The plan was to ride 160km north on the designated bike paths found throughout Germany. The destination was a lake that we would arrive at, at the end of the third day. On the way there, we would tent at various campsites before getting to the lake where we would spend two or three days at a campsite on the lake.
Apparently there was water skiing, boating, castles to see, and even an obstacle course type park.
I thought it was a great idea and when Nora told me I was pumped.
I arrived on Thursday June 28th in Frankfurt am Main and we left bright and early that Saturday morning.
We met with the group where I was introduced to all the friends, and we made our way, first leaving the city by train. I didn't take any pictures for the first... four days of the trip I think. Looking back on it, it is truly a bitty since the landscapes were so beautiful.
The first day was exhausting, physically and emotionally. We rode for something like 8 hours, got lost, it was boiling hot, I practically never rode bikes back home and it was my first time EVER immersed in a foreign language. When we did finally arrive to the campsite, I was so homesick and long story short, the next day, things got better. We also didn't exhaust ourselves again and took the train for some parts of the day.
The day we arrived at Edersee, our ultimate destination, we were all so happy! They told me how they always learnt about this place in Geography since it is a man made lake with a huge dam.
The first bike was mine for the week.
It's a good thing Nora took me for a bike ride a day before the trip,
because that is where I learnt to change gears.
That gives you an idea of how I NEVER rode a bike.
This was waiting outside the tourist information office,
I waited outside since inside was crowded and full of conversations I didn't understand.
This was the first time I took a picture while riding...
I was quite proud! I could now lift my hands from the handlebars,
but as you can see, I was holding on for dear life with my left hand.
I loved this fountain.
In the village, down the hill from the lake,
there was this wall with a list of all the names of the people
who passed away from both world wars.
It was sad, it even listed children who were only 6 years old.
I loved this.
This was the obstacle course park,
and no one ended up doing it since it was too expensive,
or they just didn't want to or something.
I don't really know, but that is what I gathered from the German conversations.
Holding on for dear life again.
.This was on the bridge of the dam and we were curious about
what was going on over the side of the wall.
Turns out that the fire department had guys climbing up and down the wall,
there is a dot at the bottom of the wall, near the waters edge,
that is a fireman.
One day we bought our lunch from the grocery store in the village down the hill.
It was very new for me to weigh and put stickers on my fruit before going to pay.
After lunch Nora, myself and another girl from the group took these gondolas
to see a castle that overlooked the entire lake.
Apparently these things are something like 60 years old and they were very small,
only two people in each one.
The view of the town along the hillside up towards the castle.
I preferred to look at this rather than our rickety gondola.
Nora!
This photo is from inside the castle walls in the main... square I guess you could call it.
This was the view from the castle towards one end of the lake
I was the only one who wanted to go into the castle.
It cost 5 euros but I thought it was a good exchange to see inside my first ever castle,
aside from Versailles in Paris.
Turns out it was a medieval castle and there seemed to only be torture items on display.
I was on the main floor for 20 minutes or so,
but when I went downstairs there was no one there,
along with hardly any windows, so I got scared and went back outside,
I had seen enough torturing methods for one day.
The walk down from the castle was very nice and not too hot since it was already 6pm or so.
We walked through the town at the top of the hill briefly then made our way back down.
After riding the gondola once again, we rode the other way around the lake.
The plan was to get to the ferry in another town about a 40 minute ride away,
to get a ride across the lake to our campsite.
However, when we got there, it was closed since it was about 7pm by this time.
We had to go all the way back the way we came
that was about an hour and a half bike ride to our campsite.
It ended up me being alone at the back since, I wasn't in nearly as much as a rush as the other two.
I thought it was a great night for a bike ride, so I made no hurry to try to keep up or catch up.
I was loving the warm sun and beautiful views.
To the right was the hill down to the lake.
I was even slowing down at this point since I was loving my ride so much.
Turns out Nora was waiting for me,
so I picked up my pace and we arrived back to the campsite together.
It was getting dark and we had this wonderful view from ours tents.
The next day was our last full day at Edersee.
The plan was to go out on a boat and water ski, but that was too expensive.
Instead, we decided to rent a boat.
To my surprise, boat didn't mean power boat, but it was a row boat and a paddle boat.
At one point I tried rowing the boat and I got us stuck in the middle of the lake, going around in circles,
with a ferry coming blowing its horn.
Somebody else had to paddle since I started freaking out,
and while I found it rather funny afterwards, the others did not.
I had to take a picture of the actual camping spot.
No seclusion like in Canada, but instead,
just open land with lines drawn on the ground.
Interesting, but good!
This was the morning we were leaving.
We decided not to bike back, but instead,
ride to the nearest train station and get home in just over an hour.
My first non-vegan food purchase in Europe.
I even got a soccer sticker.
This was about 2 hours before we got home,
and it was the most amazing lunch ever.
I hadn't had any bananas since leaving Canada, and I love bread with seeds!
It was a good week, I loved the experience, but I was glad to be going back to Nora's.
We were only at Nora's for two days before making our way to Hungary with Lioba!
Much more details about that with my next post.
xo
