Moin

For some weird reason getting my new bicycle went along with breaking a lot of fingernails. 😉 But luckily, these tend to grow again.

My first tour with my new bamboo bicycle did not turn out quite as expected, but let us start at the beginning. Oh, and please read until the end and vote for the name of my new bike!

So this morning, I stood up, ate breakfast, and packed everything up with the plan to cycle from Kiel all the way back to Norderstedt, even though the weather forecast was kind of bad: Rain and storm. But as I told you before, rain usually does not disturb me; sometimes, it even is fun. And living in Northern Germany my opinion towards storms tend to be: it is always windy, so how bad can it be… well today it was terrible.

First though the promised daylight picture of the new bicycle, before any modifications (and after the first ones and packing up):

It was drizzling and windy, but we started our way with all the best intentions and hopes. 😉 And when looking on the Kiel-map at a crossroad, a nice man in a car even offered help, thank you, stranger! I found the right street easy enough, though. What was hard was cycling on it. When I was going 12 km/h, I was going fast. And it was not all because we still have to get used to each other, the bicycle and I. It was because the wind blew from the front or from the side trying to blow us from the bike path onto the street or into the field. So when we took a short break at a bus stop after about an hour of pedalling, we had only travelled circa 14km.

So I had to accept defeat and decided to cycle to the next town with a train station, and if it were not better until then, I would get on a train. Fighting, we reached Bordesholm, which is a nice town, managed to get get some tickets out of the machine. You still can not buy a person-ticket and a bicycle-ticket at the same time, and the bicycle ticket got more expensive, but luckily we only had to freeze for 10 minutes before the next train arrived. On the train, I got out of the wet rain-jacket and gloves and put on my dry, warm sweater, but I was still shaking and shivering the whole trip.

When we got off in Hamburg, it was dry and not as windy, and I started to think that maybe my train decision had been hasty, and I should have given it a few more km, and it would have gotten better, even my pants dried out again. But after two-thirds of the way, the storm and rain hit again, so I guess the train was the right decision after all. 😉

As soon as she dries up, I will do some more customization with the new bicycle, and some things need adjusting, but those few moments in between gusts felt pretty good, just a little unfamiliar, but we have some time to get to know each other 😉 For that, of course, she needs a name. Even though I got some excellent suggestions from Elly when I asked for name-ideas, I decided I want names meaning freedom. And I found 2 I like: Saoirse and Charlotte. Which one do you like better? Which should I name her? Or do you have a better name? Let me know in the poll:

So, for now, the plan of the day is to dry, Button is already hiding behind the heater to speed the process up:

keep exploring and smiling

your Fairy

Disclaimer: I bought this bicycle at my boo for its regular price and do not get paid to say anything about it.