Forst

September 8, 2018

A great day even if it hadn't been for the tractors

Our experiences with the Pension last night didn't end there. Our stressed out host arrived back in 20 minutes to 'fix our problems'. I assured him all was well so off he went still muttering about the lack of chairs for breakfast. What I hadn't done was check the transponder he had given us to close the front door 'which must be kept locked at all times'. Going out for dinner we tested it before sentencing ourselves to a night on the streets. Well as to be expected, by now, it didn't work so dinner at the nice looking restaurant was not a possiblity. What did we have to sustain ourselves? I don't recommend half a cake of chocolate and half a tiny bottle of vodka as the ideal diet after riding 90km. Just as we had loaded the bikes this morning who should appear but the stressed one - he muttered about the lack of chairs, we muttered about non functioning transponders - I stowed away the orange juice and plastic bag of goodies he thrust upon us and we were off. Our first stop was the Backerie at Edeka where we drank coffe and ate pastries to prepare ourselves for the day.

At first we were on thr Oder Spree canal. Just along here a big milestone we have done 1000km since we started off from the bike shop in Hamburg

Then it was cross country to Neuzelle. I had tried to book accommodation at Neuzelle last night but nothing available. It is a lovely little town and they were having a huge festival.

Just outside Neuzelle was the highlight of the day for Ken along came a man driving a tractor of the type he had never seen before. ken stopped it and the two of them had an animated conversation. It is amazing that it doesn't matter at all if you have no common language as long as you love tractors.

Ken has never seen one before - an East german 1951 Vtwin water cooled with no hydrolics but with PTO

The love of old tractors surmounts all language difficulties

It was then back to more riverback riding with the odd little town along the way. And today there seemed to be many tractors of interest so ken was in high spirits.

See the sheep dog guarding his sheep - there were 3 and they were very fierce

An R9 with a V4 aircooled motor (the others have been V twin

A sixties 4 cylinder Zetor very similar to the one Ken sold recently

The bigger place we came to was Guben (Gubin on the Polish side of the river. It is rather beautiful and obviously escaped almost unscathed by allied bombing in WW2

The rest of the day was a mixture of river bike riding and rail trails all very pleasant. Forst when you get away from the decaying industrial buildings near the river is a lovely little own and our hotel after last nights experienc is great and by the look of the restaurant we will be having more than chocolate for dinner

Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 1,070 km (664 miles)

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Jack WatsonWhat an extraordinary day. 1000 km. travelled, Vodka and chocolate for dinner and the IFA tractor which looked as though it doubles up as the family car. Your travels get more and more interesting.
Best wishes, and take care,
Jack.
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5 years ago

Tricia GrahamWe are in Poland hoping for more than Vodka and chocolate for dinner tonight. This really is a great trip very different as this part is really very remote and gives a good insight into how diffcult it has been for these countries to recover from their Soviet past
Ken and Tricia
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5 years ago