Today was a warm up day for our cycle trip from Hamburg to Venice. I began at the White Sands Hotel with a modified Full Irish Breakfast. What that means simply is that I did not take any of the selection of cereal and went past most of the fruit. And I declined the black pudding and the bacon, while accepting the eggs, toast, rolls, sausage and juice. When the Irish use the word full to describe what they eat in the morning, they mean it…But it may not be the best for the start of a day that will involve some cycling.
After breakfast I took a 30 minute ride on the 102 Dublin City Bus from the hotel back to the airport, where I picked up my bike from Left Luggage and made my way to the waiting area for check-in for the flight to Hamburg. My friend Brian arrived a few minutes later, with his bike in a rather disheveled box and the tickets. Checking in was easy, the walk to the gate not long, and the standing in a queue to board the plane, while in a lounge adequate for about one third the number of people who were in it, was not bad. Once we took off, the flight from Dublin to Hamburg was quick (1 ½ hours) and uneventful, although it involved sharing a three seat row with not only Brian but also the largest person I have ever sat next to on a plane. It must have been uncomfortable to him, particularly,
We arrived in Hamburg around 3:30, and made our way to luggage and collected our bikes. Once in our hands it took about a half an hour to unpack them and put the pieces that had to be disassembled to satisfy the airlines and fit in the box back together. That is always a task that begins any trip, and it was not unpleasant as the luggage hall was fairly deserted for most of the process. The last of the preparation was changing into cycling clothes in the restroom and abandoning the boxes they had come in. I always feel a bit awkward just leaving a large cardboard container in a restroom, but there is no alternative—the boxes hold the bike well but the bike would not do well carting the box around.
As we walked our bikes out of the terminal I turned on the gps I have brought with me, and it soon synced in with strong satellite signals and Ken’s voice calmly directed us to turn right. From that point on, and with great faith in Ken and the gps, Brian and I wound our way through the streets of Hamburg, a city of 1.8 million people, the second largest of all German cities. You could navigate without a gps, but in an urban area of this size, it sure helped…
After just 19 flat miles, a distance pre-set based on the arrival time of our flight and the desire to just get out of the city on our first day, we made our destination--a small hotel that I had booked over the internet. The hotel backs onto a canal that is part of the Elbe River system, and caters to travelers of all kinds—cyclists, motorists, walkers and barge enthusiasts. It has a beer garden on the riverbank and one of the strangest pear trees I have ever seen (looks almost like the pears have been hung on the tree like Christmas ornaments).
The room is clean and simple, and because the restaurant specializes in Croatian cuisine, along with the local brew I had a dish consisting of mince (hamburger in US) stuffed with a white sharp cheese, which was more than enough.
In short, everything looks good. All is well and I am grateful to God for the good beginning which he has given us…
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