Wuppertal to Paris - Closing the loop

We have now made a complete circle through Europe, arriving again in Paris (actually, it looks more like a figure-eight).

Thanks again to Toby (as well as his brother Sascha and Anna!) for letting us crash at their house and showing us around Wuppertal. The schwebebahn was fascinating, and the ice cream was delicoius! We got to enjoy almost everything exciting that Wuppertal had to offer, beginning with their annual festival which had the streets packed with booths and people and music. We went to the stadium where we watched some capoeira demonstrations (capoeira is a Brazilian fighting dance that's pretty amazing to watch, sort of breakdancing combined with martial arts) and some judo and some model airplanes. We also spent a little bit of time hanging out on their fabulous IKEA couch, where we played (or rather, Toby & Will played) Grand Theft Auto IV, and Sing Star, which is competitive karaoke. We also got to eat a lot of nice food- döners and German sausages both. We got to go rock climbing at Toby's gym, which was really fun, as was celebrating his birthday a month late (his birthday was in August!) where we got to meet a bunch of his German friends! One final highlight was mini-golf, where Meghan got not one but TWO hole in ones!

One day trip that didn't turn out the way we planned was our visit to the castle. We set out a little bit late in the day, and by the time we arrived, the castle had been closed. Then, we miss read the bus schedule, and had to walk back to the car (maybe about 40 minutes through the woods) in the dark!

After a great visit with Toby in Wuppertal, we took a handful of trains and made our way back to Hotel Picard, in central Paris. Typical of our crazy schedule, we had a brief night of rest before we set out to meet Meghan's mom at the airport at 6:00am. It's much easier navigating a city the second time around, and much less stressful when you have a place to stay and at least a couple contacts. As soon as we had checked into our hotel, we got ahold of Marie (my roommate's brother's girlfriend who we met up with the first time in Paris)... but unfortunately we wont be able to meet up with her again. Maybe next time we're in Paris! Anyway, back to the airport: Atypical of air travel, Meghan's mom arrived almost an hour early... but typical of air travel, her bag did not follow her, and is somewhere in the lost baggage twilight zone. Hopefully the bag will be recovered and delivered to our hotel in Tours, where we'll be headed by rail this afternoon.

Bogs, frogs, fog, and sog...The authentic Harvæjen/Ochsenveg experience

Will and Toby enjoy pretzels in downtown Wuppertal

Well, we just completed another significant portion of our journey: cycling all the way from south-central Norway to north-west Germany, traversing the entirety of Denmark. We arrived Saturday in Wuppertal, Germany, where we are staying with Meghan's friend, Toby until Tuesday or Wednesday. Having crossed every line of latitude in Denmark, we saw quite a bit. The major downside of the last week of riding is that the weather has been terrible! It has rained every single day since we left Kristiansand, and most days have been significanly windy. We were following the Denmark national cycle route #1, which is Denmark's part of the North Sea Cycle Route (the path we originally followed from France northward). But in Denmark, cycle routes do not necessarily follow paved roads, and some of the "cycle paths" are more like horse trails, very loose and sandy, muddy and with large potholes.

The signposts we followed through Denmark

The weather forcast when we left Aalborg was overcast on the first day and then increasing sun with every passing day. The actual weather was quite the reverse. We left Aalborg in bright sunshine, and every passing day brought overcast skies, with rain almost every night. What is most surprising is that while it threatened rain almost the entire trip to Wuppertal, it primarily rained on us at night, so we never experienced another soaking like that first day in Denmark. But, by the same token, we never got very dry, either. All of our stuff: tent, sleeping bags, riding clothes, camp clothes just got more and more damp and soggy, and never got a chance to dry out properly. Yuck.

The #3 is a a national cycle route that follows an historic path between Viborg, Denmark, and Hamburg, Germany. We didn't know this when we started riding, but we quickly caught on because of all of the "sites of interest" along the way. There were a whole bunch of curious stone piles and hills and thatched roof buildings that we passed which had signs describing them, but we didn't to at many of them because the explanations were all in Danish, and a pile of rocks, however significant, is just a pile of rocks if you don't know why they are significant. The route did have less wind, although it was far from calm, and the rough roads were fewer than along the coast. While we had a roadmap of Denmark, we did not have a map of the cycle route, and so navigation depended primarily on the road signs. Sign posting all along the way was a bit varied- in some places it was overly marked, and in others very noticably under marked- and this caused some frustration. Deciding that we had plenty of time to spare, we made a brief excursion to a place that I've always wanted to go: Legoland!

