July 29, 2014
Day 91: Mainz to Frankfurt: Donner und Blitzen
The covered table near our tent attracted us and fellow campers, giving us the chance to get acquainted with each other. One of our table mates was Peter, an artist from Poland. Peter seems to spend his time making watercolours of the buildings in the Dom square, and selling them there. We found him to be a very complex person, with a strong knowledge of areas of art, music, and history. He also speaks at least four languages, which came in handy this morning.
We needed Peter to help us interpret a "gefahr", or danger, that affected us yesterday and for which Arthur dug up a warning, and posted it to the Guestbook. The gefahr is "Verwechslungsgefahr". You might think it is danger of wasps stinging you in the bum, which is what happened. But with Peter's help we realized the danger was a much deeper one - danger of not knowing which is which. This is a cousin to the even more serious one, danger of not knowing what is what. It's good that Peter wakes up at six, so I didn't have to roust him out with my dumb questions. He did seem a trifle fuzzy, though, squinting at Arthur's contribution in the early morning at the covered table.
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We said goodbye to Peter, the only one awake, and headed off to the Main. This is exactly the way we came way back on Day 15 of this ride. That was in May, and seems an eternity away. In fact, our recollection of the route was only sketchy, but fortunately the signage is perfect and we also have the .gpx file for the route. When we came to a ReWe market early in the ride, we made sure to stock up on food. We know that the closer we get to the big city, without actually being downtown, the less supplies we will find. As is quite common for us, we sent Dodie in and left me watching the bikes. Dodie came out wondering how we will ever readjust to groceries back in Canada. Here, the bakery was great, and there are so many good prepared foods. For example, I got what we think is elderberry flavoured rice pudding. Yummy! Dodie also bought our last possible ten pack of Knoppers. I need to decide whether to use these to survive the flight home, or whether to hoard them, for the next ride - down the Willamette river in Oregon.
Once we drew closer to the Frankfurt airport, we had two chores. First we needed to find our duffel bags. We had mailed them to our friend Erika's brother's work address. Erika's brother (Peter) would be on vacation, but his colleagues are holding the boxes for us. The usual weaknesses about using a GPS on a bike surfaced as we struggled to find the place. But a combination of the device and looking on a map at the rathaus in the nearby town of Kelsterbach eventually landed us at the door. Peter's colleagues were really nice to us, plying us with typically fizzy mineral water, and checking if we needed a bottle "to go".
The next step was to find the hotel. The same combination of maps and GPS eventually brought us there. For some reason the room we got is meant for handicapped people, and I suspect this made it extra big - almost American standard. We could have stored our bikes actually in the room (first one big enough for that in Europe) but they found a utility room for them instead. One thing about the disabled room, other than size and a chair in shower, and lots of railings good for hanging wet clothes on, the toilet is rather high off the ground, so our little legs just dangle there. Is this some special requirement of the true users of the room? I have actually found it to be more comfortable using the "nature WC" in the forest or desert.
More to follow - we are off to scout out the route to the airport!
Wow, we are really leaving Germany with a bang - literally! Our ride to check out the route to the airport, and the likely location of the Air Transat counter, in "Terminal 2" did not even begin smoothly. The reason was that in totally uncharacteristic fashion for Germany, there is no - none! bicycle signage for access to the airport, and a corresponding lack of dedicated or usable bicycle pathways. So we used the GPS completely for guidance, and stuck to sidewalks and smaller roads as we tried to approach the airport. We ran into one of a thankfully rare species of pedestrian (usually found only in England) who cursed us for being on the sidewalk, clearly wishing us dead in the adjacent heavy traffic. He called after us to go back to Canada OK, just what we were trying to do!
We did reach Terminal 1, and pedalled along in front of it, waiting for it to turn into Terminal 2. The thing went on forever, and we asked directions. Go straight on, we were told. Meanwhile the GPS track began to twist into pretzels. In retrospect we realize it was trying to deal with a lot of one way ramps. Terminal 1 ended, and we carried on, but saw nothing that looked like terminal 2. We stopped an airport employee in the street, and he began by noting that the normal method is to take the train from Terminal 1. But since he could not guarantee that the train could accept our bikes, we got his directions for cycling there. We tried it, but somehow saw nothing. We turned back. After a bit we stopped two police in the street. You were on the right track, they said, you can't miss it!
So we tried again, and this time did see the huge, giant, obvious building. That did not mean we could get to it right away. The direct route was up a one way ramp with busses flooding down it. "Go up the sidewalk", I advised Dodie, but she balked. Something about it being only 18 inches wide. Hmmm. We went paradoxically up an up ramp after that, and we had arrived. Time from the hotel: An hour and twenty minutes. Distance 6 km.
Inside, we found an information kiosk, and the very helpful lady provided a map that purported to show a bike way back. Dodie likes maps and resolved to give it a try. So just outside the door of Terminal 2, where employees were standing to smoke and asphysciate those using the entrance, Dodie asked an employee to point to the first road on her map. The woman replied "I only know about things inside this building, outside, I know nothing". Dodie replied "How can you not know anything, you work here!" "How rude" replied the woman, and then directed some swear words our way.
So, we wandered around in the spaghetti roads for a while, until Dodie and the GPS got the scent. Actually, it was not the GPS guidance function but the fact that we have Open Cycle Maps in there that helped. Dodie used the GPS then to follow some cycle way, which took us on a long route through a forest.
Just before entering the forest, there was a bit of thunder, and some rain drops. We put on our raincoats, which we had cleverly taken along despite now having nothing else on the bikes. Good thing, because now the sky opened. This was not an ordinary thunder storm, this was really serious stuff. The rain drenched our shorts in a matter of seconds. Then lightening strikes began. Not just a few, but dozens. Some were right overhead - FLASH/BANG! And as I say, it did not soon stop, it just kept on and on. Water began to flow down the dirt track in the forest. Only the GPS was our link to any sort of reality in there. Any small signs at cross paths were meaningless to us.
In the forest, I felt probably foolishly, protected from the lightening. But we broke out of the trees, and now I thought this is really dangerous. I found I was thinking (and Dodie later confired she was thinking the same) this could be the end. I was pretty calm, just musing how I never did really plan to go out with such a flash.
We reached a car road, and along it came fire trucks - the lightening had started at least one fire nearby. Finally we reached the Ibis, and sloshed inside. We stored our bikes in the room they had provided, and went up to our room. In the heat from when we had left, we had the window open. Now the counter and floor near the window were soaked. We used Ibis's towels to clean the floor and to help wring out our clothes. Outside, the rain and thunder still continued. The TV carried BBC, and they were reporting on the thunder storms across Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Yikes, what a sendoff! Distance for the return: 9 km. And you know what - we still have no clear idea of how to get there. We are going to try getting the bikes onto the hotel shuttle!
Our plane leaves tomorrow at 1:55 p.m. We are going to start our day at 6:00 a.m.!
If you have been followingt the Grampies, no need to change habits yet. We will very shortly launch our ride down the Willamette River in Oregon, with Avi and Violet. Watch this space for news about the new blog for that.
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Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 4,692 km (2,914 miles)
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