All was well while we were in London, but as soon as we began our journey to Scotland, one calamity after another drove us to cut our time in Scotland short and to save the trip to Ireland for another time.
First, we couldn’t get on our train because we didn’t have bike reservations, so I appealed to about 50 people waiting in line at the ticket counter to allow me to cut to the front.  We found out that there was no space for bikes on our train and got bumped to a train leaving 30 minutes later, which wasn’t so bad.  We boarded our train and all was well until the engine on a different train ahead of us on our track caught on fire.  After a short delay all trains proceeded except our train, which had to stop the journey in Newcastle because it was an electric train.  But we got on another train and arrived in Edinburgh about three hours late, right as the sun was setting.  So we found a room at a hostel that was in an old church building.  Edinburgh has amazing buildings: castles (one built on an inactive volcano), churches, tall monuments that look like church steeples, everywhere.  It’s an amazing city!  We explored it a bit on bikes in the morning in the pouring rain and wind. 
We began cycling to the East coast of Scotland on the canal trail, which was a lovely paved path winding along a canal, under low brick bridges and over the top of tall aquaducts.  All was well until the rain intensified to a torential downpour.  Knives pf rain penetrated our rain gear and we became soaked to the bone.  Then the pavement ended and the trail became a muddy, flooded single track.  That was no longer fun, so we biked on roads, slightly lost the whole time, until early evening and holed up at a cute B&B for the night.  I did a lot of gear cleaning and maintenance that evening.
The next morning the rain ended but the wind got stronger.  We biked about 50 miles across Scotland with a strong headwind past rolling hills with grazing sheep and cows, and avoided getting hit by impatient drivers several times.  Scott got a flat from biking on littered bike paths and having to repeatedly go over curbs to get from the end of one bike path to the start of another.  Temperatures dropped to a non-camping level, so we sprung for another hotel room and ate dinner at the adjoining restaurant.  We celebrated surviving the day with shots of Scotch.
The next morning the front desk receptionist greeted us with, “Are you sure you want to do this?” as we walked down the hall with all our sacks.  We didn’t have much choice, so we pedalled about eight miles to the ferry port in pouring rain to sail to Ireland.  When we got there we found out that we read the ferry schedule wrong online and the last ferry from this port left 35 minutes ago and the next one would leave in nine hours.  We had the option of biking a long way to the other ferry port down the coast.  At this point we were fed up with the weather and unbudgeted expenses, so rather than pushing stubbornly ahead as normal, we decided to go to Ireland some other time.  We biked to the train station and bought astronomically expensive train tickets to Harwich Town where we could catch the ferry back to Holland.  We had to make three connections.  One required us to madly dash for three miles through crowded streets of London to another train station.  Amazingly, we made all our connections and arrived at Harwich after dark.  We biked back to the same campground where we stayed on our first night in England, had a pint at the pub, confirmed with the bar tender that the ferry to Holland leaves at 9 in the morning, and went to sleep.
We woke up at 6:30 the next morning to catch the ferry, but when the port came into view and we didn’t see a huge ferry, we knew something was wrong.  Turned out that today was a rare maintenance day for the ship and the next voyage was scheduled at 11:15 PM.  So we had to spend over 12 hours in tiny, sleepy Harwich.  We spent quality time at a road side burger wagon called Ray Ray’s, chatting with locals.  Caught up on business at the library, enjoyed an authentic Saturday afternoon pub experience (I was the only woman there), and spent a bit of time on various park benches.
In the evening we boarded the overnight ferry to Holland.  In the morning we were back in cycling paradise.  This time biking with the wind at our backs on flawless bike paths in sunny Holland.  We are now taking our time in Holland, having  more appreciation for it after a week on calamity island.

After spending five days crossing Holland, we caught a ferry to England.  One of the first things we did on our first night there is go to an English pub for a pint of IPA.  Unfortunately, we were disappointed with England’s version of IPA, which was surprising considering that the English invented that recipe for long sea voyages.  The beer was flat, not hoppy at all, and diacetyl contamination was the strongest flavour. 

The next day we rode the train for three hours into London to Melanie and Neil’s house.  They took us to a show at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater.  For £5 one can watch the show standing right in front of the stage at the outdoor round theater.  Luckily the weather cooperated.  The English really know how to put on a good show.  The good acting was refreshing. 

The next morning we rode our bikes across London to our hostel right next to St. Paul’s Cathedral.  The fellow cyclist who we asked for directions told us that on the contrary bicycling is not the best way to see Europe, but rather on a unicycle.  He plays unicycle field hockey.  After settling into our hostel we visited the Tate Modern Art Museum, walked around the Soho district, China Town, Piccadilly Circus, and Trafalgar Square.