Meghan at the entrance to Legoland, Billund

Despite a bit of rain (and hence, no water-park fun), it was a blast. We rode all of the rides and checked out all of the amazing lego models. Among other things, there was an enormous model of Mt. Rushmore, life-size people, dragons, and entire cities recreated in Lego. It was a great way to spend a day for a long time Lego fan.



We barely noticed that we had arrived in Germany by the time we rolled into Flensburg, where we picked up the "Ochsenveg" (A.K.A. The Old Oxen Trail) bike route. This route through the northern part of Germany from Flensburg to Wedel/Hamburg is an old trade route that has been signposted as a footpath and bike route. Turns out, it is a continuation of Denmark's national bike route number 3, the Harvæjen, which we had used to cross through most of the country. The route was composed partially of smooth paved surfaces and partially of surfaces lying somewhere on the continuum between stinky, knee-deep mud pits to steep, rocky inclines better suited for mountain goats than bikes. These questionable stretches, coupled with the frustrating effects of what appeared to be a phasing-out of the old route signs in favor of new, sometimes contradictory signage, leaves us with a somewhat negative experience with the Ochsenveg. However, it was very scenic, nearly car-less (tractors were more prevalent), and now we do indeed recognize the struggle that ox-herders went through before trucks and trains hauled their livestock, so that's something. When we had covered almost 9/10ths of the trail, in Rendsburg, Germany, we found a bookstore that had a map of the entire cycle route that we had just ridden. So for the two days of the trip we had a proper map, filled with insights about the sights to see along the way. Unfortunately, it was all in German! but we were still able to make use of the map.

Will shows Germany what's up by executing a
flawless one-footed backside saddlebag grind

By the time we reached the waterway that stretches into Hamburg from the coast, we had again come across the North Sea Cycle Route (the same one we followed up the coasts of France, Denmark and The Netherlands). The N.S.C.R. took us past some fancy waterfront Hamburg houses, into the center of the city, and almost to the front door of the Hamburg train station. By this time, we had cycled almost 10 hours straight covering 91 miles, which blew our previous record of 68 miles out of the water. It was 10:00 pm by the time we found the ticket office, which was too late for the normal trains to Wuppertal. So, we did what any reasonable young travelers would do... we found a vacant corner of the building and camped out on the floor of the station until 7:00 am the next morning!

Toby met us at the trainstation in his full bike messenger garb and escorted us through central Wuppertal toward his workplace and Greek food. Throughout the weekend, Wuppertal was host to a big celebration of the region of Germany in which it rests. There were musicians, model airplane shows, food, informational booths and sports demos all over downtown, and we spent most of the day wandering around in the sunshine, watching people and searching for the next cool drink or treat. I marvelled at Wuppertal's very interesting public transportation jewel: the Schwebebahn. It's basically a train that hangs instead of rests on the rails, and is elevated above the river that runs through town. It has a low footprint on the ground and is fun to watch because of its novelty.

As a capstone to the evening, we went to an ice cream shop near Toby's house, where we had our first taste of what is assuredly the most incredible ice cream dessert in the world: Spaghetti Ice. Spaghetti ice is vanilla ice cream pressed out through a pasta-maker like device into strands that look exactly like spaghetti pasta. It is topped with cherry sauce that looks like tomato sauce and grated white chocolate that looks like parmesean. Very convincing in appearance and very delicious in taste. Check out the pictures below. If at all possible (and affordable) we are going to acquire the device required to make this delicious treat.

Spaghetti Ice in Wuppertal, Germany... mmmm

Well, it's another reasonably sunny day, so we are headed out to do some biking, swinging on the giant swing, and slacklining!

The details of the last few weeks of the trip are starting to fall together, and we are excited to make our way back to France toward the end of this week.

A short stay in Nørresundby, Denmark

Goodbye Norway, Hello Denmark! (again) Arriving in Kristiansand about two days ahead of schedule (it really was all downhill from Hauggrend!), we shifted our ferry tickets up a day without much trouble and proceeded to find a camping spot near yet another abandoned military outpost. This one significantly less ominious than the German installation in France, due to the fact that the grounds on which it sits have been converted to a public park.



