Reflections of 09

We are on our way back to Toronto and this is a reflection of our trip. About 10 weeks ago we were anxious to start; now we feel a need to get back to a more civilized routine. Travel is not easy. Life is unpredictable on the road, yet we were very lucky. Each night we found shelter. Accommodation went from living in a tent or a garden shed to having the finest society had to offer in a 4 star hotel. We had the illusion that the internet is available all over the world, it is! Yet it is either expensive or so slow that it defies usefulness. We ate well, not always the finest but we were never hungry. The weather was on our side. Yes, we had rain, fog, cold spots even heat but all in all we rode in dry conditions. We were extremely pleased about that. Our bikes held up, no major repair needed. In the most desolate areas the machines ran well. I managed with a defective side stand to get off and on the bike using a wooden block. I was a bit nervous about my bald front tire but I learned from that, too. Next year we will start with a fresh set of tires. We rode slowly when Carol’s chain was worn out and needed replacement. We ran into people that were helpful and even offered their home for us to use. Thank you again, Hilde and Sigurd. We lived day to day with a destination in mind, with a theme to follow. There were a lot of firsts for Carol. The mind was on overload but we survived it all. Right now it rains, the last day of our trip we are holed up at Stefan Knopf’s place in Heidelberg. Our bikes are washed, the oils have been changed, the fuel stabilized and all is put away until next year. We had a good trip. Next year we will continue on a new venture and let’s hope that in the future all trips will be as good as this trip.

Familiar Places

I ask myself some days why do I travel. Do I have a gene that cannot sit still? Do I seek something new all the time? Am I that curious? Most people I know love to go on vacation but the travel I am talking about is different. When I travel I do not have an itinerary with a daily destination; I do not like that too much. I rather like the free flow and sense of discovery when I travel. Yes, I like a target, a city, a region or a country that I will aim for when I am on the road. I like a theme, for example I liked retracing and exploring the route Lewis and Clark took in the early 19th century. I like to find newness, things I never saw or knew before. With the Lewis and Clark example I enjoyed learning about the lives of the Native American at the time of Lewis and Clark. I am not sure how deep I want to go on some subjects but if it is new to me, I like to learn as much as possible. The difficulty is that my brain can hold only so much on any given day. I do get overloaded with impressions and newness over time and I can feel the learning, the sheer size of newness, physically. I know from experience that I need a rest when I feel like this. Weeks of accumulated new experiences wear on me.
That is the reason I go back to familiar places; places that do not burden me with new, but relax me with familiar. Familiar is predictable, something I normally do not like very much. But familiar is calming, reassuring and well, familiar.
So, after all of our travels for the last 9 weeks we went to France. I learned to love this county. France to me is familiar; the food is great, the people friendly and the French routine somewhat predictable. But because I can only converse in words, not in sentences I went back to Germany. Now here, of course, I am at home and I find some pride in the German ways yet I would never live here again. The language is my mother tongue. It is way, way too familiar. Way too predictable for me.
But my bike needed a new headlight, the auxiliary light from Touratech needed fixing and the right aluminum pannier needed adjusting. Touratech was the place to go and we over-nighted in Dauchingen at the ‘Schwarzwaelder Hof’ Hotel, a great, clean, predictably German place for a night. How people can live their entire life in Dauchingen is beyond my understanding. I cannot be like them. I need to travel. I need to explore. I need to search. I am curious. I want to know and learn. So I am constantly in flux; trying to find a place to settle, yet feeling the need to add to my experiences through travel.
I am lucky that Carol is as much a traveler as I am. Her reasons might be different, but we make a good team. After all this time, travelling and getting bumped around by circumstances, we get along just fine. I don’t have, nor do I pretend to know, all the answers to the way I am.
This blog is just a vent as to what goes on in my head while traveling. I am constantly searching for some kind of answers about myself. Maybe traveling is a diversion or an excuse not to face myself?
I am learning though and will do what I do until I can no longer do it.