUND THE WORLD FOR A YEAR

Monday, October 31, 2005

november 1 - temuco



bright lights - big city! santiago was overwhelming and exhausting. we walked miles and miles, did a little sight-seeing and tried to find the best way to leave the city and start cycling in chile, which wasn´t easy at all.

it took us almost a week.

we decided to take the bus to temuco (650 km south of santiago) and start traveling in the lake district.

as this region is said to receive a lot of rain we needed waterproof shoes first. after two days we found good ones and were ready to leave.

the departure was scheduled for 22h30. first we entered the wrong bus (good the one guy noticed and showed us out again the conductor did not notice looking t our tickets...). as the right one arrived at first they wanted us to pay an additinal charge for the bikes. but i insisted and we could take the for free. we arrived in temuco at 6h the next morning. it was cold and damp and no shop was open for it was sunday... the only place to get a coffee and some warmth was: mcdonalds...

erk was feeling very bad, he caught the cold i had in maine and we lokked for a place to stay for two nights so that he could get better. we found a very nice little apart hotel (that means the rooms have a kitchenette) with reasonable rates et voila, erk is sleeping now and tomorrow we will head out fresh with clean cloths and all set!

i can´t wait to experience how cycling will be here in chile. a lot of dirt and gravel roads mountaines and rain are waiting for us. but everyone said that the landscape ist worth every endurance. we´ll see. lokks lit internet acess is quite cheap and widely available so i keep on writing.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

october 17 - 29

i have to give up the every day report. no chance. we are in santiago de chile by the way. that was because it got to cold in the new england states and approaching boston the motel rates were exploding! (160$ for a b&b in lynn).
we met a very nice italian/american couple who let us stay at teir house and there we changed our plans. it was possible to reschedule the fligh t0 chile. we spent one cold and wet day exploring boston (there wasn´t much to explore) and flew in the same evening. 24 hours in planes and on airports...
we arrived in santiago on the 25th of october and unfortunately our luggage didn´t. we had to wait for two days until we finally got it but it was all fine and undamaged so we don´t complain!
we spent our days browsing through santiago (5 million inhabitants) and noticed it being very different from the big cities we know. it reminds me a bit of lissbon though.
now we are all set and will leave south tonight. we decided to take the bus to temuco in the lake district (cycling out of santiago doesn´t seem to be such a great idea) and i can´t wait to see what it´s like there!!
we definitely need to improve our spanish cos almost no english is spoken around here. so we were quite lost the first days... now we manage with our little dictionary and a lot of sign language... funny feeling for me cos i always was able to communicate.
ok, gotta get going. hopefully there will be internet on our way.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

october 11-16 tuesday-sunday


unbelievable but true. we are in the us now. how we made it? well we stayed su lise until wednesday morning when it finally cleared up and we felt we had to move on. she drove us to yarmouth and we said good-bye which was a very wet and sad thing to do but this year is meant for traveling...
the ferry brought us to bar harbour. we arrived in the dark and were lucky. no difficulties passing the us border.

we had reserved a room in an b&b (thanks joan) and arrived there around 8 a.m. jerry the housekeeper was already waiting and offered tea, wine and a lot of information about the acadia national park. i felt like having caught a cold and when i awoke in the next morning i really felt sick. we drove the main loop through the park without luggage and i'm glad we did that. there's something special about this piece of earth!


(in the evening i found a book at jerry's which was about the chakras of acadia and i couldn't stop reading though i was very tired). the loop was about 40km and i wanted to cycle to the top of caddilac mountain but i was to weak...

the left picture shows schooner's head and the right erk's... just kidding. i think it shows he still loves me!

(and do you know what, i do !!!)

we had to leave bar harbour on friday. the hostel was full. so we cycled again and made it to bucksport where we found a motel. all the campgrounds are closed now and as heavy rain was forecasted (and came) it seemed to be better to have a roof. (accommodation in maine is quite pricy...).

yesterday we really didn't know what to do. it was still raining in the morning and i felt sick and well, sometimes it's hard to be on a bicycle. we decided to ride on (right on ;-) and the rain paused for a while. in belfast i felt like riding through the city instead of using the byway. we stopped at coop (an ecologic grocery store) to supply. it had started raining again and we were all wet. when i measured my coffee beans a woman came to me and asked where we were cycling from. so i told her our story and she invited us to stay at her house until it gets dry again and we were very happy about that. michele, ava and chris schmidt live in the maine country side and as the other three daughters have already left the house there's enough room for (unexpected) guests. THANKS A LOT!!!

tomorrow it's supposed to be dry again and we'll ride towards portland. we might catch the train to new york city from there depending on a place to stay there. cos the weather is not suitable for the great outdoors anymore and we'll leave from kennedy airport anyways.


and as we are not able to carry souveniers we carry pictures instead!