On our last day in London we marveled at St. Paul’s Cathedral and climbed over 500 steps to the top of the dome to see panoramic views of London.  We also crammed more express museum visits to the National Gallery and the British Museum.  London museums are free!  At first I was excited to see the mummies, but as I was viewing actual dead bodies on display in glass cases, my excitement turned into dismay and disappointment at the fact that the British committed such horrendous crimes of desecrating all those sacred graves. 

A visit to London wouldn’t be complete without a pub crawl.  We found some iconic English pubs, which were all crowded on a Monday night, and sampled some delicious Porters.

Right now we are on the train to Edinburgh, Scotland.  The weather is getting progressively worse, but we should be okay because we’ve bought some reinforcements: a camp stove, booties that cover our bike shoes, and fleece hoodies.

Things are not much different in Holland than in Germany.  We’ve noticed more straw roofs, more moss growing on everything, sand dunes and flat landscapes typical for a seaside location, and more people riding bikes.  There are big bicycle parking garages close to train and bus stations.  One of my favorite things is the colorful garlands of flowers that women weave through their big bicycle baskets.

On this trip we’ve noticed a smooth transition in languages from East to West.  Russian is similar to Polish, Polish is similar to Russian and German, and Dutch is a mixture between German and English.  The landscape in northern Europe is very similar to the landscape in western Pacific Northwest.  Sometimes I have flashbacks to biking in Oregon and northern California.  This trip is making me realize that despite certain differences in languages, architecture, cuisine, and economics, people and places all over the world are not so different after all.  Different countries are becoming less foreign to us as we become better at noticing major similarities.

We will spend about three more days biking through Holland to Den Haag where we are catching a ferry to England.

One of the highlights of our time in Germany happened the day before we left the country.  The weather had been gray all day and in the afternoon we were biking in the rain.  We were planning on getting a room at a bed & breakfast because the previous two nights we camped out in rain storms.  We failed to plan ahead (typical), and couldn’t find an affordable room in Muenster, so we biked to a smaller town called Alteberge.  We were standing in front of the big information map in the church square, looking for lodging, when a small gray car pulled up behind me and almost hit my bike.  A woman came out of the car and asked if she could help us find anything.  At first we spoke in German, but then she switched to English.  She said that the town only had expensive hotels, and then surprised us by saying, “but you can stay at my house tonight, but I’m not cooking you dinner.”  We didn’t argue because I read about things like this happening to bike tourists, but we did feel a little uncomfortable going to a complete strangers house.  We all introduced ourselves and followed Gisela to her house.  Her husband, Heinrich, was a little surprised that his wife went to the ATM and brought back a couple of wet bike tourists from Alaska.  Later I found out from Heinrich that this isn’t the first time Gisela had taken people into her home.  Our gracious host rode her bike to the store to buy some bread, and other delicious food for dinner, while her husband set the table and we changed into dry clothes.  We exchanged stories over Bitburger beers, and looked at maps late into the evening.  Gisela is a special education teacher, and Heinrich is a non-organic chemist freelancer.  Their home was warm and comfortable and we thanked our lucky stars that Gisela rescued us from the rain.  We got to see a real German home, and made new friends in Germany.  In the morning Gisela left for work before we woke up (7 AM), and Heinrich made us breakfast.  We had a great conversation over a leisurly breakfast before we packed up and headed out on our last biking day in Germany, being sent off with a warm farewell from our unexpected German hosts.

We are spending two nights at a campground just a few kilometers from the Holland/German border, taking a break for one day.  Our biker campsite is on a big grassy field next to a duck pond and adjacent to a corn field on one side and a grass field on the other side where five white cows graze every day.  Bunnies and ducks hop and fly around our tent, which is very unusual, but quite adorable.  A huge luxury is having our own picnic table, this is a rarity at German campgrounds.  Campfires are not allowed at German and Dutch campgrounds, something we took for granted at campgrounds in the U.S.

We bought our tickets home to Alaska via NYC and a week in Washington/Oregon.  We will be home on October 29th.

