Here I am, the day before I leave for a bike trip in Germany, trying to anticipate everything I will need for 3 weeks on the road and then trying to fit all of this into two panniers. Thanks to my native brilliance, it appears that the panniers I purchased will, in the spirit of Parkinson's Law, expand to fit my needs. Or perhaps it was just dumb luck on my part.
Yesterday Daniel and I -- mostly Daniel -- disassembled my bike and stuffed it into the box in which it will make the trip to Germany and, with any luck, back again. The box consists of about 3 kg of cardboard and 10 kg of tape to hold it together. My first purchase in Germany will likely be a scythe to slice the tape.
In a rare flash of foresight, I have booked a hotel at the Frankfurt airport for the night before I return to Canada. Once I've reclaimed my bike on Monday -- assuming Air Canada deigns to carry it and deliver it to the correct destination, which, given that it's a direct flight from Ottawa to Frankfurt, shouldn't be beyond its capabilities -- I'll take a shuttle to the hotel with the bike-in-the-box, reassemble the bike (boundless optimism here), and leave the empty box with the hotel until I return. The hotel has agreed to hold it for me, so the trip is off to a promising start. One area of uncertainty is whether my hand pump will be able to reinflate the tires we partially deflated for the flight. If German air molecules are anything like German nouns, my little hand pump will probably be too small. To paraphrase Richard Dreyfuss's character in Jaws, "We're going to need a bigger pump."
At this point, I have no idea where I'll be going once I take my life into my hands and climb onto a bicycle I have, in my jet-lagged state, just built. Today, the Weather Network tells me that within a day or two of landing, the temperature in just about any direction will be 35C. Oh, joy ...
Given that this trip will be about as non-electronic as one can get these days -- no GPS, no cell phone, no computer, no sat phone -- I expect my postings to be irregular (thereby conforming to German verbs). Feel free to add comments, advice, etc., being aware that your contributions will be visible to the many thousands of people viewing this blog, including all the agencies benefiting from Bill C-51. I'll be going to Internet cafés from time to time to provide evidence that I am still alive and kicking, and will try to post some photos along with more drivel (Gefasel in German, a word I will need to listen for ...).