Monday, October 10, 2005

october 7 - 10 friday - monday

it is thanksgiving in canada this weekend and we will taste our first bird!!! amazing. and we are still in clare. why? well, lise invited us to spend the weekend at her place and it started raining on friday night and it stopped just now... and there will be more rain. damn, but on the other hand we really enjoy lise's company and it will be hard to hit the road again. the closer you get to know people the harder it is to say good-bye.
but we will need to do that. maybe tomorrow.
although we still have three weeks left before we take the plane to santiago. well boston is a couple of km away and eventually we need to do some cycling again. we are already out of shape. always conflicts...
what do we do all day. i don't know. there's always something and the days just seem to vanish. we lost track of the days of the week which, lise said, is a sign for feeling very comfortable. i went to my first arobics lesson on saturday and there was a baby-welcome-party on saturday night and yesterday we just stayed in and watched two movies. the first one a typically american love-story but the second one very interesting with julia roberts and judd law. that was a good one. well gotta get going, prepare food for the turkey supper and do some writing at home.

that is lise by the way! that was our suben-good-bye-party!!

Thursday, October 06, 2005

october 2 - 6 sunday - thursday



on sunday we went to play golf with norm and renette on their own golf course which was a lot of fun cos we had never played before and it is way a lot more difficult than it looks when you watch it on tv.
for supper we were invited to tounar's house for b'b'q. there was again a lot of music and singing and erk couldn't believe it as he said that they have something like this

and then it was my birthday on monday. unfortunately i was feeling a little homesick and blue. usually my family came over to kiel and we had a big birthday party at night and now they were all in germany... anyways, we spent the afternoon with lise and christiane, visiting an old german lady, hildegard, who wanted to talk to us. she had painted a lot of beautiful pictures and showed them to us. after that we went to the broadwalk in grosses coques and to the house of christiane's parents. her father gerry is incredibly creative carving gypsum, the statues are very impressing. and for supper renette cooked a veryvery yummy seafood supper. lise and tounar also stayed for supper - and believe it or not, they gave me an ice-cream cake for dessert...


on tueday morning i went to the gym with lise, another first one in my life and it was really fun. we did four circuits and i think her legs were aching a little the next morning ;-)

on wednesday we visited st. anne's church in church point, the largest wooden church in northern america and went over to lise's to watch a movie on dvd called hard stuff... good that i didn't watch it on my own. and tonight we invited them all over to norm's and renette's (thanx very much!!) to cook a real for them and we will call it a thank-you-so-much-for-everthing-party!!! and tomorrow we will move to lise who invited us over for the week-end. what more is there to say?

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

september 27 - october 1 tuesday - saturday

in the annapolis valley (aylesford) we were caught by the remains of the next hurricane, lots of rain and a heavy strom during the night. so when i woke up the next morning i had the strange feeling that something was wrong. i tapped my mattress and it felt like a waterbed... i peeked out of the tent and had to see that the tent was actually floating in a lake and it was still raining very hard...
we gathered our stuff and took it over to the washroom. fortunately our new tent is just tough and there was no water inside the tent. we had to wait all morning for the rain to stop and again were facing the wind. the next stop was bridgetown. nice little camp. on wednesday we passed annapolis royal and did some sightseeing there, acadian historic site, very interesting and just went on to smith cove, digby. indian summer just started :-)
so we enjoyed the sun and didn't bother cycling too hard. and the wind was also gaining strengh. we had a small lunch hidden behind the largest wooden church of northern america in churchtown and planned on reaching methegane and stay at a b&b there. the wind picked up and became a storm. we could hardly go more than 10 km/h. we saw a sign which said that methegane would be another 14 km and i wanted to start crying... suddenly erk stopped and said, look, there's a b&b over there. let's ask if they have a room for us. a very friendly looking lady came to the door and said, sure, come on in, we have lots of space. would you like some tea or coffee? it was rennette leblanc-cormier. she just started her b&b in the middle of june because of the acadian festival...


we were still sitting in the kitchen chatting when her husband, norm cormier returned from work. we learnt to know, the thursday night is night and were offered a beer which we craved! i reserched the internet for an affordable place to stay in maine and found out that there seems to be none. too bad. we quickly changed our mind and decided to stay at renette and norm's for a week and celebrate my birthday there.

the next morning we went for groceries and renette took me to the university pool for a swim, which was great after all this cycling. for supper i suggested a homemade pizza and they watched curiously as i opened a can of corn and cut an eggplant into little pieces. the pizza was all right, nothing special and they just liked it. we played tock afterwards and just felt at home.

saturday after breakfast renette asked if we'd like to take the car and tour which we couldn't believe... we went to mavilette beach, to yarmouth and to smuggler's cove on our way back.

and at night we were invited to alfons' birthday party (renette's sisters husband) to see what a party is about in their family and erk said afterwards that it was the best party he ever went to in his whole life. all the members of the family are musically talented. and they brought their instruments and were playing and singing all night and there was frico, an acadian dish with potatoes and chicken and chips and dips and verybody was just having fun. unbelievable and they just treating us like members of their family!!!!

and i forgot to introduce sam, the mean cat, no, he's just young and a bit wild sometimes and the cutest thing i've ever seen!!

september 21 - 27 wednesday - tuesday


back on the road we soon noticed that nova scotia is only about hills even on the coast and that cycling sometimes is difficult with the wind always blowing in our faces and all the traffic passing by... we headed south and reached truro after two days. at the information we were told that the budgey family lets cyclists stay at their barn, so we learnt to know another amazingly friendly canadien couple (his wife actually was from germany). we travelled on along the coast and tried to reach yarmouth before the end of september. because the night were getting colder and we planned on a week of vacation in maine in some cottage...

