Cycling Copenhagen to Berlin: Day 9

It is surprisingly quiet on the streets this morning. I expected more noise from race announcers and such since we are very close to the race route. Since it is Sunday and the core is closed off, there is little or no car traffic. Our morning exit from the city goes well. The leaders have done a good job of planning. At 9:00 we take our luggage as a group to the van which is parked outside the closed off area of the cycle races probably a quarter of a mile away. We are on our own until 11:00 when we get our bikes and walk them with Philipp leading until we get away from the closed off area. Then we ride a short distance to the ferry. We get in a long line of people waiting to get on the ferry and I wonder if the bikes will get on but we get in line with everyone else and there is a special place to put the bikes. Plenty of room. We go up on deck. It is a little lighter today so our pictures will look a little better than on our other boat ride. I enjoy visiting with the woman sitting across from me. Her granddaughter and husband are with her. They are taking her to the zoo today.

We get off at the fifth stop where the van meets us. We start riding our 60 km about 1:00 p.m. We stop for lunch around 2:00. I have the biggest hamburger I have ever seen! It must have a pound of meat in it. I eat half and have the rest wrapped. I will give it to Philipp. I don't think the marker always has time to eat lunch. After lunch, it starts raining. We are under a big dark cloud. We are just beginning to get seriously wet when thankfully it stops. I have taken out my rain jacket from the rack pack that morning because the weather has been so nice and no rain In the forecast. If I had brought it, it wouldn't have rained, right? Of course, I am therefore responsible for the rain! It is also windy at times. We are on mostly bike paths but some are really bumpy and others one has to watch for tree roots. Some are through woods. Amazing these bike paths. It is a nice ride but we feel pressure to keep going because it is already 5:00 and we still.have 10 km to go. We arrive at 5:15. This is a nice hotel. Our room is on the river. This is a picturesque town just as one imagines a pretty German town. Unfortunately, we won't have any time to explore it. We've done the best we could under the circumstances with the race going on in Hamburg.

We have a delicious dinner at the hotel.

Well, I am tired and must get to bed. We have 97 km tomorrow. It is our 51st anniversary today. Whoever thought we'd be doing a riding our bikes in Germany on our 51st anniversary?! Our group toasts us at dinner.