Wedding

Although some things about Russia seem pretty hard, we have seen some of the most amazing sights here.  The view from our dorm-like hostel included a castle reminiscent of the one at the end of a Mario Brothers’ video game level.  The Moscow and St. Petersburg metro systems were full of monuments that made the stations seem more like the interior of Hogwarts from Harry Potter than a subway system.  The Kremlin with it’s seven gold-domed Cathedrals, including a 91-meter bell tower, is amazing.  Not to mention more gold treasure in the Kremlin museum than most Americans can imagine.  St. Basil’s Cathedral at the Red Square is more beautiful in life than I had thought from the photography I had seen, and the labyrinth interior was cooler and more fun than I had expected.  I saw more fantastic paintings at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg than I had studied in all my years in art history classrooms.  Overall Russia has such a wealth of history and unique culture.  Although leaning a little on the dark side of life, there is a brightness to it that cannot be diminished.

View of Kremlin Cathedrals from the bell tower

Tomorrow we will ride a bus to Kaliningrad and stay in a hotel while we look for decent bikes for our touring trip.  We’ll also need to get a smart phone, and some minor supplies such as a tarp, toilet paper, maybe a cooking stove, etc.  These seem like easy tasks in America, but I’m afraid they will be quite difficult here in Russia.  We will ride our bikes to the Polish border no later than August 17th because that is when our Russian visas expire.  Our tour through Poland to Germany should take about a week.  We have been warned about the dangers of touring in Poland by people who have never bike toured.  Russians are really paranoid.

The previous day we had organized the campsite to make it more cozy — adding decorations, turning a red tools cart into a library/desk, and just generally improving the feng shui, so this morning I felt cozy in the newly improved surroundings. I especially like the new rock garden at the base of the tree on which we hung various cooking utensils.

Rock Garden

The PBR willow bush wasn’t particularly attractive, but at least we came up with a festive and creative way to store empty PBR cans until we could take them into the “big city” for recycling.

Scott's Bike Repair Station

Scott offered his bike mechanic services to the general public of McCarthy today, and sent two happy customers pedaling away on fully functional bikes.  After that Scott and I worked a little over three hours hauling and shelving the week’s freight for the store, the lodge, and the Saloon, which was pretty hard work and a perfect excuse to eat dinner at the Saloon afterward.  Next order of business for the day was to fetch water from Clear Creek.  We drove the truck to the creek and filled up every available container with crystal clear water that would last us for about a week for all of our washing, cooking, laundry, etc.  On the drive back to our lot we stopped to gather beach sand from McCarthy Creek for fire pit fire prevention purposes.

The Amazing Fire Pit

We spread the sand around the fire pit between the stones that surround it.  Today I enjoyed several complements about my hair because I didn’t have it tied in a pony tail since I finally washed it the previous day.  Funny how little things can be a big deal in the wilderness.

June 12, 2010

What can you buy at a community yard sale in McCarthy?  Well, surprisingly, more than you may have guessed.  For example, Gloria almost purchased a Krups espresso maker, and Scott walked away with a Spanish dictionary and a pocket knife.  On the way back to the camp site we stopped at the store and Scott purchased a long-handled axe with a wooden handle.  So naturally, when he got back to the camp site, he promptly chopped down five trees for two purposes: to make a clearing for his future art studio, and for building the art studio.  Peeling them took longer than chopping them down, which was not surprising, but at the end of several hours of labor, we gazed onto the measly five peeled poles with utter disbelief that we could ever manage to build anything “from the land” out here.  Today we heard that one of our neighbors, Bob Cook, spotted a bear on Sandstone — a street in our neighborhood.  For this reason I didn’t object when Wolfie, one of the local pooches who looks like a wolf/husky mix, followed us all the way back to our camp site from town.  I really like this dog, but his owner is looking for him, so I haven’t fed him since the last time when I gave him a turkey sandwich on our hike.

Hammock District

Today we made eggs and potatoes for breakfast – a nice change from the usual oatmeal.  Rode down to town to check if anyone wanted us to take them on a bike tour to the Nizina River, but there were no takers, so we went ourselves.  The ride was 9.2 miles one way to the awesome Nizina River Valley.  We walked to the old steele bridge and ate lunch on top of one of the huge cement pilings.  We discovered the most delicious food combo: Nature Valley bars with peanut butter, dried blueberries, and chocolate on top, accompanied by hot coffee.  On the river bank we saw two kinds of purple flowers that were very similar, but had slight differences.  Luckily, I brought a book about Alaska wild flowers and we found descriptions of both flowers.  Turns out that one is edible – the Eskimo Potato, and the other is poisonous – the Wild Sweat Pea.  The former is the plant that killed Chris McCandless as documented in Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.  We instantly understood how easily one could have made that mistake.  In the evening Mark Wacht came to visit, and then we all went to his house.

Nizina River Valley

Wild Sweat Pea or Eskimo Potato - I can't tell

Glo taking lunch break on steele bridge