August 15, 2022
Day 6: To Kropp
We woke up still not knowing what to do. We both agreed, however, that cycling another 40 kilometre day to get to Rendsburg wasn’t a good idea and wasn’t fair on Kevin, so that was off the table. We had the option of staying where we were, but that would mean a whole day in a garden that would become hot under the sun and then potentially wet due to thunderstorms in the forecast, and would still leave us with the problem of having to cycle the 40 kilometres to Rendsburg the next day. The most sensible solution, then, was to cycle some of the way to Rendsburg today and the rest tomorrow. But where to stay halfway to Rendsburg?! There weren’t any places offering camping in gardens, no warmshowers hosts, no free shelters or paid campsites. Wild camping might have been an option but could be very tricky with a baby and the thunderstorms worried us. We were still a bit stuck.
There was one town at the halfway point called Kropp and after a bit of searching I found a guesthouse there for 65 euros. A lot more than we were used to spending but less than the 100+ euros most accommodations were asking. Dea called the owners and I was impressed by her German skills, but she found out there was a 40 euro cleaning fee on top of that which put it out of our price range. After a bit of pleading about being a bit desperate and with a baby, the owners offered us an alternative - a basement apartment that was twice as big for a flat 60 euros. It sounded too good to be true. It sounded like we would just be sleeping in their basement. But it was our best option, and at least we had a plan now, much to our relief. And with just 24 kilometres to cycle we gave Kevin the morning off, and he spent it sleeping with his mother under the shade of the trees in a lovely hammock.
After yesterday we were still worried about how Kevin would react to be back in the trailer. We needn’t have worried:
We had potential break spots planned for 10, 12, and 14 kilometres and it was a relief to make it all the way to the last of those without any complaints from our little boy, despite bumpy slow progress on the rough German bike paths.
We took that break at Danevirke, at a very cool and appropriate spot. It was the place where the border between Denmark and Germany used to be, with a big wall having been constructed by the Danes to protect their land during the Middle Ages. This place where we sat eating our peanut butter and jam sandwiches was once the only gate along the whole border wall. We tried to explain the significance to Kevin but I’m not sure he really understood, but we did play some very fun games with his little colorful ball.
We only stopped for a little over an hour because of the sound of thunder and some dark clouds away to the east of us. It was a gamble to hit the road again so soon. If Kevin wasn’t ready for another nap he might start crying and then we’d be in trouble. After a few kilometres we started hearing him making whimpering noises. That meant one of two things, either he was about to fall asleep, or he was about to start crying. I prayed it was the first one as I cycled fast on what was on this section thankfully a new and smooth bike path.
We were in luck. Kevin was making his falling asleep noises and he was soon snoozing away. He was still asleep when we rolled up to our accommodation, still in dry weather too, for the night.
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We were shown in to our quarters, which was, as we suspected, just the families basement. Luckily it was made up quite nicely with all the things we might need, like a bathroom, two bedrooms, a cot for Kevin, and a little kitchen. But there were also some unusual features - the well stocked bar, for example, and the water bed that Kevin had great fun on. Strangest of all was perhaps the giant picture of a shark. It was probably the weirdest place we had ever stayed, but it was fun.
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I volunteered to go to the supermarket and was quite excited to be going in a proper German Aldi again. It wasn’t quite as good as I remembered, but the prices were certainly a lot better than north of the border. I bought frozen pizza for dinner, seeing as we had an oven for the night. Many times during our world tour Dea and I had eaten pizza upon reaching big towns after difficult stretches of cycling. I’m not sure if 24 kilometres of Schleswig-Holstein bike paths count, but it felt like we had come through our first major challenge of the trip. The day had been a great success - we had slowed down and found a way to make it work for both us and most importantly for Kevin. And that, I think you’ll agree, merited a celebratory pizza!
Today's ride: 24 km (15 miles)
Total: 354 km (220 miles)
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