It's been a while since we've written anything, and that is mostly due to nothing happening.

But during the time we stayed here, we experienced a lot of kindness and support from many people. For example, we got a really generous offer from Reinhald - a friend from Idas family. He and his wife were touring themselfes with a recumbent tandem through the Neatherlands and Germany. But today the bike mostly spends its time in the garage, so he offered us, that we could borrow his bike to continue our trip. We had a look at it and were really fascinated by how differently recumbent tandems could be made and even had a test drive! Because they also used Warmshowers, we had a nice conversation with Reinhald. In the end, we declined the offer, because it would feel a bit weird to not tour with our own bike and since we (hopefully) have the luxury, that we would see our money back from the insurance at some point, we decided, that we would have a better feeling touring with a bike of our own. We really appreciate the offer though. It's not every day that someone offers you to take their bike for 8 months!

So how will we continue touring? Due to Ida being a bit afraid of our speed diferences we decided that Tilman should carry most of the weight, and what better way to do so than a cargo bike? And because we have had really bad experiences with shipping stuff we had only one solution: to pick the bike up ourselves in Copenhagen. And so we took a bus ride and spent 2 days in Copenhagen. For a night we tested out BeWelcome, where Klaus recieved us even though he had just came back from Spain himself. A really cool human being, with an incredible gift for languages!

During the day we had a few things to do. First and foremost: the planetarium! Thanks to the newly reworked planetarium database we had seen the existence from the Tycho Brahe Planetarium, and decided to go and try to talk to someone. We had the absolute honor of meeting Markus, who showed us around not only their incredible (interactive) exposition and their tilted dome, but also behind the scenes: from the new server rooms to the old system which used gigantic rolls of celluloid films!

Afterwards we remembered what we had come to København for and went to Larry vs Harry to pick up our bike. And after Ida took a ride around the block, we were ready. We packed all our luggage onto the bike and then Tilman sat in the front as well and let himself be driven around the city. We rode/were ridden to the our second host, but not without first visiting the most touristy thing that the city had to offer.

That night we spend at Rolfs place, who showed us around the food scene and who joined us the next day on the ride out the city. Now maybe you're wondering, but you didn't get a second bike. How are you riding back?

Well that's easy, we're just two wheels after all!

The first day we had a good ride. The sun was shining and we were slow but having fun (at least Tilman was). But in the evening when the sun started going down it became cold and with a huuuuge mountain coming up (well as huge as mountains are in Denmark) we decided to just ask someone if we could crash in their garden. Turns out, that a 60kg person riding up a hill with 100kg of cargo isn't the most enjoyable pasttime. Who would have thought?

Thankfully we chose exactly the right moment to ask, because a few minutes later it started snowing! And so we quickly put up our tent and went to bed.

I know this tent looks a bit different and no, you're not going crazy. Our tent is taking a break and getting a check up and so we took a festival tent that Ida had bought second hand 5 years ago for 20€ in Stockholm. As you can imagine not the best fit for sub zero temperatures.

On the other hand we found out our sleeping bags are and so we enjoyed a warm night sleep and woke up to a snow covered bike.

After defrosting the windshield we were good to go and cycled for the rest of the day, alternating between sun and rain/snow. One of the worst moments was when we were climbing the Storstrømsbroen and it started to rain. As you know, bridges have nowhere to seek shelter and so we got a good shower.

But everything was fine, as for the night we had a warm place to sleep thanks to our Warmshowers hosts! Tage and Pia had quickly responded to our request, when we decided that a second night in the tent would not be the most comfortable situation, and their son even made risotto for us all! After a quick guestbook exchange we were honoured to be the first to make an entry for 2023.

On the last day, it rained as we planed to leave, and so we split for the first time during our tour. Ida took the train and bus to Gedser while Tilman decided to make the more sensible thing and ride through the wind and rain.

When he arrived totally wet, Ida took the bike for a quick grocery shop while Tilman tried to dry himself in the waiting room for the ferry. And that's it. We boarded the ferry to Germany and took the train back to Idas parents where we arrived at night and enjoyed a quick last ride with our new party bike from the train station back home.

At the end just a funny story. During the ride back with the train we were informed by the ticket inspector that cargo bikes were no longer allowed on trains (they even apparently made little business cards just for the occasion). Upon looking into it a bit the DB (the German railway company) seemed to have a solid argument for it:

Ignoring the wrong grammar they basically argue that cargo bikes are too wide. And when told that maybe they should decide based on size because some cargo bikes are smaller than normal bikes, they basically ignore the facts and just repeat that they are all too wide and too long. I mean, I would understand a tiered system where cargo bikes have to leave the train if there isn't enough space... But I guess as a private company they have the right to decide for themselves, just a bit ironical that on they sustainability subpage they post this:

Our cargo bikes deliver ecofriendly

This is green: green transportation. With muscles and electricity. Cargo bikes at the DB

In the next article we will do a tiny trip to Potsdam to test our final setup! And then after easter, it's go time!