No Pain, No Gain

So, the daily riding update. Today was to be a 4 hour ride, I decided instead of time, to go for distance, I wanted to do 100 km along the Rhein. So, I set out pretty early. Mother Nature decided she didn't have enough fun with me yesterday and decided to go from sunny to showers and back several times. This did not make it too much fun, but I was determined to make 100 km. At around 47 km, I came across a railroad track which wasn't exactly perpendicular to the road, I did my best to improve the angle, however, it quickly proved me wrong. My front tire hit the wet rail and quickly slid sideways and down into the gully of the rail, I quickly followed as well. Fortunately I only got roughed up, nothing serious. The bike only had some damage to the handlebar tape. Well, as I said, I was 47 km in and had to decide first if I could still ride, I could, second do I keep going forward to the 50 mark or turn around immediately. As I said, I was determined, so I kept going. There were a few rough parts, but in the end I am glad I did. I can now say I have done a 100 km ride here in Germany. Fortunately, tomorrow is a recovery day with just a 1 hour ride. I plan on staying along the river in Bonn for that one.



A few of the Battle Scars...

Copenhagen Update

Hello All. I know it has been a few days since I got back from Denmark, but it has been busy. So, here is the travel report...

Copenhagen was a really nice city. I would like to research some more to see if there is enough to do for a long weekend, I think the family would really like it. I just loved that there was so much water. Not just the canals and the sea, but fountains everywhere! They are very bicycle and pedestrian friendly as well. Instead of a square like you find in Germany, they have a very long pedestrian road (at least 12 blocks long) that is lined with stores and resturants.

I had no problems communicating, everywhere I went they spoke English, except for the guy selling hot dogs, but he understood German, plus it isn't hard to coordinate getting a hot dog with mustard :) He was actually selling French Hot Dogs, a baguette which has one end cut off and a hole in the middle for the hot dog to slide into. Really tasty.

The other fun thing I did was get a bicycle from the hotel to go out and sightsee a little bit. I did the complete tourist thing too, I wore my camera around my neck so I could take pictures.

To change topics, if you were interested in the cycling update, there isn't one. The best laid plans... mother nature messes up. I think she really had a good laugh on me today. As I was riding my motorcycle home from work, it started to pour as I came up our hill and it continued as I got changed. So I decided to go to the gym and take the back to back spinning classes. The gym is really nice, the spinning room looks out over the square. And of course, what do I see as soon as the class starts, the clouds part and the sun comes out... Oh well, hopefully she got her laugh in today and I can get a ride in tomorrow morning!

Starting a new program

While on my last really long business trip, I did not get a chance to excersize much, however I did pick up a bicycling magazine. This magazine had an article which featured a "Spring Break Training" program. The objective is to really kick up your rides in a 17 day period in an effort to get you into summer cycling shape a little early this year. I read through it and it seemed like it would be a good challenge. The majority of the riding was in the first 11 days, then you take 2 days off before finishing it up. So, I decided that I was going to do it. The timing was perfect, I don't travel again until June 13 and there is a long weekend next weekend (thanks to one of the many German Holidays!) So today was the first day. I did a nice 65 km ride to start things off. If everything goes to plan, I will have ridden over 1000 km by the end of the month!

To help me plan my routes, I am using an awesome site www.mapmyride.com. I have mentioned it before, but it is just so cool I have to mention it again. One thing I really like is you can see the profile of the ride, so you know how much you are going to suffer! Below is the profile of today's ride. Tomorrow I am going to plan on a nice ride along the river towards Koblenz - aiming for 90 km tomorrow!

Who needs an office?

So here I am, sitting at the coffee bar in Copenhagen Airport, with a wonderful view of the airfield just having watched a Singapore Airlines 747 take off. It is quite a majestic site to watch one of those super jumbo jets lumber down the runway and slowly ascend into the sky.

Now what makes this so wonderful is wireless technology. I mean, who needs an office. I have been sitting here enjoying an americano and have written 16 e-mails, crossed a ton of things off of the to-do list while listening to my iPod and it has actually been somewhat relaxing, no office phone ringing, no interuptions by others... And the view is much better than the one I have in the office (no offense to my co-workers of course).

Well, this is about to come to an end, my flight boards in 20 minutes so it is time to go find some snacks and a drink for the flight. SAS has gone the way of many US airlines and stopped serving food unless you pay for it on board. The muffin and coffee I had on my way here was ok, but not worth the 5 euros they charged me.



The view from my "office" for the day.

Wonderful Copenhagen

A real quick post about Copenhagen, more to come once I am back home. The weather has been iffy - a lot of rain, but a lot of sunshine.

After work today, I took a bike from the hotel to sightseeing. Below is a picture of the Little Mermaid Statue.

Shopping - On a Sunday??!!

It is Sunday in Germany and that means, nothing is open, except airports, train stations and resturants. We had heard about an American like grocery store in Netherlands and it according to their website - open on Sunday. So, what is a 1.5 hour drive? Nothing if it is for an open store. So, we loaded up and off we went to Venlo, Netherlands. Unfortunately the grocery store was closed, but the downtown area had a ton of stores that were open. Clothing stores, odd lot type stores, book stores, and cheese stores. Yup, whole stores with wheels of cheese. The grocery store did look like it was huge inside, especially compared to German ones, so we will have to go back again when it is open to check it out.

After we got back, I went for a ride, same one as Tuesday, but this time with the new bike :) It rode very nicely. It is amazing the difference between my old Steel Alloy frame and the new Aluminum frame. You feel a little bit more of the road imperfections (and there are plenty to feel), but you loose no power to flex in the frame. I can't wait to get some more rides in on it.

Finally, last night was Rhein in Flammen in Bonn. It is a festival to open the new open air concert season for the city. There is a huge park which fills up with vendors and rides and the night ends with a huge firework show. My Son and I went down (gave Mommy the night off) and walked around and rode a few rides. Unfortunately, it doesn't get dark here until about 9:00 these days, so the fireworks didn't even start until close to 10. We didn't stay for that.

That is it for now, off to Copenhagen tomorrow!