Day 8 - Waren to Gransee DE - 9 1/2 Weeks - Copenhagen to Lecce 2019

September 26, 2019

Day 8 - Waren to Gransee DE

Lunch Bucket Day

What makes a day memorable? Is it the big exciting things that happen or the small contemplative moments? Is it the happy familiar experience or the odd discordant things that leave you feeling uneasy?

I think the answer is all of the above. Some days have all of them, some have only one. Today was a singular day.

Our short term goal is to make it to Berlin. We couldn't make it all the way there today so we picked a spot in between where we were and where we ultimately wanted to get to. That spot was Gransee. What lay in between wasn't really that important to us.

The biking was similar to yesterday, mainly forest riding on a variety of trails including about 7 km of winding single track that was in excellent condition. Fun riding, but not memorable in and of itself.

Most of the day was overcast but then for the last couple of hours the sun broke through and brightened things up. Once again nice, but not memorable.

The parts of today that I'm sure we will remember all happened at the end.

We booked a hotel just north of Gransee, one of the only ones in the area (we couldn't see any campgrounds in the area and we were not sure on the weather). The hotel was set in nice grounds on the edge of a small lake.

When we rode in, the staff, two middle aged ladies, were waiting for us. In German they more or less said "You must be the Canadians".

We stashed our bikes in the basement and then one of the ladies showed us to our room - a dormer room on the third and top floor of the building. At this point we have not seen any other guests.

The hotel had a restaurant (with decent re views according to Mr. Google) and we were more or less captive here as we were more than 10 km away from any other hotel or restaurant.

We got showered and then went back down to the dining / bar area for a post ride bevy and a bite to eat. Still no evidence of any other guests. Lady number 2 is in the bar. She seats us at a table,takes our order and disappears.

We survey the room. Their design consultant were the firm ACT (Appalling, Chintz & Tacky LLC). The dining room ambiance is morgue like with the background music provided by various industrial engineers. track 1 - HVAC Fan, track 2 - electronic door buzz and clattering mechanical rollers.

Food comes, actually not bad. We are still the only folks in sight. Finished eating we repair to our room, wandering the maze of empty hallways and stair wells to get there.

We both have this chilling sense of deja vu that we might actually be in a hotel in Oregon.

We think we hear and see a couple of other guests. Maybe, maybe not.

This will be memorable!

Song of the Day, Finest Work Song by R.E.M.

I was listening to quite a bit of music today as we chugged along through the forest. When this came on it hit me that today was just 'another standard work day' for us. We like our work, we enjoy it, but there was nothing 'special' today, just satisfying pedaling as we worked our way from point A to point B because we had to. It's what we do. We fill up our lunch bucket in the morning and head off to work. Our finest hour.

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Almost the same pic as yesterday only this time we're dry!

I wanted to get a few pics of Waren. It was actually a very pretty town but it just wasn't that photogenic with the fog

Waiting to start the day - hanging out by the town square in Waren

A Trabi! and in fine shape . This was THE east German car ( and maybe the only one!). K and I saw our first one chugging up Arlberg pass in 1990, just a few months after the Berlin wall had fallen. It barely passed us, and we were on loaded bikes! It was loaded with 4 people and what looked like food and provisions for a week. It's 2 stroke chain saw engine was straining away going up the pass, but the folks inside were happy and free to travel

we rode quite of bit of hard pack gravel today, nearly all of it in very good shape. Easier to ride than some of the paved trails that had quite a few heaves in the pavement due to roots growing through

More hard pack trail riding. I liked this tree canopy effect

The majority of today's ride was like this - sweet

Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 428 km (266 miles)

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Kim BorhenLyle, I love picture #7 with Kirsten in the distance under the tree canopy. It looks like a painting! These done with a camera or phone. Enjoying your blog and the pictures. Your writing is fab. Keep it up.
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4 years ago

Lyle McLeodTo Kim BorhenHI Kim,
Thanks for the kind comments.
I’m using a combo of iPhone ( both mine and Kirsten ‘s) for snap shot type pic’s (sitting in restaurants and the like) and my Olympus OM-D-5 MKII with a 24-300 mm equivalent zoom. I also have a few very fast prime lenses but I haven’t used them much. The pic you were referring to was taken with the Olympus. I crop the pics and reduce the size quite a bit so the upload faster. The originals are superb quality but around 10-14 mb each
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4 years ago