We left Kristiansand just in time, however. Immediately after leaving port aboard the Superspeed 1, the rain started coming down in sheets.


Arriving in Hirtshals, Denmark three hours later the weather wasn't much better... forcing us to spend most of our day hiding under the tarp, waiting for the rain to subside. One slightly damp forest camping spot later, we pedalled into Nørresundby/Aalborg to visit Asbjørn. We've had a great time here, catching up on Internet work, checking the results of the Olympics, eating good food, and deliberately watching terrible movies. It's now time to move our stinky bike bags and dirty shoes out of Asbjørn's apartment, heading southward on Denmark's National Bike Route #3. We're aiming to traverse the entirety of Denmark, arriving in Hamburg, Germany on the 28th, from which we will hop a train to Wuppertal (we'd bike it, but unfortunately there are some time restraints.) Look out Toby, here we come!


In the meantime, we probably wont see much Internet between here and there, so we will post again in Hamburg or Wuppertal next week. Take care.

Back on the road!

Today is our final day at Foldsae Farm. We are headed back south to Kristiansand, where we will catch the ferry across to Hirtshals, Denmark, for the next leg of our long journey back to Paris. The stay here has been great, and we are a bit sad to leave, especially to leave the kitten, whom we have become quite attached to. Or, perhaps he has become too attached to us with his little claws! Anyway, we say goodbye, and will post again when we reach Denmark, next Wednesday. Wish us good weather and a tailwind!

Norway's newest acting talent and cows in the onion patch

Well, three weeks down and about one more week to go here on the farm (we are also approaching 2/3rds completion of the trip!) There have been some additions and subtractions to the WWOOF house, and a new WWOOFer house entirely. After proving that Norwegian whole wheat flour cannot be used to make Czech dumplings (a.k.a. "dooompleengs"), Ivo is making his way back to the Czech Republic. We will miss his creative use of unfamiliar english words and his alcohol thievery. In his place, we have been endowed with a tiny kitten from the barn, whom we are acclimating to our human presence so he doesn't remain a crazed barn cat. We actually started with two kittens, but one of them was taken away as a birthday present for a snotty child (good luck, kitten!). The remaining one, whose name lies somewhere between his original given name, Nugatti, and "KITTEN! STOP CHEWING ON THAT ELECTRICAL CORD!", is a source of endless entertainment around the house. He goes through different stages during the day, from relaxed and cuddly to crazy racing around the floor chasing little potatoes, to biting everything in sight.





Late last week we were displaced from our first dormitory in order to make space for the guests of a wedding hosted on the farm. The downside is that we are further away from the milking parlor, so the milk isn't quite as fresh when it hits the table, but the upside is that we have a normal-sized kitchen and a better view (of the lake).

