A week in the office; a week in the woods [9/16-9/24]

I've been happily unemployed and homeless since June... and luckily still have some savings left in the bank account. Floating around amongst a few friends' couches in Denver has been nice but it's getting boring/lazy... Fortunately(?) my old employers needed a substitute dispatcher for 6 days, so I'm back into the workforce as a productive member of society or something like that. I'd be working in the courier office in Boulder, and what better place to live than the National Forest outside of Nederland for the week?

I found a fantastic campsite a few hundred yards off singletrack not far from town and settled in for the week. It's a great life- wake up to the sunrise every morning, ride about 25minutes of trails on my way into town for a coffee at Happy Trails (my fave coffeeshop in the world) and catching the bus down to Boulder for office duties. After work it's back up the canyon on the bus for about an hour of trail riding, returning to camp with the aid of bike lights. The daylight is short nowadays, so my riding is pretty limited but still super fun.

sunrise from camp

September in the Rockies is my favorite time of year here: the air is crisp, the temps moderate, the aspens and oaks burning with vibrant fall colors. Every year I get a spur of motivation to make the most of the last few delicious days in the hills- and living in the midst of it in a tent for a week is just perfect.

my new neighbors

A summery summary

I feel a little self conscious about waxing poetic on the virtues of my trip, of a meandering life on the road, a simple life on the bike, of experiencing foreign countries, etc etc... so I'll keep it to myself. It's been great, and I can't wait to get back on the road. For now, it's back to Colorado for September loveliness and a visit to my family in the midwest come October.

All in all:
90 days
4050mi
75 nights camping
15 nights indoors
6 countries

Cheers to the best summer so far! And here's to more adventures to come.

A solemn goodbye: Iceland redux [9/3-9/4]

Instead of trying to track down a cardboard bike box in Berlin, I opted for wrapping my bike whole in industrial Saran Wrap, along with foam pipe insulation and some bubble wrap padding that I bought at a Bauhaus (German for Home Depot) in the Berlin suburbs. There were several benefits to this approach: I could take the city train to the airport with packing materials in tow; I didn't have the headache of locating a bike box (although it turned out there were several large bike shops near my hostel); and the hope that baggage handlers would be more gentle with a whole bike rather than a cumbersome box.

It worked out just fine and I arrived at the airport in Keflavik where I started this journey 3 months earlier. Cold and very blustery, it was also dark when I arrived around 1am... the first time I'd ever experienced darkness in Iceland. I unwrapped my bike outside the terminal and pedaled away from the airport. It's not everywhere that you can ride literally 2mi from an international airport and pitch your tent on the side of the road, completely legally and without the slightest hassle. Luckily I found some shrubs to block the incessant winds.

the last campsite

My flight to Denver left the following evening, so I killed some time back at the Kaffir coffeeshop where I'd spent my first afternoon in early June. It was a weird feeling to be familiar with an obscure town like Keflavik- comforting, but solemn to know my fantastic 3 month journey was about to end. Coincidentally I ran into a German cyclist who was just beginning his own month long tour of Iceland; we shared coffee and conversation until he set off onto the road and I to the airport.

Some really cook views of southeastern Greenland from the airplane:

Greenland

And seven hours later I was back in the familiar confines of the Denver International Airport as the sun set behind the lovely Rocky Mountains.

Last stop: Berlin [9/1-9/3]

Florian, one of my hostel bunkmates in Prague, suggested a particular hostel in Berlin; he was also en route (via hitch hiking) to the city and would be there around the same time as I would. So I took his suggestion- turns out they were waiting for me...

The Odyssee Hostel

As with most city stops, I had no particular agenda here but did some wandering around each day. With only a couple of days left before returning home, I was feeling a little mopey and more reflective than explorative. Having been effectively leveled during the massive Allied bombing campaigns, it's a much newer and more sprawling city than most others I visited in Europe. As such, it was the gritty street art and Cold War relics that were the most interesting aspects of milling around.

The Berlin Wall

some random unmarked building

gutted commie apartments on the old East side

And eventually it was time to head to the airport. I'd be flying back to Iceland for one final night, then from Iceland to Denver the next afternoon. I'd have been happy to keep up life on the road for a while longer, and had seriously considered extending my trip by a few weeks. But in the end practical life considerations won the debate and I elected to return home as planned. Bummer....

4000 miles later... [Prague > Berlin; 8/29-9/01 - 273mi]

I'd planned to depart Prague a day earlier, but the WiFi at the hostel was being disagreeable so I walked down the street to a cafe to finish catching up on some emails... ordered a beer, then another beer... "It's getting pretty late, why not just stay another night in Prague?"

Beer = laziness.

On my way out of Prague I stopped off to check out the gigantic 75ft tall metronome that overlooks the city. I'm not sure of its exact purpose, but read that it was built upon a spot once occupied by a Stalin monument. A nice quirky public art piece, it lumbers away ticking back and forth endlessly.

Prague Metronome

There is a designated cycling route from Prague to Dresden that I followed for the first couple of days. Lacking a detailed map, I was sort of stuck winding around on the route which is frustratingly rarely a direct or efficient path; low vehicle traffic and very flat, however. I've been looking forward to getting back to mountain biking when I get back to Colorado next week. Little did I know this official route would give me a little taste:

Vlatava River north of Prague

And there aren't many bridges in these parts, but there are numerous small john boats that will take passengers and bikes across the rivers & canals. Unfortunately it was late in the evening when I got to a crossing point and the Privoy was shut down for the night. My alternative route took me over a pipeline bridge. Lugging a touring bike up and down 3 flights of stairs was not the least bit fun.

Eventually I reached the small city of Usti, where I procured better map from the Tourist Info Office and that was the end of following this ridiculous cycling route. Now being on a more direct path of my own chosing, albeit one with a few steep climbs, was significantly less frustrating.

Nearing the Czech / Germany border and still holding 103 Czech korunas (~$5) in my pocket... figured it'd be more fun to spend it than covert it back to Euros. I passed through the border town of Petrovice looking for a suitable place to blow 5bux... and immediately knew I'd found my spot!

This was a restaurant in a decommissioned airliner, super cool. The waitress spoke Czech and German (no English) but I was able to explain my cash situation to her: I had enough for a beer, a traditional Czech noodle soup and a coffee. Perfect for a cool, drizzly evening. Then she said she'd give me the coffee for free so I could order a dessert and suggested the Czech honey cake... oh was it tasty!

After my airline dinner, I continued on and slipped into east Germany under the cover of darkness and fog. Finding a great secluded campsite off in some woods, it proceeded to rain all night long... and most of the next day into Dresden. I have to say that I've been incredibly fortunate regarding weather on this trip- but a soggy cold day is never much fun regardless.

Dresden was a pretty interesting city, and I was surprised to find some historic buildings still standing after the massive Allied bombing campaigns of WWII. However I'd picked up a couple small nails in my rear tire (my mantra from my messenger days: "it's never really a rainy day until you get a flat tire") so I didn't take a whole lot of time to poke around and instead focused on repairing the punctures and finding myself a map to get the rest of the way to Berlin.

Dresden

The weather improved by the late afternoon, and I was treated to a couple of perfect autumn days en route to Berlin: brisk, sunny and breezy. This is not terribly exciting terrain to ride through, but the seasonal shift made it pretty comforting.

I've been nearing 4000 cumulative miles and was excited to clear that hurdle, arbitrary as it may be. Literally 2 blocks after I crossed into the Berlin city limits, my odometer finally clicked over the 4K mark... nice!