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

september 16 - 20 (friday - tuesday)


with a tent like that it's no fun camping :-)

we reached the 14h30 ferry from wood island to pictou. it was again time to look for a shelter because massive rain clouds were gathering in a distance. the remains of the next hurricane. we didn't like the hostel so i suggested to try the harbour light campground which actually was a great idea. the owner, cameron macdonald, offered us to pitch the tent under a shelter and he had free internet and he was just gorgeous!
we rested the whole friday and started to figure out how to reach halifax ending up in renting a car!!! i know, i feel a little guilty but it would have been more expensive to go by bus...
so we went to halifax on saturday. it was just pouring down (not nice for sightseeing). we went to the trail shop and they were a big help and had an enormous variety of stuff. so we bought a nice new tent by sierra designs, meteor light and two warmer sleeping bags (endless story, now we both own three sleeping bags...)


there you go. this one looks better :-)))

on sunday it was election day in germany. but they still haven't figured out who is going to be the next one to be in charge... anyways. we took the car and drove up to cape breton island. the weather was beautiful again but we both didn't like travelling by car. it goes so fast you don't have the chance to see anything. still it allowed us to go up there which we wouldn't have been able otherwise. we entered the park and stayed at the camp there. one of the best. they had kitchen shelters with a wooden stove, just great to cook a meal on!
on monday we did both the trail next to the camp and the skylight trail. i recognized how much i love that. we usually don't have any spare power to do that, so it was just great. everbody we met kept telling us about all the moose they'd seen and we seemed to be always ahead or behind
them until:

and one cannot imagine how beautiful it is up there. throughout the trip a lot of different people told us that it is the most beautiful spot in whole canada and we didn't believe them. but now, yes, they are right. i mean, it is beautiful everywhere but this is the best!!!



we returnt to picou on tuesday night, packed our stuff and were ready to be on the road again the next morning.

september 9 - september 15

friday - thursday
a holiday week on prince edward island. on our way out of new brunswick we met a couple from vancouver on a funny bike.


we had the wind in our faces and i was very very tired and really feeling worn out. we decided to stay for a rest day on p.e.i.
we had to wait for the shuttle bus because bicycles are not allowed on the 12.6km long confederation brigde which was just built a couple of years ago. an impressing bridge. and i like bridges a lot maybe because they connect things and i like connections i don't know.



we ended up at the myers farm family b&b. it was really relaxing. and we were just lazy that day. i didn't do any typing and we were sleeping well...
so on sunday we were leaving the myers and heading for ann's land. anne of green gables. i never read the book or watched the movie but it's a very big thing all over the world.
look at that beautiful anne:
one thing to mention is that p.e.i. is not flat as we were told. hills appeared out of nowhere and we had the wind in our faces every single day. some days it wasn't only wind but rather storm. we enjoyed our stay though and were after a week sad to leave but we had to cross to nova scotia as halifax was the only place where we could buy a new tent. and we desperately needed it as the last pole cracked in red point and we had to fix it with tape and it wasn't good for eternity.

september 8 thursday


it is not nice to be forced to have breakfast in the tent but the bugs were just too nasty. it was still hot and humid and we paddeled on and on because we wanted to leave new brunswick and to find out if p.e.i. would be a better place for cycling. so we reached cap pele after we stopped at the info in shediac where a very nice lady gave us a lot of information about the region.
we had deep fried clams and scallops as a treat but they might have been bad. erk had to throw up all night and a big rainstorm was coming in. so we had a horrible night without any rest... at a very expensive camp... but as long as we are able to reach p.e.i. soon it doesn't matter.
(90.45km 4h18)

Sunday, October 02, 2005

keeping track (september 7 wednesday)




it is very hard to keep this writing updated. i just do a brief summary what happend during the last couple of weeks.
beginning with:

september 7 wednesday

the campground turnt out to be the worst we ever had. as soon as the sun started to settle millions and millions of mosquitos went after us... we put our raincoats and boots and long trousers and they were still mad biting our faces and hands. i hand a nice fire going but we were not able to enjoy it - too bad
and the same thing happened in the morning when we left the tent to have breakfast. so we just grabbed our stuff and fled. it was again a rather hot day and we followed the highway south through kouchibougac national park. just going through on the highway was sort of boring 'cos you would see nothing but trees.
very exhausted we reached richibouctou after 84.38km and 4h16
we had learnt our lesson and bought "deep woods OFF" with some nice stuff called deet in it (this ingridient is not allowed in germany for it might cuase cancer, but as long as it keeps them away for a while i don't care...) and were able to enjoy our dinner :-)