July 20, 2013 to July 25, 2013
Make Mainz a double: And what was that about a bonus challenge?
First of all, I'd just like to brag a little about the incredibly clever play on words I've used here. You need to remember that Mainz rhymes with Heinz. 'Make Mainz a double' works because obviously I was at a party in the area of Mainz, where there were shots, but it also works because I had two good friends here in Mainz (a double!)
Secondly, for the purposes of the movie about the trip, I'd like to remind you at this point that my part is played by Ryan Gosling.
Here is a picture of me with said friends:
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I first met Karin (played by Megan Fox) three years ago, when I couchsurfed at her place in Edinburgh. In 2011 we cycled together for six weeks through Central America, a tremendous adventure. I hadn't seen her since and it was really great after all this time to see her again.
Steffen (played by Leo Sayer) I met in Munich last year. He also hosted me as a couchsurfer before I got my own place in the city and we became good friends.
When I first met Karin and Steffen, they were each studying renewable energy, in completely different parts of the world. When I left Steffen in Munich last year he was excitedly applying for a job in solar energy near Mainz. A couple of months ago I was talking to Karin, who had recently moved to Mainz to work for a wind turbine company. I mentioned Steffen to her and suggested that they should meet. Her reply was 'Oh yeah, I think I've seen that guy in the canteen at work.' It is a small world indeed.
So now we were all together at the party. I was a little tired after cycling for 170km, but that situation was quickly rectified thanks to a magic jar I had been carrying with me since Salisbury, England. My friends, James (played by Peter Crouch) and Michelle (Abbey Clancy?) had been quite insistent that I take this jar of homemade alcohol with me as a leaving present and now I had the perfect opportunity to make use of it. To my great surprise Steffen actually rather liked the foul tasting liquid. Nobody else did very much, but at least it woke me up.
One of the best things about the party was meeting Xavier (played by Coco the clown), a Frenchman who when he spoke in English had the most fantastic cockney accent. Xavier did wonderful things like this:
He spoke with a wonderful and infectious enthusiasm about a bike trip he had done across Europe on a fixie. Its hard enough cycle touring with gears, never mind without them, but he just smiled and said "We have a saying; 'when you are tired of cycling, just walk!' You get tired, you just get off and push for a while, and then you are ready, you just get on and go again!" I loved his attitude to things.
The next morning Steffen and his girlfriend Eva (played by Heidi Klum) painted their faces blue. I forget why.
That was a bit random. Next, Karin had brought her bike to the party and we rode to a lake nearby to meet Steffen, Eva, Xavier and his girlfriend Sina (played by Claudia Schiffer) who drove there in a van after washing their faces. It was nice to ride again with Karin and it was also notable for being the first time that I have ever managed to ride the fully-loaded bike with no hands (its really difficult with front panniers) Its amazing what you can do when you're trying to impress a girl isn't it? After an afternoon by the lake, Karin and I cycled back to Mainz, which was by now about 30km away. We followed the river Rhine all the way. It was super fun to be cycling with Karin again.
Somehow by the time we got there Steffen was already there (thats the power of vans I suppose) waiting for us, along with another couchsurfer who was also staying with Karin that night. His name was Chris, from England, and he was on a bicycle trip (sounds familiar?) He had cycled at an even more impressive speed than me (from London in six days I think) and consequently will be played by Chris Froome in the movie. So now, I hope you are right now imagining a scene in a movie with Ryan Gosling, Megan Fox, Leo Sayer and Chris Froome enjoying dinner together in Fox's apartment in Germany. Gosling has made a rather potato-heavy dinner and every one is exhausted after a long but fun day. Gosling and Froome discuss the Tour de France, which rather confusingly had just been won by Chris Froome, and the Ashes, while Fox and Sayer nod along and try to understand the point of cricket, which I can't help them much with.
Chris left early the next morning to cycle back to England almost as fast as he had arrived (he had come for a wedding) but I decided to spend some more time in Mainz. The next day we cycled to the park, meeting up with Xavier on the way, who obviously was doing things a little differently:
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The next day I got to see Steffen's Twyke. Looking like something out of the Jetsons, it was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen. It is basically somewhere between a car and a bike, with two seats so that two people can sit down and pedal, but also with an electric motor and capable of going 80kmh. It had proper lights and indicators and a licence plate. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the car of the future!
I stayed in Mainz for longer than expected. There was just so much fun to be had. There was the Twyke, there was beach volleyball, there was rock climbing, and there was the greatest ice cream I have ever eaten. All of this might just be enough to explain why I spent a week in Mainz.
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But if this really was a movie of course, Ryan Gosling and Megan Fox would probably have hooked up and had some sort of passionate romance. IF this was a movie. Stuff like that doesn't happen in real life does it?
Except for sometimes, when it does.
20/07/13 - 60km
21/07/13 - 11km (unloaded, doesn't count towards total distance travelled)
22/07/13 - 53km (unloaded)
24/07/13 - 13km (unloaded)
25/07/13 - 4km (unloaded)
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 758 km (471 miles)
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