Pints Cards Pierogi and Soviet warplanes

Pints Cards Pierogi and Soviet warplanes

If you want to see what you need for a bike tour, please check out my Bike Touring Checklist blog here.

Plan

This blog is about a 3 day trip with 4 friends. The dogs of war as I call them. Jan(Jannowitzbrucke), Jake(Turf Murphy), Damien(Waterproof Double D) and Arron(Hot A-rod). Day-cent folk. The plan was to get a train from Berlin to Seidlung, then get onto the Oder Neisse cycle path and keep going north until we hit Frankfort Oder. From here we can get back to Berlin by train. We got a lot of info about this trip from bicyclegermany.com. It's worth checking out their website also.

Day 1

Friday morning didn't start great. I messed up with my espresso machine and covered my walls in coffee. Not a great start.

Surely things can only get better? They can, but not right now. Also, Don't Call Me Shirley. I ordered a new bike and it was supposed to come on today, the same day we are leaving for the trip so I knew I would be rushing. I managed to pick it up but the shop didn't have the low riding front pannier for holding the front bags so I was slightly annoyed. Anyway, no time to waste, I need to get home and pack, then I needed to get to the train station. Not much time to waste.

As soon as I got home, I loaded my bike checklist blog and started packing asap. I always forget 1 thing when I pack, this time it was my t-shirts. I'll be slightly smelly for this trip but feck it.

I was running out of time to get to the train station so I didn't enjoy this whole day until I was sitting on the train. I made it to the station with 10 minutes to spare. Once we all sat down I started to feel good. So far today was stressful, but I had a sense it was slowing down.

The train ride was pretty smooth. I love the train system here in Germany. We needed to get 2 regional trains to get to our destination. Once we got off the first one, the next one was waiting for us on the opposite platform. Coming from Ireland this is impressive. Another thing to note is how nice the scenery is. You are flying through woods and open fields in the trains. Travelling on trains is a really good way of seeing the country.

Anyway, we got to our destination and 3 of us set up tents, and 2 were staying at a BnB. We all met up in the lads BnB and had food and soon the pints were flying into us. I should not had 6 pints. But, what can you do? Good times. We all didn't sleep well that night. For the lads in the tents, we camped beside the lake and there seemed to be some very loud and energetic ducks that made a lot of noise at 4 am.

Day 2

We took this Bad Moskau to Guben route.

Woke with a hangover, not a good start. I had porridge with Arron and Damien and we met up with the lads and from there we hit the road. We entered a super nice park but I couldn't enjoy it that much because my back pannier came off and pulled wires out from my light!! The lads in the shop must not have tightened the screws correctly. Arron gave me one of his straps so I could continue. We don't call him Hot Rod for nothing.

We cycled into a nice town, super pretty with some nice buildings. We needed to cross the bridge into Poland to look for a bike shop and you wouldn't believe how much things change when you cross that bridge. It went from nice old buildings on the German side, to a tin-roofed town on the Polish side.

From here we knew we would be cycling beside the river until Frankfort Oder. We were only about 10km on this cycle path when we came across a barn that had live music coming out of it. It seemed that it was a beer garden set up in a farmers back yard. Naturally we had to stop for a pint and some of that music. Check the video to get an idea of what it was like.

After that we cycled on the path and ended up in Forst. Here, we saw that there were a lot of thunderstorms ahead to we stopped for some pints, pierogi and cards. Getting hit by lighting while cycling is a thing I learned. It was a good thing I was doing this trip with some sensible people. We started playing a game called Oh Hell. Jan had the upper hand once again.

As soon as the thunderstorms passed on ahead and we had our feed of pints, we pressed on. It was getting dark but at least it wasn't raining. This part of the trip was super nice. There was no one on the cycle path. we were going through meadows, skirting on the outside of woods, ploughing deep into the evening mist. We all remarked how nice it was.

At one stage we cycled passed a barn, and there seemed to be people inside having a meal. What's up with Germans and barns I thought. Before we had a chance to see them though they started shouting "Eddie!! Eddie!!" Once we passed the barn door, saw the people inside, it was too late. This little beast of a dog starts running after us on our bikes. Having quite a few beers in us at this stage I forgave my friends for their cowardice shrieks.

Soon after this, we caught a glimpse of an old Soviet plane in someone's front yard. Yep, an old soviet fighter jet in someones back year. We couldn't believe it. After we picked our jaws off the floor, we hit the road for the final stretch. We were nearly at the campsite. People were getting tired.

We eventually got to the campsite. We managed to get a few more beers and we all settled in for some cards for the night. Today was a day of cards, beer, cycling, dogs, thunderstorms and Old Soviet warplanes. Twas a good day. We all slept like logs that night.

Day 3

We took this Guben to Frankfurt Oder route.

Woke up with no hangover. Felt good. Had a nice shower and had some breakfast. Damien had the brilliant idea of mixing in some Nutella into our porridge and it made a big difference. I think I'll do something similar now from now on.

We started the day rather fast and eventually got into Guben for breakfast. I had 2 giant cups of coffee and some solid breakfast. 3 fried eggs and potatoes. Delicious.

After breakfast, we got back onto the cycle path by the river. Again, this cycle path, like most in Germany was pretty nice. It's getting kind of repetitive describing every cycle path a 'pretty nice' but they just are. Every time we get onto one we all comment on how 'nice' it is.

Eventually we got into Fürstenberg Oder and stopped for some food, pints and cards. Arron and Jake had to share the top spot on this occasion in the cards.

After this, we got back on the road. It was here that we missed a turn off to get back onto the path and so we went a small bit out of our way. We all blamed Jake. Jake blamed Jan. Eventually, we got back onto the cycle path. This was the last of the Oder Neisse cycle path that we would do this weekend so we all took in the sights. Damien even got a hornet stuck in his hair this time. It wasn't only hornets we had to dodge, but flies. We were beside the river and pretty much cycling headfirst into millions on flies. As much as we complained, it wasn't too bad and it gave us something to laugh about.

Finally, we were off the cycle path and had 8k more to Frankfurt Oder. Jake needed to stop for a minute or 2 to have something to eat. He didn't eat much throughout the day and the pints were catching up with all of us, bar Arron who doesn't drink. Eventually we got into Frankfurt Oder. It's a nice city. We all sat down for a delicious Indian meal and some non-alcoholic pints.

The last leg of the journey was the train ride home. This again was super nice. Going through the countryside back to Berlin was a pleasure and it's so comfortable. We started 1 last game of cards that we couldn't finish. Arron I think was leading when we finished. I think Jan's reign of terror is well and truly over in cards. The big boys have come to town.

Good trip