Ich bin ein Berliner!

Our rest day in Krakow was what it should have been : easy and relaxing. We barely rode our bikes all day and just chilled. As predicted, we felt much better the next day and got on the road a little bit before 9am. Our plan was to get to Berlin within 3 days, and with 260km ahead of us, we had some big days coming up. Luckily, the terrain flattened out a fair bit, my legs were feeling really strong and we managed to keep a great pace riding between 80 and 100km each day quite easily. We rode through long sections of thick forested areas which are a joy to ride in since they are well sheltered from the wind and are so freshly scented. On the first night, we camped right in the middle of it, on a little patch of grass surrounded by trees off a side path. Although it was "verboten", no one bothered us and we had a fine night. The next day, feeling rather dirty, we were faced with a total absence of campgrounds in our path so we were forced to free camp again and this time, found a nice spot on the edge of a freshly harvested paddocks where our only neighbours were a few deers and one hell of a slug. We woke up to the sound of strange birds and were off to Berlin which we reached after an easy, slightly shorter third day.

While in Berlin, we need to get a few things organised for our next section to Prague which we will start in a couple days. We mainly need some maps which we hope to find without too much difficulty so that we can explore the city by bike a little bit as well. At first glance, what I find striking is the scale of the city centre area which is full of very monumental public buildings and it seems a direct result of having had to rebuild the whole thing failry recently. It strikes me as a city which would take a bit more time to appreciate, unlike Paris where it is instantly apparent, Berlin's beauty seems to be hidden a bit deeper under the surface.

In any case, this first stage of our big ride around Europe has been very interesting and more challenging than I had imagined it would be. It was also more rewarding and after 10 days, things are falling into place and we are both really eager to get started on phase 2, to Prague. The areas we cycled through in Denmark were, in my opinion, more stunning than their German counterparts. The same goes with the pastries. Nevertheless, it has been fun dusting off my old german speaking skills and we even celebrated our arrival in Berlin with a good Bratwurst and beer dinner so we can't complain, things are SEHR GUT!

More adventures coming soon, stay tuned!