HemerSep 28, 2009
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Sorry, no pics in this one. Not sure if everyone knows it or not, but this site will give us a DVD at the end of our contract. We just want to make this entry so that when we are reviewing things a few years from now, we have a record of how we were feeling, and what we were thinking at the time.
We leave Roland & Karen’s, and go back to Horst & Magdalena’s for a couple of nights. We do some major soul searching here. We have almost exactly one month left in Europe. Flights are booked from Paris for Oct 31, and the bike has to be dropped off 2 days in advance. We have plans to meet friends in Paris on 29 Sep, for a few days; and we must go back to Lahr, because we left some stuff; including Barbie’s electrically heated clothing there. Other than that, things are wide open.
Fall is definitely in the air, and we must be on our way south soon. We had originally planned Greece, with stops in Slovenia, Croatia, and of course back through Italy, Monaco etc. That’s a 6000+ km round trip, in 30 days. Barbie hates one night stops. We spend too much time loading and unloading the bike, and no time to explore. It really sounds like too much driving, and not enough time relaxing. I really want to see those places, but not in a blur. Also, I know someone will say ‘cry me a river’, but we are really exhausted. We need a couple of weeks of down time, with nothing on the agenda.
We decide that Spain is equally warm, and nice, and almost 2000km closer. I find us a reasonable apartment on line, with a pool, and only 200 yards from the beach. Also, if we get bored, Sevilla, Granada, Gibraltar, and Morroco are all nearby. I book the apartment for the 10-24 Oct.
I don’t think we took a single picture at Horst & Magdalena’s this time. We arrived just after Rolf’s birthday party. We had our wires crossed, and thought it was in the evening. He had it in the afternoon. We wished him all the best anyways.
While at Horst & Magdalena’s, we got to watch the 8mm movie they had made about bread. Horst was working on it when I was there in 1986. It started with the snow covered wheat field, and went through the planting, and harvesting. It included changes around their house....the ice melting on the creek, the new flowers in bloom, cutting the grass, raking the fall leaves etc. In the fall, the wheat was taken to the miller to be ground, and shows Horst buying the flour. They then got together with their walking club, and made bread in a chalet somewhere with a wood fired oven. Near the end, it includes Horst, Magdalena, Harald, and his young girlfriend Ulrike enjoying the bread. It was a joy to watch. They are true artists. I hope he gets it preserved soon on some other format, before the 8mm projector dies.
Horst helped us decide that Spain was the much better option for us. I had his maps spread out on the table more than once. It may have helped that one of the few sights he has not seen in Europe is the Alhambra. His enthusiasm is infectious, and I think we knew we would be making a day trip there, before we even left Hemer!
We have pretty much stopped saying Good Bye, and far prefer the German Auf Weidersehen (literally see you again). We said Auf Weidersehen to Horst & Magdalena, and rode off into the overcast. It was really threatening rain, so we put on the rain gear. We have a 600+km run to Paris, to meet up with friends from the Yukon; but then......thats another story.........
27-29 Sep.
