I think most cyclists will tell you that there‘s something pure, something zen about rolling along with good legs on quiet roads, hearing nothing but the whirr of a well-oiled chain and the hum of your tires on the pavement. It‘s beautiful. It doesn‘t happen too often to me, partially because riding around Berlin tends to be pretty loud, and partially because I don‘t oil my chain as often as I should. Oops.

Anyway, I‘ve had a few moments like that in the past two days. In a rhythm, on some bike path or backcountry road, just cruising. Awesome.

Today it was here:

A surprisingly good day

Last post, I mentioned that I expected the coming days to be not over- or underwhelming, but simply “whelming“, if you will. But that I also expected I‘d be pleasantly surprised, because I‘m sure the landscape has more to offer than what I‘m already familiar with. And I was right. Cruising along the river was great, and the lake it formed also beautiful:

And then my route cut over a hill and into another river valley. Now, I‘ve mentioned this before, but I love climbing. We humans believe ridiculously enough that we are the crowning achievement of evolution, that mechanisms at work for billions of years will now take a break because we‘re so awesome. In the same vein, I believe billions of years of tectonic, geologic, climactic, and I‘m sure some other ‘ic‘ developments, not to mention evolutionary and technological development, have finally culminated in hills meeting their destiny: namely, to allow bipeds to push themselves to physical exhaustion while attempting to ascend said hill or mountain under their own power on a two-wheeled contraption as quickly as possible. Anthropocentrism as its best!

So, the ground went upwards and I started pushing. But then I stopped to take a photo, because PRETTY!

Anyway, got to the top, then had a straight, fast, fun descent into the next river valley. The hits just keep coming!

My destination was just up the road. Generally, I‘ve been crashing in hotels, as I like to shower and sleep in comfort after spending 4-6 hours a day biking. Also generally, I tend to use Booking. Again generally, this turns out fine. Today was a first though. When I rolled up, I was at a gas station. Can‘t be correct, right?! Turns out, it was. I‘m essentially crashing in the attic of an Esso gas station. Sweet!

(Kidding aside, the place is actually not terrible).

I was strangely excited, as today was a laundry day, and also the LAST laundry day. I now have enough clean clothes/kit to get me to Berlin. Rather than making me sad, this was exciting. Maybe I‘m excited to be back in Berlin. Maybe I don‘t enjoy hand washing clothes. Maybe both ;)

The ride