The Hills are Alive

 After we left Denmark we hopped on a quick ferry to Sweden.  From there we rode south towards Trelleborg and caught the early evening ferry back to Germany.  Sweden was pretty nice on the whole.  Quick and easy.  We arrived in Sassnitz around 22:30 and cycled in the dark until we found a camp spot.  While setting up camp my post snapped due to the corrosion from the salt that has been eating away at it.  That salt came from those storms back in Mexico.  Anyway, luckily I have this ring thingy that I put around it so it is holding its own at the moment.  But I worry that it too will eventually snap and I will be left with no home. 

Eastern Germany wasn’t as great as western Germany.  We cycled down many roads which didn’t have bicycle lanes nor any shoulder.  There were also parts where we had to ride on cobbled stone.

I didn’t end June very well as I had a very crappy day.  And I mean that figuratively and literally.  We cycle along the German/Poland border and Trevor spots an apple tree.  He has one but it isn’t quite ripe.  I try one and it is indeed bitter.  But I have a few bites.  Then later I have my flour mix with chocolate and/or vanilla and the last of my melted margarine.  Then we go to Poland and right off the bat there is a gas station with a free toilet.  We stock up on water but it is quite cloudy.  Later we cruise into a Polish town and eventually hit a dead end trying to get back into Germany.  I start to gas up but it isn’t bothersome.  Then we take this crappy road which leads to a sand road.  Complete crap.  Couldn’t cycle it and had to walk most of the 11km.  It was also very hot.  Finally get back onto a ride able road and manage to cycle it to a better road back to Germany.  Then we cycle to Gorlitz, a nice, picturesque town, and my stomach acts up.  I struggled with it in the late afternoon into the night.  Not sure what caused it…. the melted margarine, me eating too much dough, the Polish water, or the unripe apple.  I had numerous gas attacks and had to drop my shorts pretty much wherever I was on a few occasions in front of everyone to see.  Luckily there was a bush but still I provided a full frontal show for any passerby’s.  My stomach was a wreck.  We finally ended the day on the Polish/German border in a forest.  In the night I had to get up 2 times to relieve myself.  Gas, gas and more gas.  Loud gas too.  And the crap was crap.  The next day I didn’t feel great but eventually whatever it was got out of my stomach and I am now okay. 

Once we entered Czech Republic we were met with something we hadn’t seen it quite some time… a hill.  Not just one hill, but many.  On the whole I wasn’t a fan of the hills but Czech Republic was a pretty good country to cycle through.  They provided public toilets at gas stations and they have fruit trees alongside many of the roads we cycled down.  The cherries were in season so we had a lot of cherry stops.  Yum. 

We had a few thunderstorms in the night which I thought was a bit surprising.  The rain came down super hard.  I was a bit worried if it kept up that we would be flooded again.  Luckily it passed after a while. 

We are now in Stadtschlaining, Austria and will be heading south eventually towards the Balkans.  I am a bit worried about the mine situation in Bosnia.  Apparently there are still plenty of mines there.  Also some around Croatia.  We hope to not go deep into Bosnia and try and stick on the coast of Croatia.  We’ll see though.   

Here is Trevor somewhere on the outskirts of Malmo, Sweden.  These houses remind of those jelly bean houses we saw in St. John’s, Nfld.

In Germany we cycled through a number of roads that were surrounded by big trees just like this one.  Trevor says these roads remind him of World War 2.

A white stork and its babies perched high up in their nest in some German town we passed through.  

Trekking through the sandy road in Poland.  Not fun. 

Here I am down and out on that day where I fell sick.  Not good…

Trevor standing where Germany meets Poland and the Czech Republic.

Czech Republic gets big marks for having plenty of cherry trees on the sides of the roads.  They also have plum, apple and hazelnut trees but they were not yet ripe.  The cherries were quite nice.

Trevor washing himself at a fountain in Czech Republic.

This is the biggest vending machine I have ever seen.  You could get pretty much all your needs in there.  

Not how you want to go down a hill.  When you work so hard to climb a hill it sure sucks walking down some steep stairs.  Here is Trevor walking his bike down somewhere on the outskirts of Vienna.

Here I am just now in Stadtschlaining, Austria!  Great spot as I could dunk my head in the fountain behind me and I found this copy of the Economist.  Now I have some reading material for the next little bit.  Sweet deal.