Aside from the kittens and moving, there has been a fair amount of fun and excitement around here since the last update. First and foremost, Meghan and Will(and Peter and Ginny and Ivo) have become famous Norwegian actors. Let me explain: every year, during the summer, the town of Fyresdal (30 minutes by car from the farm) hosts a festival that celebrates Norwegian history and Norsk folk heritage. The capstone of this celebration is a theatrical production that combines Norwegian folk tales, history, religion, and politics. Finding the play alarmingly short of Vikings, lawyers and slaves unpaid domestic workers, one of the local actors approached the WWOOFers about filling in the gaps. It was an offer we couldn't refuse! So after two days of rehearsing, we hit the stage gesturing, grunting, laughing, weaving, and responding in any other number of ways to the Norwegian dialogue that none of us understood. Obviously, we didn't have any speaking roles. The story went something like this: The time is the 13th century, the place is the Telemark region, Norway (although the story applies across most of Norway). It's set in the period during which Norway was Christianized. A village chietan, his two eldest sons and their hairy gang (of which Will and the other two male WWOOFers were a part) return from a 7-year raiding trip to Ireland. Part of their plunder is a beautiful slave girl and a Christian monk. The two elder brothers think the girl will be given to one of them, and everyone is suprised when the girl is given to the chieftan's youngest son, who happens to be a bastard son, Magnus. This son was too young to go on the raid, but has grown up in the interim. The girl is given to him so that he can gain some "experience" before he is married (an arranged marriage) to the daughter of a neighboring chieftan. This really galls the older brothers, who give him a sound beating, but Magnus doesn't mind too much, because he's fallen in love with the girl, who is Christian, and to prove his love, he also becomes Christian. The girl runs away, aided by the monk, but returns because she's had a dream telling her to go back. The two fall in love, and Magnus tells his father that he will not marry the girl he is arranged to. The chieftan also has a dream after hearing this news, in which he is told by a nature spirit (intended as a sort of spirit bridging the gap between the ancient Viking gods and the Christian god) that the times are changing, and he should give his blessing to the lovers. So he does, and the neighboring chief brings the lawyers (the second cameo role for the WWOOF men) to decide a punishment. In thanks, Magnus says that he will go on a pigrimage to Jerusalem to pray for his father's sin to be forgiven. He dies while on pilgrimage, and his wife dies giving birth to their son. The story gets a bit muddy after this- we never did recieve a satisfactory explaination of the end of the play, except that the times did indeed change, and Norway became Christian. And where were the female WWOOFers in all this? Well they were slaves, and popped in and out of different scenes a bit randomly, with food and beer (yes, there was real beer in this play!) a bit like a silent Greek chorus. It was a great experience, especially to rub shoulders with more of the local people (mostly Dutch), and some professional Norwegian actors.





Although not among the acquiantances we made during the play, we have become friends with a family living on the school property as "prakticants," which is to say they live a life resembling what the school is supposed to direct one toward. Claudio and Louisa, along with their two little boys Kenai and Alén, occupy a house that used to belong to the owner of a fishery that the school now owns. They are both involved with permaculture and "eco-villages," having lived in Colombian rainforest for ten years, and operating an organization called Change the World which effectively makes links between groups of people using appropriate technology, sustainable agriculture, green energy and so on. Claudio is currently working on converting the twenty something ex-fish production ponds into a nature preserve and education center. He is a very interesting and dynamic individual, and we have shared some of our experiences from Engineers Without Borders.

The farm work has been a bit exciting lately. A few days ago, just as we were returning home from a birthday party at Claudio's house, we found half of the herd of cows had made their way into the onion patch. Now, onions grow very close to the surface of the soil, so you might imagine that a half-ton animal tromping around atop them is a very bad thing. Indeed it is! Because of the minimalist approach to pasture fencing that's very common around here (not to mention the weak-sauce amperage in the electric fences), roughly a thousand red and yellow onions were crushed, crapped-on and uprooted. The situation could have been worse in a few ways, however. First of all, these cows wont eat onions, so we wont have to suffer with onion-flavored milk. Secondly, and most importantly, I think, is that because this farm is operated under the auspices of the school, there really isn't any lost income... only a few of the onions are sold in the CSA boxes and at market, while most of them go to the school cafeteria. This is perhaps the reason that the weekly cow escapes aren't taken as seriously as on a more sales-oriented farm. Some of the onions were suitable for drying, but the humidity might prevent successful preservation in that respect. One this is certain: we have been eating alot of onions lately! (Meghan and Ginny make a delicious french onion soup, by the way!)

Though the weather has turned away from the brilliant sunny days of last week, we managed to fit in a hike to the top of Mt. Roan from which most of Telemark can be seen (1190 meters high), and jumping from the rocks into the small river near Claudio's house. Until next time... check out the pictures and send some comments to let us know you're reading!

Four days riding and seven days working

Well, one week on the farm so far, and things are going great! It took us four days to pedal from Oslo to Hauggrend, and it was quite a change from the flatness that is most of coastal Belgium and Holland. In Norway, we have had to battle a few steeeep switchback mountain passes and a few greulling multi-mile uphills. On the whole, however, the ride was great, and visiting with Cato in Drammen was nice. Now that we are here on the farm, we are living with other W.W.O.O.F.er's in a building that is almost entirely reserved for farm workers like ourselves. When we arrived, the only other WWOOF person was a wonderful girl from France named Marie. She left yesterday after about two weeks of work here. Since we arrived, there have been a bunch of new additions. The new WWOOFers are a couple from England arrived (Peter and Ginnie), as well as a fellow from the Czech Republic named Ivo. English is the common language here, so there isn't much trouble with communication. As a matter of fact, there just aren't many Norwegians in this area to speak of. Apparently what has happened is that all of the young Norwegian people want to move away from the countryside into bigger cities (or other countries), leaving alot of vacant farms and older people. There has been an effort to fill the void with other Europeans, and in particulary, the area has been re-populated by many Dutch and German people. The result is a funny jumble of Dutch, German, English and Norwegian. Many of the Dutch people who live in the immediate area have some connection the the school that our farm is a part of.

