August 14, 2022
Day 5: To Germany!!!
Kevin woke up early this morning, he must have been excited about going to his first ever new country. I took him for a walk through the forest to get him back to sleep in the trailer so that we had time to pack everything up and eat breakfast. Kevin was soon awake again and he really did look excited for the day ahead.
It was just a few kilometres through Padborg on a truck lined road that reminded us of border zones all over the world. Getting into Germany was a breeze though, no passport checks on the bike path. It was a contrast to two years ago when we’d last been here trying to cycle home to Denmark when this border had been completely barricaded due to Covid. It was nice to see things back to normal, and it felt exciting to be crossing into a new country for the first time since then.
But it wasn’t a feeling that lasted long. The bike path was bumpier than in Denmark and it was only on one side of the road, so there was lots of cyclists passing all the time. I also felt apprehensive about not knowing how things worked here. Denmark had felt safe. Germany, even though I have cycled in it many times, felt alien and a bit scary. Not for me myself, but because of being here with a baby.
And we weren’t very far into Germany when our baby started crying. He did it at a convenient time, when there was a little bit of a hidden space that we could stop in, so we did that and took our first break earlier than planned.
There must have been a small airport nearby as lots of light aircraft flew over our heads, usually causing Kevin to look up curiously. At one point we even saw a parachutist floating down from the sky.
After a couple of hours we rode on and Kevin was asleep again. We cycled through quite a few small towns and were on pavements where it’s legal to cycle, but it was fairly slow progress, especially as we had a bit of a headwind. But the bits between the towns was often even worse, with big cracks and bumps in the pavement. I kind of remember this on German paths, but it was never really a big deal cycling alone. With a sleeping baby being towed behind me it was a case of slowing down an awful lot and progress was frustratingly slow.
We made it to Tarp where we had sort of planned to take a break, although if we could go a bit further we would, as we still needed to ride another 17 kilometres after Tarp on the last cycling session. But Kevin wasn’t going to let us get away with that, I think he wanted to stop at a playground, and he began to cry again as we rode through town. So we stopped in Tarp at a playground, and I took Kevin on some of the attractions. He wasn’t sure about all of them, but he certainly loved the swings. This was the first time he’d sat on swings and I realized this was the start of something.
After a couple of hours we packed up and cycled out of Tarp. We were barely out of town when Kevin began to wail from the trailer again. He almost never cried in the trailer, we weren’t sure what was wrong. My best guess was he was upset to be leaving such a cool playground behind. We stopped and took him out and sat on a bench. It was still 16 kilometres to the back garden we had arranged to spend the night in and that felt like a long way. I began to google hotels and campsites in Tarp and the surrounding area. We weren’t going to make Kevin do anything he didn’t want to.
But after a bit of soothing Kevin seemed happy to go back into the trailer and we were able to cycle again, although we were both worried about what was going to happen. This was our first 40 kilometres day and it was turning into a real struggle. Luckily there was a good bike path so we were able to ride faster, but 4.5 kilometres from our goal the crying started again. We stopped and took Kevin out and had another long break, this one on a grass verge at the side of the path.
We didn’t get any photos of this break because we were both too busy looking at and discussing our options. The idea of cycling all the way to Belgium, especially in the timeframe we have, suddenly seemed too ambitious. 40 kileometre days were perhaps too much for our little boy, and we won’t make it doing only short days and taking rest days, which we need. Dea had been complaining of feeling tired and my knee was starting to hurt from trying to cycle fast towing so much weight.
We talked about taking a train across some of Germany as one possible solution. We talked about changing the date of our tickets to England to give us more time. We even talked about cycling home and then taking trains the whole way to England. On top of that larger discussion of the trip there was also the problem of tomorrow, when we had planned another 40 kilometre day to Rendsburg.
When Kevin seemed ready to continue Dea called our host for the night and said we would be there in 20 minutes. Off we cycled as fast as we could, but 1.5 kilometres from her house Kevin began to cry again. I told Dea to go on to our host and I walked along pushing my bike. With the trailer open and me talking to him, Kevin was happy enough. We can’t do that all the way to Belgium though, little man.
Sometime around 5:30 I finally made it to the house and met our very friendly and generous host, who said she has on average two guests coming every night. Most are in motor homes, apparently due to the proximity to the motorway, and there would be one staying tonight too, although it parked in the next field so we had the cute little garden to ourselves. Kevin was soon passed out on his mother’s chest, while I had a companion of my own:
A long and difficult day is drawing to a close. We are in a new country, but what up until today was an idyllic family tour is now looking to be quite a tricky proposition. We have a host tomorrow night in Rendsburg 40 kilometres away, or we have also been told we are welcome to stay another night here. Alternatively we could try a shorter day, although there aren’t any good options for sleeping between the two. And as for the larger question of how we are going to get to Belgium, well that is completely up in the air now. We aren’t going to push Kevin if he isn’t happy spending so much time in the trailer. This should be an idyllic family tour first and foremost, how and when we get to Belgium/England has to come second to that. We sleep tonight uncertain of what will come next...
Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 330 km (205 miles)
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