Day 8: Journey through the monsoon

Last night was a bit short, because we had to leave early to escape the inevitable storm. Those who didn’t manage to get up on time were lovingly woken up with Good Morning, Sunshine by Nana Mouskouri.

But now things had to move fast: breakfast, tidying up sleeping spots, and cleaning toilets – luckily, Theresa and Liam took care of the last task. In the end, everything worked out, and right at ten o’clock we waved goodbye to the little scouts who had visited us early in the morning.

The only problem: we still had no idea where we would sleep tonight. We had contacted all sorts of places, farms, and clubs, with the result that a mysterious number (which later turned out to be Arjan) replied and offered us a meadow (aka a former ice rink). Unfortunately, there were no toilets or showers, but better than nothing, so off we went. Arjan, however, didn’t give up and continued to help us by giving lots of tips on what to see (windmills, Dutch Venice aka Giethoorn) and whom to ask for accommodation. He even recommended the farm where we actually ended up staying.

The first third of the ride went almost perfectly—except for Paul, who tried to push Cedrik but instead ended up dragging his own arm along the asphalt. Otherwise, it was just sore muscles and bike saddles causing us pain. Luckily, our cries of agony were drowned out by awesome music. Pistenhauptgewinn (Der Strudelsong) by Die strammen Strudel has become our school’s insider tip!

After a short break, we split into two groups: the slightly faster Group 1 and the slightly slower Group 2. The teachers rode separately because they wanted to see Giethoorn, the Dutch Venice, where—just like in the real Venice—cycling is nearly impossible.

Group 2 pushed on with only a short supermarket stop until they reached the destination. Group 1 experimented with giving Cedrik slipstream support—unfortunately with little success.

Everyone was tired, sore, and exhausted when the flood hit us. The sky turned into the Elbe, the asphalt into a swamp, and our clothes into soup. Suddenly, each of us had two private swimming pools—one in each shoe. Our rain jackets kept us as dry as fishing nets, and we all had to learn how to cycle underwater—while thunder and lightning started crashing around us. At that point, Group 1 was out in the open countryside, but with only about 5 km left on the counter. So everyone agreed: keep going! Our only motivation was to finally escape this suffering.

In the end, we all made it safely to the ark—our accommodation. And after a warm shower, all pain was forgotten. We quickly hung up our wet clothes and set up our sleeping spots in the big barn (thankfully no tents!!!).

Food? No problem! Thuisbezorgd (Deliveroo) even delivers out here. And after a good meal and a few card games, everyone went to bed happy.