The farm itself operates as part of the Foldsae Steinerskole, which is a school attended in place of what we might call "high school" in the U.S. It's located near the town of Hauggrend, in the area of Norway called Telemark. The Steinerschool teaches things like farming, gardening, milking, handicrafts, forestry and other things related to nature, and is in many cases backed up by philosophy and fancy pedagogy. The school has history going back to 1923, but the Stienerskole is fairly recent. The community around Foldsae donated the land, about 6,000 acres, most of which are forest and rocky wilderness, as well as the buildings. So the vegetable gardens, the cows, the sheep are sort of teaching tools for when the school is in session. The school term begins about the time we are leaving, so we will not have the opportunity to see it all in action, but we have learned quite a bit from the teachers and others who work here. The gardens provide some food for the school when in session, but the majority of it is sold in markets nearby and through a C.S.A. type of program. The farm is run essentially by three young Dutch people: Paul, Elina, and Matthias (Paul is Elina's brother, and Matthias is her boyfriend). They began work here about two years ago, and they live on the school property in their own houses. It's really a very diverse place with people coming and going all the time, so we have a hard time keeping up with everyone. There are some other families living on the property who help with the school, including a Chilean family who are working to recreate wetlands surrounding the creek.

The arrangement for WWOOFers here is 4-5 hours of work every day, beginning at 9:00, with a break for lunch. So far we have done a fair bit of weeding: in the flower gardens, the vegetable gardens and even a pasture, where we pulled out a tall, very tough weed they called "dogs," which not even the sheep will eat. In addition, we have learned the basics of milking, and how to muck out a barn. The rest of the time we have free to relax, go walking, anything we like. Meghan has made friends with some of the women around, and gone for a walk around the lake that is situated just below the farm. The same group of ladies also went to the sauna on Tuesday. It was her first trip to a proper sauna, and while she's not so sure the sauna makes sense in the summer time, the location was beautiful, so probably she will go again, and maybe Will, too.





The weather has been beautiful, if not uncharacteristically warm and spastic. One wouldn't think it was Norway at all when the temperatures are reaching perhaps 80 degrees. Our first few days here had cool mornings and cloudy, rainy afternoons, but summer has finally arrived. Yesterday the farm workers all walked down the hill to the lake where we frolicked in the comfortably cold water. Every day here is something new, so we will try our best to remember all the things we have been doing, and relay them on to you!

Hello, Oslo...Goodbye, Oslo!

The report on the coffee bar: very expensive! In fact, everything on the ferry was for sale, and everything was expensive! There we tax-free Legos, but even without tax, they were still extremely spendy. Back in our tiny "economy cabin" we marvelled over the priceless artwork adorning the wall, which we both agreed belonged aside The Night Watch in the Rijksmuseum (oh, yeah, we forgot to mention that we went there in Amsterdam to see some Rembrandt!). I've attached a picture of this painting below... just imagine how this work of art would help you if you were, by chance, seasick. We missed the chance to watch our arrival in Norway from the deck, because we were sound alseep in our cabin, and the ship-wide wakeup call was a bit late. Oops! We will surely see much of Norway and will be able to pass on a better impression of it throughout the coming month, but if the area surrounding Oslo is any indication, we are in for a lot of trees, hills and water. It's very green, sunny, and beautiful here.

But I digress. Our first task when we pedalled off the ship was to find a telephone and call Meghan's friend John Krahn. John is a Canadian who had visited Plow Creek many years ago (14 to be exact, when Meghan was 10 years old!) and then moved to Norway, where he lives now with his wife Hilde, and their three (beautiful and charming) daughters: Katinka, Tiril, and Frieda. We reached John on a payphone at the ferry terminal where he gave us directions to their home, in a close suburb to Oslo. The bicycle routes in Norway are not as organized as those in Holland and Belgium, but they exist nonetheless. Once we figured out the route, we had only to ride to their house, and we were immediately made to feel like part of the family.

