East vs West

Wernigerode Rathouse Photo Credit: Olli Henze - https://goo.gl/mrrmWU

We practically stumbled off the last part of Brocken's descent, two weary adventurers beaten and almost broken by the brutality of a day that could never have been predicted and seemingly almost unbelievable. And by the time our feet crunched on the loose gravel of the town that sits at the base of the mountain, we were weary. Beyond weary.

Somewhere along the way, James' chain tensioner had failed causing the to chain sag redundantly between gear rings. We weren't cycling anywhere.

But despite this being the latest hiccup in a long chain of unexpected events, Brocken had one bonus. Roads run down from a mountain and we could coast, slowly, but steadily rather than walk.

By that point, I'll happily admit we just wanted a bed to sleep in. It was dark, it was getting late. And so we knocked on the doors of every hotel or hostel we could find. No luck.

The irony of the situation was that, the weekend we were in town, there was some kind of local shindig, some kind of holiday celebration in the area.

We decided to try the next town, Wernigerode, it was bigger and hopefully more able to accommodate us. So we took off again, in my mind, like bats out of hell, but in reality, like two slow elderly pensioners.

And we got there. The only place available we could find that wasn't over £100 a night was a horrifically overpriced youth hostel. But we were desperate. We booked it on Booking.com and turned up. Pressed the doorbell. No answer.

Another customer eventually let us in and said the guy who owns the place normally leave at 8pm. It was after 10pm. He tried the office, miraculously the guy was there!!
He proceeded to be annoyed with us because check in was until 8pm and we should have checked.

He was right, we should have checked. But we had just had an entire day of being battered by a German mountain, we had just spent over 11 hours, dragging our loaded bikes up a snowy, steep, peak and then carrying them back down on a death trap path that made it feel like we were contestants on The Hunger Games. And James had, had enough, he essentially told the guy to give us the bloody keys to the room, it's not like we weren't going to pay.

This is, begrudgingly on his part, what happened. And as an extra delight for the evening, we were told we had to make our own bed. It was a very basic hostel and we were bitter to hand over £65 a night for the pleasure.

But you know what. We got in that room. I made the beds up. We didn't even eat dinner. We collapsed in two exhausted heaps and we didn't wake up until almost lunch time the next day.

Our very unsubtle camp spot just outside of Berlin. Too beautiful not to pitch there.

After that, it was onwards to Berlin. A city that was a welcome change from the dire economic state of east Germany. And rather than trawl through all we saw there, I'm simply going to focus on one thing. The Reichstag, the parliament building that was restored after a fire and in my opinion, vastly improved - with the addition of the dome, a construction that allows natural light to filter into the chamber. It's stunning. A building that merges past and present, the design is just wonderful. We opted to go at night, so we could look upon the city from that formidable glass dome and catch our breath as we took in the sight of the impressively lit Brandenburg Gate from across the street.

The Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag feels majestic, has that air of decadence and taste, it really is a gorgeous building. At the top is a circular glass hole and it is there that you can lean back on the metallic concave seat placed there and watch the sky. It's kind of amazing. We held hands for a while and just did a bit of star gazing.

They have a swanky restaurant in the Reichstag, the sort that is frequented by middle aged couples who like Simply Red and casually wear branded clothing like Karen Millen and Hugo Boss. Basically people like my parents, who have not had to house their children for a long while and delight in the opportunity to treat themselves instead of carting their offspring round for sleepovers and driving lessons.

And when we stood there, weighing up our £10 a day budget and the drinks menu that would take us over that just for one round. James simply said, "sod it" how many times can we eat in The Reichstag, how many times can we eat above Berlin and eat like kings for the night? So we went for dinner. And it was absolutely delicious. Genuinely amazing food. Neither of us regret that meal. When we finally came out, the entire Reichstag was empty, no tour groups, no tourists, just us and some security staff....it was the best way to experience the place I have to say.

We carried on our journey into Poland. Which was a really welcoming surprise; people were friendlier than in Germany; more relaxed. There was not this rigidity of rules and anger at infractions of them that we had become accustomed to. In fact, people just seemed more cheerful and more willing to help, less prone to anger or annoyance.

We both really enjoyed Poland, we met some really great people, we were bestowed with random acts of kindness from strangers and in general, we just really appreciated the country for its attitudes and customs towards each other and strangers alike.

Snacks at sunset. :)

I fell in love with a place called Wroclaw, it had a quaint old town and it just felt so friendly and pretty. With old buildings and a buzzing nightlife, it was a real gem after a string of nondescript towns.

Wroclaw Old Town.

Our time in Poland however, was interrupted by a trip to Portugal, where we decided to fly to from Warsaw, in order to meet up with my roller derby team MKRD and play a game against Porto. This would be the first time we had seen people we know since we left the UK and it was like getting a little slice of home.

Jeronimos Monastery, Lisbon

Belem Tower, Lisbon - Vasco De Gama's leaving point.

We flew into Lisbon, a city that was just gorgeous. It is wholeheartedly somewhere I could see myself living. It is very beautiful, with houses and buildings covered in delicately patterned tiles. The colours and shapes give the streets a really unique and inviting quality. It was blissfully hot and we really enjoyed ourselves, not to mention our eventual addiction to pastel de natas. Holy potatoes are they good!

We carried on and stopped in Coimbra, the former capital city of Portugal and again were delighted with our surroundings. The university was built within the grounds of the palace and has an extraordinary baroque library....you can imagine our awe as two book lovers. The uni itself is just stunning and I can't quite imagine what it must be like to get the opportunity to study in such a unique setting.

Eventually we made it into Porto and we were greeted by my rowdy and raucous team mates. It's safe to say, we laughed, sweated and hobbled our way through the holiday together.

A few of the ragtag bunch - Photo Credit to Andy Harris (You da bench boss)

I jammed valiantly but terribly!

In spite of allergy inducing hotel rooms, a bruised solar plexus, hangovers and painful sunburn, we had a wonderful time. Can't wait for the next occasion the Cows find themselves on tour! It was lovely to see everyone, however my only request is that on the next one, we pick a slightly less robust opponent.....!

Photo credit to Pedro Miguel: https://goo.gl/rGUWZ3