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And so we woke up to a calm, warm, very slightly overcast day today and we both felt quite cheerful at the thought of getting the blood to flow a bit.
Yesterday, as we were unpacking our bikes and checking if everything still works after the move, our neighbour came up to us and suggested that we take a drive to Mondorf. A quick look on the map, revealed that Mondorf is a small town, right next to the Rhine river, and almost right next to Bonn. It seemed like a plan.
We did not have a GPS with us and the only map we have of the area, is so large that you need a pool table just to unfold it! I really did not want to bother, so I suggested that we just head South West and go until we get to the Rhine river.
For a carefull planner like me, it was a bit scary to just venture out into the unknown without knowing exactly where I am every second of the way... but it was also quite exhilarating.
When we bought our bikes in Canada, we bought bells for the bikes, since it is the law in Canada. And these bells happened to have these cheap compasses on them. And for the first time, we actually used these compasses as a guidance in trying to find our way to the Rhine.
After setting our, we soon changed route because we wanted to avoid the heavy traffic and ended up on the most marvellous roads. We're not quite sure what the purpose of these roads are, since they're very narrow and a car would have a hard time driving on it. But they were tarred and absolutely perfect for cycling.
Along the way, we allowed ourselves to get side tracked by anything that looked interesting. Sometimes there were interesting looking churches, sometimes it was the houses that we thought were really beautiful. Sometimes we just stared at the horses that are so furry and look quite different from South African horses.
At one point we stopped and took out our map and tried to find where we were, but we were unsuccesful. So we just continued.
A little while later, we found a real nice picknick area, where we stopped for snacks. Great was our surprise when we saw a rock with the name 'MONDORF' painted on it!! We could not believe it!! We accidentally stumbled accross the place we wanted to visit in the first place!!
We were feeling very pleased with ourselves.
And there we were, on the bank on the Rhine river, looking at the large container ships coming past. And we were so at peace. It was warm, the sun was shining, the cycling made us feel alive. We were explorers. In a foreign country and we were conquering, rising to the challenge and meeting it. And there was beauty all around us. Joy in the air. A calmness, an expectation.. a happiness because we are human, and we are alive, and there is so much to live for. And summer is coming.. and the blessings abound.
What a wonderful wonderful day it was! And now I am stiff.
And I am so excited, because every day ahead of me seems to be filled with wonderful new events. New things to do. New places to see. New people to meet, new languages to learn.
Coming back from Mondorf turned out to be much harder, since mysteriously both our compasses stopped working.
We suspect a secret military installation underground, where they're doing research with EMPs caused the malfunction. But we do not know for sure. Surely it cannot be our inability to read compasses that got us lost!
Just one lovely read Marli!