Shortly after arriving, we accompanied John, Tiril and Frieda on a trip to the grocery store, and learned first hand that Norway is a very expensive place to live (especially if you subsist on maple syrup, which was sold in a smallish bottle for roughly 15 US dollars.) For lunch we were introduced to a typical (and delicious) Nowegian meal/snack. I would call it shrimp on toast, except the bread was just buttered, not toasted. The shrimp were cooked slightly before we bought them at the store- scalded, I think- and then frozen. We just let them unthaw, and then we learned to dismantle them to get at the meat inside. It was the first time Meghan had eaten shrimp with a head on, but we learned the technique quickly, even though we moved quite a bit slower than John. Anyway, the process was quite simple- shell enough shrimp to cover a small slice of baguette or bread. Then spread butter on the bread, place the shrimp on top, squeeze a small dab of mayonnaise on the shrimp, and a drizzle of lemon juice on top, and eat it! Meghan adds: I must confess that the eyes of the shrimp were a bit disconcerting, but it tasted delicious! Lunch time reminded me very much of lunch with Grandpa Tore and Grandma Kay, with open faced sandwiches topped with butter, mayo, thin meat and goat cheese. The goat cheese here is the real deal... the dark, sweet kind! Among the small cultural differences we have been delighted by during this trip, we found out that because the Norwegians take open faced sandwiches in their lunch, an important kitchen item is a small square of wax paper that is used to separate the top of one sandwich from the bottom of another when stacked. John told us a hilarious story about his first sighting of these papers, when his burgeoning Norwegian language skills caused him to misread the label on the box, making them appear to be some sort of "beetween the leg papers". Land of the vikings indeed, he thought!




In addition to eating, which it seems we have done a lot of the last two days, we played with the family's rabbits, jumped on the trampoline (practicing my front-flips), got tickled many times, played tic-tac-toe, and picked cherries. LOTS of cherries. The Krahns have a neighbor with a very productive cherry tree. The neighbors went on vacation just when all the cherries became ripe, so we went out with a ladder and the Norwegian equivalent of ice cream buckets- they're more like ice cream boxes- and picked cherries. They are so tasty and delicious! Today has been more of the same- playing all kinds of games, learning some Norwegian from Tiril, picking more cherries, and scouring the road maps for an acceptable bike routes for the road ahead. The capstone of the evening was watching Mr. Bean's Holiday with Norwegian subtitles. If you have ever seen a Mr. Bean movie, you know why it is a highlight. If you have never seen a Mr. Bean movie, you should watch one immediately!

Basically, we have done a lot of playing and relaxing in the last two days, and it has been wonderful! Actually, all the playing has been interspersed with really interesting conversations with John & Hilde. John has all kinds of insights about the differences between America (meaning the US and Canada combined) and Norway, and we were enthusiastic listeners. While everyone here at the Krahn's speaks english, they don't generally speak it amonst themselves, so we have had a great time listening in. Just as Thijs in Amsterdam corrected our pronunciation of Brugge ( It's pronounced "broo-hugh", with a gutteral gh at the end, not "brooj"), the girls corrected our understanding of Copenhagen (which we say "co-pen-hay-gen") to reflect the spelling and pronunciation they use, which is København (pronounced "sho-bn-ha-vn"). Meghan adds: Word of the PAPA Festival people (including the Psalters) has spread here, and John is looking forward to seeing Shane Claiborne speak at a festival here in Norway later this summer! I've also left my copy of Shane's new book for John to read then perhaps pass on.

The Krahns are leaving on vacation tomorrow morning, and we will leave also. We will go southwest to Drammen, where Uncle Cato lives, and from there to our WWOOF farm in Hauggrend.

We Made It!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have arrived at the farm! After four gruelling days of cycling (mostly uphill), we made it to Hauggrend, Norway, where we will be spend the next month of our journey. There have been many very good adventures since we left the ferry-cruise, which we will post here shortly, (including pictures of the food, just to make you jealous!) but we wanted to let you know that we are well. Our legs are a little sore, but everything is in good working order. Now we must go finish washing our very stinky clothes!