Bike Ride to Germany

The weather was beautiful on Saturday and instead of wasting it inside catching up on American TV shows that we miss or reading our books, we decided to go on a bike ride to Germany. We literally live minutes from the border but is still weird for me to say “bike ride to Germany.”  The closest I’ve lived to another country’s border was when we lived in Syracuse, NY and were a few hours away from the Canadian border. When wanting to visit another country, I’m used to double checking on my passport’s presence and then boarding some sort of train/plane/boat/or automobile. So the fact that we rode our bikes over a border without a passport is still a little mindboggling.

It was so anti-climatic. We literally rode on a little path with overgrown bushes on both side and saw the Duitsland sign. Once we left the “secret” (using the adjective “secret” makes it seem a little more adventurous) path the only thing that made us realize we were no longer in the Netherlands was that the road signs were now in German. My Dutch is still pretty basic but now I recognize more road signs. While in Germany, I had to use Gearoid to translate.

I’m jumping the gun though. We left the house with me nervous about how long Gearoid was going to have me ride a bike and him nervous that I would become a shrieking shrew if it became too difficult. I don’t mind riding bikes but Gearoid is like the Energizer Bunny. He can ride and ride and ride whereas I need limits. How long or what’s our destination? Also, if I am in some combination of hungry, tired, overexerted, thirsty, hot, cold, or have to use the bathroom he’s in the danger zone.  So of course to go to Germany, we had to go up. The Netherlands is pretty much flat with a few random hills to mess with me. There is a place referred to as the 7 Hills which of course is the way we went to get to Germany. Gearoid and I both got off lucky though. He was only called “annoying” once in English and Dutch (vervelend!) by the shrieking shrew (i.e. me) and the hills although challenging were actually enjoyable- especially the extremely fast down hills.  It helped that the weather was just right- not too hot or too chilly- and the landscape was beautiful. The 7 hills gave the landscape a “rolling” effect and everything was in Technicolor. The fields were so green and if they weren’t filled with onions or chard there were usually several horses enjoying the greenery. Right before we entered the secret path to Germany, we happened upon a historical landmark that indicated that the fields we were passing were used as a runway for planes during WWII. I know the States has history but it is quite fascinating to me to just happen upon a field that was used during a significant period of history.

We then crossed over to Germany and enjoyed the now German scenery to a little town called Kranenburg. The town was honestly a little creepy. For a Saturday, it was very quiet with no open shops and few people walking about. We did manage to find some open cafes near a fountain artistically depicting a couple of bulls and decided to stop for a drink and lunch before heading back to the Netherlands.

The total round trip distance was 17 miles. It was enough for me but has Gearoid dreaming of a bicycle trip to the Black Sea this summer.