Losing battles ain't
The end, the spirit crushes
Onward. And again!
Happy 20th birthday, oh dear sister of mine! Evan and I drank a toast to you this evening with our Flensburger Pilsner (it's from Flensburg, which is the nearest large town to where we are staying tonight, about 10km to the north, and just across the Deutschland/Danmark border). There will be a photo when my camera cable arrives. ;)
Anyway, this morning found us in Sønderborg, which is an important town in Danish history! Nearby is a battleground where Danmark suffered some great losses in 1864. While the US was occupied with its own thing, Germany was trying to scrawl its name across more of Europe, and they conquered 1/3 of Danish land and 2/5 of Danish peoples in a battle on a nearby hill. The land was returned to the Danes nearly 60 years later, in 1922, and they celebrated their reunification on the same hill where they had previously lost their territory.
The ride today was frustrating. We only covered about 50km over the whole day, despite the fact that we woke up at a reasonable hour and continued cycling until rather late. I got a flat tyre outside of Sønderborg not very far, and we tried replacing the tube only to discover that Evan and I do not, in fact, have the same size wheels. Then we tried patching it only to discover that the glue was old and didn't stick well enough. Then we tried another set of patches only to discover that there was suddenly another hole in the tube. At this point, we were only 15km or so from the Deutsch border, so we elected to hoof it and not frustrate ourselves further.
As we tromped defeatedly along the highway, a man named Jan came by on a bike. He asked us where we were from, told us he lived in the next town and that there was no bicycle shop there (a fact we had been counting on.. we assumed we could buy a properly-sized replacement tube there), and gave us a lesson on tyre fixing. He pointed out the obvious fact that we had missed: it is important to check the tyre itself to see if there is glass or stones lodged inside that might repuncture the tube when it is replaced. There was, in fact! So we got a proper fix-job completed and he set off for Kruså. We took a bit longer to get going again, as we paused to oil our chains and the like, but we headed his way in a bit.
When we arrived to Kruså, which is just on the Danish side of the border, we ran into Jan again! He was still on his bicycle, cruising along. We were near his house, so he invited us in for some tea. He had a brood of puppies and children that wandered around the yard while we sipped our tea, and it was lovely. After a half hour's pause there, we moved on to Germany, where we are staying just a couple dozens of kilometres from the border. :D